Making ICT initiatives in education a success
MADHURI DUBEY
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One of the useful ways is to instil life and fun in otherwise `dry' subjects
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THE USE of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the reach and enhance the quality of education in India is gaining critical attention. The article on Edusat (The Hindu, March 11) was timely in examining serious concerns over the untapped potential of world's first dedicated satellite for democratising education. Vadakkekara's e-learning initiative (March 17) reports that 57 lakh students would benefit from this project that links all the schools through wide area network (WAN) in Kerala.
It is heartening to know that governmental commitment to using Internet, computers and satellite in `bridging the digital divide' and `transforming the educational scenario' is shaping up in several States. However, in the absence of systematic planning, implementation and evaluation mechanism, these laudable goals could turn into empty slogans that elude any effort at measuring their success or failure.
Strategic planning
Successful management of these initiatives necessitates strategic planning and positioning that demonstrates a clear picture of returns in terms of resources, time and money. What cannot be measured is difficult to manage!
As a prerequisite, the following points probe issues emanating from integrating technology into everyday teaching.
Reaching and teaching: Satellites can increase our reach but they cannot teach. In fact, when the lectures are `beamed' they only amount to replicating the undesirable effects of passive `learning.' It is a tricky situation: teachers should be convinced that they will not be replaced by `lessons from the sky' and students should be told that these additional lessons add value to their conventional classroom learning.
Teachers do not become redundant but their role becomes more challenging and demanding as they are expected to use the media to enrich their lessons. Cognitive sciences prove that TV alone can engage and sustain the interest of learners if the content is interactive, relevant and practical. Consider for instance lessons on team building, critical thinking, analytical skills, effective communication, etc., that can equip the students to cope with their professional lives.
Interactivity and collaboration: One of the useful ways to integrate ICT into school/college curriculum is to instil life and fun in otherwise `dry' subjects. If history lessons can be supplemented with video footage, engineering topics can be enlivened with multimedia simulations. Games and role plays too add interactivity to monotonous delivery of content.
For literacy programmes it would be worth exploring the `edutainment' value on the lines of popular TV series `Sesame Street' or the Indian adaptation `Gali Gali Sim Sim.' Here the two-way challenge is to attract learners and keep them hooked with interesting content that is not overtly didactic. Similarly agricultural and rural workers can benefit from programmes that tell them how to cope with adverse situations in farming or enlighten them on new market prospects. Use of phones and other convergent technologies open up avenues for students to collaborate.
Assessment and accountability: Content that is culturally sensitive, emotionally engaging and socially relevant can ensure active participation of learners. Nevertheless it is important to conduct timely assessments and evaluate the programme with the help of parameters such as relevance of learning, its application in practical life, comfort in using the medium and so on.
Look at the channel `Gyan Darshan' — dedicated space for educational programmes and its telecast is mandatory for all cable operators. How does one evaluate this purely `push' based initiative? How do we gauge the effectiveness of content where we frequently see camera shy professors reading from textbooks and paraphrasing with the help of a blackboard? Certainly this is not what it means to use TV for educational purposes! madhurid@rediffmail.com
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