Smart Education: Business Plan Report (Assessment)

Education is not what it used to be. Quantum leaps in technology have made current teaching methods redundant and ineffective. Like everything else, automation and artificial intelligence is replacing and enhancing the traditional student-teacher model rapidly. Smart Education is breaking new ground in providing an entirely new unique educational methodology and safe environment. In “Smart Education” a specially developed intelligent software system could be used for a new teaching methodology and artificial/machine intelligence. This methodology will require no private tutoring as it will provide a dynamic learning environment that automatically tailors itself to the life-long development of each individual pupil. Classrooms will be individually designed with a class size of 12 pupils. Each class would be served by a highly experienced, specially trained teacher assisted by a dedicated teacher helper. All classrooms will be equipped with a computer work-desk for each student, a local area network, multimedia projection and a CCTV system. Smart Education is not meant for academics only. It will also provide children access to the world’s most advanced, child-safe electronics lab system, music room, dramatics, yoga, karate, football, basketball and other physical training aids. Smart Education will provide parents with a 24 hours asynchronous contact with their child’s progress, the supervisors, the co-supervisors, their teachers and other supervisory staff over the Internet. You can even see your child working in the class at any time over the internet or an internet enabled mobile phone. Thus the word ‘Smart ’ in this context comes from the rapidly developing technologies termed as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Intelligence. Therefore the adjective ‘Smart’ implies a computer assisted system capable of observing, recording, and using experiences to improve performance and learn continuously.

Description of Venture

Mission: “To lay the foundation for the next generation, the scientists and the decision-makers are fully equipped with the knowledge and paradigm of 21st century yet equally policy aware and knowledgeable of their proud heritage of culture and tradition. Thorough this combination they must regain the coveted central position in human society, which their ancestors once possessed.”

The curriculum will be entirely different. The most important component of the new curriculum will be software and teaching materials which would be prepared specially for the Smart School students. Thus all the required materials used in the educational process of the school will be provided to every pupil from the school, the cost of which will be already included. This material will be a combination of books, some specially designed material for computer training and a large number of software containing lessons and tutorials etc.

On average, the cost of this specially prepared material is estimated at $100/- per student per month. In addition to this, each student will have unlimited access over the internet to all the major libraries (e.g. American Congress Library, Washington) from which they will be able to directly access and download materials in addition to what is provided in the school.

A very important function of a teacher in Smart School is to train the pupils in locating and utilizing information on the internet. This access to teaching materials, lessons, the internet will not only be confined to the class room, every pupil (and his and her parents) of the Smart School will be connected 24 hours to a virtual school provided over a virtual private network using a dial-up facility or a cable network.

In virtual school facilities, additional access is provided to lessons, tutorials, performance-statistics of students and direct contact to the class teacher. The pupils and their parents of the Smart School will remain in touch with the school constantly for 24 hours a day.

An equally important part of the operational plan for the curriculum would be to develop personality traits through intellectual activities as well as physical sports. Students will be encouraged to take part in sports as well as debates, chess competitions, intellectual quizzes etc.

The class environment planned for the Smart School would be completely different than that of a conventional school. Each pupil of Smart School will work on a specially designed workstation which will be equipped with a complete multimedia facilities, i.e. computer, sound system, projection system, wireless LAN, optical mouse, etc.

Special care would be taken to design these workstations to meet various economic and physical requirements. For example, “anti-radiation” flat screen monitors will be used to protect and safeguard the child.

A camera fitted on every workstation will always keep each child in focus and will be transmitting this picture over the LAN. Thus the class teacher, the principal and even the parents of the child may view what a particular child is doing at any point in time during school hours.

In addition to this, the teacher workstation will be equipped with special software which would be specifically designed to continuously monitor the progress of each child along with the class statistics. Each class room will be equipped with an overhead projection system through which the teacher will be able to address all the children simultaneously to tutor all of them into a particular task or program. It is to be highlighted here that by very design of the Smart School, each pupil in the class will learn at his/her own speed where artificial intelligence built into the software will continue to motivate them individually to perform better. Thus no direct comparison between the individual students will be made or announced inside the class.

This will ensure that each child is able to follow his or her own “natural learning curve” without any stigma or undue pressure as happens in a conventional class room. This environment will also provide for the teacher to act simultaneously as a personal tutor to each pupil instead of a single class teacher addressing the entire class.

Most important classes would consist of a teacher and a teaching assistant. The average size of the class planned for the Smart School would be 15 students per class. This is to ensure that adequate personal attention is given to each student. In addition to normal classes, special classes will occur for special activities like arts, hobbies, hand-writing skills, music, debating etc.

The two top key school administrators will be (i) School supervisor, and (ii) The Academic Coordinator. Both these would be individuals with very high qualifications (from abroad) as well as experts in teaching methods overseas. The Academic Coordinator will be assisted by head teachers, special subject teachers and class teachers, etc.

Industry Analysis

Smart systems have been developed in almost all fields to assist and enhance the performance of a purely human system many times over. Robotics, medical diagnosis, surgery, genetics, astrophysics are a few examples where smart programs are becoming a common place.

To connect with various listeners, increase access to the collections of data and services, providing leadership, and adding value to the services through effective resource management Smart Education will provide evidence to be as a system developed to progress and impart education at levels that would have been simply not possible in existing conventional schools.

There are several examples in the recorded history that show a genius branded as a ‘dunce’ in his early childhood school. Elbert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Graham Bell survived educational stigma in early childhood to become people of historic abilities. A vast majority of such children have quite normal and sometimes, above normal capabilities which a classical school education system simply fails to detect or discover, thus relegating such children to the wilderness of “mediocrity’ or under-performers for the rest of their lives.

What is the main cause of this early stigmatization of children? How can one protect one’s dear one from such a destiny?

The main cause could be simply a large variance in the shape of the learning curves of individuals. Penrose, R. & Gardner, M. (1989) argued that some children learn simple things faster than others, but may not have above average capability to learn and master complex things. On the other hand some children take a lot of time and patience to grasp a very simple piece of knowledge.

Two effects could ensue whenever a child with a learning disability would sit in a conventional class where the teacher had covered the subject matter at an ‘assumed’ average rate of learning.

First the child begins to develop an inferiority complex leading to disinterested, and disruptive behavior. Secondly, the teacher completely misinterprets this ‘couldn’t careless’ attitude as a sign of inadequate learning capacity. The teacher often responds to such behavior with negative reinforcement. This self perpetuating degeneration ultimately results in serious consequences for the child leading to a permanent stigma. Thus one requires (i) a highly trained teacher who could detect the early symptoms of intellectual disinterest in a pupil and (ii) a system of teaching learning which could proceed at different rates. A smart school will be designed to achieve both of these objectives. In a smart school a computer takes over the role of a teacher whereas the teacher takes over the role of a facilitator.

Marketing plan

The heavy investment will be planned for the launching and promotion of the school e.g., $3.6 million for the very first year, followed by similar amounts in each subsequent year. These budgets will be used for publishing special supplements, regular articles containing a detailed introduction of a smart school as compared to a conventional school.

Major supplements will be planned for important dailies such as: “New York Times”, and other leading news papers. These supplements will also carry special messages from important personalities, e.g. President, Governors, Secretary of State etc.

In addition to this, supplements will carry informatory articles on different aspects of a smart school. An aggressive promotion will be planned through cable TV and other publications. These promotions will carry substantial informatory articles to prepare a child for the future and protects the academic career of the child against an early stigma and neglect which is a major problem in every conventional school.

A few seminars/symposiums would also be planned in the city where parents would be invited to the school premises, would be shown and demonstrated the difference between a conventional school and a smart school.

Operational Plan

The Smart School will certainly be of unique nature and will be the first of its kind. Therefore special care and planning would be required for its launching and promotion.

The plan prepared for this purpose will emphasize educating prospective parents on the advantages of the Smart School over a conventional school as well as reassure them that the Smart School will prepare their children for standard examination.

The second essential aspect of the operational plan would be the curriculum that has been designed for the school. The important aspect of this was stated by Scholkopf, B. and Smola, A. J. (1999) that in designing the curriculum, the most imperative item to remember is that the school plans to follow exactly the same syllabus which has been proposed by the state standards in the country.

However, the difference would be in the method of delivery and tutoring of the students. The smart school will have dimensions in education that would not be present in a conventional school curriculum.

Similarly the class environment planned for the Smart School would be very different than what exists for a conventional school.

Whereby emphasis of the class room environment of conventional school is imparting and retention of knowledge, the main emphasis in a smart school would be (i) the development of analytical capabilities, (ii) the training and education for gathering of information on a global basis and (iii) synthesis of all the gathered information/data.

Therefore, the Smart School’s basic aim will be to prepare scientists, managers and decision makers of the future. Finally, the staffing of the Smart School will have many aspects of the school which will be quite familiar, but at the same time would be quite different from a conventional school.

Firstly, all the teaching staff will make use of a computer on everyday applications such as (i) internet browsing, (ii) email, (iii) word-processing, (iv) spread sheet analysis, (iv) project planning etc.

Thus the background of the teachers per necessity would be such that they have acquired their own education in a commensurate environment, e.g. engineering, business management, accountancy, etc. The salaries and the conditions of services planned are commensurate with what is usually earned by such professionals at early stage of their careers.

Organizational Plan

In order to introduce the format proposed for a Smart School System, that is able to successfully capture the opportunities discussed above, it would perhaps be useful to show how it would be compared and differ from an existing conventional elite school. Waterman, D. A. (1986) provides an excellent insight into how scientific revolutions lead to paradigm shifts that completely alter the way human society behaves and works.

The Physical Environment envisaged for the proposed school system will consist of a fully air-conditioned classroom with one fully computerized workstation for each student. A computerized instruction-station would be occupied by the teacher and that each instruction/work station within the school will be connected to each other through an intranet. The school Intranet will be connected to the Internet. The instruction-station will be able to duplicate and view any workstation’s screen at will. The classroom will also be equipped with a digital Scratch pad, and an overhead Data Show facility. In addition to that each student will be required to possess a computer at home.

The School Intranet will also contain teacher portals and adequate ISP facilities.

Teaching Environment Envisaged for the proposed School System:

A teacher with at least a post-graduate or a professional (engineering etc.) degree, trained specialists in the use of computers as a medium of instruction. Inquiry based teaching methodology making extensive use of the Internet. Development of computer-based collaborative working skills.

Specific software acquired or developed specifically to impart instructions in a specific subject. An excellent and detailed treatment of the full impact and scenarios of the emergence of IT on human society is argued by Jang, J.S.R., Sun, C.T., and Mizutani, E. (1997).

Research by Waldrop, M. M. (1987) maintained that several research studies were evidence because computer-using students develop a much higher skill for critical thinking and problem solving Completely computer based instruction except for the development of handwriting skills.

Continuous evaluation and display of performance for the benefit of the parent through the web. Maintenance of comprehensive portals for students as well as for parents Student’s portals is designed to help student teacher contact after school hours. Parent’s portal is designed to maximize parent’s contact with teachers and school management as well as the ability of the parents to track and monitor their child’s progress in school contact with other schools on an International basis to cultivate and promote contacts between pupils of different schools over the Internet.

References

1. Scholkopf, B. and Smola, A. J (1999). Learn in with Kernels. Support Vector Machines. The MIT Press.
2. Waterman, D. A. (1986). A guide to Expert Systems: Addison- Wesley Reading, MA.
3. Jang, J.S.R., Sun, C.T., & Mizutani, E. (1997). Neuro-Fizzy and soft Computing: MATLAB Curriculum Series, Prentice Hall.
4. Waldrop M. M. (1987) Man-made minds: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence. New York.
5. Penrose, R. & Gardner, M. (1989). The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Popular Science): Oxford University Press.