Resource centres and services in educational technology

Resource centres and services in educational technology

Introduction

                       Education Technology has the potential to provide equal opportunities in several ways. According to means and olson access to educational technology at school can give students from low income homes , where there is little or no access to technology,“a needed edge to compete with children from more affluent homes where technology is common place in other words we can say that guaranteeing access for all classrooms to affordable educational technology in order to achieve curricular goals makes it possible to begin to address the inequities that exist among schools. Grabe and grabe note that technology in the form of telecommunications allow access to people access to interactive services through online discussion groups, interactive conference and interactive tutorials and access to files through online databases, library holdings texts and graphic files on the internet.

Objectives

1.  To understand concept of instructional resource centre.

2.  To design the components of instructional resources centre.

3.  To list out necessary equipment and accessories of an instructional resource centre.

Theoretical Overview

      Satellite  Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)

                  The Satellite instructional Television Experiment or SITE was an experimental Satellites communications project launched in India in 1975 by National aeronautics and space administration (NASA), USA and ISRO. SITE made available informational Television to rural India by various international agencies such as UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, ITU. It plays a major role in helping develop India’s own Satellite Programe, INSAT. The programmes under the SITE  were classified into 2 categories;

a)           Educational Television (ETV)

b)           Instructional Television (ITV)

                            ETV programs mainly focused on School Children in the age group of 5-12 years. It makes the education more interesting creative purposive and stimulating and also create awareness in the changing society. ITV is mainly for adult Audience and cover incidents of national importance improved practices in agriculture, health, hygiene, family planning, Nutritions etc and some recreation programme.

                         The programmes were Telecaste for 4 hours each day in two transmitions. The programmes were produced after categorizing the target audience in to 4 groups. Such as Hindi, Oria, Telugu and Kannada. The SITE was operated for one fall year from August 1975 July 1976 and covered six states.

Objectives of SITE

1.      Gain experience in the development, testing and management of Satellite based instructional TV system particularly in rural areas.

2.      Demonstrate the potential value of satellite technology in the rapid development of effective communication in the developing countries

3.      Democrate the value of Satellite broadcaste TV in the practical instruction of village inhabitants

4.      Stimulate national development in India with monogerial economics technological Social implication

SITE was more effective than all other media. It was more attractive to female audience.

      Gyan-Darsan Educational Channel

                          Gyan-Darsan is launched by ministry of Human resource development, information and broadcasting, Prasar Bharti and Igno in 26^thJanuary 2000 as the exclusive educational daily test transmission channel for students of open and conventional Universities. The time was further increase due to good response up to 19 hours within 1 year it became non-stop daily 24 hours transmission channel for educational programmes. The programme constitute 23 hours indigenous programmes and 1 hour foreign programmes. Curriculam based and enrichment programmes telecasted for 24 hours. And 4 hours for 1 GNO CIET-NCERT , 3 hours for IIT 2 and half hours for CEC-UGC and 1 hour each for TTTI and adult education. It has been used extensively in conventional and distant education format.

EDUSAT (Education Satellite)

                             Edusat was launched by Indian space research Organization on 20^th September 204. It is a path-breaking effort in the concept of tele education. The main purpose of this is to provide education to all people primarily children from remote areas of the country who cannot go to schools or colleges. The claude would be conducted by (various site education board) NCERT, CBSE, Universities etc. in a studio environment using PowerPoint presentation as well as the common blackboard. It is having interactive as well as non-interactive sessions offered.

Objectives of EDUSAT

1. Ensure availability of quality content online and through variety of access devices in   schools.

2. Promote a shift from current passive learning to active learning.

3. In-service and recurrent training of School teachers continues upgradition of their knowledge and skills.

4. Enrich the curriculum and pedagogic by employing all the technologies available including virtual class room, video on demand.

Advantages of EDUSAT

1)   Provide access to some of the best teachers and teaching process for a large target group of learners. This will enhance quality of education.

2)   The studio environment eliminating the  needs of a large number of competent, qualified teachers.

3)  The student can ask questions to the teachers through sms, e-mail or other mode of communication.

4)  The CD of classes could be available on the net without the interaction section.

   CES (Consortium for Educational Communication)

                           The consortium for educational communication popularly known as CEC is one of the inter University centres setup by the University Grants Commission of India. It has been established with the goal of addressing the needs of Higher education through the use of powerful medium of Television along with the appropriate use of emerging information communication Technology(ICT). Realizing the potential and power of Television to act as means of educational knowledge dissemination UGC started the country wide classroom programmes in the year 1984. For production of such programmers media senders were setup at 6 Universities. Subsequently CEC emerged in 1993 as a nodal agency to co ordinate, guide and facilitate such educational production at the national level. Today 22 media centers are working towards achieving this goal under the umbrella of CEC.

   UGC (University Grants Commission)

                    The UGC was formed in 1946 to  oversee   the work of 3 central Universities of Aligarh , Banaras and Delhi. In 1947 the committee was entrusted with the responsibility of dealing with all the existing Universities. UGC was formally inaugurated by Abdul Kalam Azad, the minister of Education. The motto of UGC is “Gyan-Vigyan Vimutaye”.

   SIET (State Institute of Education Technology)

                       SIET in Kerala, the state institute of educational technology is responsible for the planning,  research production and evaluation of educational software like video, audio programmes and computer multimedia.  SIET Kerala also aims to implement scheme to generate teaching technology and process in the modern context. SIET Kerala is the latest in the array of 7 SIET’s in the country. Department of Education , ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India sanctioned the state institute of  educational technology for  Kerala in 1998.

AVRC (Audio Visual Resource Centre)

                       The Audio-Visual Resource centre for the school for studies in art and culture (SSAC) in the faculty of arts and social sciences (FASS) at Carleton university (CU) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  The AVRC serves the combined faculties of Art, History ,Music and Film at CU.

Services

The audio-visual resource centre provides the following services.       

·         Circulation of reserve material for courses at the second-year level and above students may consult these materials on two-hour loan arrangement.

·         Online searching of the school’s teaching and reference collections, including a digital image collection.  Requests for items or patron accounts may be made in person or via email avrc @carleton.ca.

·         Assistance in locating analogue or digital material or in creating presentations or rescreening a film-we’re here to help.

 C-DIT ( Centre for development of imaging Technology)

                  C-Dit is a unique institution with diverse skill sets and achievements in the areas of information and communication Technologies and their applications.  Founded in December 1988 as an offshoot of Kerala state film development corporation, C-Dit started its operations with two projects founded by the government of India-one in the field of research and development in film and electronics technology and another in the area of science and development communication using video.

AKSHAYA

            Akshaya is a ICT project by the Kerala state information Technology mission (KSITM) To bridge the digital divide and to bring the benefits of ICT to the inter population.  In the initial phase it the focus was placed on educating one person in each family to be e-literate.  Malappuram a backward district Kerala was selected for piloting e-literacy.  Now akshya is emerged as one of the finest common service centre networks in the nation.

IT@ school

            It @school is a project of department of general education.  Government of Kerala, setup in 2001, to foster the IT education in school and which on a longer term would facilitate ICT enabled education in the state.  The project is now been implemented from5^th to 12 ^th standards in the state covering as many as 8000 schools.  An estimated 50 lakhs students and 2 lakhs teachers are now part of this project who have benefited from ICT enabled education.  Today the project is one the verge of completing its 10 ^th year of operation and it has a strong network of 160 mater trainers and 5600 school IT co-coordinators’ statewide, who are school teachers themselves.  The project functions on free software platform since it provides the freedom to an individual to study, copy, modify and re-distribute any content, a process which would ultimately benefit the whole society.

VICTERS

                    12 hours educational channel for school education was officially inaugurated by Hon. Cheif Minister of Kerala Sri. V.S. Achuthananthan on 3^rdAugust 2006.  The channel is unique in the sense that it caters to students and teachers on a need based manner.  The programmes are aired on demand, sensitive to school curriculum and even time-table.

            The ISRO has augmented the unlinking station in time for another channel a non interactive one. The technology deployed is similar to the direct to home (DTH) technology used in other T V channels.  Education videos, as per the Kerala syllabus and curriculm, are primarily aired during school timings.

UGC

The University Grants Commission of India (UGC India) is a statutory body set up by the Indian Union government in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 under Ministry of Human Resource Development, and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education. It provides recognition to universities in India, and disburses funds to such recognized universities and colleges. Its headquarters is in New Delhi, and six regional centres in Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Bangalore.

^HISTORY

The UGC was first formed in 1945 to oversee the work of the three Central Universities of Aligarh, Banaras and Delhi. Its responsibility was extended in 1947 to cover all Indian universities.

In August 1949 a recommendation was made to reconstitute the UGC along similar lines to the University Grants Committee of the United Kingdom. This recommendation was made by the University Education Commission of 1948-1949 which was set up under the chairmanship of S. Radhakrishnan "to report on Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions". In 1952 the government decided that all grants to universities and higher learning institutions should be handled by the UGC. Subsequently, an inauguration was held on 28 December 1953 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Minister of Education, Natural Resources and Scientific Research.

In November 1956 the UGC became a statutory body upon the passing of the "University Grants Commission Act, 1956" by the Indian Parliament.

In 1994 and 1995 the UGC decentralised its operations by setting up six regional centers at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore. The head office of the UGC is located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, with two additional bureaus operating from 35, Feroze Shah Road and the South Campus of University of Delhi as well.

In December 2015 the Indian government set a National Institutional of Ranking Framework under UGC which will rank all educational institutes by April 2016.

In December 2017 D.P. Singh, former director of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), was appointed chairman for a period of five years, replacing UGC member Virander Singh Chauhan, who officiated the position since the retirement of Ved Prakash in April 2017.

Akshaya project

                     The Akshaya project, first started in the rural Malappuram district of Kerala, India, and now spread all around the state, was the first district-wide E-literacy project in India and one of the largest known Internet Protocol (IP) based wireless networks in the world. In November 2002, the state government of Kerala put into place a project, piloted in Malappuram, with the goal of at least one person in every family to be computer literate in that district. Malappuram is now what is said to be India's First E-literate District. The mission continues to make Kerala the First E-literate state in India.

In Malappuram district alone, Akshaya has conducted one of the world's largest computer literacy drives, claiming to reach over 600,000 households, representing more than 3.6 million people, in less than 6 months. The project has created a unique brand of state-funded computer access centers, and simultaneously led to a massive wireless infrastructure, providing a wide range of services and making way to many future opportunities.

The project offers lots of services like: E-Pay (electronic payment of utility bills like electricity, land phone, drinking water, university fees etc.); E-Krishi (for farmers to provide online agriculture trading and information portal, A to Z Solution) E-Vidya (advanced IT learning for e-literates and others); E-Ticketing (online train, flight, bus ticket reservations); PMRY online registration; online passport registration; a village kiosk for transparent collectorate program, online communication providers for expatriate Indians; an online medical transcription course, with extension programs for all the above-mentioned services.

C-dit

                            The Centre for Development of Imaging Technology(C-Dit) was established by the government of Kerala in 1988 for the advancement of research, development and training in imaging technology. C-DIT has four groups, each specializing in a core area, viz. Communication Group, Technology Group, Education & Training Group and Operations Group. C-DIT functions as a Total Solutions Provider to the departments and agencies under the government of Kerala in the areas of ICT applications and in supply of holography based security products.

Location

C-DIT is situated near the picturesque campus of Chithranjali Hills, beside the Kerala State Film Development Corporation campus in Thiruvanathapuram Kerala, India.

Divisions

Information Systems Division

Web Services Team

·         Open Source Technology Team

·         Software Engineering Team

Technical Extension and Image Processing Division

·         Optical Image Processing Team

·         Technology Extension Team

·         Communication Training Team

E-Governance and Research & Development Division

·         E-Governance Team

·         Research and Development Team

·         Computational Linguistic Team

Visual Communication Division

·         Advertisement Film Team

·         Video Documentary Team

·         Sutharykeralam and News Services

·         Educational Informatics and New Media Team

             INFLIBNET Centre (Information and Library Network Centre) is an autonomous Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India under Ministry of HRD (MHRD) located in Gandhinagar.Gujarat. The centre was initially started as a national project under IUCAA in March, 1991. It became an independent Inter-University Centre in June 1996.

INFLIBNET is involved in modernizing university libraries in India and connecting them as well as information centres in the country through a nationwide high speed data network using the state-of-art technologies for the optimum utilization of information. INFLIBNET is set out to be a major player in promoting scholarly communication among academicians and researchers in India.

Major activities

The Centre has implemented several projects for the development of library services in Indian Universities. These include the following:

1.     Financial support for the automation of University Libraries

2.     Development of a comprehensive database of the resources in various libraries in India

3.     Development of an integrated library management software called SOUL (Software for University Libraries)^[1]

4.     UGC-Infonet Internet Connectivity Programme

5.     The centre has taken several open access initiatives like:

·         OJAS, a platform to faculty and researchers in Universities to host their open-access journals^[2]

·         Shodhganga, a digital repository for theses and dissertations by research scholars in universities in India^[3]

·         Shodhgangotri, a digital repository of synopsis of research topic submitted to the universities in India by research scholars^[4]

·         An institutional repository called IR@INFLBNET for papers published in the proceedings of the CALIBER and PLANNER^[5]

6.     Creation of R&D facilities and working groups to study and contribute to the open source movement

7.     Maintenance of a database of scientists, researchers and other faculty members working at leading academic institutions and other R&D organisations involved in teaching and research in India

8.     Bibliometric and scientometric studies

9.     e-PG Pathshala A Gateway to All Post Graduate Courses

10. Trainings in many various aspects related to Library and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are frequently organized.

CIET

                                  Central Institute Of Educational Technology(CIET), a consitituent unit of NCERT, came into existence in the year 1984 with the merger of Center for Educational Technology and Department of Teaching Aids.CIET is a premiere national institute of educational technology.Its major aim is to promote utilization of educational technologies viz. radio,TV, films, Satellite communications and cyber media either separately or in combinations. The institute undertakes activities to widen educational opportunities, promote equity and improve quality of educational processes at school level.

EMMRC

                                              UGC has initiated an educational television transmission, earlier named 'Countrywide Classroom'. Its original one-hour slot transmission today, has grown into a 24 hour dedicated educational channel, 'Vyas'. Not only this but the programmes generated by the centres are shown on various other channels, which includes Education International on DD Bharti. In the near future, they will be available through DTH. Henceforth, we have a big share in television broadcasting and now in tune with the modern development of web casting the centre is geared towards e-Content development. we have also set up interactive classroom to receive and uplink the live lectures of eminent professors through EDUSAT-Satellite Interactive Terminal which is part of CEC-UGC network of more than 100 SIT/ROTs.

SIET Kerala

                                         State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET Kerala) is responsible for the planning, research, production and evaluation of digital contents like video, audio programmes, multimedia objects, software etc for educational purpose. SIET Kerala also aims to implement schemes to generate teaching technologies and learning process in the modern context. SIET Kerala is the latest in the array of 7 SIET's in the country. Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India sanctioned the State Institute of Educational Technology for Kerala in 1998. 

IT@School

The IT@School Project under General Education Department was set-up to augment the IT education in schools and also to enhance the quality of IT education towards a complete ICT enabled educational system.  The Project envisages enhancing the role of Information Technology as a teaching aid for learning all subjects. IT@School Project is termed as the Single largest simultaneous deployment of FOSS based ICT education in the world. Headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram, the Project has District Resource Centers in each district. The project is the nodal agency for all eGovernance activities under General Education Department and also the nodal agency for implementing EDUSAT operations in the State, under which an educational channel viz. VICTERS is functioning. 

                       IT@School was formed in 2001, as a project under General Education Department, to inculcate Information Technology  activities in Higher School sections in the State. The first breakthrough of IT@School came in 2005 when Information Technology was made a compulsory subject in Std 10. The launch of EDUSAT operations and broadband connectivity to schools commenced since then, the VICTERS channel operated by IT@School was the first Complete Educational Channel in the Country. By effectively making use of the Centrally sponsored ‘ICT at School ‘scheme, IT@School provided ICT infrastructure to 4071 schools during 2007-2012. In 2016, IT@School re-initiated the ICT intervention in Lower Primary and Upper Primary sections, by launching exclusive ICT Textbooks viz; Kalipetti and e@Vidya.