The learning lab initiatives has experimented with mobile  echnologies to create an engaging learning environment for students. The experiments has indicated that mobile devices is a  calable technology assisted learning alternative to address the gaps in mainstreaming teaching

 
Mobile device based learning – the Learning Lab
initiative The Learning Lab initiative seeks to evolve a set of guiding principles for the implementation and use of Mobile ICTs, keeping in mind the educational challenges unique to the subcontinent. Our longstanding expertise in the ICT domain has also been valuable in our efforts to envision a range of possible use cases, applications and services for mobile devices, which are described below:

So how do you tell a Brazilian story in Hindi?
How do you use storytelling to teach a child to read or learn a language? How do you make reading educational as well as entertaining for kids? BookBox does just that! Based on what is known as  Same Language Subtitling (SLS), BookBox is a essentially a web-based jukebox of digital books in 18 languages from  round the world. SLS essentially involves same language  (audio) subtitling of the audio-visual program. In Book box SLS has been  integrated into a book/story.
BookBox synchronizes the text, audio, and visual media to create an  ducational and entertaining reading  experience for children. Children can relate the  phonetic sounds with the visual subtitles to accelerate reading skill   evelopment. Sophisticated eye-tracking  research has proved that when SLS is integrated into a “book”, reading happens  utomatically and subconsciously thus making stories not just interesting but also educational.  BookBox aims to not only enhance children’s basic literacy, but also  facilitate their proficiency in foreign languages.  BookBox was a result of experimentation with SLS-an  experiment that began and resulted in a project that taught early  literates and illiterates to read while watching popular Hindi film  songs in India. The above may sound very simple (or too complicated!) but for Dr Brij Kothari SLS has been a tool to address mass illiteracy in India. In  1996, he hit upon the idea to use SLS while watching a Spanish film  to improve his Spanish. In his own words –“I was watching a Spanish film with friends to improve my  Spanish. The Spanish movie had English subtitles, and I remember  commenting that I wished it came with Spanish subtitles, if only to help us grasp the Spanish  ialogue better. I then thought, ‘And if they  just put Hindi subtitles on Bollywood songs in Hindi, India would become literate.’ That idea became an obsession. It was so simple, intuitively obvious,  and scalable in its potential
to help hundreds of millions of people read — not just in  India, but globally”. Now a decade later Dr Kothari explains, “The idea  of SLS tends to divide people into two camps – those who think it’s too  simple to achieve anything, and those who understand that its simplicity and ability  to integrate into popular culture can fundamentally  alter the approach to the massive problem of low literacy”.  What exactly is SLS?  In a research paper on the same subject titled ‘Reading Out of the “Idiot Box”:  Same-Language Subtitling on Television in India’ written by Brij Kothari, Avinash Pandey and Amita  R. Chudgar, SLS is explained as ‘the idea of subtitling motion media in the same language as the audio. The audio track is reproduced verbatim and in a  synchronized manner’. The paper further clarifies ‘SLS needs to be distinguished from Same Language  Transliteration (SLT). An example of SLS is video in Hindi, subtitled word for word in Hindi (which uses the Devanagari script). The same media, subtitled in the Hindi language using the Roman script,  is not SLS but SLT. However, both SLS and SLT may be useful for  criptacy as long as the script is meaningful for the viewing neo-semi-scriptates (literates)…SLS has been primarily directed: to promote scriptacy skill improvement  in the first language among early scriptates’. Those in India who call recall ‘Rangoli’ the program featuring Hindi firm song sequences (aired on Sunday mornings in the National channel, Doordarshan), SLS features as Hindi subtitles (in Devanagari script) to Hindi songs. Starting this experiment with Chitrahar  another Hindi song based program, a simple addition of SLS gave weekly reading practice to almost 80-100 million early-literates in India using TV. So does SLS really help? Studies have evidences that SLS raises the literacy skills of all  early literates on a mass scale, through lifelong practice,  increases the frequency of literacy practices among: early literates, not in school (children  and adults), and emergent literates in schools or literacy  enters. SLS also motivates nonliterates
toward literacy, through entertainment and popular  culture, makes reading an
automatic and reflex phenomenon in everyday life,  creates a reading culture and an environment for reading. Dr Kothari assures that SLS is cost effective offers a financially sustainable model for lifelong  literacy skill improvement.
Why BookBox? Because children love stories!  Because SLS makes reading inescapable! BookBox builds on the children’s inherent interest in stories. With SLS that subtitles stories word to  word, children develop reading skill through
this text-sound correspondence. BookBox  also distinguishes itself by the cultural diversity of its story content by collecting stories from all around the
world or engaging local authors to create or adapt stories based on their individual cultures and traditions. In BookBox the  visual remain the same
while the narrator tells the story in different  languages. Thus a  Brazilian folk story can be told in Hindi or Japanese  and vise-versa! Thus while enhancing the
entertainment value of storytelling through multimedia, Book box  also provide automatic reading practices for  children. The stories are simple and they teach a moral. Available in DVDs,  BookBox stories are  titled in English as ‘the first Christmas, Four friends, Boo in the shoo,  Turtle’s Flute, Elephant Goes To City, The First  Well. BookBox got special  mention in the category of best e-content in e-learning in Manthan  awards (www. manthan awards.com)  in 2005

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) phase II, organised by the International Telecommunication Union, took place in Tunis (Tunisia) from 16 to 18 November 2005. Leaders from over 70 countries and delegates of governments, businesses and  NGOs attended this conference. The WSIS focused on discussing  issues of promoting development through constructing the  information society through estrategies, e-commerce,  e-governance, e-health, education, literacy, cultural diversity, gender equality, sustainable development and environmental protection. WSIS, MDGs and education  Among other issues, the Tunis Summit showcased several  initiatives and deliberated on the potential and ways in which ICTs  can help to enhance outreach and quality in education; in  augmenting basic literacy as well as to build human capacities. There has been a spurt of ICT enhanced  lesson plans and processes that  make technologies more useful for educational purposes but can also build human capacity to use  technology for better access to knowledge. Education and ICTs were recognised as a fundamental basis for preparing for a  knowledge society. Various civil
society groups organised themselves into a Civil Society Plenary  (CSP) at every official meeting of the WSIS process, and advocated  their agenda through Civil Society Content and Themes Group and  the Civil Society Bureau. Identifying the priorities for  action Recognising the  criticality of education and capacity building in  constructing the knowledge society, a Task force on  Education, Academia and Research, set up under the Civil Society Group, identified  the education priorities for  knowledge sharing. The two key principles for education are  nowledge sharing and open access.  To further these principles, the Task Force identified four major  priority issues in education and research: • Teachers’ Education with ICT;  • Open Courseware; • Media and ICT Education; and • A New Status for Research  In support of open courseware, the Task Force pointed out that such  approach ‘can generate huge   avings in the long run and help developing countries to bridge the “digital divide” in education’.  However these open courseware, should be ‘submitted to serious accreditation and quality assurance processes’.  The Task Force also suggested the adoption of ‘free software and an exemption of Intellectual Property  Rights in matters of education, documentation and archiving in  non-profit context’.      The Task Force highlighted the need for media and ICT education for youth, with both a critical and a  capacity-building approach to help  he youth to learn to ‘inform and be informed, via the networks, in a learn-to-learn lifelong process’.  The task force pointed out that one needed to be ‘ICT literate and  information literate’ and “media and ICT education” literacy is  ‘a pillar of democracy and one of
the elementary rights of every citizen’.  The Task Force recommended that this specific education should be  introduced wherever possible
within national curricula as well as in tertiary, non-formal and lifelong  education. The Task Force pointed out that  research on ICT should focus beyond technological innovation  and market development to users and the social and cultural  implications of the Information
Society. However, ‘sociallyorient d research should not develop apart from, or just in addition to, but in close connection  with industrial research from the earliest stages.’ The Task Force also reminded that the scientific community should work in close connection with civil society, the industry and political institutions. The Task Force also tabled some
concrete strategies for international consideration and implementation • Lowering the cost of access to  nternet and ICTs for education • Against exploitative targeting of children and youth through ICTs. • An ‘open cognition platform’ for fostering education for general interest The Task Force called upon the private sector to increase their investment in regional IP backbones and access points. The Task Force also recommended the Governments and international  organisations to create an enabling environment for the provision of ICT infrastructure, particularly for rural and marginalised communities, especially for the
education sector. The education Task Force for long has been  advocating for a “open cognition  platform” for fostering education,
as a UN recommendation to be adopted by all countries. The Task Force made the following recommendations:  An Open courseware validation
body To help create a coherent body of  standards and formats, for coaccreditation and exchange across currently existing websites (and
extension to mirror sites in developing countries) that provide the primary teaching materials for courses taught at educational nonprofit institutions;  An international rationale for Media and ICT education
To train media and information literate people, in national  curricula. Such document must provide a modular curriculum,  with evaluation criteria and   rocedures and adequate teaching materials and resources, in local language;  An education exemption to IP rights for access to repositories of content  In the non-profit contexts of education and research, like schools, museums, libraries,  archives, etc., along the lines of the directive currently enacted at the  European Union; An international researchers’ charter  To promote the status of teacherresearchers and ensure their independence and low-cost access
to repositories of knowledge. The message was clear. Access to  knowledge is crucial for building human capacity. Access to knowledge creates well-informed and competent citizens who can participate and strengthen the knowledge society.

Despite rapid developments in communication technologies in the last few decades, radio broadcasting remains the cheapest mode of mass  communication in India that can benefit  rural and deprived communities with low iteracy rate and little  excess to education

At a recent conference on Digital Learning in Delhi [18-19 October 2005], the participants sat bemused as Dr. Sugata Mitra of NIIT gave a very  engaging account of his ‘Hole in the Wall’ project. Dr. Mitra explained how Delhi slum children with no education and no  knowledge of English quickly picked up different computer  functions, when given
unsupervised access to a computer and the internet through a kiosk.  This project in ‘minimally invasive education’ was later extended to  rural India, prompting a rather disbelieving audience to ask how the Hole in the Wall computers could function in remote and rural  India, with erratic electricity supply, negligible telecom  penetration and next to no maintenance.  Dr. Mitra gamely reeled off a  catalogue of solar-powered UPS, self-rebooting, maintenance-free  PCs, VSATs and other marvels of  digital technology that could presumably keep computers running forever in the boondocks, but it sounded more like a Heath Robinson whimsy than a recipe for  ICT in education. Not surprisingly, the recommendations that emerged  from the discussions emphasized “the need to think of ICT in  education beyond computer aided learning and incorporate other technologies like community radio  and other media. These mediums would not only be cost effective  but also have a greater outreach  potential.” [Digital Learning, Vol 1 Issue1, Nov-Dec 2005]  Classrooms and radio have always gone together, and radio has been  used to teach everything from mathematics in Thailand (Galda, 1984) to civics education in Botswana (Byram, Kaute &  Matenge, 1980). The first School  Broadcast project in India was commissioned as early as 1937.  Over the years, various educational  radio projects have been carried out in the country, with mixed results.

Educational programmes on AIR  All the Primary channels of All India Radio (AIR)
broadcast educational programmes on a  regular basis on fixed time slots. AIR’s educational programmes are   imed at students as well as teachers of primary, middle,  secondary and senior secondary schools, and are generally  produced in collaboration with national educational agencies like NCERT (National Council for  Educational Research & Training)  and CIET (Central Institute of Educational Technology). The Language Learning programme, popularly known as  the ‘Radio Pilot project’, was  started in 1979-80 jointly by AIR and the Department of Education (Rajasthan). Its aim was to teach Hindi to school children as their first language in 500 primary  schools of Jaipur and Ajmer districts, on an experimental basis. The broadcasts were found to be  useful in improving the children’s vocabulary, and a similar project  was initiated in the Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh.  Apart from AIR’s in-house educational programmes, the  Indira Gandhi Open University  (IGNOU) also broadcasts its educational programmes from AIR studios.  IGNOU-AIR Interactive Radio  Counseling (IRC) was launched in May 1998 for students of Open /  Conventional Universities. AIR Bhopal and IGNOU ran this as an  experimental programme for a year, to provide academic counseling in various subjects and  to instantly respond to students’ queries; but with its success, it was  extended to other AIR stations. Presently, Interactive Radio  Counseling is being provided every Sunday for one hour from  186 radio stations of All India Radio.  non-conventional education, addressing local educational, developmental and socio-cultural  needs. The stations broadcast in English, Hindi and the language or  dialect of the region, for 4 to 12 hours daily.  During the current phase of private FM expansion in India, which is  expected to cover 91 cities, it is reported that the government plans  to offer 87 FM channels to be used exclusively for education. Of  these, 36 would be used by IGNOU, while the other channels would be open to private players. 

Campus radio stations
In December 2002, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting  released its ‘Community Radio  Guidelines’. Though nominally ‘community’ radio, the policy restricts the radio  licenses under this scheme to ‘well-established educational  institutions’. The  licensing process proved so cumbersome that  India’s first campus-based  community radio station was launched only by  2004 (Anna University’s 90.4   Anna FM). Against  optimistic projections of  1000 campus  stations coming up in a  year, only  75 odd educational institutions have applied for a campus  radio  licenses so far, and of these, 15 stations have become operational.  Most of the campus licenses have  gone to universities,  engineering colleges and mass communications  institutions, along with a   sprinkling of well-heeled schools. Transmitting over a range of 5-10 kilometres, their FM radio stations are expected to serve the  ommunity beyond the campus walls, and to produce programmes ‘on issues relating to education,  health, environment, agriculture, rural and community  development’, according to the government’s Community Radio  Guidelines (www.mib.nic.in). Needless to say, the campus  stations that try to live up to this confused mandate – and many of  them do – sound very much like  the public service broadcaster on which they seem to be closely modelled. Satellite radio for education EDUSAT, according to the Indian
Space Research Organization  (ISRO), is the first exclusive satellite for serving the educational sector. It supports radio  broadcasting, along with audiovideo on C-band and Ku-band, and  is built around the concept of  digital interactive classrooms and a multimedia system. The satellite has multiple regional  beams covering different parts of  India, which theoretically enables programmes to be broadcast in  relevant local languages – India has 18 official languages and over  1500 dialects. “India will require  10,000 new schools each year and meeting the teaching  needs on such a scale [by conventional methods] will be impossible,” Madhavan Nair, chairman of ISRO told  New Scientist at the launch of  the satellite. EDUSAT can provide connectivity to schools,  colleges and higher levels of education and also support non-formal education including developmental communication. The nationwide beams are being harnessed by agencies like IGNOU, NCERT and the All India Council for Technical  Education (AICTE), to reach hundreds of Receive Only  Terminals (ROTs) and Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs)  located in schools and colleges, many in remote areas. Content generation is the responsibility of user agencies, but  it is a matter of concern that, over a year after the satellite was  launched, much of its capacity is  lying idle. Satellite access for radio  broadcasting is also  available on other platforms like WorldSpace,  which offers a ‘development channel’ to agencies like Equal  Access for networking community  FM channels (as in Nepal), or for directly broadcasting development  and educational programmes for community listening on
WorldSpace receivers. 

The promise of radio
U.K. Open University’s notable  success with educational radio has  demonstrated how invaluable radio can be for weak students, who  benefit from the medium as a  supplementary learning tool. But the use of radio for distance  education in India, as mentioned earlier, has had mixed results.  AIR’s educational broadcasts are constantly hampered by the lack of radio sets in classrooms, the difficulty of  coordinating school broadcasts  with class-room timings and more  significantly, by the lack of good  broadcasters who have a passion for  education and  conversely, of teachers who are  also good broadcasters. All the same, it
has been amply proved that radio  – rightly used –  can improve educational quality  and relevance, lower educational costs and  improve access to education, particularly for  disadvantaged groups. It is most effective when supported by  trained facilitators, group learning,
group discussion, feedback and the  use of multimedia approaches. There is no single ideal format for  educational radio. Innovative programming like those developed  by Sesame Workshop in Africa, for
instance, offer some very  effective  approaches to   on-formal education over  radio. Recently, AIR agreed to a  proposal from  Sesame Workshop India  to provide airtime on  national and regional radio  channels for locally produced  versions of the universally  popular ‘Sesame Street’. The programmes would be aimed  at pre-schoolers, and would also  provide under-served children with  access to educational media, especially in rural areas.  India spends just 3.4% of its GNP on education. Over 35% of the  population is illiterate, and the  drop out rate in schools is  staggeringly high, with 40% of all school-going children dropping out  during the primary stage itself. The  percentage of dropouts goes up to 67% by Class X. The Supreme  School students participating in the  chool audio program in Karnataka  Court of India (in 1993) has declared education of children up  to 14 years to be a fundamental right, but school attendance  is related to the perceived importance of education by  parents, and also to socioeconomic factors. Despite rapid developments in communication technologies in the  last few decades, radio  broadcasting remains the cheapest mode of mass communication in  India, catering equally to the needs of the rich and the poor, rural and the urban masses and  reaching the remotest parts of the country. In a country where the  literacy rate is 65%, and fewer than 50% of homes are electrified, the  humble transistor radio plays a vital role in the country’s socioeconomic  and cultural development. Rural and deprived communities,  with low literacy rates and little access to formal education, stand  to benefit the most from distance learning through community radio.  If and when such communities are permitted to set up their own low  power radio stations – and 4000 such community radio stations are  possible in India, according to government estimates – then we  could witness a revolution in education far beyond anything dreamt of by the purveyors of  digital technology in a digitally divided country.  Using radio for education and
community development is part of  the 75-year-old Reithian ambition for radio broadcasting. Children  and youth can be easily and cheaply trained, and the goals of  universal primary and secondary education for all can be reached  more easily with broadcast support. Among the poor and  marginalized people of the country, radio could even create a new class of people – educated but illiterate

Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT in Education Projects :
A Handbook for Developing Countries Daniel A. Wagner, Bob Day, Tina James, Robert B. Kozma, Jonathan Miller & Tim Unwin Publication: infoDev, 2005 A Handbook for Developing Countries – is intended as an  ntroduction and guide for busy policymakers and practitioners grappling with how to         understand and assess the ICT-related investments underway in the education sector. The handbook comprehensively covers a domain of interests to help decision makers to develop a stronger knowledge base through Monitoring and Evaluation to make better investment and innovation decisions in ICT in education.

The challenges facing education systems in most of the developing world are formidable. Evidently, in recent years ICTs are being regarded as the solution to most of these challenges. ICTs are being used widely to aid education in many developing countries. However in view of the resource constraints in most of these developing countries, there may be potential great risks associated with ICT use in education in developing countries. Relatively little is actually known about the effectiveness of investments in ICTs in education in promoting educational reform in general. Little hard evidence and  consensus exist on the proper, costeffective utilization of ICTs to  meet a wide variety of some of the most pressing educational challenges The power of ICTs as enablers of change (for good, as well as for bad  is undeniable but if policy advice related to ICT use in education is to be credible, it need  to be backed up by a rich database of lessons learned, impact evaluations and cost data. The Monitoring and Evaluation of ICTs in Education handbook is specifically designed to meet the needs of developing countries and to answer some pertinent questions of implementation fidelity of an intervention. The handbook would help decision maker to understand the outcomes of intervention in terms student learning and new skills learnt, teachers outcomes with respect to development of technology skills and new pedagogical approaches and other outcomes in terms of increased innovativeness in scho l and increased access of the community to adult education and literacy (chapter two). The decision maker would also be able to identify ‘Core Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluation Studies for ICT in Education’ (chapter three) that relates to specific components of the ICT intervention and their implementation, and include both input variabls (such as classroom ICT resources, teacher training, and classroom pedagogy), as well as output variables (such as student learning of  chool subject, learning of ICT skills, and “21st century” skills. The chapter on ‘Developing a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for ICT in Education’ would help policy-makers in understanding ways to assess results at the end as related to the original objectives set for the project through appropriate, realistic andmeasurable indicators. Policymakers  would also understand the need of ‘Capacity Building and Management in ICT for Education’ (chapter five) to develop the appropriate skills to deliver these programs effectively.The chapter on  Pro-EquityApproaches to  Monitoring and Evaluation: Gender, Marginalized Groups and Special  eeds  Populations’ guides decisionmakers to be inclusive in their approaches. Chapter seven  discusses the ‘Dos and Don’ts in Monitoring   nd Evaluation’ that  identifies what decision-makers  should do to  enhance the impact  and effectiveness of ICT4E  programs and the    oncomitant  things that one should not do.  In short, the book is an one   top  guide for policy makers and  practitioners on how to evaluate  ICT   nd Education Initiatives. ?

The DiploFoundation is a small non-profit  rganization created by  theGovernments of Malta and Switzerland, co-located in Malta and Geneva. It’s mission: ‘to assist all countries, particularly those with limited resources, to participate meaningfully in international relations. Diplo promotes a  ultistakeholder approach, involving participation of international  rganizations, civil society and other actors in international affairs. Diplo’s activities include education and training programs, research, and  the development of  nformation and communication technologies for diplomatic activities.’ (www.diplomacy.edu) Diplo’s flagship course is its one year Post Graduate Diploma or Masters of Art course in contemporary diplomacy and use of ICT. Diplo is accredited by the University of Malta, with EU-wide  recognition. Limited to about 25 participants, the course draws  young men and women from around the world: working diplomats, students of international affairs, those working in international organizations, NGOs and others. Diplo offers scholarships to participants from  developing and transition countries, on the basis of funding from Swiss Aid, and support from entities such as the EU, the Commonwealth and other donors. In addition, Diplo runs an expanding number of short courses (usually of 10-week duration), and a series of programs covering Internet governance, plus diplomacy-related topics, aimed  at single countries, special groups,as also general participants. A common feature is that these courses are either entirely run through the Internet, or are offered as blended programs to participants from Europe, with a strong distance learning component. Teaching methodology The Internet-teaching methodology used has evolved through  experience, and consists of textbased learning, with very limited use of multimedia. A significant proportion of Diplo course users  are based in Africa, Asia, Oceania, places where broadband is still an unrealized promise, and the dial-up  connection, sometimes accessed by  articipants relying upon Internet  cafes is the simple reality. The  underlying  technical system and  the support infrastructure have  evolved over these  years, through  singularly dedicated work by  Diplo’s visionary Director, Jovan  Kurbalija, and his dozen-strong  team, based in Malta, Geneva and  Belgrade.  I   ined the teaching faculty of Diplo seven years back; that story  is one of chance   nd serendipity,  best reserved for personal  conversation! Let me, in this paper, first examine the relevance of e-  learning for  situations where    ntensive   acherstudent dialogue is imperative,  then narrate the  way we use elearning  at   iplo  and describing  another challenge  of e-learning —  the concept of the pure   selflearning’  course,  which some may  regard as the holy  grail of distance  learning, and others may see as   an unattainable goal.  Why e-Learning?  In   ome circumstances, e-learning is more efficient and economical  than   raditional learning, or ‘tlearning’. <!–Ads1–> Foreign ministry  mid-career training (when  most  personnels are on assignment  abroad ) and other ‘continuing education’   rograms, for example,  find a natural fit with the Internet. This method also proves less expensive for training locally the locally-engaged staff working in embassies abroad.  Another characteristic of diplomatic work is that much of it  involves craft skills. When the course participants are people with  many years   f experience, the ‘training’ is actually a mutual  learning process among the  lass,  where the faculty function as discussion catalysts and  facilitators, and   ven have much to learn from the course participants.  The Diplo method Diplo   as evolved its methods over  several years; described below is the current   echnique, in a process  that changes continually.<!–Ads3–> How does  our faculty-led  teaching work, with  a class size of 15  to 25 drawn from  10 or more countries,  distributed around the  world?  A typical module  consists of eight lectures and   wo  assignments, besides a final  exam. Under  universitymonitored standards,   uch a module typically  counts for four   units of postgraduate training. Diplo  uses sophisticated text-based  methods because many of its ‘class participants’,   s Diplo prefers to describe those enrolled in its  programs — do   ot have access to  broadband or multimedia modes.   After reading the lecture  osted on   the class web-page (usually of 3,000 to 4000 words), the  participants highlights some words or part of a sentence from the  lecture text   nd adds his or her   comment on it and the faculty add  his observations. The  lecture thus gets thoroughly reviewed by the  class. One can also view all the comments in their totality (without  opening each text-box), through a  ‘discussion tree’. The participants can also engage in a open-ended  dialogue, or   synchronous (i.e., not  in real time) exchanges, among the class and its   nstructor through a ‘lecture blog’. A part of the  participant’s final evaluation is based on the number and quality of  comment. All the comments are  ublic,  visible to the entire class,  but an option for private teacherparticipant   mment  hrough e-mails is also available.  Real-time online debate on points arising from  a particular lecture is incorporated in the e-learning process as the third major  ctivity     for each lecture. Thus each generation of course  members and  lecturers create a  new layer of meaning and     examples, enriching the initial   text. Unlike comments made in a traditional class, all the ecomments are  accessible anytime,  anywhere, and produce a   ermanent record as well. A  ‘resources’ button on the home page of the e-learning lecture site, takes one to a  ollection texts of   relevant documents as well as links   o other relevant web    sites.  Finally, at the end of a 7-day cycle, the teacher ‘closes the loop’ by  summarizing the key issues that the class discussed, and suggests some themes  hat participants may  wish to pursue on their own. The    iploFoundation’s experience shows that the process create a  sense of  community within this far-flung class which is further  augmented with group work among  class members, such as  assignments and simulated   egotiations. Such    chemistry  among the participants is the key   o this entire process, more so  when learning is no longer a  top-down process of dissemination  of basic  knowledge by the faculty to students, but rather mutual dialogue and shared learning . E-learning has to be supported by a  technical team that continually monitors the systems. A course director provides an extra pair of eyes for observing clas   nteractions, acting as the participant’s ally to resolve technical and other issues.  The self-learning format In some ways self-learning represents the ‘last mile’ of  distance learning, where the essence of a single lecture is  distilled to some 9 or 10 ‘frames’ or slides that a participant can scroll through, at his or her  convenience, with built-in questions and pop-up quizzes that  test the learning accomplished. At the extreme end of self-learning,  there may be no faculty participation at all, though it is quite easy to build in some faculty  supervision, depending on the circumstance.   came upon this method through   the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, Ottawa, who asked me in 2004 to convert a textbook I had written two years earlier into such a self-learning course of 6 lectures. We found that a course of 6  lectures could involve around 150hours of work in developing the formatted script, and an additional 700 to 800 hours to convert that into a full multimedia product,  making the process fairly laborintensive.That particular course took one year’s work. How does e-Learning  measure up? One may legitimately ask, is it really possible to overcome distance, replicating the instant, natural communication of the  traditional format? Can online learning match the rapport that a good teacher establishes with  students and   ce-to-face evaluation? Surely no videoconference or online chat room can reproduce the way a good guru assesses at a glance the class’s absorption of the ideas taught.

At first sight, such e-learning programs miss out on the rich interactivity described above. But in practice, once a self-paced program is designed, it is easy to add on faculty intervention, either in the form of exercises whose results go to a faculty member or  via periodic group exercises or simulations that break the apparent isolation of the self-taught format.  There is only one caveat: the faculty add-on is possible only  with server- based programs, not those distributed on CD-Roms.  As for the faculty-led e-learning programs, like those offered by Diplo, a surprising conclusion is  that in some ways the new format  is superior to the old one. Unlike traditional classrooms where the tutor is able to reply to only a few  queries within a stipulated period of time, e-learning classrooms supports a sustained facultyparticipant  engagement as evident  form the intensive scrutiny that each lecture undergoes.

A huge advantage is that lecture comments remain available for  subsequent reference or reflection. Moreover, teachers invest on  average 12 to 15 hours per lecture, much more than a traditional  teacher takes to prepare and deliver the face-to-face lecture.  Most of our participants also find that they end up spending more  than the average of six to eight hours of class work that our courses promise. This may be partly due to the keen involvement  that such courses arouse among all. Some e-learning systems also opt  for more asynchronous activities, including group exercises such as  class assignments and use video  links or other multimedia facilities, depending on whether a diplomatic  service can provide broadband connectivity to all its missions abroad. <!–Ads2–> What about a downside? One can visualize a few potential problems with e-learning. First, if the class fails to establish internal rapport, the entire process becomes very mechanical. Second, it is possible that if many  ndividuals from a single organization take part, and if  in addition the faculty is also drawn from the same organization,  here could be some inhibition among the class in setting out their honest views, especially in written format. Third, if the e-learning class is told that their class  performance will be used for major internal evaluations, such as  promotions, one can easily encounter breakdown or reluctant participation. The moral: treat the  new medium with caution, and do not overload it with an excess of  frills or expectations; treat the first experiences as experimental, learn  as you go along! In sum, the e-learning format is a fascinating addition to the  repertoire of professional education. It is a work-in-progress, with each course that is run,  offering new insights for better application of the format. ?

Rumi Mallick [RUMI@CSDMS.IN], Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, India

It is approximately 100 years since John Dewey began arguing for the kind of change that would move schools away from authoritarian classrooms, to environments in which learning is achieved through experimentation, practice and exposure to the real world. Today, technologies are  affecting teaching and learning in a big way.  Technology in Education or Educational Technology has been defined as the design, application evaluation and development of systems, methods, and materials to improve the process of human learning (Association for Educational Communications  and Technology, AECT definition). In very simple terms, educational technology includes ‘all  components of the  information technology used in the  delivery of educational materials.’ Since  he last decade, several initiatives (both private and  national governments) have experimented with diverse technologies in educacion. While  training in and training through computing devices has been the  most popular, the outreach of radio and television as education  instruction technol1ogies has been truly  utstanding especially with respect to remote rural areas. Other  educational technologies like alternative (low-cost, low-energy)  technologies, wireless and mobile learning platforms are also gaining  increasing attention. The use of educational technologies in particular and Information and  Communication Technologies (ICTs) in general, has been able to change the instructive  ducation process to a participative lifelong  learning process, be it the cost heavy computer-enabled learning process or the cost-effective  community  radio based mass  education process.

The changing role of   educational  technologies in the developing countries
Most technology integration in  schools in developing countries is premised on the realistic  perception that technologies are becoming increasingly pervasive in  the growing  nowledge-based economy and inaction will lead to  marginalization of these  ountries. With globalisation and the global  agenda to develop knowledge societies, the need to constantly upgrade the skills of human resources has  ecome crucial. Education and training has become the foundation of globalcompetitiveness with technologyenabled education as the key to human  esource development that can meet the challenges of such competition. While developing countries have responded through national education strategies with a focus on integration of technologies mainly ICTs at all levels and  for all purposes of education, most technology interventions in the education sector in many developing countries – especially the most poor, have been through small, uncoordinated pilot projects  initiated by non-governmental groups while most governments in these countries are struggling to cope with the challenges of infrastructure and implementation and education for all. Recent advances in and applications of technologies, have also demonstrated how  increasingly critical private sector involvement and investment is becoming in assuring that the promises of computer and communi-cations  capabilities proliferate in the sphere of public education to fulfillment of national education  and training missions.

Is it worth investing in technology for education?
While the non-governmental organizations in developing countries have experimented with diverse media and communication  technologies with a focus on improving learning outcomes of  students, most government responses have been in integrating technology training (mostly  computers) in schools. In a drive to ‘prepare for the digital  tomorrow’, a number of nationalgovernments are allocating funds to ‘create a digitally literate’ young  generation who have the skills to “survive’ and contribute to the  digital era. In the past years the ‘online’ (Digital Divide Network,  Bytesforall, to name a few) and the ‘offline’ community (the various groups led by the Non- Governmental practitioners) have been debating on several issues of technology especially ICTs in education. Although much  literature exists that tell the story of successful ICT in education endeavours, there is lack of adequate research instruments, indicators and even qualitative evaluation methodologies that aresufficiently general and sensitive to capture the impact in a variety  of situations. Questions have been raised – “What are the outcomes of ICT in education? What are the lessons we have learnt from good models? Are these models scalable? What does all of these cost? A recent study initiated by  infodev (www.infodev.org) on monitoring  and evaluation of ICT in educationprojects has raised these similar  questions. The study indicates that “relatively little is actually known about the effectiveness of  investments in ICTs in education, in promoting educational reform in general, and Education for All(EFA) goals in particular. Despite the billions of dollars of investments in ICTs in education. little hard evidence and consensus  exist on the proper, cost-effective utilization of ICTs to meet a wide  variety of some of the most pressing educational challenges  facing the developing world. To be sure, some good work has been done. These lessons do not seem to  be informing policy related to education in a significant way.”  Seemingly, there is a glaring gap between ‘what has worked on ground’ and a relevant actionable  knowledge base, which can help policy-makers in making more  ‘informed’ rather than ‘assumed’ decisions. Such divergent  scenarios have often resulted in imprecise policies that have allowed the introduction of  computer-aided teaching andlearning in schools without a follow-up with adequate teachers  capacity building programmes and change management in the  education system The message is clear. National policies on ICT in education is not  enough, there needs to be adequate evaluation and monitoring  echanism that can assess theICT related investing in progress in the developing countries. This can provide a more credible evidence-based future of ICT in  education in development andresult in more comprehensive policies in future.
The scenario in India for ICT and education stems from several initiatives that have created enabling environment at the policy and strategy levels. With the advent of the dedicated educational satellite EDUSAT, the ecosystem is  ready to absorb new technologies for achieving the educational  goals. We review some key policy and programme interventions at  he national level. The Right to Information Act The Government of India on June  15, 2005, passed the much awaited Right to Information (RTI) Act  which came into force on October 12, 2005 (120th day of its enactment on June 15, 2005). The  Act extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and  Kashmir. The new law replaces a weaker law enacted by the Lok  Sobha (Lower House in Parliament) in 2002. As the  globally renowned rights activist Aruna Roy and Magsaysay  Award winner points out, “For a country proud of its status as the world’s  largest democracy, this is one more step towards making its institutions  and authorities accountable and answerable to the people they  serve”. In view of making the law truly participatory, progressive and  meaningful, the RTI portal (www.righttoinformation.gov.in) of the National Informatics Centre  (www.nic.gov.in) was made a central repository of information for citizens to access information  through a user-friendly search engine.  Citizens can now get more information on the educational   pportunities available to them, citizens can now request for information on funds received,  budget allocations and funds spend by their local authorities for  education and can judge by themselves the educational performance of their district/town/  city. The University Grants Commission (UGC) is responsible  for monitoring the workings of institutions of higher education.  The UGC has notified all institutions of higher education to disclose various kinds of  information (as elaborated in the ‘Returns of Information by Higher  Education Institution’, formulated by the UGC).  The Right to Education Bill  The Right to Education Bill gives effect the Article 21A of the 86th  Constitution Amendment Act, affirming that every child between the age of 6 and 14 years has the  right to free and compulsory education. This Act entails the state  to ensure a school in every child’s  neighbourhood conforming to the minimum standards defined in the
Bill. The Bill entails, also free  education in all government schools and private schools to  provide free education to at least 25% of children from weaker sections. The Bill also makes it  mandatory for the state/Union Territories governments to determine every year the  requirement of schools, facilities, and their locations; establish  additional schools as required; deploy teachers and create  facilities for their training. The states are also required to develop a mechanism to monitor enrolment, participation and  attainment status of every child, and take corrective steps wherever  required. The states also need to make information in this regard available in the public domain,  including on an on-line basis. However, although this Bill  heralds a positive step toward Universal Primary Education, the   Bill has been criticised on several grounds. Not only does it fail to acknowledge factors such as  poverty that forces children out of  schools, it also does not make any provision for children below 6  years and above 14 years. Anil Sadgopal, a former dean of Delhi University’s Department of Education, notes that this exclusion  of some age groups contradicts the United Nations Convention on the  Right of the Child, which describes a child as “every human being below 18 years”. “The government of India is a signatory to this  convention. By excluding those under six, we are ignoring 170  million children,” he says. Educationalist claims that exclusion of children below 6 year  will mainly affect the poorest section of the society. The National Curriculum Framework (NCF)  Prepared by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the NCF  mphasises the words learning without burden and child-centred  education repeatedly. Its array of suggestions, includes cutting down  on the number of textbooks, making assessment methods flexible, and promoting more  inclusive learning. The pathbreaking suggestions of the new  National Curriculum Framework has put the child firmly at the centre of its proposals. The NCF  has been “sensitive” to the needs of children and understands that  the ultimate goal of education is to “motivate”. The framework also has a section on Teacher Education for Curriculum Renewal, which, recognizes that, “Attempts at curricular reform have not been adequately supported by teacher education” and suggests strategies for organising teacher training  programmes. The NCF has devoted a chapter to School and Classroom  Environment, mentioning that enough attention has not been paid to the importance to the  physical environment for learning and heads of school and block functionaries needs to  focus on ensuring that at least minimum infrastructural requirements are met. It also mentions that the ideal number of students in a class should be  round 30. The nation waits to witness how NCF recommendations will become a reality in the  face of crumbling basic infrastructure and  in most cases no infrastructure in schools.  The Sarva Shiksha Abhiayan (SSA)  Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan  (Education for All), launched in  2001, is a flagship programme of the national   overnment. It aims  that all children complete 5 years  of primary schooling by  2007 and  all children complete 8 years of  elementary schooling by 2010.  The  SSA program combines  centrally set targets and norms for  planning and   osting with  decentralized management, bottom  up planning, community  mobilization, and social audits.  SSA funds annual work plans  submitted by states and districts to  meet the targets. SSA provides  ample flexibility to design   ocally    pecific strategies, encouraging  partnerships with nongovernmental organizations and requiring community oversight to ensure transparency and sustainability. In 2005, SSA approved the ICT@school initiatives, which involves the introduction of  computer education in the primary level in several states.  Mission 2007: Every village aknowledge centre.

This national capacity building programme received support of Rs. 100 crores (USD 22.2 million)from the Government of India in  its Union Budget 2005-06,  hich was presented by the Finance  Minister (FM), P Chidambaram. The FM said that the Government shared the goal of Mission 2007, which is to establish village knowledge centres in every Indian village by the 60th anniversary of India’s Independence Day. The Mission also received International  recognition at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS  2005) where the International Telecommunication Union (ITU),  an arm of United Nations formally accepted ‘Mission 2007’ as a  flagship programme of its ‘Connect the World’ initiative. The UNDP and the Swiss Development gency (SDC) also joined  the International support group for the  programme along with International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canadian  International Development Agency (CIDA), the United Kingdom’s  Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank, UNESCO, WHO, FAO,  GKP, amongst others, promising financial support and help in  technology deployment.