The India Council for Integral Education is a collaboration of various institutions, NGO’s, and educators led by the Sri Aurobindo Society in Pondicherrry, committed to the creation of the next future. Other educational initiatives being carried out by ICIE include a model national teacher trainers college, a model international school, a national unique learners project, and the planned development of a national professional association of master teachers. The India Council for Integral Education is also an affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education (“ISTE”).
The Ringtones Project was inspired by the innovative use of cell phone ringtones by adults and children throughout India, with several hundred millioin cell phone users. ISTE has many educational professionals who have dedicated research efforts towards integrating technology and education. The SIGML and the EdTech SIG are but two of ISTE’s on-going global arenas for professionals to create the next future in the use of person-based educational hardware and software.
The Sri Aurobindo Society is one of the oldest and largest of India’s research and educational societies, having led countless initiatives in education, integral learning, health, and activity to realize the potential of each and every person who strives to excel. The Ringtones Project will include the establishment of a support network, a “dedicated Cloud” using the GNU/Linux software that the India Slate is to use. Technical assistance in the area of preparing the servers for this creative advance in project support is Lister Technologies, an IT solutions company….
As part of the Catalyst Inititave program, HP is donating $6 million to 35 educational institutions, including the India Council for Integral Education, across five Consortia that will use the award to explore innovations in STEM+ learning and teaching.
What is the Catalyst Initiative?
Each Consortium is theme- based The five themes span: approaches to teacher preparation, online education, using technology to measure learning outcomes, and engaging students in global, collaborative learning experiences.Member organizations were selected through an open and competitive global call for proposals.
Eligibility was based on two principal criteria: status as an accredited educational institution (that is, schools, colleges, universities, as well as nonprofit or nongovernmental educational organizations) and country of location. Eligible countries for 2010 included Brazil, China, Eqypt, France, Germany, India, Kenya, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The goal is to create international collaborative “sandboxes” of innovation that will explore what the future of STEM education can look like—a future where students use their technical and creative ingenuity to address urgent social challenges in their communities and around the world.
Global institutions that will be leading the five HP Catalyst consortia include Carnegie Mellon University, the Sloan Consortium, FutureLab (UK), the CSIR Meraka Institute (South Africa) and the Agastya International Foundation (India).
“The HP Catalyst Initiative underscores our vision of a world where innovation and collaboration are enabled by investments in technology and education. The program is designed to help foster potential solutions to society’s most critical challenges by educating and nurturing leaders that will be critical in ensuring we develop new communities and find new ways of doing things”, said Gabi Zedlmayer, Vice President, Office of Global Social Innovation, HP.
