Bangalore India

13th July 2004

Sona Institute Brings George Mason University To India

Sona Valliappa Group a brand name driven by quality and built by value has been associated with education since 1958. The group is diversified in BPO, Textiles and Plantation playing a pivotal roll in industry. Vee Technologies today launched Sona Institute of Advanced studies (SIAS). SIAS has tied up with George Mason University Washington (GMU) to offer courses in Change Management. The GMU will offer its Post Graduate degree programs through Bangalore center. The students will have full access to GMU faculty and its online content.

Prof. Kingsley Haynes Dean of GMU shared his views, ‘The tie up with SIAS is another step towards providing best opportunities for Indian students. The students will not incur enormous costs of travel and stay abroad far from their families.’

C.Valliappa Chairman who inaugurated SIAS said, with problem of getting US visas becoming more and more difficult, SIAS offering would be an ideal solution.

Chocko Valliappa Founder Trustee says Change Management is becoming more and more important as companies move up value chain from offshoring to outsourcing. Globalization, reengineering and outsourcing are all propounding need for change management.

My child isn’t a genius. Most aptitude testing has revealed that she is of average intelligence. But somehow this child has managed to consistently score above 90th percentile nationally on Iowa Test of Basic Skills—98th and 99th percentile in math. And, on Georgia’s sixth grade Criterion Referenced Comprehension Test (CRCT) scored 450 out of 450 on reading section, surprising given that math has consistently been her strongest subject. We have just received her scores on eighth grade CRCT with a score 422 on reading portion showing previous reading score was no fluke and exceeding on every other portion of test. She also scored a 92 on Georgia’s End-of Course Test for Algebra I. In short, she is doing quite well academically in school.

I’m not sure of exact reasons for performance on these tests, although I believe a lot of it has to do with her hard work, consistent effort, and my persistence as a parent. That persistence has included using every resource I can find and afford to help my child excel. Many of those resources have been on Internet.

Friday night found us in front of computer playing at a website based upon “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” game. The differences are that all questions are related to science, we can’t actually win a million dollars, it’s absolutely free, and my daughter and I are players. It isn’t unusual for us to spend a couple of hours playing this game. I am always amazed by how much she knows as her age as well as how much I seem to have forgotten at mine.

Many years ago while developing and teaching Air Force training courses for U.S. Space Command, I became fascinated with use of computers in learning. Also while working in training area, I became a fan of basic premises of Thorndike’s Laws of Learning. Although some would characterize them as almost forgotten and even sometimes discredited, I have found laws to be helpful in flagging what works and what does not in educating my child as well as adults and youth in other programs I have managed. I have realized much success incorporating essence of those laws of learning and computer technology as I have dealt with my child’s learning. Thorndike’s laws are pretty simple:

The Law of Readiness deals with ensuring a child is ready to learn--making sure student is fed, free from too much worry, comfortable, and well aware of importance of what is to be learned. In other words student must be prepared to learn. One exercise I have done with my child dealing with this law is researching admissions criteria for different schools. We have also compared costs of different institutions. We found sites like CollegeTours.com, a site providing loads of information and virtual tours of different college campuses, to be a handy reference for this exercise. We have even gone as far as to look at scholarship requirements using scholarship databases such as CollegeNET.com and CollegeIsPossible.org. We have been doing this since sixth grade. By understanding requirements now, hopefully, we won’t be running around in junior and senior years trying to get things in order. It is awfully difficult to bring up that grade point average in a couple of semesters, especially if young person is stressed by time constraints. Getting my child prepared now is my way of ensuring we are prepared when time comes. A worksheet for this exercise can be downloaded from my website YouthPlay.org.

The Law of Exercise relates to making sure that practice is part of study routine—especially when dealing with essential facts and rules. The Internet and various software can be very useful in providing repetition in a not-so-routine manner. Games like Basket Math at ScienceAcademy.com where your child actually makes a hoop each time he or she gets correct answer can make rote learning of multiplication tables a tad more interesting than just repeating multiplication tables over and over.

I remember clearly when I began to dislike math—a subject I had loved until, I believe, I ran into wrong teacher. I remember my worst days in school. I remember my best days. I remember teachers who were creative and inspiring and know that best skills I possess today are in areas they taught. That is Law of Effect at work. I look very hard for sites that are good learning websites and share them with my daughter. I don’t want her to be turned off by sites that are really advertising monsters, just enticing you to a point of enjoyment and then launching an advertising scheme where you must make a purchase before you can go any further. Certainly I understand that many websites survive through their ability to sell products, however I believe this can be accomplished without bait and purchase gimmicks.