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| [FILE PHOTO: Dell/Flickr/CC BY 2.0] |
Bangalore/New Delhi: Technology giant Dell has announced the winners of the
Dell Education Challenge, a global competition for university students with
entrepreneurial ideas to improve education, both in and out of the classroom.
The team comprising of two Indian students, Sonali Gupta
from Manipal Institute of Technology and Priyadeep Sinha from Indira Gandhi
National Open University, was adjudged the first runner-up for its project Gyan
(Knowledge) Lab and awarded a cash prize of $5,000. This team was among the
four finalists who traveled to Dell World to compete for a $10,000 grand prize
and other support to advance their innovative ideas.
The competition received more than 400 project entries from
around the world, proposing solutions to today's biggest issues in education,
including those identified in a recent poll commissioned by Dell. Global poll
respondents said technology gives students a more personalized experience that
they value, but added that technology needs are not being met in schools today.
The grand prize of the Dell Education Challenge 2012 was
awarded to Forward Tutoring, an online platform where students earn credits for
volunteering in their communities and redeem those credits for tutoring from
other qualified students; tutors in turn can earn scholarships and internships
from supporting organizations. Forward Tutoring will use the funds, from the
grand prize, to support burgeoning university chapters working to bring
accessible online tutoring to communities.
Gyan (Knowledge) Lab, the project from India that won the
second place, is a kinesthetic lab facility that encourages and allows school
kids (Grades 3-9) to learn practical concepts in Science, Social Science,
Electronics, Robotics, Mathematics and Pre-vocational Learning (day to day
activities and utilities), in a hands-on manner using practical experiments,
activities and model-making. The facility is usually setup within a school free
of cost and students attend it by paying an annual fee. Championing the concept
of Constructivism Pedagogy (a new phenomenon in India), the lab has aligned its
work to the best 5 curriculum standards of the world to give the most
comprehensive real-life skills to school students at the most affordable
prices.