Be the change!

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December 1, 2006

Blessed with a vibrant culture and diverse languages, cultures and backgrounds, South East Asia has many exciting experiments in adopting ICTs for learning, education, and training. While hard-core software and collaborative learning tools have mostly been written in the global North, the number of innovative adaptations of these tools and technologies to embrace technologies in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, etc. comes with a strong national policy making and master plan approach. Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Instructional Design are the most new of these concepts. Whether it was an early adoption of digital technologies like television, video or computer aided learning, the emphasis has been on teacher training, focus on basic proficiency and core IT skills, as well as appropriate infrastructure and hardware acquisitions to create a conducive environment for schools and learning institutions to adopt technologies and go smart.

In this issue we are presenting how Malaysia has rapidly incorporated smart learning in schools with the government drawing up visionary plans for Education through Smart School initiative. The plan to make all schools smart by 2010 follows the Pilot Project from 1999 to 2002 and the post pilot phase from 2002 to 2005 and now the focus is on students making effective use of ICT for active learning, teachers focus on use of ICT for professional and personal growth; ICT is used for building connections between curriculum, instruction and assessment, and for school improvement.

The government of Singapore’s IT Master Plan for Education, now in its second phase (2003-2007), is also discussed, along with some inside pages of Smart School experiences of Philippines and some smart talks with the founder of SMART Technologies, Nancy Knowlton.

The level achieved by all these countries is what other countries strive for. Interesting projects and programmes launched in other countries are also able to provide lessons for countries preparing to draw up smart plans and visions.

Digital Learning Asia 2007 conference being held as a part of the eAsia 2007 summit in Putrajaya International Convention Centre in Putrajaya, Malaysia from February 6-8, 2007 is aiming to take stock of the scenario in Asia. Mark your calendars and join the most exciting event and exhibition on ICT for Development.

News School

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 1, 2006

Two wonder kids who build own computers

New Horizon, a Lagos based ICT training centre, discovered two junior secondary school students under the age of twelve who have the ability to assemble a computer in 15 minutes and have actually built their own computer with a trade mark DASH.

The kids, Davidson Oseremen and Shittu Rilwan are two of a kind who met at a private secondary school, Doregos Academy in Ipaja. The former hails from Edo state while the later is from Kwara state in the South-South and South West regions of Nigeria, respectively. DASH is actually formed from the first two letters of DAVIDSON and the first two letters from SHITTU.

ICT Empowerment Project organised by New Horizons at secondary schools in Nigeria which discovered the wonder kids is such that the students of participating schools are being trained in all areas of IT from Junior Secondary School to Senior Secondary School.

Wakrah school pilots e-learning class project

Around 188 students of Al Wakra Independent School for Girls in Qatar will soon begin studying through their Tablet PCs as ictQATAR's 'eSchoolbag' project took off. eSchoolbag, that proposes to ease the burden of the traditional schoolbags through students access to multi featured Tablet PCs, is presently being piloted at this school.

Launched as a collaboration between ictQATAR and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) last September, the project will allow students to carry their 'eSchoolbags' home. So far the Tablet PCs were being used only within the school's premises.

iCELL will be responsible for eSchoolbag rollout and training. Eight teachers have gone through iCELL's rigorous training scheme that equips them with the knowledge to employ tablet computers in class and to encourage inquiry based learning.

Video links learning

From a large TV at the back of a Norfolk classroom in southern England an extra pupil is joining in a lesson – from about 300 miles away in the Channel Islands ( a group of British dependent islands). It is 15-year-old David Brehaut, who without the video the link to maths and ICT classes at Sheringham High School would not be able to gain any qualifications at the only school on his home island of Sark. His only other option is to move to the mainland away from his family.

He has been given a chance to study at a Norfolk school from his own because of recent government investment in ICT in Norfolk schools which means more and more can be done through computer networks, the Internet and video conferencing.

Mark Your Calendar

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digitalLEARNING Network

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December 1, 2006

december

Belief
14-15 December, 2006
New Delhi, India
http://www.beliefproject.org/intconf001

e-Learning International Conference 2006
14 – 17 December, 2006
Bangkok, Thailand
http://ru.ac.th/elearning_conference/

january

The 5th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education
6-9 January, 2007
Honolulu
USA
http://www.hiceducation.com

BETT 2007
10 – 13 January, 2007
Olympia, London
http://www.bettshow.com/bett/show_ home1.asp

linux.conf.au
15 – 19 January, 2007
Sydney, Australia
http://lca2007.linux.org.au/

iLearn Paris Forum 2007
30

M-Learn

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December 1, 2006

Intuition launches m-learning course for banks

Intuition, the tech-enabled learning expert has announced the installment of the world’s first mobile e-Learning course for smartphones and PDAs.

The course has been developed for financial services institutions, which will allow banks to track and automatically record users’ progress. Financial services institutions are working with Intuition to launch training programme through BlackBerry phone for business need of remote access for learning through converged devices.

mGBL – mobile Game-Based Learning

mGBL – mobile Game Based Learning is a research project with the aim of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of learning and guidance in the target group of young people through the development of innovative learning and guidance models based on mobile games.

The project, which began on 1 October 2005, is a STREP (Specific Targeted Research Project), funded for three years by European Community through the 6th Framework Programme, addressing the Strategic Objective of “Strengthening the Integration of the ICT Research Effort in an Enlarged Europe”.

The project idea is based on the fact that mobile devices are currently increasingly widespread, and mobile phones in particular represent what young adults, with different levels of education and culture, have in common. Moreover, several research projects have shown the potential of game-based learning, and the project seeks to further exploit that potential by means of the pervasiveness of mobile technologies, by developing a new paradigm of m-learning usage and interaction with regard to the classic e-learning models.

The project aims to develop a platform that can be used to efficiently design and develop games for m-learning and m-guidance, seeking to support decision-making in critical situations and user choice in transition moments. Moreover, based on that platform, two game prototypes will also be developed during the project, and their contents will be based on e-health, e-commerce and e-guidance.

The project is based on a bottom-up approach, which means that end users of the mobile games and experts have been directly involved from the very beginning through specific interviews and focus groups carried out in the three fields of analysis: e-guidance, e-health and e-commerce.

Mobile subscribers to reach 2.6bn this year

The number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide will rise to 2.6 billion this year and 4 billion by 2010, thanks to the development of ultra-low-cost handsets, market researcher iSuppli says.

New subscribers in developing nations such as India and China are behind the rapid increase in mobile phone users, the researcher said, while the mobile industry has rallied to the cause with ultra-low-cost handsets.

Africa and the Middle East are also playing a key role in driving new subscriber growth. The ultra-low-cost mobile phone initiative started early last year as a way to connect people to existing mobile networks. The GSM Association (GSMA) challenged handset makers to design a phone that would cost under USD30.

iSuppli believes India will drive growth for ultra-low-cost handsets next year. The nation will be home to 405 million mobile phone subscribers by 2010, up from 140 million by the end of this year, the market researcher says. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reports that as of the end of September, there were 129.5 million mobile phone users in the country, a huge increase from 75.9 million at the end of last year. In China, the figure climbed to 443.2 million at the end of September, up from 393 million at the end of last year, according to the Ministry of Information Industry, that country’s telecom industry regulator.

Power School

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December 1, 2006

SPRINGDALES, Pusa Pioneering
Change with Technology

Good teaching can be defined as that which supports effective learning. It must create opportunities for the development of both tacit and theoretical knowledge. Good teaching means analysing theories in ways that are meaningful, and providing the learner with the opportunity to relate these theories to practical experience. It involves providing students for implicit knowledge acquisition. So, can these principles be applied to teaching through Information and Communication Technology (ICT)? Yes, technology enhances learning by making it more exciting and eliminating repetitive tasks. In acknowledging different learning styles, the multimedia experience like sound, text, pictures, music and video that modern technology provides, is invaluable. And Springdales School in Pusa, New Delhi, India proves it all. Simmi Kher (simmikher@gmail.com), IT Coordinator, Springdales answers all the ‘How’s and ‘What’s.

The effective use of ICT is integral to the wider strategy of bringing about improvements to teaching and learning in the classroom. Why? Because technology is an important part of Springdales’ everyday life, and children love to use it to play and learn. ICT in the classroom has been linked with positive improvements in attainment and motivation. The school Principal Ameeta Mulla Wattal’s vision towards Information Technology resulted in Springdales School, Pusa, being honoured with the Intel Technology Award for the ‘Best Integration of Computers in Curriculum -2003’

Change in any context is difficult; to change one needs to be prepared to take risks, make mistakes and be committed to the purpose of the change. This school has always been a pioneer of any change, hence, the novel idea of starting a Computer Resource Centre, which was built with the vision of empowering the faculty with the knowledge of incorporating technology into their daily teaching and learning process.

Infrastructure

The school has two Computer Labs for the classes 2-8 and a Senior Computer Lab for the classes 9-12 and a Computer Resource Centre for the teachers. Apart from this computers are provided to each class supervisor for the teachers to use. The school staff rooms, all the science labs, the art rooms, the social work department, the maths lab, the library, the school office, junior school are all equipped with computers. The school has an infrastructure of 150 computers.

Preparation for the integration of technology

In order to prepare the school for the technology integration in to the school curriculum, the following steps were taken in the year 2000:

The computer wing was renovated with many changes.
The teachers were trained under INTEL Teach To The Future Programme.
The Computer Resource Centre was designed.
The Audio Visual Room was designed in such a manner, that the teachers making computerised presentations could take their classes in this room. The room has a white screen, a computer and LCD projector so that the children can see the presentation on a bigger screen.
100% of teachers are today computer literate and are using the technology effectively.

Actual implementation of technology aided learning

Initially to motivate teachers towards Technology aided teaching, multimedia-based, computer-aided teaching software was brought into the school and at the same time the teachers were encouraged to make their own presentations too and a knowledge bank was created in the Computer Resource centre. Various Educational CDS catering to different subjects were also bought.

Over a period of time we realised that the presentations that were being made were mostly for the middle and senior school, where as the multimedia teaching is really enjoyed by the junior school students. On investigating on this issue, we found out the junior teachers were not getting enough time to work on the computer to make presentations though they were effectively using computers to make their worksheets, mark sheets and class lists. To solve this problem the school came out with a pilot project called Digitisation of Junior School Syllabus, where the senior school students were involved to make technology aided lessons for the junior school. The teachers designed their lessons on paper and the students transformed it into a multimedia presentation, using Flash, sound files, animated gifs and movies and the result was astonishing. The presentations made by the students are being used by the teachers and a data bank is being maintained in the Computer Resource Centre.

The Maths Lab is making an extensive use of computers to conduct their activities and a dry subject like mathematics is made interesting.

ICT for special need

Special needs children can shine using ICT, and their self-esteem and self-confidence soars, especially when they become ‘the class expert’. We know if dyslexic learners are to make progress, they must have a multi-sensory approach where they can look, listen and touch. So what could be a better medium than a computer? We have been teaching Information Technology to the dyslexic children for the last 3 years and they do so well securing marks above 90% in their board exams in this particular subject.

Designing

The school makes abundant use of technology in designing. Newsletters, handouts, programme cover, Invitation cards, etc. are all designed in-house. Each art room is equipped with a multimedia computer, colour printer and scanner. Starting from the annual day invitation cards, the handout brochure, to the ballet, everything has computer graphics supporting it and the complete show is computerised with light and laser effects.

Computerised library

The school library has been computerised by a Library Management Software along with a barcode reader. This performs automated library tasks from catalogue maintenance to issue, re-issue and returns. Quick searches are possible by author, title, and subject. Two computers are kept in the library so that the students can surf the catalogue for the books they want and know the availability status of the books.

Administration with ICT

The school office is fully computerised using software packages for Accounts, Provident for the last 3 years and they do so Funds, Salary, School Fees, School
Transport, and Income Tax.

QUEST Kicks off First National Instructional Design Workshop

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December 1, 2006

One of the biggest challenges facing the Indian education system today is ensuring that the 5.5 million teachers in 1.2 million elementary schools have the support they need to improve the quality of classroom instruction. Technologybased tools which integrate interactive multimedia into the instructional process have the potential to do so. The use of these tools, such as computer software, video and radio programs to promote student learning, while limited, is growing. Many state governments, for example, are beginning to make large investments in technology hardware for schools. However, there is an overall lack of policy on the use of educational technology tools, and the quality of these tools varies widely. With this realization, The QUEST Alliance, hosted a three day National Instructional Design Workshop in Bangalore, India from November 2-4, 2006.

As QUEST’s first official event, the workshop successfully brought together 120 leading education experts, content creators and state government officials to share lessons and explore ideas on how to enhance the quality of content development for educational technology tools in Indian government schools. The workshop was a collaborative effort of QUEST partners Azim Premji Foundation (APF), the International Youth Foundation and Education Development Center (EDC) India.

Douglas Bell from EDC and Punam Medh from Idesignskills leading the important session on design & development at the ID workshop.

The aim of the Instructional Design workshop was two-fold: 1) to present a systematic methodology for the design and development of quality econtent, and 2) to develop a set of policy recommendations to help guide practitioners and policy makers in developing and investing in technology-based education tools.

The importance of developing educational technologies that encourage student-centered learning and help teachers facilitate interactive instruction was discussed in depth. Speakers deliberated openly with participants about the many challenges quality teaching is related to, including the prominence of multi-grade teaching, the low ratio of computers to students, and the need for teacher training in areas such as computer instruction. QUEST partners APF and EDC have responded to this reality by designing interactive software that allows multiple students to work together on single computers, with instruction facilitated by the teachers.

In the words of Punam Medh, instructional design expert and workshop speaker, “The need for instructional design training for pre-service and in-service teachers who are beginning to deal with technology in the classroom is acute for two reasons: First, teachers trained in instructional design methods will be empowered to make systematic daily lesson plans that include the use of technology resources. Second, moving ahead, instructional design can provide a framework for teachers to make informed decisions about the subject matter, resources and media that are required.”

Noted e-content thought leader Badrul Khan with Tiffany Kozalka, Professor of Instructional Design in Syracuse University, USA at the ID workshop organised by QUEST Alliance

Some of the most active and engaging sessions at the workshop were those on Needs Assessment, Design & Development and Evaluation, reflecting a strong need for technical training in proven instructional design methodologies.

Another recurring theme of the workshop and a critical ingredient to the successful implementation of educational technology is the need to engage relevant stakeholders in the instructional design decision-making process. Incorporating good instructional design methodologies into the development of technology tools cannot be done in isolation – input from all major stakeholders at the policy and practitioner level needs to be considered. During several policy sessions, government officials worked with participants to identify key stakeholders, including the government, NGOS, researchers, content creators, administrators and teachers.

Workshop Group

The QUEST Alliance views the 3-day workshop as a first step in stimulating a dialogue around instructional design for educational technology as a serious discipline in India. More work is needed, including further research and development in the field, the need for communication and sharing of lessons, and capacity building in the area of teacher training. As a follow up to the workshop, QUEST is drafting a policy framework, which can inform decision-makers at all levels of the education system, particularly state government officials. This framework is intended to serve as a guide for the development and implementation of educational technologies and is expected to be completed this December. To learn more about the Instructional Design workshop and to view workshop materials, go to www.eeaonline.org/questresources.asp.

News India

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December 1, 2006

INDIA

5,000 e-learning kiosks to come up in villages

More than 5,000 kiosks to impart computer literacy will come up in villages across India by the end of 2007.

Shakeel Ahmad, minister of state for communications and information technology, said the project would cost about INR30 billion. These kiosks will be set up in local panchayats for training villagers on information communications technology. The trained villagers will help train others in their village.

Foundation of IIIT in Bhubaneswar by President of India

The President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam has laid the foundation stone of the 25-acre campus of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Bhubaneswar in Orissa.

The IIIT would come up as a world class institute. It would have a vision to contribute to the IT world by focusing on education and research, entrepreneurship and innovation. The Institute will be run as a registered not-for-profit society, funded jointly by the Government of Orissa and the IT industry.

IGNOU in Kochi proposes computer literacy programme

The regional centre of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in Kochi has proposed a State-level computer literacy programme in Kerala.

The programme is proposed for 50 senior secondary schools. In first phase, the project will be implemented in five districts and the schools identified for the project will act as admission-cum-information centres of the university. IGNOU has already started negotiations with the State Government of Kerala for providing MCA programme to high school teachers who are engaged as resource persons in IT@School project. The regional centre would set up placement centres, these will help the candidates to secure a job before passing out of the university.

FOGSI launches satellite based education programme medical colleges

The Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India has collaborated with the Indian Space Research Organisation for the satellite based education programme for medical students.

Indian Space Research Organisation has launched the satellite based education programme for medical students and doctors to update their latest information. FOGSI has launched satellite based education programme for doctors and medical students in over 100 municipal and government medical colleges of the country. Initially, Cosme Farma Laboratories Limited (CFLL) will install satellite dishes with technical support from ISRO. FOGSI doctors will develop the course content and distributed live through satellite to over 100 municipal and government medical colleges of India. The satellite centres would be launched in medical colleges of Jaipur, Jammu, Gorakhpur, Patna, Guntur, Manipal, Vadodara and Goa.

Jharkhand government promotes computer education

The Jharkhand government has rolled out a computer education and computer-aided education programme to down link based education at the local level. The programme would be covered in 440 schools across the 22 district of the Jharkhand.

The Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) and the Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (JAPIT) are jointly implementing the project as a part of e-Governance initiative. Core Projects and Technologies Ltd. (CPTL) will provide technology support to the project. The project would be implemented in the duration of five years on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis. CPTL will develop the software of the project. The project would be based on Child Tracking System (CTS) modules, which will compile all information of children up to 14 years. Each school would be mapped on the Geographic Information System (GIS). Another project is also in the pipeline, which would be based on audio and video technologies. The government is planning to introduce video surveillance system. These projects would be backed by ISRO and IGNOU and would be integrated with the CTS module. CPTL will provide dotnet, Microsoft, Java eApps, Oracle based products. Even the company is also talking with other State Governments like Maharashtra, Orissa and Chhatisgrah for similar projects.

Manpower shortage a major challenge for ICT

The government is ready to initiate changes in the education system to boost the skills of students in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) to overcome an expected shortage of around 500,000 skilled workers in the next few years, says Jainder Singh, secretary, department of information technology.

This he said after releasing a report titled, ‘Making the Connection: India’s digital future’, which is based on a study conducted by Accenture in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The study, based on a survey of more than 200 top business executives across India highlights the fact that ICT is growing to play a major role in expansion of low-income markers in near future. About 88 percent of the survey respondents consider ICT to be a major driver of the current and future development. A similar number said that the increased usage of ICT would be a major determinant in overcoming disparities between the rich and poor.

Indian SSA experiences shared at Cairo

The Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeswari has suggested in Education For All (EFA) meeting at Cairo that other countries can learn from the successful Indian experience in implementing schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Mid Day Meal, Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) centres for hard to reach target groups and the National Literacy Mission.

Purandeswari led a high level delegation in the 6th High Level Group Meeting on Education for All (EFA), in Cairo, Egypt, 14-16 November 2006. She also elaborated on the innovative resource mobilisation methods for achieving the goal of EFA while referring to the educational cess and the Prarambhik Siksha Kosh being adopted by the Government of India. The Minister also spoke about the special intervention regarding the Indian girls in terms of free uniform, text books and also special schools, for girls belonging to disadvantaged sections of society.

CBSE to begin satellite education in India

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to launch a satellite education programme in schools across the country from next year. An initiative of the vocational education

department, CBSE, specific lessons would be transmitted through satellite from various regional offices of the board under the programme.

While NCERT is developing the curriculum, ISRO would help use modern space technology for promotion of education and training. To be propagated through Edusat, the satellite education wing run by ISRO, ministry of human resource development and Indira Gandhi National Open University, the programme would begin through teachers’ training programmes and later reach classrooms.

The programme would be managed by six regional offices of CBSE located in Allahabad, Guwahati, Chennai, Chandigarh and Ajmer. Schools in Jharkhand would come under the Allahabad centre.

National testing standards to help quality of education

An Approach Paper of the Planning Commission says that a set of national testing standards and a chain of institutions that test and evaluate children would help monitor and improve quality of learning. Noting that just 28 per cent An Approach Paper of the Planning Commission says that a set of national testing standards and a chain of institutions that test and evaluate children would help monitor and improve quality of learning. Noting that just 28 per cent of schools had electricity in 2005 and only 40 per cent of primary school teachers were graduates and 30 per cent had not even completed higher secondary, it says, for a large proportion of children, school is an ill-lit classroom with more than one class being taught together by some who may not have completed her own schooling. Monitoring these aspects would need to correlate such facts with learning skills to identify where the real problems lie – pre-school, teachers, state governments, design of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or the assumed equirements for universal education, the report says. On the Secondary Education front, the report says that the 11th Plan must aim to progressively raise the minimum level of education to high school or Class X level. Observing that extension of secondary education in ural areas posed a special challenge since secondary schools cannot be set up in every village, the report said the present trend of combining upper primary with secondary school education may need to be strengthened. CS course to go online from 2007 To make the Company Secretary (CS) course widely accessible it will be offered online from next year. Currently, the course is offered through classroom teaching and via post. Once the course is web-based, students can access the course at their desktops at their own convenience, according to the sources of Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). The institute has started providing the study material on CD. Plans are to start the programme by early next year. In the first phase, the institute will offer the foundation course.

Towards an ICT-Literate Bangladesh

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December 1, 2006

Current status of IT education in Bangladesh

Formal education in computers was first started in 1984 with the foundation of Computer Science and Engineering Department in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. ICT education thereafter gradually extended to the bachelor’s degree, higher secondary and secondary school levels. In Bangladesh, there are about 83,796 primary level institutions, 5,694 and 15,748 junior and secondary level institutions respectively, 2,339 higher secondary and degree colleges and more than 1,000 ICT training centers.

At this time Bangladesh has more than 10 public and 54 private universities, 4 BITs and some (almost 50) national university-affiliated postgraduate institutes and colleges, which are offering courses related to computer science and information technology. Some other institutions have also initiated research programmes in IT-related fields. These include machine learning, pattern recognition, speech recognition, automatic translation, computational algorithm, VLSI and 3- D vision. Consi-derable research work has been done in the use of Bengali in computers.

The government formulated a National Education policy in the cabinet, which was endorsed by Parliament. In this Policy, introduction of ICT education at the primary and junior secondary level has not been included in the implementation period of 2010. A majority of schools in the country cannot afford to buy computers for their students. Though a small number of city-based schools

150 million people, literacy rate of 62.5 percent, and the challenge is how to become a learning society! ICT revolution imposes particular challenges on education systems in Bangladesh. These challenges reduce to three broad areas. The first has to do with participation in the information society, the second considers how ICT impacts on access, cost effectiveness and quality of education, while the third is to do with the way that ICT changes the education process. However, ICT is contributing to ever-increasing inequalities in Bangladesh through the so-called “digital divide” that splits the Bangladesh between those who are “ICT-literate” and the majority who are not. This article suggests a way of increasing ICT literate people. It also gives an outcome of a research on the means of providing ICT access to a large number of people at the grass root level in Bangladesh every year. The operational structures of the ICT education in school level are outlined.

have very limited computer laboratory facilities, yet they fail to make their students familiar with Internet, e-mail and related technology because of the lack of nationwide telecommunication infrastructure and Internet facilities. In addition, the teachers at the school levels lack the minimum level of training on IT. Secondary and higher secondary Education Board incorporated IT education in to curriculum.

Some IT Institutions (such as APTECH Ltd, BJIT, ECIT, DIIT, Genetic School of Computing, IBCS Primax, IBM ACE, IIT Bd Ltd, Infinity IT, NIIT) offer the IT diploma courses to all level students in some category of IT.

Government has reduced the usage charge of Internet services for both dial-up and leased line to encourage the people to use more Internet. Government is also encouraging private ISP’s, universities and educational and research institutions, software exporters and corporate offices to lease Internet access at a very reasonable price. Bangladesh has signed the consortium of SEAME- WE-4 to lay the submarine cable in order to have connectivity with the Information Super Highway. The price of ICT equipments has been falling sharply due to ICT-friendly taxation measures taken by the government with a view to play positive impact for enhancing ICT capabilities of the country. Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has been formed to take appropriate measure, which will help to create conducive atmosphere for ICT investment and contribute to narrow the digital divide. Government is committed to provide ICT education and training to its people and ensure affordable access to computers and the Internet facilities.

In order to facilitate the computer education in the Secondary and Higher Secondary level, the Government has undertaken a programme to provide computers and other accessories to about 15000 (Fifteen thousand) institutions of rural areas in its first phase. Other institutions will be brought under this programme in the subsequent phase.

Necessity of IT education in school level

Students should learn the basic concepts of IT, identify further study paths based on individual ability, gain knowledge on related employment opportunities, discover the importance of IT in national development and become aware of the technologies’ social, ethical and safety issues. Poverty will be reduced through a “social venture capital fund” for social and rural development. The school level students make a large part of the country’s total population. Students from the local communities who generally learn computer skills rapidly could be trained to serve as information intermediaries for the older generation.

The drop out rate of our country is very high at the school level which is understood from the following table:

If we fail to include the basic IT education in school level, we will miss to face the ICT challenge, which is playing worldwide. By using the Internet the students can be practiced the foreign language as a communicative vehicle. They will be getting a good use of multimedia. There will be spreading and exchanging knowledge and culture. With the introduction of BTTB’s mobile telephone along with private operators, rural telecommunication infrastructure will also be developed and the rural people will be able to get the facilities of ICT. Government is playing very positive role to expand Internet services throughout the country. What we need now is a large workforce or human resource who are familiar with computers and aware of the necessity of IT in our life. The compulsory IT education in school can play the major role in taking ICTs to the doorsteps of the general community.

Suggested steps

Application of computers in industry, business, communication, and education and in every other sphere of life demands the extensive introduction of computer education at grass root level. The Integration of IT education or computer education with the formal curriculum in school education can play a major role in meeting this requirement.

The strategic plans or steps to be taken for extending IT education in school level May be as follows:

Curriculum development
Currently the students of primary, junior secondary and secondary schools can know a very little about computer through their existing syllabus. So a sustainable and enhanced IT literacy should be incorporated with our general education through designing a new curriculum for school level. Recently the government has formulated a national policy to introduce ICT education at the primary and junior secondary level, which should be included in the implementation period. Computer science was introduced as an optional subject for secondary level students from the beginning of 1994, and about 150 schools were permitted to start up the subject. Many more schools have shown interest, and the quantitative expansion of ICT education at the secondary level is phenomenal.

Trainer development
A national college for IT education can be established for teachers training. Or the teacher training college should incorporate compulsory computer literacy in their curriculum that they currently provide. Some IT education resource centres may be set up to facilitate teacher training. Innovative means of training like mobile laboratories may be provided.

Evaluation system
To get the best quality of proposed education system there should be an authorised evaluation team who will try to find the best way to make IT education easier and interesting to the children. They may incorporate some extra curricular activities related to ICT. A group of IT professional will work in this team. Bangladesh seeks to build an ICTdriven nation comprised of a knowledge- ased society. To meet this overall vision, the nation must develop a country-wide ICT infrastructure to give all Bangladeshis access to information. This will empower citizens, enhance democratic values and promote sustainable conomic development. By the implementation of the above steps discussed, the school level students can understand the cultural similarities and differences from their point of view; they can interact to the other students from other schools. The parents and local communities who are not ICT literate can share the knowledge through their children’s experience. Technological development will give the competencies as critical thinking, decision- making, handling of dynamic situations, working as a team member, communicating effectively to the children.

Instructional Design Making Effective E-learning

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December 1, 2006

The entire process of development of e-learning content brings together a group of people with different competencies. The rocess can be considered as The people–process–product continuum or P3 model. For example, people involved in the e-learning evelopment process can be Instructional Designers, graphics designers, project managers and quality assurance managers. The product can be a well-designed e-learning module and the process can be any tandard process like Dick and Carey Model. The P3 model is a olistic approach to course development and helps in not only creating very high-quality e-learning content, but also in delivery and maintenance of the course. This article is an attempt at envisaging the entire development process in a modular approach.

Broadly the e-learning development process can be divided into two major phases: (a) Development, and ( delivery and maintenance. Suitable content is developed in the first phase and the same is delivered using an appropriate medium in the second phase. A typical e-learning process has planning, design, dvelopment, evaluation, delivery and maintenance stages. The Iterative Process of E-Learning Based on the size and scope of the project, the number of individuals involved in various stages of an elearning project may vary. Some roles and responsibilities may overlap, as many e-learning tasks are interrelated and interdependent. A large-sized elearning project requires the involvement of various individuals. In a small or medium-sized e-learning project some individuals will be able to perform multiple roles. When an elearning course is completely designed, developed, taught and managed by a single individual, the same individual has performed the role of content expert, instructional designer, programmer, graphic artist, project manager, etc. This article has tried to identify various roles and responsibilities involved in the elearning development process. Sometimes there is a need for an instructional designer to explain the learning part of the project. The instructional designer is generally involved during the entire content development process, and once the

module is created, it is the responsibility of technical support to ensure delivery of the module and also take care of a few of the quality issues. Stages of the e-learning process A typical e-learning content development cycle contains the following stages: Planning, Design, Production, Evaluation, Delivery and maintenance, Instruction, and Marketing Planning stage During this stage a team consisting of project manager, instructional designer and the director worktogether and develop a project plan after a thorough analysis of the audience profile and user requirements. They analyse various aspects of people, process and products involved in the e-learning development initiative. This plan must be pedagogically and financially sound and should guide the entire elearning team (production, evaluation, delivery, maintenance, instructional and support services) to engage in their respectively assigned activities. The planning team must consider the various learning models and strategies before working out the entire plan. It is just not enough to make the plans pedagogically sound; they must be financially sound too. The team needs to work out the timeframe for every activity of the project, with possible breakdown time and buffer time to take care of exigencies. The end product of the e-learning planning process is a sound elearning project plan, whichprovides guidance during various stages of the e-learning process. Design stage The output from the planning stage, which is a plan document, is available at this stage for reference. People involved in this stage are instructional and graphics designers, interface designers, technology experts, and evaluation, quality and R&D personnel. The R&D person is responsible for reviewing course content for pedagogical soundness and selection of the appropriate delivery medium. He must be aware of limitations and capabilities of every medium and also the latest development in the area. Care must be taken to ensure the content is created using Aviation Industry Computer-based Training Committee (AICC or Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) compliant if needed. Instructional Designers play an important role, but their role is usually overlooked. The instructional designer designs the complete environment in which learning can take place. S/he conceptualises the e-learning strategy and methodologies based on the background of the audience. The design team must also communicate with developers about the action scripts. The output product at this stage is the storyboard.

Production stage
At the production stage the production team creates the e-learning course from the storyboard put together at the design stage. The production team creates all the required details independently and integrates them in the course module. It creates all the necessary links and makes the navigation smooth. The production coordinator leads the elearning production process. All members must put their modules in a central server so that security issues are also taken care of. All members must follow the same naming convention for each module. Every day team members can work on the module (s) and store it back on the server when they leave. This facilitates checking of the content independent of members. Once the course is created and quality check of the content is performed, it should be pilot tested. Once the project manager collects all the comments from the pilot test team members, he can discuss them with the instructional designer and necessary changes can be incorporated with the help of the development team. The product of the production process, then, is course material ready for pilot testing.

Evaluation stage
Evaluation is done at every stage of the entire life cycle, and feedback is incorporated in the product. Basically, there are two types of evaluations, formative and summative. Formative evaluation is conducted during the development stage and is iterative in nature. Summative evaluation is conducted at the end of the development when all the components are integrated into a fullfledged course. All the assessments are checked with respect to the learning objects, for their relevance and appropriateness. The overall look and feel of the course is very important and clients are very particular about it. Finally, the learning expert has to satisfy that the learner will learn from the course. The course is also evaluated for conforming to AICC, SCORM or other standards.

Delivery and maintenance
After the content has been created, the focus shifts to delivery. The driving force behind e-learning is that the course content (or the module) must be available at any time from anywhere to the learner. The content material may include audio, graphics, simulations, assessments, videos, reading material and other features. The delivery and maintenance (D&M) team plays a pivotal part during this stage. The team has to first load the content either on the server or on the learning management system (LMS) and test every bit of it, including simulation and navigation. The team must also take into account the size of the module andspeed of access, etc. In most cases, an LMS may be used for delivery of the module. There is a need to check the SCORM, AICC and other standards once the course is loaded here. The e-learning module must be available to the learner any time. The learner must have the control to leave the course and come back to it as many times as she wants. Overall, the D&M team is responsible for ongoing updating and monitoring of the e-learning environment, ncluding security measures for access control and information confidentiality.

Instruction stage
The instruction team is the core of good e-learning content development cycle. At the course instruction stage, instructional and support services staff (ISS) are the people involved in delivering the instructional product. E-Learning environment Once the content is ready the course may be offered either through a portal or in standalone mode. The expectation of the learner is that they must be provided with a good learning environment and uninterrupted learning time. It is necessary to see to it that the correct courses are received by students who register for a particular course. The Internet and availability of good bandwidth gives organisations one ore medium for delivery of learning content. This is attracting both academic and non-academic institutions to seriously consider elearning. The E-learning P3 model provides a comprehensive picture of the elearning process and helps identify the roles and responsibilities for the design, development, evaluation, implementation and management of all e-learning and blended learning materials and systems.

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