Are classrooms ready for laptops?

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There was a time, when notebooks in a classroom meant a sheaf of paper in a hardbound cover. Now, imagine a classroom in which the teacher is wirelessly connected to students through their notebooks – the computer variety. No messy tangled wires here, thanks to wireless connectivity. The student is served interactive content controlled by the teacher. This content includes primary curriculum as well as other resources such as encyclopedias and dictionaries.
Students practise their learning through tests, ensuring that they not only learn but also improve their scores and performance. The students are wired in a controlled environment with limited access to sites they can visit. The teacher controls the entire user experience.

Imagine again. The same computer network also performs mundane tasks such as attendance monitoring, preparation for lessons, and executing class tests, and providing feedback on students to administrators and parents. The network also empowers parents by enabling them to keep a close tab on their children by accessing feedback from teachers, helping them to coach their children in better ways.

Now, stop imagining. The good news is that such projects have already been launched in India. It has already been working in countries like Nigeria and Brazil.

Some of the biggest names in technology are behind the main project. Microchip makers AMD and Intel, software giant Microsoft, and HCL are among the backers of the idea of taking notebook computers, long considered the symbol of the yuppie executive, to schools.

Under the World Ahead Program, companies like Intel are looking at the huge rural Indian market of 6,50,000 villages. The chip maker’s Classmate PC, launched last month, fits into this big picture. Classmate PC has already run the pilots in India with sixth standard students at the Delhi Public School at Vasundhara in Ghaziabad. Intel also recently ran a pilot with the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) and initiated another pilot in which it has seeded Classmate PCs for fourth standard students at the Padma Sheshadri Bal Bhavan, Bangalore to research and gather engineering feedback.

“The primary charter of Craig Barrett’s visit to India is to drive the Intel World Ahead Program with communities, government, academia and industry. This program is an initiative through which Intel plans to invest $1 billion globally over the next 5 years to accelerate access to uncompromised technology across four major focus areas: accessibility, connectivity, education and content,” Intel said. There is also a project called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) . OLPC was founded by digital guru Nicholas Negroponte with a core of the prestigious Media Lab veterans, but quickly expanded to include a wide range of people from academia, industry, the arts, business, and the open-source software community.

OLPC has a plan to offer laptop computers at $100 –that is just about Rs. 4,000. The scheme was rejected by the government last year. The reason for rejection wasn’t spelled out clearly. Nigeria is said to have ordered 10 million pieces under the scheme. Intel joined the project last month. There are also unconfirmed reports that IBM is working on a Rs. 8,000 machine for students, to be launched this year.The good news is that the student’s notebook is not fragile, unlike many corporate laptops that are delicate. It is as tough and rugged as computers could get. A water-proof keyboard, a seven-inch protected LCD screen, a shock-proof shell with an attachable cover all make it a strong proposition.

What if careless students lose their data? The notebook doesn’t have a hard disk. It has a flash memory of 1 to 2 gigabytes (GB) which means that even under strenuous conditions the data will be safe. For those worried about schoolbag weights, the news is that the device weighs only 1.45 kg and works on battery backup of 3-4 hours.

Though Intel has joined the OLPC project, its separate experiment earned the description of “Battle of Goodwill” for the project in which it rivaled OLPC in vying to equip children with aggressively priced laptops. Both were until recently seen as fierce competitors. While the success of OLPC largely depends on support and big orders from governments, Intel for the time being seems to be taking a different route by getting private financiers such as IL&FS into the project.

Both Intel and OLPC need orders to get the pricing right. OLPC’s $100 price tag in India can only be a reality if it gets large orders. Intel has priced its Classmate PC at Rs 18,000. However, the idea of laptops replacing paper notebooks receives mixed reactions from citizens.
Madhur, a teacher at a prestigious Gurgaon school termed it as “progressive and a step in the right direction.”But not everybody is optimistic.

“In India everybody is out to extract money. The school, tutors and now private firms. Why can’t they simply work on the quality of education instead of gizmos?” said Supriya Rathore, wife of an army official.

CAT marks not enough, board scores key at IIM-B

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New Delhi: Cracking the CAT or the Combined Admission Test is just not enough to get into the IIMs. Your Class X and XII marks matter more.

IIM-Bangalore has revealed the details of just what it takes to get into one of the country’s top B- schools.

Contrary to popular perception, CAT scores make up only one-fifth of an aspirant’s final score. Other criteria include the applicant’s X and XII results, which together account for almost 25 per cent of the final score.

The results in the graduate degree exams account for 15 per cent of the final score.
The maximum weightage is given to group discussions and personal interviews, which account for 35 per cent of the total score. The remaining 5 per cent depends on whether the aspirant has taken a Chartered Accountancy course.

Placement Highlights from Top B-schools

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FMS, Delhi University

Paris-based Calyon Bank made the highest domestic offer of INR 16.0 Lakhs per annum.
The highest number of offers was made by Cognizant Technologies with 15 offers. With 10 offers each, IBM, Standard Chartered Bank & ICICI Bank were a close second.

Nearly 48% of the batch opted for a career in Finance. On an average, the highest numbers of offers were made by Banks, with an astounding 62 offers being made IN ALL.

MBA (Management of Services), the 2-year full-time programme of FMS, saw its second batch getting placed, recording an average salary of INR 10.55 Lakhs per annum as opposed to last year’s INR 7.5 Lakhs p.a. The first international offers for the MBA (MS) Batch were made by Jumbo Electronics, Dubai, for an annual salary of AED 220,000 per annum.

A strong 78% of the batch of 2007 converted the option of “Dream Company” - thereby getting an offer from the company they aspired and dreamt of. Compared to other B-schools, this highlights the kind of choice that FMS offers to every student.

MDI Gurgaon

Highlight of placements at MDI Gurgaon was that offers poured in from students’ “dream companies” and that too in their preferred profiles.

160 students received 215 offers in all, making it 1.34 offers per student.
Top-notch international recruiters like Macquarie Bank and Emerio visited MDI campus for the first time.

XLRI Jamshedpur
The Campus Recruitment Process at XLRI ended with an epoch-making 50% rise in average salary, higher than any B-school in India.
Consulting and Finance firms were the cynosure of this paradigm-shifting placement scene at XLRI, making 24% & 30% of the offers respectively.

Hewitt was the top recruiter in consulting with 18 offers, followed by Accenture Business Consulting with 8 offers. Goldman Sachs was the largest recruiter in finance with 9 offers.

NITIE, Mumbai
More than 10% of the PGDIM batch at NITIE joined the millionaire club.
ICICI Bank (20), Cognizant Technology Solutions (20), ICICI Prudential (17), Kotak Mahindra (16), IBM (11) were among the top recruiters.
The Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector ranked among students’ top preferences with 35% accepted offers across companies in this sector.

IMT, Ghaziabad
Kotak Mahindra became largest recruiter at IMT Ghaziabad, handed out 31 offers, followed by Infosys, Cognizant Technology Solutions, ICICI Prudential, Bharti and Trident.

The placement process saw first-time recruiters including, eClerx, Jumbo International, Covansys, Dell and Accenture visiting the campus.
Along with the flagship PGDBM program, the newer programs in Human Resource Management (MHRM) and International Business (MIB) also saw substantial hike, both in the average compensation package and in terms of number of offers.

SPJIMR, Mumbai
Placements 2007 Creates 85 Millionaires at SPJIMR, Mumbai.
Companies resorted to the phone-a-friend option, calling up their head-offices and carving out special profiles other than those usually on offer.

Participants had 4 offers to consider on an average, with the choice set hitting 10 in some cases.
This year’s placement process saw more than 160 lateral offers generated for 65 candidates.

The highest international offer at SPJIMR was of 43,000 pounds by ICICI Bank for a treasury position in UK.

TISS, Mumbai
Companies like Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young, Asian Paints & Wipro made Pre-Placement Offers to TISS students.

The institute maintained its enduring relationship with corporate bigwigs like ITC, IBM, HLL, etc., and began new innings with top profile and global companies like HSBC, Dell, Nokia, PwC, etc.

JBIMS, Mumbai
One in every two students, from the batch of 2007 at JBIMS gets offers to become a millionaire.
The institute had its highest number of international and lateral offers. Lateral offers were made to 20% of the batch, while 15% of the batch bagged international offers. Major recruiters for overseas placements were Olam International, First Gulf Bank, Sharaf Group, Man Financial and Jumbo Electronics.

IIFT, Delhi
20% of the batch receives Pre-Placement Offers at IIFT, Delhi.
Olam International and Backes & Strauss made international offers, apart from offers from Australian Wheat Board for their Trading operations.

The average package offered this year was INR 9.3 Lakhs with highest international package of USD 100,000 (offered by Olam International) and highest domestic package of INR 19.2 Lakhs (offered by Lehman Brothers).
The other higher paying offers were from Citigroup, Backes & Strauss, Standard Chartered, DTZ, etc.

XLRI to hold XAT 2008 on January 6

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Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) Jamshedpur has announced dates for its entrance exam Xavier Admission Test, popularly called XAT.

Fr N Casimirraj S J, Director, XLRI informed MBAUniverse.com, “XAT will be held on Sunday, January 06, 2008. The online registration for XAT and XLRI will start from September 1, 2007.” Apart from XLRI, XAT score are also used by many other B-Schools like Xavier Institute of Management Bhuneshwar, (XIMB), Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa.

The last date of registration to XAT is November 30.
According to XLRI, XAT covers three objective-type test areas: verbal ability, quantitative ability and decision-making ability. There are also questions on Values. Students also have to write essays on a topic based on current value systems.

XLRI has been conducting its all-India admission tests for more than 50 years. Using this experience and expertise it has extended this test to other Management Institutes. Last year there are 35 other Management Institutes that select students using XAT 2007.

Founded in 1949, one of India’s premier management institutes, XLRI is running two-year full time Management Programmes in Personal Management and Industrial Relation Programme; General Management Programme; Executive PG Programme; Fellow Programme in Management.

3 lessons B-schools miss teaching

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Business schools are great! They add value to students’ education by actively providing insights into the learnings and practices of some of the world’s best theorists, academicians and business leaders. B-schools certainly do teach you a lot, but then there is more that needs to be learnt.
Initiative and risk-taking: Learning from others’ experiences is wise. The successes and failures of individuals and companies have shaped current-day management courses.

Each of those instances was pioneering in its time. There were a small percentage of risk-takers who lived to tell the tale, instantly defining newer paradigms. Each perspective comes with its assumptions and constraints, and it is up to the individual to challenge and break new ground.
Adaptability: To roll with the punches and come on top each time, an individual has to assimilate the operating environment and conditions and, using that as a base, act!

That is easier said than done since the environment itself changes so rapidly - be it politics, the economy, competition or consumer preference. A motley combination of various, seemingly unrelated, factors interact to create this environment.

Each instance of variation has a counterbalancing impact on some other factor, with a resulting change in the operating environment. The skill to succeed in this ever-changing, always evolving environment resides in the person, not in the B-school he or she went to.

Application: B-school courses use models, metrics and terminology to get potential entrants into corporate roles off to a flying start. They speak of and relate to events in the same way, using the same jargon.

However, the correct application of a model or tool is usually an individual’s discretion; it is his or her interpretation of the situation that forces a judgement, accurate or otherwise. The application of learning is the proof of the pudding - a realisation of the latent knowledge in an actual business context, which rests squarely on the individual’s shoulders.

B-schools, too, work continuously trying to bring in the best inputs possible, in terms of trends, preferences and principles, though the introduction of such knowledge in course curriculum happens only after it has been published or, at least, documented.

This involves significant lag time, and given the breadth and speed of change, this is an uphill and never-ending task.

In sum, a B-school is the basic foundation that equips individuals to get a firm footing in the corporate arena, but there are several other skills that one needs to assimilate to survive and succeed there.

But most important of all - don’t forget to live and have fun. It is too easy to get caught up in the rat race; stay out of it. Spend the first few years of your corporate life with your nose down, bury your ego, enjoy every moment of your work and make sure that you do the best you can. Success will follow.