Department of Media Studies

Christ University, Bangalore

Proposed Programme Title: Certificate Programme in the Digital Classroom

1. Introduction:
Certificate Programme in the Digital Class will be conducted by Centre for the Study
of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore with the direct participation of Centre for
Internet Studies (CIS), Bangalore and Centre for Education Beyond Curriculum
(CEDBEC), Christ University, Bangalore and organised by Department of Media
Studies, Christ University, Bangalore.

2. Programme Objective:
The purpose of this course is to investigate the transformations taking place in the
classroom through the process of digitization of the various aspects of classroom
pedagogy. Both courses and class readings are downloadable on various formats,
teachers commonly use blog and wiki formats as pedagogic devices, students
‘publish’ their assignments and engage in various kinds of peer-learning practices.
While several universities and undergraduate colleges have actively adopted such
technologies, it is unclear as to how drastic the change is. Is the change no more than
conventional content and teaching/assessment strategies moving to new platforms? Or
is the change more fundamental than that?

3. Minimum Duration of the Programme: Three months

4. Eligibility for Admission:

The applicants must be pursuing their graduation programme or have passed it. The
programme is open for all those who fulfill the minimum eligibility criteria.

4.1. Admission Process:

The programme will be announced in the University notice board, the University
website, CSCS website and other media to reach the prospective participants.

5. Programme Structure:

Seme Course Course Max. Marks Hours per Cr Tota

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NA (Details given below) 100 4 2 2

This course, to be conducted with media students of the Christ University will also
see the active participation of faculty from a range of disciplines across the board:
education, law, computer science and sociology. It will be conducted over 10 sessions
to be divided into five modules which are tentatively listed below:

Module 1: The University and the Class

This module, pivoted around Bill Readings’ The University in Ruins (Harvard, 1996),
explores the historic transformation of the classroom as the location for the pursuit of
‘excellence’. From its classic Humboldtian origins, to its ‘developmental’ stage – the
rise of the mass-classroom, the principle of education for all – to a present space in
which it is a gigantic agglomeration of a variety of small experimental spaces – the
classroom has changed dramatically. This module will explore the theory of the
classroom, and the change taking place in the category of the student, the teacher and
the ‘imparting’ of knowledge paradigm. Students will explore key websites which
have explored how such paradigms have changed, and report on their findings.

Module 2: The Public Nature of the Classroom

Both students and teachers are recognizing that the classroom is a very public space:
students ‘publish’ their papers, teachers upload their class lectures and put up blogs
that are technically accessible to the public at large. What does the entry of the world
outside do to the classroom as a closed space for intellectual work, frank debate and
the display of insecurity? This module will work with John Willinsky’s The Access
Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (MIT Press, 2006),
sections on ‘Development’, ‘Public’, ‘Politics’ and ‘Rights’.

Module 3: The Digital Native

The concept of the ‘digital native’ originates with Marc Prensky’s Digital Natives,
Digital Immigrants (2001) to look at a ‘new breed of student entering educational
establishments’. The term draws an analogy between how a country's natives, for
whom the local religion, language, and folkways are natural and indigenous, separate
them from immigrants to a country who often are expected to adapt and assimilate to
their newly adopted home. Prensky refers to accents employed by digital immigrants,
such as printing documents rather than commenting on screen or printing out emails
to save in hard copy form. Digital immigrants are said to have a "thick accent" when
operating in the digital world in distinctly pre-digital ways, when, for instance, he
might "dial" someone on the telephone to ask if his email was received. How ‘native’
is the digital student today? What happens to the ‘immigrant’, i.e. someone seriously
technologically challenged by the heavy reliance on digital ‘insiderism’?

This module will split into an inquiry into the problems faced by the both the class
teacher and the student, both of whom may or may not be digital natives. It will
include one survey to be conducted about volunteer faculty and volunteer students in
Christ University, on the problems and possibilities of digital insiderism. Students will
assemble and publish survey results online.

Module 4: Technologies Of L;Earning (1): The Institution And The Institutional

Repository
This section will be a set of practical sessions on the role and purpose of repositories
in academic institutions. Students will actively explore such classic repositories as
CSeARCH (http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/CSeARCH.HTM) to see the benefits and
problems of repositories. It will end with hands-on experience of a repository, located
either at CSCS or at Christ University itself.

Module 5: Technologies of Learning (2):

This session will include two key components:
• Role of peer learning, or student-teach-student.
• Role of examination processes: Are examinations changing? Should they
change?
This will again be a hands-on experiment, working mainly with hand-held devices,
and the role such devices play in the facilitating peer/participatory learning, and in the
continuous assessment mechanisms that are replacing end-of-term examinations. We
may actually experiment with a new device here, supported by the Nokia Research
Centre, Bangalore (to be confirmed).

6. Internal Evaluation:
There will be a continuation evaluation based on the work done by the student as part
of the course.

7. Final Evaluation:
Final evaluation can also be a presentation, or a written evaluation.

8. Proposed Intake: 30

9. Department Capability:

9.1 Proposed Course Instructors:

Ashish Rajadhyaksha (CSCS)
Nishant Shah (CIS)
Anil Pinto (CU)

10. Name and Address of the Examiners:

Ashish Rajadhyaksha
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS),
827, 29th Main, Poornaprajna Layout,
Uttarahalli, Bangalore 560061

Nishant Shah
Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers, 14,
Cunningham Road, Bangalore – 560052

Anil Pinto, Christ University, Bangalore – 560029.

11. Proposed Commencement Date: July 2009

12. Programme Coordinator: Naresh Rao (Christ University)