Today everyone is talking about enhancing the scope of modern education through the use of ICT, but it is also true that ICT is by itself a quite recent phenomenon. Most of the landmark developments in ICT that we see around us have been popularised during the last five or ten years. Even something of as much proven value as the Interactive Whiteboards was relatively rare in our educational institutions till about five years ago.
We at digitalLEARNING know about the struggle that the education entrepreneurs had to wage for having their ICT solutions accepted by the broader education establishment. The magazine has been in print for last 8 years; 8 years ago, it was only the avant-garde thinkers and the intrepid entrepreneurs who could visualise the magnificent role that ICT could play in education. Now it is an established fact that ICTs greatly facilitate the acquisition and absorption of knowledge, offering developing countries like India unprecedented opportunities to enhance educational systems, and promote literacy in all sections of the society. However, it is not as if all the hurdles in the path of digital education have been overcome. For instance, when students are using the digital tools and the Internet to access educational material, they can be confused due to the multiplicity of resources from which they can gain information. So the role of teachers becomes important. It is teacher who can guide the student to the best possible repositories of education.
The current issue of digitalLEARNING is the Annual Resource Guide. The focus of this issue is to celebrate the rise of ICT in education space. We have endeavoured to cover entire array of ICT entrepreneurs who are playing a stellar role in the education space. You will find their profiles and learn about their key achievements. Any talk of ICT in education cannot be complete without having the opinion of the leaders of our schools and higher education institutions. We carry a range of interviews and write-ups that shed light on the progress and also the lack of progress in the implementation of ICT in education. The coverage of Ryan Group of Institutions might be of particular interest to you. We have covered this institution from different angles and we have managed to distil some amazing perspectives on education in general.
A key highlight of the issue is the exclusive interview with the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit. The provisioning of quality education to all the youngsters in the nation’s capital is a key priority of the Sheila Dikshit government. She has presented a range of ideas through which her government is planning to make the concept of “education for all” a reality.
Let me also remind you that the eINDIA, India’s most prestigious ICT event, is scheduled for 15th and 16th November 2012 in Hyderabad. One of the key attractions of the event will be eINDIA education summit, where all the leading stakeholders in the education space will gather to discuss and debate the value proposition that ICT is bringing to the education space. You can even think of the Annual Resource Guide as a precursor to the prestigious eINDIA 2012 event. We hope to see you there rubbing shoulders and exchanging ideas with other thought leaders.
Dr. Ravi Gupta
Editor-in-Chief
Ravi.Gupta@elets.in
