A Webbed Existence

Annapurna Das
Annapurna Das
from Noida,U.P.,India
15 years ago
I was glad to learn, the other day, that Delhi University had become one of the first central universities in the country, to conduct an online examination for its undergraduate science students.The Common Admission Test(CAT) too, you must have heard, will go online this year.In other words, India is taking to e-learning in a big way.This isn't surprising, considering how comfortably and firmly the internet is ensconced in the lives of the urban Indian, today.Look at how Google has become almost synonymous with the verb 'search'. I heard a child , the other day, referring to a gentleman as Googleji, because he would always be found looking for kids who were upto mischief. What do we do these days when we can't understand the meaning of a word? Google it. And bingo! Before you can even blink, you have multiple meanings of the word.That's not all,an array of websites offering synonyms,idiomatic expressions,pronunciation,articles line up attractively before you and glimmer invitingly on your screen waiting for just a click of a finger to transport you to another world filled with information.I sometimes think it is impossible to think of life without the internet for many of us.It wasn't so,even a few years ago.For the education community, specially, the internet is nothing short of a boon.Admission forms, sample question papers, results, examination dates , online counselling ,you name it,the web has it. By now, students have got used to banking on the internet for queries of any kind. All educational institutions too almost certainly have their own websites. Taking online examinations then, is the most logical step ahead for our educational system. It's heartening to know that the Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched a project named National Mission on Education through ICT(Information and Communication Technology)to encourage integration of information technology in education.Under this project, D.U. is preparing e-learning content for as many as seven subjects.According to recent statistics, one of the top 10 positions among Global 1000 companies of the future will be that of an online learning designer.I look indulgingly at my seven-year-old playing an on-line game and learning more about environment in the process, and wonder,...."Times,they are a-changing..." http://iexploretolearn.blogspot.com
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Annapurna Das
Annapurna Das
from Noida,U.P.,India
15 years ago

So true, ARjuna. It is indeed a reality today that being e-literate is as much important as being literate. And yes, the divide between the ones who have the requisite skills and the ones who don't, is wide.

It's therefore, heartening to know that there are many NGOs which run schools for slum children where e-learning is a part of the curriculum. While computer theory is a part of the syllabus of most schools by now, the effort must be made to introduce the elderly and people in the rural belts to the advantages of the internet.

Each of us must try in our own small way to teach others and try to bridge the divide. What say?

http://iexploretolearn.blogspot.com

 

 

ARJuna
ARJuna
from Mumbai
15 years ago

It is a boon but how many of the millions from India actually know about the net or how to operate it. Along with the online CAT and 11th std. admissions being made online (In Maharashtra) we are fast moving towards progress in the field of e-learning however in the process we increase the divide between the e-literate people and the e-illiterate ones, we forget about them and tend to 'leave them behind'.

Today instead of concentrating only on progress we need to concentrate on how to educate people who aren't aware about the computer and then the internet.

http://worldofteenager.blogspot.com

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