Faculty of Information Technology – University of Moratuwa – Sri Lanka

Application Name: Integrated Service for Early Childhood Education and Development (ISECED)

Team Name: SARA

Team Members:1) Anuruddha Ranatunga - Faculty of Information Technology-University of Moratuwa2) Sanjaya Ratnayake - Faculty of Information Technology-University of Moratuwa3) Amila Sajayahan - Faculty of Information Technology-University of Moratuwa4) Ruvindee Rupasinghe - Faculty of Information Technology-University of Moratuwa

Short DescriptionEarly childhood education is considered to be one of the most important aspects of a country’s education

process. It is also one of the six main goals of UNESCO’s education policy to provide a better early childhood education for all children. Unlike other areas of education early childhood education needs an integrated approach from various parties including the Government, teachers, students, parents and health care services. However most countries especially developing countries, have so far failed to integrate those systems effectively resulting low quality and inefficient systems for early childhood education and development.

Therefore the proposed system supports an integrated approach for early childhood education by connecting all important parties including the Government (Education Ministry), nurseries, day care centers, teachers, students, parents, doctors, local officers to the Government (Gramasevakas) and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) through a software system. All the children and teachers are registered with the system through their relevant nurseries or day care centers. Here a comprehensive record of student details is kept covering all educational, social and health factors of the child. Progress reports of the daily activities of the nursery or the day care center are also added to the student record periodically. Parents can view this information through the web or through a mobile device. Then they can communicate with teachers as well asdoctors through e-mail and video conferencing facilities available in the system about future development plans for the child. More importantly users are enabled to use the system through their native languages.

On the other hand government provides syllabuses, learning materials and training for teachers through the system while monitoring the activities of nurseries and day care centers. System functionality is further extended by providing a way for efficient distribution of scarce resources from both government and NGOsamong the community engaged in early childhood education and development.

In this case Gramasevaka submits details of early childhood education within his region to the system. Whenever a new day care or a nursery registered with the system the relevant Gramasevakas would be informedthrough SMS and email and the registration process of the nurseries or the day care centers would be confirmed only after it is being accepted.

At the same time NGOs that are willing to provide resources are registered with the system. Here they can declare the details of resources which they are willing to provide. Then the Education Ministry could analyze the resource requirements (depending on the details submitted by Gramasevakas, nurseries and day carecenters) and can guide available resources to most needed areas through the Gramasevakas of those areas. System facilitates this coordination as well. After all, the government can use the huge wealth of data available in the system (student records, details of nurseries and day cares, details submitted by Gramasevakas and NGOs etc..) for policy making, preparing syllabuses, learning materials, teacher training sessions and future planning. In order to facilitate these processes analyzing and decision making tools are also integrated to the system.

So main areas addressed by the system can be summarized as follows.

1. Integrate all parties important for early childhood education through a single system and enable communication among them.

2. Let parents to actively get involved in child’s development process.3. Give Government the opportunity to monitor and guide all nurseries, day care centers, teachers and children

with the help of a single system.4. Provide training, syllabuses and e-learning materials for teachers.5. Support to allocate scarce resources efficiently.

Faculty of Information Technology – University of Moratuwa – Sri Lanka

6. Develop a comprehensive information system, which could support government to develop policies and plans for early childhood education.

This system uses Internet, Mobile communications and latest Microsoft technologies to bring about dramatic improvements to a country’s early childhood education process.

User Scenarios

Scenario 01: Users registered with the system. Select the preferred language from the list given (Sinhala, Tamil and English). Select the relevant category (Nurseries, day care centers, children, NGOs, Graamsevakas and teachers) Register with the system by clicking “Register Now” button then provide a user name, password, and relevant

details and clicking “Enter”.

Scenario 02: Teacher uploads progress reports of the child to the system. Teachers log in to the system by providing user name and pass word. Selects the “Upload Records” option and adds progress reports by filling the form given by the system.

Scenario 03: Parent views reports of the child through web. Parent logs in to the system through the child’s user name and password. Selects “View Reports” option and selects the report category from an available list (Physical fitness, Reading

ability, Listening ability etc…) If the parent wants to view the progress in a graphical mode click “View Graphs” button.

Scenario 04: Parent views progress reports of the child through a mobile device. Logs in to the system through a mobile device with the child’s user name and password. Selects “View Reports” option and selects the report category from an available list (Physical fitness, Reading

ability, Listening ability etc…) If the parent wants to view the progress in a graphical mode click “View Graphs” button.

Scenario 05: Parent involves in an online video conference with an online teacher. Logs into the system through PC application with the child’s user name and password. Selects “Video Conference” option and select an available online teacher of the child’s nursery from the drop down

list and clicks on “Request”. If the teacher accepts the request both can have the conference.

Scenario 06: Parent involves in an online video conference with an online doctor. Parent logs into the system through PC application Selects “Video Conference” option and selects an online doctor available from the drop down list and click on

“Request”. If doctor accepts the connection both can continue with the conference.

Scenario 07: Teacher accesses syllabuses, e-learning materials and online training programs available in the system.

Teacher logs into the system. Selects “Guidance” option and select the relevant category (syllabuses, learning materials etc…).

Scenario 08: Gramasevaka enters details to the system. Gramasevaka logs in to the system. Selects the task he wishes to perform (Enter Details, Update Records, View Records, Development Plans etc…) To enter details click “Enter Details” button and enters details such as Village name, Region, Region Number,

Number of nurseries in his area etc…

Scenario 09: NGOs submit details of resources that they are willing to provide. Log in to the system.

Faculty of Information Technology – University of Moratuwa – Sri Lanka

Click “Donations” button and enter available resources they wish to donate. Further discussions between government and NGOs can be carried out through the video conferencing facility

available in the system.

Scenario 10: Education Ministry allocates available resources to most needed nurseries or villages through the system.

To view existing donations click “View Donations” button. To view existing resource requirements click “Required Groups.” button. Government notifies resource allocation to Gramasevaka via both e-mail and SMS. To further discussions both parties can use the video conference facility provided by the system.

Scenario 11: Education Ministry analyzes the data in the system to prepare policies, syllabuses and future plans. Government can request required data representation method such as charts, tables and graphs by clicking

relevant button. Government uploads Syllabuses, training materials and other materials to the system by clicking “Upload” button.

Scenario 12: Users post their comments to the forum. User logs in to the system. Click the “Forum” button and enter comments and click “Upload” button.

Functional and Non-Functional Requirements

Functional Requirements System should facilitate native language for users (Sinhalese, Tamil and English). Register nurseries, day care centers, NGOs students and teachers under the system through the web. The registered users should be recognized by username and password and they will be guided to the appropriate

interface for the category of user. Nurseries and day care centers should be able to upload progress reports of children to the system. Parents should be able to view progress reports of their children through web and mobile phones. Facilitating parents to communicate with teachers and doctors via video conferencing and e-mail. Syllabuses, e-learning materials and training materials for teachers should be available for all nurseries and day

care centers. Gramasevaka for each village should be able to upload details about educational infrastructure and environment of

their villages to the system. The Gramasevaka should be informed with a SMS massage when a new nursery or day care centre in his region

is registered under the system. If the Gramasevaka delays to upload details the system should generate a SMS automatically to inform it. System should send email notifications in parallel to all SMS notifications sent. The registration of a new nursery or a day care center should be confirmed only after the Gramasevaka accepts it

through a SMS or an email. Gramasevaka should be able to update his records anytime. Gramasevaka should be able to view all details about nurseries and day care centers within his region. The NGOs should be able to enter the details about the resources, funds and other equipment that they are willing

to donate in order to improve pre child education in the country. The system should analyze requisitions for donations from the Gramasevakas, nurseries, and day care centers,

and should be able to figure out most needy entities to provide resources. Education Ministry should be able to use information available in the system with the help of data analysis tools. External parties should be allowed to gain access only to the statistical data and common features like the forum

and articles etc. No personal data should be made available to them. All parties deal with the system should be able to submit their proposals comments and new ideas to the common

forum.

Faculty of Information Technology – University of Moratuwa – Sri Lanka

Non-Functional Requirements System should have firewalls to protect sensitive data from unauthorized users. User interfaces should be simple and user friendly. System should respond quickly for all functions. At least 1000 users should be able to use the system concurrently. System should consistently provide 24 hours per day service.

Summary of Application Components

PC Client Application - Windows application those, the users can install in their PCs and can be used to gain access to the system.

Web Service - Get clients requests and responses and manipulate them to provide the service, as they haverequired from the system.

Web Application- ASP 2.0, XHTML 1.1 web site where users can access the system. Mobile Web Application- ASP 2.0 Mobile Web Application that enables parents to view student records through

mobile devices. SMTP Server - Handles email sending between system users. SMS Server - Handles sending and receiving SMS notifications to the system users. Database - This stores information about all users, user records and will be used for data analyzing functions.

Architectural Overview

Faculty of Information Technology – University of Moratuwa – Sri Lanka

Technologies/Resources Used in the Application

Servers:o Windows 2000 professionalo MS SQL Server 2005

Development Tools:o Visual Studio .NET 2005o Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkito Openwave SDK 7.0

Other Technologies:o .NET Framework 2.0o ASP.NET/C#.NETo XML Web Serviceso .NET Compact Framework

User Interface Prototype/Examples

Mobile web Interfaces

Web Interfaces Home page Teacher enters daily activities of the student