BackXSEED launches new product; targets 10,000 schools by 2020
XSEED's learning programs complement a school's existing curriculum and focus on using hands-on experience and analysis as methods of teaching
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Bengaluru: XSEED, a global learning company, on Saturday launched an education technology solution called XSEED MAX that blends hands-on and digital learning in classrooms and allows parents to track each child’s results. The Singapore-based firm aims to expand its presence to 10,000 schools in India by 2020 from roughly 3,000 currently, its founder said.
XSEED’s learning programs complement a school’s existing curriculum and focus on using hands-on experience and analysis as methods of teaching rather than the traditional rote learning method and emphasis on scoring marks that many schools follow.
“In the old world, the ability to memorize stuff was very important. From memory, it’s moving to understanding things," Ashish Rajpal, the firm’s founder, said on the sidelines of the conference.
The new edu-tech solution launched at XSEED’s ninth School of Tomorrow conference involves schools that follow the firm’s curriculum conducting a weekly digital learning class in mathematics and science based on its teaching methods for grades 1-8. At these weekly classes, children focus on 25 critical concepts in both subjects, one concept at a time.
Each class begins with an aim and then goes on to engage children in conducting experiments, analyzing the experiments and applying the concepts they learnt. Students take monthly tests at school based on the classes and parents can track their progress on the XSEED Parent app as part of the XSEED MAX solution. The progress tracker focuses on how the child is doing in terms of skill development, conceptual understanding and problem solving.
“Awareness, adaptability, creativity and collaboration are the most important 21st century skills to deal with a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world," Charles Fadel, global education thought leader and visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and MIT, said in a webcast address at the event.
The new solution is powered using what the firm calls the XSEED Mini-Campus, which is a small plug-and-play box that has the firm’s content loaded on it and can be connected with whatever existing hardware schools have. Even schools that do not have access to the internet or those with just a single computer and projector can use the Mini-Campus box to conduct the weekly classes, the firm said at the conference.
Singapore-based XSEED’s School of Tomorrow conferences are forums where leaders from the education field come together to discuss ideas on how best to equip children for the future. This year’s event included a keynote address by Vinita Bali, former managing director of biscuit maker Britannia Industries Ltd.
“If I were to look at it from a business perspective, my greatest frustration used to be the absence of what we call systemic thinking. And I think that is the difference between mugging up something and spitting out an answer versus comprehending it and then having the ability to find applications for it," Bali said, adding that XSEED was helping children and schools make that shift towards understanding and problem solving.
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