Open Access

Know how you fared in NET, instantly

Know how you fared in NET, instantly

Chetan chauhan, Hindustan Times

Students appearing for the National Eligibility Test (NET), 2012 will be able to evaluate their performance immediately after appearing for the much-simplified test. The University Grants Commission (UGC), which conducts the test for around 2.5 lakh students twice a year, on Thursday decided that candidates can take carbon prints of their optical reader answer sheets with them.

This will enable students to know instantly how they have fared in the test, said UGC chairperson Ved Prakash.

In another decision, the UGC has decided that all the question papers for the test will be objective type.

Till now, two papers were objective and the third one subjective. This has led to delay in declaration of the results, sometimes forcing students to appear again.

Students had earlier expressed their unhappiness over evaluation in the subjective type paper.

Now, we will be able to declare the results much before next NET and to the satisfaction of students, Prakash said. The format will be applicable for the June 2012 exam and results will be announced by October before the next exam in December 2012.

Only those who clear the NET are eligible for junior research fellowship and for appointment in colleges and universities.

Sourced from: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Know-how-you-fared-in-NET-instantly/Article1-786360.aspx

PM Declares 2012 as Natiional Mathematics Year

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday expressed concern that young minds with a natural ability for mathematics were not pursuing the disciple at an advanced level, resulting in a "decline in the quality of maths teachers at the school and college levels". In his inaugural speech at a function to mark the 125th birth anniversary of eminent mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Prime Minister said there was a "general perception that pursuit of maths does not lead to attractive career possibilities".

He declared 2012 as the National Mathematics Year and Dec 22, the day Ramanujan was born, as Mathematics Day.

"The mathematical community has the duty to find ways and means to address the shortage of top quality mathematicians in the country. It must reach out to the public, especially in the modern context where mathematics has tremendous influence on every kind of human endeavours," he said.

Sourced from: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Chennai/Young-minds-not-pursuing-maths-PM/Article1-787270

Open Access to select publications from Springer

Hi,

Springer is providing Open Access to select publications at the following URL:
Open Access - Engineering

E-LEARNING Free English CDs for class 10 students

Mumbai: In a first-of-itskind move, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education will distribute free elearning CDs with English textbooks for students of class 10. While in the first year, from June 2012, CDs will be available only with English textbooks designed for second and third languages, the board plans to extend the facility to other subjects in future.
The audio-visual CDs will not only have content from the textbook, but will also have the pronunciations of words with their meanings. “They will be aimed at helping students who find it difficult to learn and comprehend English,” said board chairman Ujjwala Patil.

Patil said that officials are also working on making available similar CDs for other subjects.

“Many firms have approached us with proposals on learning technologies. However, all come at a price. We cannot incur a huge expense. So we are looking at cheaper options. Several schools do not have laboratory facilities. Students are unable to conduct experiments or even see them. We are trying to make these experiments in science subjects available to the students. We plan to compile a list of useful links in sciences and social sciences and put them on our website for students,” Patil said.

This is the first time the board is planning to make use of technology on such a scale. From June 2012, information and communications technology will be introduced from class 10 and later to higher classes. Under the curriculum, the board intends to teach students how to create e-mail IDs and to send mails.

The curriculum guides you to create blogs and make use of online tools or Wikipedia. “The teacher training programme for information and communications technology (ICT) will begin from December 15. Teachers will come to training centres once a week and will be practising in their schools for the rest of the week,” said the chairman. The Maharashtra government is also working out ways to provide computers to every school in the state.
Source Times of India 12 December 2011

Library Membership Cards - Permanent

Students of First Year and Direct Second Year (enrolled in July to September 2011) are requested to contact the LIRC for permanent library cards with the following:
Three (3) stamp-size photos (Size: 1.7 cms x 1.7 cms)
One (1) pass-port size photo
You are also requested to fill-up the Library Membership Form available with the LIRC.

LIRC timings on 16th and 19th December 2011

The LIRC would be open between 10.00 am to 6.00 pm on 16th and 19th December 2011.

Active Users of the LIRC - November 2011

ACTIVE USERS OF THE LIRC

(Period: 01/11/2011 to 30/11/2011)

CATEGORY: STUDENTS*

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	ISHA D. SHAH	22
2	SHETTY DHEERAJ MUDDHU	16
3	YADAV JAGDISH H.	14
4	NACHIKET VIJAY AYIR	13
5	NIKHIT BHALACHANDRA SANKHE	13
6	HEGDE SHREYA DAYANAND	12
7	SAWANT SAISH UMAKANT SHRADDHA	12
8	SMRITI DEEPAK PARWANI	12
9	SHANU PRAKASH SALUNKE	12
10	NIDHI D.PANCHAL	12

CATEGORY: FACULTY**

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	Asst. Prof. SANTOSH CHAPANERI	19
3	Asst. Prof. VINCY ELIZABETH	07

CATEGORY: NON-TEACHING**

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	Ms. VRISHALI JADHAV	05
2	Shri. JOHNSON PEN	02

*Students are entitled to one extra card which will be valid till December 31, 2011.

**Faculty and non-teaching staff members are entitled to borrow one extra book till December 31, 2011.

Edublog Award Nominations

Its time again for the Edublog Awards. These awards are one of finest and efficient initiatives to promote the use of social networking platforms for educational purposes.

I, being a Librarian, am much into reading and evaluating (for self study) library-related blogs. I would like to suggest the following blog under the category of Best Librarian / Library Blog:

http://sfitlibrary.blogspot.com