Topic :Smart Schools, Smarter Parents.

“Mohammad what are you doing outside”

Mohammad: “Nothing mom I am on my iPad”

Mom: “What is aaliya doing?”

Mohammad: “She is playing with me”

Mom: “What are you guys playing?”

Mohammad : “(Some game name), gosh there are some weird ones out there”

This is a conversation I overheard in a household one evening in December 2013. Jogging through some fantastic villas and bungalows in emirates hill and meadows area I noticed most houses had great gardens, swings, see-saws etc. Hold on, why were they empty?

Thanks to a loud conversation between Mohammad and his mom. I kind of figured it out.

I believe we live in a world of “distraction by attraction”.

Have you ever noticed kids watching TV? They absolutely love the commercials that come in between.

Distraction by attraction isa rage. Classifying this as right or wrong, too much or too less would be foolish. This is how it is and probably it’s here to stay.

Having established distraction by attraction as a phenomena lets look at the objects that cause it.

I guess the answer is in your desk, palm or pockets. The blue/grey/white screen of different size and shapes, the misnomer as a super productive tool, is getting far more attractive than the opposite sex. Don’t believe me just “You tube it”

So now the big question who does it affect the most?

Well its the kids.

Our kids grow in an environment wherein the digital media is native to them and adaptive to us. No wonder they are the early adopters. My 5 year old is smarter on an iPad than my wife. I am fortunate enough that he doesn’t know my password!

This is our Digital Generation Gap. A generation gap is no more defined by the no. of years. Your devices, apps and social media skills are the judging parameters. Embracing a digital world is no more a choice, it’s a necessity,

As parents we are the level 1 support for our kids, however we need to make our schools part of the program which fosters the right digital etiquettes and habits. And here is where we have an emerging trend.

The quest for enabling smart education seems to be gathering momentum across all stake holders i.e. government, schools, parents device manufacturers, ISP’s, integrators, IT solution providers etc. However, what’s not being thought of is the most important aspect; the students.

The glaring gap in our realm to equip our children with smart devices is that are we make their digital education experience immersive and safe. Moreover, can this be done easily any time and anywhere?

The question lies in the last mile of the solution, what and how are they going to use these devices in classrooms, campuses, home or anywhere else?

Also, can there be a solution which encompasses the need of seamless smart education, digital security and parental guidance?

In essence, just giving a child a tablet which can be used in the classroom to access content is not smart. What’s smart is to give it for the right purpose and more importantly at the right time!

The above questions needs deep dive thinking and behavioural study of how current and the next generation of kids want to be digitally connected. The solution lies in fostering digital creativity among our kids, however securely.

Just like when you give your kids a helmet when they go play baseball or a kneecap when they go cycling, similarly when they go digitally online, you need to have the proper checks in place (and we don’t mean an antivirus) irrespective of their place at home or otherwise.

What we believe the entire education and parental system need is a cloud based eco system which enables guardians not only filter inappropriate content but also have advanced features like time and application management, GPS location, Geo Safe Zone and other critical alerts like device switch off, low batter and a SOS feature.

So let’s imagine this: your child studies in a school which has mandated the use of tablets as per of their classroom education. For starters a tablet has now replaced (or hopefully replacing soon) a 5KG dumbbell off the shoulder of the kid, which is a big relief, but in addition that tablet has an application which is smart.

Yes, smart enough to let you know that at 8.32AM your child just stepped out of home and also let you know at 8.56 AM that your child stepped into the school (using GPS based feature). in addition, its smart enough to know that school hours last from 9AM – 2PM, so any unnecessary distractions (like Candy crush and angry birds) will be unusable (unless unlocked) during those hours.

Moreover, what if parents can set up the right schedule of using the device from an app, anytime, anywhere in real time

In addition, what if we told you that schools do not need to spend a penny (and we literally mean it) to implement this.

And this is where we believe Nischint (means carefree in Hindi) makes a huge impact. Our solution answers the most question parents want to know “are my kids safe?”

Nischint began with a simple idea: everyone, especially our children, women and elderly should be able to use a mobile device safe from threats and disruptive influence. We’ve been rethinking mobile assurance ever since. From a revolutionary “Nischint for Parents and Kids” to “Nischint for Women and elderly”, we want to help the entire community rediscover the use of mobile devices, assured that we can protect them from dangers that lurk in the online and physical world.

The story is rapidly expanding with our ultimate goal of creating the most advanced open platform that adds new and interesting applications to keep up with the constantly changing threat landscape while making the experience immersive but safe.

Through Nischint for schools we want to foster a society wherein we get

• Assured Learning, No Distractions in Class/School – with our time and application management feature all applications in a table can be disabled during school hours. After school hours the device can be used as a normal device
• An Eco System, Parents, Schools and Kids – we get parents involved as well, in fact they are the administrators of the device who can remotely (via their parent app) set up the right policies for their child’s device. So protect your child at school, at home and everywhere else.
• Additional Features like Geo Track, Geo Space – as parents, we are always worried about our child’s whereabouts. In addition you can set up safe zone for your child. Rest assured we alert you once the safe zone is crossed.
• No extra cost for schools – Schools do not have to invest on IT infrastructure and resources. We host the solution, white label it for the school and make the installation process seamless. We also provide training and electronic support for parents and teachers.

Nischint is now available in a free version format on Google Pay Store and Apple App store (search Nischint) and we endeavour to bring an advanced version with some path breaking features in October 2014

Go ahead digital security is just a search away!

Team Nischint

Digitally Secure. For Life!