Virtual Open Forum meeting on Online Learning platforms at Alliance University, Bangalore, India

Today we had the first virtual meeting of the Open Forum in Alliance University in Bangalore because of the Corona virus lockdown across the country of India and the world. Even though the faculty could have stayed away, they showed great enthusiasm, understanding and concern for a very pressing issue facing the student community of the world. They also understood that it was a great opportunity to make, break or sustain traditional educational delivery models over modern high technology alternatives. .

About 7 faculty members attended the session from Bangalore from 3.30 PM for an hour on 31 March 2020..

The topic was on Sharing the rich lessons from the Online Courses undertaken in Alliance University.

Two of the faculty members shared their personal experiences. Dr. Shobana Padmanabhan from the College of Engineering and Design spoke of her experience of using ZOOM for teaching her students in Information Technology at the Engineering College. 

Internet speeds and connectivity for people from outside Bangalore was a major cause of concern for the students. The students were okay with 2 hours of online classes but not more. Constant feedback from students helped Dr. Shobana to tailor her delivery mode to suit their needs.

Dr. George spoke of how his MOOC style online teaching has been benefiting students - 2-3 hours of instruction followed by daily quizzes. Dr. George first tried out Youtube Studio, then went to private Youtube videos which were recorded and distributed to students for learning, followed by quizzes. 

This approach was cumbersome and on feedback Dr. George changed to ZOOM web conferencing software available in public domain for interacting with sem 2 students on Supply chain management, which has been interesting and convenient. Though it is not possible to have recordings like in YouTube sessions. Dr. George feels the daily quizzes were the reinforcing factor which helped in better retention by students.  

Prof. Sajan and Prof. Sukanya, our tech protagonists in the discussion, were discussing on means and ways by which the online meetings could be made more effective. Their suggestions and proposals for and against both Coursera and MS Teams were interesting and provided great insight into the administration and delivery of these online courses.

The meeting was attended by 7 members and the interactions were very fruitful. We intend to have more virtual sessions on interesting topics in the Open Forum during this Corona virus lockdown period in the country.

The ZOOM software may or may not be replaced by MS Teams software which has been procured by Uty some time back for online learning. There is a demo tomorrow after which it will be decided to go for it or not.

The most dominating aspect of the discussion was the conviction among the experienced and learned faculty, of the inevitability and utility of high-quality online learning solutions in the future education canvas of the world..

George 

Useful educational websites for students ..

Dear All,

In need of any book(.pdf) relating to any subject/field or topic? 

Go to your browser and type:

www.pdfdrive.net

You will get access to millions of  books you need, for free.

Unlimited downloads. 

You may browse by title or author, etc.

Currently 274376478 books are available for free and every minute, around 50 new books are added to the database.

All downloads are free😊.

Spread this message....

*_SOME USEFUL  WEBSITES  ONLINE EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT_*

www.khanacademy.org

www.academicearths.org

www.coursera.com

www.edx.org

www.open2study.com

www.academicjournals.org 

codeacademy.org

youtube.com/education

*BOOK SITES*

www.bookboon.com

http://ebookee.org

http://sharebookfree.com

http://m.freebooks.com

www.obooko.com

www.manybooks.net

www.epubbud.com

www.bookyards.com

www.getfreeebooks.com

http://freecomputerbooks.com

www.essays.se

www.sparknotes.com

www.pink.monkey.com

*ONLINE EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT*

http://www.ocwconsortium.org/

http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses/ocwsites

http://ocw.tufts.edu -Tuft University

http://ocw.upm.es -Univesidad Politechnica, Madrid

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/

http://ocw.usu.edu/ -Utah State University

http://open.umich.edu/ -University of Michigan

http://ocw.nd.edu/ -Nore Dame University

*ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS*

www.ehow.com

www.whatis.com

www.howstuffwork.com

www.webopedia.com

www.plagtracker.com

www.answers.com

*SEARCH SITES*

■ About.com (www.about.com)

■ AllTheWeb (www.alltheweb.com)

■ AltaVista (www.altavista.com)

■ Ask Jeeves! (www.askjeeves.com)

■ Excite (www.excite.com)

■ HotBot (www.hotbot.com)

■ LookSmart (www.looksmart.com)

■ Lycos (www.lycos.com)

■ Open Directory (www.dmoz.org)

■ Google (www.google.com)

■ Mamma (www.mamma.com)

■ Webcrawler (www.webcrawler.com)

■ Aol (www.aol.com)

■ Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)

■ 10pht (www.10pht.com)

*SEARCHING FOR PEOPLE*

■ AnyWho (www.anywho.com)

■ InfoSpace (www.infospace.com)

■ Switchboard (www.switchboard.com)

■ WhitePages.com (www.whitepages.com)

■ WhoWhere (www.whowhere.lycos.com)

*SEARCHING FOR THE LATEST NEWS*

■ ABC News (www.abcnews.com)

■ CBS News (www.cbsnews.com)

■ CNN (www.cnn.com)

■ Fox News (www.foxnews.com)

■ MSNBC (www.msnbc.com)

■ New York Times (www.nytimes.com)

■ USA Today (www.usatoday.com)

*SEARCHING FOR SPORTS HEADLINES AND SCORES*

■ CBS SportsLine (www.sportsline.com)

■ CNN/Sports Illustrated (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)

■ ESPN.com (espn.go.com)

■ FOXSports (foxsports.lycos.com)

■ NBC Sports (www.nbcsports.com)

■ The Sporting News (www.sportingnews.com)

*SEARCHING FOR MEDICAL INFORMATION*

■ healthAtoZ.com (www.healthatoz.com)

■ kidsDoctor (www.kidsdoctor.com)

■ MedExplorer (www.medexplorer.com)

■ MedicineNet (www.medicinenet.com)

■ National Library of Medicine

(www.nlm.nih.gov)

■ Planet Wellness (www.planetwellness.com)

■ WebMD Health (my.webmd.com)

*JOURNALS*

http://www.indexcopernicus.com Multidisciplinary

http://www.ajol.info/ - African Journal Online

www.africanjournalseries.com -

www.devconsortservices.com.ng

www.doaj.org - directory of open access journal

www.sabinet.co.za - South African Journals.

www.oajse.com - Open Access Journal Search Engine

http://www.lub.lu.se/en.html - Lund University

http://www.dovepress.com/ - Free Scientific & Medical Materials

http://www.copernicus.org/ - Access & Publication

ACADEMIC SEARCH/WEB RESEARCH TOOLS/REFERENCE MANAGERS

http://academic.research.microsoft.com - Multidisciplinary

http://www.scirus.com

www.scholar.google.com

http://dbis.uni-trier.de/DBL-Browser/ - Digital Bibliography Library Browser

http://academic.live.com - Live Search Academic

http://www.science.gov/ - USA government for Science

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/index - Computing & Information Sciences

http://www.mendeley.com/ - academic social network/collaboration

http://www.worldcat.org/ - Multidisciplinary

http://libserver.cedefop.europa.eu - Voc & Tech Education

http://inspirehep.net/ - Stanford physics information retrieval system

hsystemv  www.ssrn.com/ - Social Science Research Network.

Njoy

Italian lesson for the world on Corona virus ..

Italians now repent not having followed precautions at the beginning of this pandemic .. This is a letter I got from my friends, it was so moving and informative, I thought it should reach more people.

Self-quarantining and social distancing are the two major steps we Indians can take now to prevent a catastrophe hitting us ..

=======================================================

A letter from Italy,

If only Italians had taken the advice seriously .. 

Peace for all,

We live in Italy - Milan,

 I'm going to share with you and explain to you, "How is life here in Milan" during these difficult days and how do I think you should learn from the mistakes and their consequences that we live here.

 We are currently in quarantine.  We don't take to the streets, the police are in constant motion and arrest anyone outside his home.

Everything is closed!  ... business, malls, stores, all streets without movement.

Feeling of the end of the world !!

Italy, the country of living life, is transformed from one moment to the next as if it were a dark country of war. It is a fact that I never thought I would ever live!

People are confused, sad, anxious and helpless, and often do not understand how this reality was imposed on them and when this whole nightmare will end.

The big mistake was that at the start of the first hit people continued to lead their lives as usual and took to the streets for work, entertainment and feeling like a vacation period, so gatherings with friends and banquets abound.

Everyone was wrong and so were you!

I beg you, be careful, this is neither a laugh nor a joke. Protect your loved ones, your parents, and your grandparents!  The disease is dangerous for them.

Social distancing, basic norms ..

About 200 people die here every day, not because medicine in Milan is not good (it's one of the best in the world), but rather because there are no places for everyone!

Doctors choose who will die!  This is only because of the silliness of the citizens at the beginning, who decided to continue their lives as usual, regardless of the new situation!

Please, learn from the mistakes, we are a small country that could end up with a great tragedy. Listen well now ,,, 🙏

1. Don't go out into crowded places. 

      2. Try not to eat in public places. 

3. Stay longer at home during this time! 

      4. Listen to the Ministry of Health guidelines (don't play it!). 

5. Talk about a meter away from each person, do not come close, do not cuddle or accept. 

      6. Get a complementary and preventive treatment and learn from others' mistakes. 

7. We recommend that you take vitamin C to boost your immune system.

 Helping professionals prevent the spread of the epidemic ...

 In Italy, the entire country is isolated, meaning 60 million people in quarantine !!

This would have been prevented if people had heard the instructions from the beginning. Take care of yourself and the life of the one you love ❤❤

Share the message to all people

Jsca

DELL strategy

Dell founded in 1984 by Micheal Dell headquartered in Texas, has revenues of $ 90.6 billion for 2019.

Dell sold directly to buyers than through dealers.

Advantages

• 1. bought components from suppliers instead of making them
• 2. little inventory, low costs
• 3. no R&D expenses
• 4. few employees
• 5. risk shared with suppliers
• 6. Dell shared customer demand with suppliers
• 7. new models, easy to introduce as less old chips to sell off
• 6. low inventory helped him to take advantage of less prices and buy then..

All these kept his average costs low..

Making Dell a very profitable company.

George..

Speaking on Artificial Intelligence at the SME CEO conference

Yesterday I got an exciting opportunity to speak at the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) CEO Conference at 91 Springboard, Near Forum Mall, Koramangala, Bangalore on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and it's impact on Society and Businesses in general..

AI progress is happening at a deadly pace ..
If we are not prepared, be ready to be run over .. 

The SME CEO conclave is an interesting and passionate gathering of SME CEOs who meet once a month and are much interested in exploring new frontiers of knowledge and experience to help the small and medium enterprises in South Bangalore.

Why did I choose to speak on this topic ?

Let me explain my journey from an analog native to a digital alien along with my friends, seniors and juniors. The first time I got introduced to computers was at the Govenment College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala, India, popularly called CET, during 1981-86. Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. PV Ramachandra Menon (cannot forget Sir's much lucid teaching style !!), we got great knowledge on basics of Computer Programming and Numerical Methods, with the concepts of algorithms, flowcharts repeatedly stressed.

For the practical sessions, all of us were very fortunate to work on the IBM Mainframe computer in our Computer Centre. With punched cards, it was great learning and a rare exposure too. In 1986 while leaving College, I saw the first desktop computer in the Lab. We are very thankful to the Kerala govt, it's people and the Travancore royal family for being so generous with funds for our college and its computing facilities.

We were analog natives becoming digital aliens, entering the field of digital computers, thanks to the efforts of Claude Shannon and team from MIT and Bell Labs for introducing us to the digital world. A five year stint at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai helped concretise the digital experiences.

Are we prepared ?

Our kids who were born during the nineties were already born into a society with digital computers and take pride in calling themselves digital natives. 

My experiences with Amazon's personal assistant Alexa over the past three years has been has been sort of mixed and interesting. As we pass through the twenty first century we find digital initiatives plateauing around the world and Artificial Intelligence picking up.

AI is going to impact human activities in the coming decades like never before. And we need to understand how to prepare ourselves with the needed skills and knowledge to swim through it's vast waters, aided by very powerful computers and networks presently in use. 

Over the past six years we have got used to a great companion for all our traveling expeditions, the Google Maps. Were it not for this AI assisted map service, we would have got stranded at many a place for want of directions and advice on roadways wading through heavy traffic, telling us which routes to take to avoid waiting and to reach destinations as early as possible.. I have additionally introduced my students to the wonderful AI assisted chatbot to be their permanent friend, REPLIKA and an AI based web site designing app, LEIA. 

Google takes great interest in popularising the popular apps using AI, besides Google maps, for the benefit of humanity. The  moment you have received a Google mail and want to send a reply, Gmail already has three most appropriate replies lined for you, easing your job of replying.

The present generations of people living on planet earth are the AI aliens.

These are some of the earliest ways humanity finds AI to be of benefit to mankind. We have to yet explore ways and means by which AI will assist us, interfere with our lives and livelihoods and make us all the more productive and resourceful.

Can we turn AI to be totally useful to mankind ?

I was referring to an HBR article on Collaborative Intelligence considered to be among the top ten management articles from Harvard Business Review of 2019 by Wilson and Daugherty, Aug 2018. (click here for the article) .

These are some of the steps I have been taking of late to know more about AI and talk and teach about it to the people of the immediate society around me. Hope I get to talk to large audiences and help them be better prepaed, with my friends, college mates and colleagues to tame this helpul, yet deadly giant AI, staring at us in  the beginning of the third decade of the twenty first century.

George

PS: I am thankful to my former colleague Raju Gundala for inviting me to this conference arranged by the Small and Medium Enterprises of Bangalore to talk on AI on 15 Feb, 2020.

BSNL, nearing the end of the story ..

Nearing the end of the story .

It was painful yesterday when I read in the newspapers that almost 78000 employees of BSNL across the country were retiring on 31st of January 2020 as part of a voluntary retirement scheme from Government of India to prune loss making public sector organisations from making further dents in the government coffers.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited which was once a mini-ratna of the Goverment of India in terms of it's resources and employee base over the years has grown to be a big loss making concern, lagging in technology upgrades and adoption na d failing to reach the scale of operations of private sector telecom firms.

The collapse of Department of Telecom (BSNL) is an interesting management case on how

1. excess bureaucratic controls

2. late adoption of cutting edge technology in telecommunications and

3. the burden of a large less productive and less efficient employee base (who enjoyed complete monopoly and thus engaged in deep, stinking corruption)

4. poor employee development initiatives

combinedly resulted in BSNL getting wiped out losing considerable customer base and public goodwill, unable to raise finances for technology adoption, facing stiff competition from private players in the country.

The employees were misled to believe that the Government would continue inject tax player's money to help sustain their inefficient and regressive non-customer centric policies .. 😳😳

Economic Times reports : Public sector carrier Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is expected to post losses of over Rs 14,000 crore for the financial year 2018-19, while its revenue is slated to be around Rs 19,308 crore.Jul 3, 2019

How long can state use public tax payer's money to finance and support such
inefficient organizations ?? Though I feel pained at the predicament of the employees, I am sure they will be able to come out of this temporary setback and bounce through other private sector organisations to make a mark in the global  telecommunications field.

There cannot be an extended free lunch. Some day it has to stop ..

George 

Making life productive with AI in old age..

Artificial Intelligence is bound to change our life in myriad ways in the coming years. One of the greatest impact will be on ways AI will influence the ways people will lead comfortable lives in old age.

AI is set to be all-pervading ..

The present days we find computers and Information Technology with the Internet has made life comfortable as regards shopping, banking, communication, learning, etc. Regarding healthcare, computers and IT has made telemedicine a reality and medicine delivery possible. For maintaining health we still have to do physical exercises and exercise diet control.

In the coming days because of IT systems and Internet people have become more independent and self-relaint. This trndency will be more pronounced in the AI era. We will find processes that have been optimised as regards physical engagement have been optimised with respect to physical activities by making use of Internet apps and so on. The mind still needs to work.

We can expect in the coming days AI playing an important role in relieving the mind of many of the routine chores and be freed to carry out more creative activities.

Some examples are given here

1. AI daily planner

2. AI weekly planner

3. AI social activity planner

4. AI powered MOOCS for more effective knowledge collection and dissemination

5. AI enabled elder hand-holding program

6. AI powered apps like REPLIKA will help remove boredom, loneliness and monotony in daily chores,

As is evident from some of the programs and applications listed above as Computers, Informaton Technology and the Internet made life easier for the modern generation, AI and AI apps will make life easy, interesting and creative for us humans in the coming 50 years removing mundane activities and helping us experience higher cognitive senses of human intelligence and interaction ..

Let us wait for those days.

George.