EDUCON 2023

About GKU

Guru Kashi University was established in 2011 by the Punjab Act No. 37 of 2011. Since then, the university is growing in the lap of the natural beauty. Being located in the rural area, the university caters to the demands of agriculture and has started various programmes under College of Agriculture. It has dual accreditation from ICAR and PSCAR. The university has also created links with peer universities and institutions at local, national and international level to enhance research and teaching exposure. The university is offering 100+ programmes at undergraduate, Graduate and Doctorate level and is following Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). The curriculum is Graduate Outcome based at all levels and Multiple Entry and Exit system has been adopted. E-governance is another administrative facilitator system of the university. GKU has excellent facilities for sports and cultural activities. The students are provided with high level of coaching in individual and team games. The campus is located within 5 kms from Shri Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo in the rural area spreading across the 75+ acres of land. Besides, academic and administrative blocks, it has hostels, canteens, agriculture farms, orchards, Herbal Garden, gymnasium, sports grounds, well maintained parks, auditorium, Open Air Theatre, Central library, computer centre and Open Learning Centres for students.

About GERA

Global Educational Research Association is a Society having its own constitution. This society was founded on 12th Nov. 2010 under the leadership of Late Prof. B. K. Passi. The present president Prof. S. P. Malhotra is providing leadership to achieve the objectives of GERA to develop and promote educational research, to provide an international forum for discussion of problems related to educational research, to conduct workshops, seminars, conference etc, to disseminate findings of research, to publish journals, monographs and other types of literature on educational research, to co-operate with organisations engaged in educational research, to carry out all such other activities as may be conducive to the attainment of the objectives. To read more, kindly visit the website: www.thegera.com

About CHEI

The Consortium for Higher Educational Institutes (CHEI) is a joint venture initiated by seven academic institutions at Bathinda which seeks to develop, explain and advance the research contributions to improve higher education and serve the local community. This Consortium includes Adesh Group of Institutions and Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Akal University, Baba Farid Group of Institutions (BFGI), Central University of Punjab (CUP), Guru Kashi University and Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU). All the participating institutions have recognized the importance of strong collaboration between HEIs in terms of research, academic activities and social outreach with an aim to meet the goals of NEP 2020. Further, the consortium aims to focus on other areas like the advancement of knowledge-based enterprises, appropriate technical and management skills for future technology development, information exchange, and work towards effective research institution-academic partnerships for human resource development.

About the Theme

Every aspect of human life today, has been influenced by technology, and education is no exception. It has profoundly changed the education system, processes, and teaching-learning-assessment. Access to education has greatly expanded. Massive amount of information in different forms is available at one's fingertips through the Internet, and opportunities for formal learning are available online worldwide through MOOCs, podcasts, online degree programs, and more. The walls of the classrooms are no longer a barrier as technology enables new ways of learning, communicating, and working collaboratively. The teacher's role with Chatbot and Chat GPT has shifted to that of “guide on the side” as students take more responsibility for their learning by using technology to gather relevant information. Internet-linked innovative pedagogies like Cybergogy, Heutagogy, and Peeragogy have shifted the support from instructor-led teaching to self-directed learning. Schools and universities across the world are beginning to redesign learning spaces to enable new models of education, fostering more interaction and small group work, and using technology as an enabler. The effectiveness of these models is yet to be established. Curricular delivery has drawn a new framework by integrating innovative pedagogies with technological capabilities to prepare learners with twenty-first-century skills and values in novel situations, such as creativity, independence, communication, self-determination, ability to work with others, critical thinking, capacity to learn, and so on. However, to survive, and be competitive about their knowledge and life skills in line with the fourth industrial revolution and digital transformation agenda is a great challenge. To put it in brief, the techno-pedagogy mapping provides a starting point for significant parties in education, such as curriculum designers, and faculty administrators, to have a good understanding of how to design preferred immersive blended learning experiences with much more confidence and competence. Many such issues haunt social scientists as to how to make society get the benefits of technology. Recent educational changes in the ecosystem of schools and universities simply cannot accelerate development. The involvement of community members and making the information reach community members may improve the quality of life of society reason being that Internet penetration is directly proportional to increasing systematic growth of any society. Disruptive innovation technologies can play a critical role in addressing the challenges faced by communities in areas such as education and healthcare. Educationists and social scientists are developing real disruptive technologies, which can be scaled up with maximum adoption. ICT tools like Facebook (FB), Learning Management System (LMS), WhatsApp and Blog, etc. can help the not-so-literate village community to access information about weather reports or new varieties of seeds, soil conditions, plant pests, crops availability, and best practices, not to mention market prices. Educationalists will have to chalk out pathways for technology along with a local connection to play a critical role to keep society prepared to handle any vagaries promptly. The success stories of the village community when shared with the help of WhatsApp or Facebook may remove the barriers and accelerate development. The persistent challenge for educational policymakers, planners, and all those linked with the development sector is related to the potential use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education institutions as well as communities around the world where most products, services, usage models, expertise, and research related to ICT use in education come slowly. It is in this line that the present conference is being organized at a reputed university in the rural sector with the following objectives:

• To deliberate on various transformational changes in education linked to schools and higher education institutions.
• To have a dialogue on various pedagogical issues in blended learning due to ICT usage in the education and service industry
• To deliberate on technology as a catalyst of social change in successful societies
• To discuss innovative solutions in pedagogy for teaching-learning challenges.
• To assess the capabilities of the technological learning tools appropriate to use in an immersive blended learning environment
• To deliberate on the role of education institutions in the development of the community with the help of information technology
• To discuss various disruptive and immersive technology to be used for community development

Sub Theme

1. Disruptive technologies for the classroom and community
2. Exchange of knowledge and practices to develop community life
3. Future educational institutions and community development programmes
4. Pathways to incorporate technology into educational practices critical to the stakeholders in the community
5. ICTtools for the symbiosis between community and educational institutions
6. ICT platforms for the exchange of knowledge and practices for the best development of community and education.
7. Simpler technology measures/tools to disseminate information to community
8. Heutagogy, Peeragogy, and Cybergogy relevant to the immersive blended learning environment
9. Teaching and learning settings involving independent and collaborative learnin