The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Innovative ways in education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 01, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Innovative ways in education

THE DOCTORAL scholars of Agricultural Extension of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Ashokan, Dhamodharan, Jansirani, Selvarani and Usharani visited the Educational Technology Department of Bharathiar University last week for a session on Advances in Educational Technology.

Prof. Ananthasayanam, Head, Department of Educational Technology of Bharathiar University, appraised of the latest development in the field and innovative ways of its application in the present day context of higher education.

According to him, education was a comprehensive and systematic process, which paved way for development and incidentally was the need of the day. "This was where advanced educational skills helped," he stressed.

The scholars during the interactive session, deliberated on the new areas of research in educational technology. Creating flexible and high performance learning environment is the secret behind the success in educational technology, was the crux of the session.

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ENZYMES CAME into sharp focus at a workshop on environmental biotechnology for pollution control, conducted by the Karunya Institute of Technology Deemed University, a few days ago.

Speakers who handled the technical sessions provided alarming statistics about the extent of pollution in the modern world, and came up with ideas to solve many of these problems efficiently.

The convenor of the workshop, S. Keerthinarayana from the Department of Civil Engineering of the Deemed University, explained how scientists could obtain enzymes from not only microbes, but also animal organs and plant tissues.

Enzymes were proteins that catalyzed chemical reactions without getting changed in the process, throughout the course of the reaction. Microorganisms were the best source for producing useful enzymes, he said.

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IT WAS an award for doing innovative extension research, conducting training for farmwomen in entrepreneurial activities, and organising awareness campaigns among primary school children of Government schools.

The `T. Natraj Rolling Shield and Medal' was awarded to T. Pravin Kumar by the Madras Agricultural Students Union of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), for the best extension research.

Kumar is a research scholar in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology at TNAU.

Last year, he won the second prize in the Lazer Soft essay competition organised by Prime Point Foundation, Chennai, on the theme `Indian Vision 2020: Role of youth in building a strong India.'

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IF FARMERS managed water resources efficiently and made optimum use of available supply, they would be able to meet the irrigation needs of their growing crops.

That was the opinion of the Director of the International Food Policy Research Institute at Washington, Peter Hazell, who was in Coimbatore recently.

"A lot of water is used for irrigation but there is scope for using water more efficiently. The irrigation system should be operated efficiently, and pollution must be avoided," he said. Water for irrigation was a problem, and river basins might not hold as much water as they might have held in the past.

Asked about the biggest issue facing Indian farmers, he said that small farms were increasing in number even while farm sizes were shrinking. Generating income might become a problem at a time when the consumer was in the "driving seat" and farmers were required to meet quality and safety standards.

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(By Vidyashree Amaresh

& A. A. Michael Raj)

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Innovative ways in education