Get on to the online mode

Updated on: Monday, February 20, 2012

Yes, the influx of information and the volume of educational content that gets digitally archived daily are indeed overwhelming. But the sluggish pace of Internet penetration and IT deployment means that the access to the same is disproportionately limited to urban centres of learning and the rest of India has miles to go before it can fully enjoy the benefits of a virtual classroom.

The advanced world is moving toward a free and secure online social learning network and virtual classrooms provide an easy way to connect and collaborate, offering a real-time platform to exchange ideas, share content, play and learn. Education system in India is largely supported by government machinery, and like most public sector endeavours it is powered by the individuals involved in it. If there is a willing soul around, it is effective but mostly that is not the case. The fact is that our education system has not been able to cope up with the changes.

The best examples of online enabled learning have come from private players, community initiatives and entrepreneurial ventures in dotcom. The CBSE has advised heads of all its affiliated institutions to set up at least one classroom for each class in their schools equipped with technology to enable usage of digital instruction materials. It's a good beginning as online literacy is the first step toward digital information.

The biggest threat in an online learning system is to ensure the veracity of content. It is an open and free for all culture and everybody is an expert here! It is important to search and identify what is authentic and what is garbage. And for any discerning student, this is a process they go through even in offline modes of learning where the local market is loaded with spurious guides promising instant success!

The absence of Indian Universities in the social media space is a telling comment on our apathy, ignorance and failure to move on from a hard-nosed utilitarian curriculum centric learning to a more flexible, interactive and technologically advanced modes of information exchange. It is the mindset that is a stumbling block, not our adoption or ability to use technology.


(The writer is chief, Buzz Tribe, working in the digital media space)

Times of India

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