Try the link URL www.web2school.com and let me know if you need more clarifications

posted November 22, 2007

You've actually asked a very complex question. How, for example, do you define the 'productivity' of educational institutions? However, software for improving education quality is an easier question to answer.

I often use Jonassen's framework (reference below). of mind tools (computer-based cognitive tools). These are software programs with the following characteristics:
Practical:
- Computer-based (obviously);
- Available. Applications that are readily available, general computer applications (no vapourware); and
- Affordable. They should be free to teachers or cheap enough for use in classrooms.

Pedagogical:
- Knowledge representation. The program should be able to be used to represent knowledge in some way;
- Generalizable. The program should be usable in different content or subject areas;
- Critical thinking. These applications should engage students in critical thinking;
- Transferable learning. The skills learned using Mindtools should transfer to thinking in various different fields;
- Simple, powerful formalism. Mindtools should support simple but deep and powerful ways of thinking; and
- Easily learnable. The mental benefit deriving from the use of the program should not be greater than the effort required to learn it.

Essentially these types of software are 'empty cups'–devoid of content until it is provided by teachers and students. This makes them very flexible and applicable to a wide range of programs and subject domains.

I work on the development of such software, in our case, a discourse environment, being developed at the University of Toronto, and called Knowledge Forum. It will soon be open source, and our website is below. It provides a discourse space for students to discuss their work and their ideas.

One other trend that you should be aware of is the trend to the tight integration of software and theory. Any software you choose is actually a choice of pedagogical theory, as every bit of software has behind it an educational theory. Be careful that what you choose is not antithetical to the pedagogy you are espousing.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

References:
Bereiter, C., Education and Mind in the Knowledge Age. 2002, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 526.
Jonassen, D., Computers in the Classroom. Mind tools for critical thinking. 1996, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Links:

• http://www.ikit.org

posted November 22, 2007

1. The quality and productivity of any educational setting is dependent on the people and processes involved in that particular setting. If you view a particular educational setting like a school (or any other institute) — the management (the trust/ governing board/ the state), the Principal/the Director, the teachers, the students and the parents are the people involved...and teaching, testing, time table management, admin, even the notice board management (etc) are the processes involved

2. …at the core of this setting is teaching (a prescribed curriculum) and testing (assignments, unit tests, final exams...). The desired outcome of this process is to improve the ability of the students and give them the ability to deal with (comprehend, apply, synthesize etc) the ever increasing information (knowledge) and exude control over their immediate environment to live effectively...but addressing individual differences of the learners is the key challenge for the software solution

3. The other processes though important are supposed to effectively support the core of the setting i.e. teaching and testing with an aim to raise the ability

4. There are a number of software programs that are available to address the support areas...kindly google and you will get plenty of options...but there are hardly any available to address the core i.e. teaching and testing

5. …at Indus Learning we are developing a pedagogically led and technology driven software solution to first address the core and then address the support functions...you can know more about this on www.induslearning.com...look under Home>Products>Score!!
6. Alternatively, teaching is presently being aided by educational companies through providing multi-media lessons/ topics (which are primarily content dumps) that are supposed to help the students increase understanding...but it is evident that all content cannot be digitized as multi-media lessons...it is also very expensive to create and then deliver it in the classroom...

Links:

• http://www.induslearning.com

posted November 22, 2007

I work for an excellent company called Sanako, formerly Tandberg Educational, which is a learning technology company which develops language teaching solutions and teaching software for use in the classroom.

Sanako’s mission is to ensure that we provide the means for people to access learning opportunities, from the grade school to the boardroom, and at every stage in between. We are confident that through education and specifically equality of access to learning we can increase opportunity for all and foster a more tolerant and understanding global society. This conviction has involved us in many projects to expand the reach of education in emerging nations.

During our 40 years in this industry, we have developed a high degree of professionalism in our work. This approach, coupled with our contacts with customers, teaching professionals and educational policy-makers on a global scale has kept us at the forefront of this industry.

In the course of our experiences, we have come to see that the integration of technology with the learning process has the potential to increase participants’ motivation and involvement in the process and thereby enhances its effectiveness.

Our success in the field of language learning is based on its strong technical capabilities developed since the first educational lab was built by Tandberg in 1961. Our digital language labs are specially engineered for longevity in the classroom setting, and because clear audio is a critical element in language teaching, we have paid close attention to ensuring quality sound reproduction in all our systems.

Our first-rate products and service have also been supported by a global network of knowledgeable and experienced distributors. Our product development partners have included the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Microsoft, and California State University.

For more information please check our website www.sanako.com or contact me directly. Good luck in your research.
Todd

posted November 22, 2007

Hope i can assist you since the Software we have developed an ERP for our owned school in Chennai, Andaman and Malayasia. kindly contact me if you want more details to bdm@maansarovar.com
Lakshmi Narayanan
BDM

posted November 29, 2007

My company, Campus Management, provides higher education software solutions adressing online learning, student lifecycle administration, HR, financials, and fundraising. Let me know if you'd like to talk more about the company or solutions.

Links:

• http://www.campusmanagement.com/

posted November 29, 2007

Microsoft has a number of education-oriented products, from Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office (get things done, faster, for students && teachers) to Class Server to Encarta.

Ravi is in the Education Products Group at Microsoft; he will have additional input, I'm sure.

Links:

• http://www.microsoft.com/education

John O also suggests this expert on this topic:

• Ravi S

posted November 30, 2007

I know this is totally biased since I work for SMART Technologies, but we do provide some really neat teaching tools, including interactive whiteboards that ingage the students of all ages and software that comes with the boards to allow the instructor to plan a lesson a present it to the students in a very engaging format. We also have other solutions for teleconferencing, etc. Anyway, I should stop boasting, but take a look at the site.

Links:

• http://smarttech.com/

posted December 1, 2007

Asheesh,

Two great sources for this information are located here:

http://www.ties.k12.mn.us/
http://www.efoliominnesota.com/

The first link is geared toward technology and enducation in Minnesota school districts. The second link is an actual software solution itself.

Hope this is helpful.

Henry

posted December 9, 2007