Professional Documents
Culture Documents
www.euroindia2004.org
V OLUME II N UMBER 2, F EBRUARY 2004
Contents
Features
IT Education
Initiatives among Mumbai Muslims ...................................... 8
Rehana Ghadially and Farida Umrani
Mapping the Neighbourhood
An alternate learning experience .......................................... 14 Rendezvous
Rumi Mallick, Anuradha Dhar and Dr.
Satyaprakash Map India 2004 ................................................................... 39
Changing Paradigms
Exam results through the Internet ....................................... 18
Neeta Verma, Sonal Kalra Columns
Insight
News ..................................................................................... 6
The hole-in-the-wall ............................................................ 22
Sugata Mitra Book Review
Transforming e-Knowledge: A revolution in the sharing of
Integrating role of teachers
knowledge ........................................................................... 37
Geo-informatics in higher education ................................... 25
Madan Mohan Rao
Seema M Parihar
What’s on ............................................................................ 41
Perspective
Information for development .............................................. 29 Et Cetera
Karl Harmsen Games people play ............................................................... 42
Published and printed by Ravi Gupta on behalf of Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS) G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA, UP, 201 301, India. © CSDMS, 2003. All rights reserved.
Editorial
Initiatives among
Mumbai Muslims
The marginalization of the Muslim minority from the mainstream
development is well known. As IT and its role in growth and
globalization are established, this may not only further marginalize
Muslims from the national mainstream but also threaten their place in
world development.
The role of new technologies and their po- leadership of the Daudi Bohra has harnessed information and
tential to contribute to economic growth communication technologies to serve traditional purposes and
and human development has been debat- set itself as a role model for embracing ICT for its people. The
ed at various national and international fo- ownership of personal computers among the rich of this sect is
rums. Speaking of equity and social 14.5% on par with Japan. The Memons on the other hand do
transformation, the marginalization of the not have a single computer in their jamatkhana. Secondly, in the
Muslim minority from the mainstream bustling city of Mumbai, Muslim sects such as the Aga Khanis,
development is well known. As IT and its Ishana Asharis, the Bohras, Memons, Konkani, etc, populate the
Rehana Ghadially role in growth and globalization are estab- area from Crawford Market to Byculla Station. This heterogene-
Professor lished, this may not only further margin- ity is compounded by diversity in education, class and language.
rehana@hss.iitb.ac.in alize Muslims from the national In this stretch of seven bus stops there are no world-class com-
Farida Umrani mainstream but also threaten their place puter training institutions such as APTECH, NIIT, or SSI.
PhD Scholar in world development. The assumption that all is well in urban centres was chal-
farida@iitb.ac.in Like the ‘digital divide’, the North- lenged through a survey of women trainees enrolled for a “Wom-
IIT, Mumbai South divide has been widely discussed in en’s Special” basic course at a world class IT educational
academic circles. In recent times, the di- institution. Results from Mumbai city showed that only 3% were
vide within a society, especially across geographic location (ru- Muslim women. Given this state of affairs, the role of other play-
ral/urban), class, and gender have received inordinate media and ers, in this field, if any, needs to be brought to light. The paper
academic attention. A society is far more heterogeneous and char- highlights some community and government cum community
acterized by divides besides these three. In India, other social IT education initiatives addressed to the Muslims and describes
structural dimensions worth a mention are caste, ethnicity, reli- the nature of the beneficiaries. Besides, it critically reviews these
gion, language and state. These digital divides deserve our atten- initiatives, share some observations and provide policy recom-
tion and await documentation. Another lacuna in the IT and mendations. For this purpose the senior author surveyed the ge-
development literature is the lack of focus on computer access ographical locality mentioned above and spent approximately
and learning in urban areas. It is assumed that things are well twenty-two hours at various places where education was impart-
there with the result attention directed to making IT available to ed. She collected pamphlets, brochures and spoke to the centre
villagers. This is not to say that IT development in rural areas is heads. In addition, information about the current batch of
unimportant – it is to illustrate that the urban centres warrant the beneficiaries was gathered from the application forms to
scrutiny as well. Studies document government initiatives – state provide a demographic profile of the beneficiaries. This entire
and centre – and NGOs thrust in IT education; what is left un- activity has been described in three sections – the first de-
documented are the community cum government initiatives. scribes the initiatives; the second discusses the nature of the
Ethnic groups within the Muslim community have respond- beneficiaries and the third section offers critique and makes pol-
ed to modern technology in diverse ways. The religious icy recommendations.
An alternate learning
experience
Except the lone community kiosk in rural India there are very few
instances of knowledge dissemination through IT. Knowledge creation
by the community through IT is still a dream.
The major goal of education is the acqui- connected to their community, particularly to their school.
sition of basic academic and social skills, Knowledge gained through education should foster in each in-
which would permit progression to further dividual a stronger sense of responsibility and increase awareness
education, training or employment. Today in each individual of the world around her/him. Education should
education is limited to fixed syllabus, rigid not only improve attitudes toward learning and improve basic
timetables and permanent classroom exer- academic skills but also encourage the development of better,
cises. The instructor instructs and the stu- more productive social skills; so as to improve communication
dent passively listens. Where as most with peers and adults.
Rumi Mallick children have a fresh and magic ways of Hence, a productive ongoing relationship is required between
Sr Research Associate seeing the world, the present formal edu- the community and the schools, which will not only strengthen
rumi@csdms.org cation system provides no scope for the stu- the communities but also benefit policymakers, educators, and
Anuradha Dhar dents to express their creative self or vent the general public who seek to improve the education system.
Research Associate their imaginative spirit. Students are sim-
anuradha@csdms.org ply passive recipients of handed down Educational technology
Satyaprakash, PhD knowledge with absolutely no participation Educational technology is widely recognized as an essential part
Project Manager in knowledge creation. Again educational of education in the 21st century. Technology plays a key role in
satya@csdms.org outcomes, measured
CSDMS solely by the perform-
ance of students in
tests, have quite often remained the same.
While many schools specify high perform-
ance goals for all students, unfortunately,
measured performance often falls short of
expectations.
A characteristic of the present education
system is that it has very little public involve-
ment or support. The present system pro-
vides no scope for the community to support
and be involved in the education process or
address issues of common interest. There is
very little interaction or dialogue between
the schools and the community at large. As
a result, school goals rarely interpret into the
educational goals of the community. Aca-
demic skills learned in schools are not able
to meet the community needs.
Education should help citizens feel more Students mapping with PDA and GPS
helping student achieve higher quality education in order to meet The approach is community centric and the emphasis is on com-
the challenges of a rapidly changing world. Today technology is munity driven knowledge production as the essence of sustaina-
being used as a tool to level the educational playing field. ble development. In fact, community mapping has today become
Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician said, “Words a central part of the emerging paradigm of participatory learn-
differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings dif- ing, community empowerment and sustainable planning.
ferently arranged have a different effect.” This expression today Community mapping initially helps to identify the different
stands true for technology. Technologies differently used have spaces used and occupied by the community, and then provides
diverse effects. With so many technologies to choose from, it is a visual representation of those spaces (a most effective way of
the usage, which makes a difference. The way a technology is communicating/interpreting those spaces to/for the others) and
put to use gives it a new dimension, and unique perspective. in the process links information to place. Thus, understanding
And therefore, technology is not only technology but has more what is happening in the communities (through the community
importantly become a ‘tool’-specifically those concerning with maps) can help in decision making and consensus building which
information and communication i.e. ‘ICT’. can translate into policy design for community development.
In India, computers have entered the classrooms. The impact
of computers is getting more and more noticed especially in Mapping the Neighbourhood: A case study
smaller and remote parts of India. However the use of computer in Almora
in most of the schools is still limited to the fixed syllabus and One such community mapping initiative involving school chil-
rigid timelines. Again, there is an overwhelming digital gap in dren is a project called ‘Mapping the Neighbourhood’, spon-
the education segment. The urban schools have adopted newer sored by the Department of Science and Technology, Government
paraphernalia like the Internet but, the rural schools have just of India. The Hawalbag development block has been selected
been introduced to computers. within the Almora district of Uttaranchal state for the imple-
Except the lone community kiosk in rural India, there are mentation of the project. The project has attempted to facilitate
very few instances of knowledge dissemination through IT. community learning through neighbourhood maps that are
Knowledge creation by the community through IT is still a dream. grounded in ecological and social narrative with school children
However all is not lost. There is a great potential and the as the spearhead of knowledge creation.
‘ICT have-nots’ can transform into ‘ICT-haves’, where the com- The project has aimed at bringing high-end technology to
munity with school children as the torchbearers can change from the rudimentary level of the village community. School children
passive helpless recipients to active information and knowledge from rural and urban areas have been initiated to use indige-
creators. Use of ICT for education can not only increase the nously developed geographic information systems (GIS) soft-
students fluency with technology but also give them new roles to ware running on a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) coupled with
in information process, hence providing leadership for the com- Global Positioning System (GPS).
munity. The project has excited the students in scientific and techno-
logical innovations. They have become channels for the dissem-
Community mapping ination of scientific and technological knowledge. The focus is
Mapping helps in relating to the territories and terrain, the spac- not just technology but also its innovative use for mapping the
es and places of our lives. Maps have immense spatial power as neighbourhood and its resources. This would build their profes-
they reflect the culture and links personal knowledge to commu- sional capacity. The maps prepared through community-friend-
nity learning and planning. Community mapping has been used ly-technology by the school children can then be fed into the
as a tool for community learning and planning for sustainability. ongoing planning and development process.
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C HANGING P ARADIGMS
The hole-in-the-wall
Access to state-of-the-art PCs to
several thousand children in urban
and rural India was provided. The
computers were placed outdoors,
usually mounted on walls and,
hence, often referred to as
“hole-in-the-wall”.
The experiments were initiated at Kalka- project is funded by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
ji, New Delhi, by NIIT Limited, Indian • The Cambodia project (2003)- a plan for 10 computers in 5
software and training multinational, locations in Cambodia. A gift from the Prime Minister of
through its Center for Research in Cog- India to the Cambodian government. The project is funded
nitive Systems (CRCS). They were later by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Gov-
continued by CRCS and through a com- ernment of India.
pany, Hole-in-the-Wall Education Lim-
ited (HIWEL), set up in 2001 for this All projects, except in Shivpuri, are continuing (September, 2003).
Sugata Mitra purpose. HIWEL is a joint venture com- The 75 computers installed in India so far are used by an esti-
R&D Head pany between NIIT Limited and the In- mated 7,500 children.
NIIT ternational Finance Corporation, the Groups of 6 to 13 year old children do not need to be “taught”
sugatam@niit.com industrial financing arm of the World how to use computers. In experiments conducted in India since
Bank. 1999, as listed above, it has been shown that children can self-
Several projects have been initiated since then and include instruct themselves to operate computers. Their ability to do so
the following: seems to be independent of their:
• The Shivpuri (1999) experiment- one computer in the state • Educational background
of Madhya Pradesh, funded by NIIT Limited • Literacy levels in the English language or any other language
• The Madantusi experiment (2000)- one computer in the state • Social or economic level
of Uttar Pradesh, funded by Dr. Urvashi Sahni and NIIT Lim- • Ethnicity and place of origin, i.e., city, town or village
ited. • Gender
• The Madangir project (2000)- 30 computers in six locations • Genetic background
in Delhi funded by the Government of Delhi and NIIT Lim- • Geographic location
ited. • Intelligence
• The Sindhudurg project (2001- 10 computers in five loca-
tions in the state of Maharashtra, funded by the ICICI bank What do they learn?
and NIIT Limited. An estimated 100 children can learn to do most or all of the
• The IFC project (2002)- a plan for 66 computers in 22 loca- following tasks in approximately three months, using the “hole-
tions spread throughout India, of which 33 computers in 11 in-wall” arrangement with a single PC:
locations are currently functional, funded by the IFC and NIIT • All windows operational functions, such as click, drag, open,
Limited. close, resize, minimize, menus, navigation etc.
• The Alexandria project (2003)- a plan for 90 computers in 30 • Draw and paint pictures on the computer
locations spread throughout Alexandria, Egypt. The first ki- • Load and save files
osk is scheduled to be opened on October 12, 2003. The • Play games
Geo-informatics in
higher education
Education in Geo-informatics has under- teaches and an opinion on how it should be taught. A teacher
gone remarkable development with the usually has some teaching material he had already accumulated,
introduction of a number of related cours- prepared and used. Different branches have different terminolo-
es at graduate and postgraduate level in gy, different learning objectives, different emphasizes, etc. For
India. By 2004 one may even find it being example in remote sensing evaluating the patterns emerging from
named as at least one of the many papers spectral signature can be one learning objective, while in GIS –
in different undergraduate colleges teach- thematic linkages and query analysis is important learning ob-
ing Geography, Geology, Planning or oth- jectives. If dealt appropriately, these can be readily augmented in
Seema M Parihar er Geo-Sciences. However, the curriculum designing reusable learning objects.
Reader in Geography leaves something to be desired particularly Nevertheless, ready availability of technology in institute of
Kirori Mal College in the relatively non-professional colleges. higher education may not necessarily propel ICT integration in
New Delhi In many cases, the lack of required infra- traditional academic set-up. This is despite the fact that in June
parihars@vsnl.com structure, combined with partially trained 2001, Kirori Mal College became the first institute where suc-
teachers, indicates that the curriculum is cessful on-line admissions process was completed in India. De-
still at a nascent stage. Introduction of information and commu- spite this the academic dimension is almost missing. Although it
nication technology (ICT) can provide solutions with inputs from made statements about the needs to promote the use of ICT on
both within and outside. Execution of ICT requires new compe- a fitness for purpose basis, it did not provide any clear direction
tencies of faculty members. The burden of integrating e-learn- or states how ICT should be used. For that matter, up to now
ing lies mainly on the shoulders of the teachers, therefore, any the institutional teaching and learning strategy had said little in
planned process should take into account the capabilities and depth about the potential for exploitation of ICT. What emerges
limitations of the teachers and should be directed as steps and is a fact that, the solutions may target measures revolving around
manner that suit each teacher. Teachers can get more and more faculty with Technology and Students integrated around it.
creative in integrating all possible interaction as the experience But in doing so, in traditional higher education there exists
with the course evolves and as the overall experience of the col- certain bottlenecks, which underlie even after the availability of
lege teacher evolves. Undoubtedly, digital learning resources have the required technology. They are common for any discipline.
the power, if developed and deployed appropriately, to signifi- The identified bottlenecks in the introduction of ICT in tradi-
cantly enhance the learning experience in Geo-informatics. Teach- tional academic set-up are:
ers will, however, always be needed. • teachers have to make a move to new education, but they lack
time;
ICT and teaching faculty in higher education • teachers fear that ICT will dislocate them;
On a college campus there are constant reminders that knowl- • teachers are unsure of the security provisions for their study
edge acquisition is the main focus. In that sense the campus of material, and
an institution of higher education may be viewed as a “safe ha- • perceived unreliability of networked services and local com-
ven”. Higher education focuses on how to maintain the “trust- puting services.
ing environment” image where students can be stimulated to
acquire knowledge on certain subjects, evaluate their level of learn- The reasons to have a stated policy for on-line learning develop-
ing, and in the process enhance their own value proposition ments revolving around teachers emerges from a fact that they
through existing faculty. Therefore, somewhere ICT have to cre- are the major spearhead of anchoring learning ships to the shores.
ate surrounding environment trustworthy enough to build con- The policy should therefore aim at:
fidence to fall in the category of ‘sure learning’. In ignoring this, • making faculty more accessible to students with all types of
the crevice between conflicting agendas of University and tech- study needs,
no-industry will widen. • increasing the potential for innovative forms of study, thus
However, it may be basically assumed that a higher education improving the quality of our offering through geovisualiza-
teacher already has a viewpoint on the subject matter s/he tion
Information for
development
When talking about information for development it may
be useful to first outline what we are talking about
When talking about information for de- one would need information on natural resources and socio-eco-
velopment it may be useful to first outline nomic parameters, such as income and income distribution, lan-
Karl Harmsen what we are talking about. The notion ‘in- guage, caste, class, and the role of gender, whereas the target
Director, CSSTE-AP formation’ has (at least) two aspects: the audience may be district-level planning officers or extension
India content of the information, that is, what agents, or farmers organizations. It is important to note that one
karl@harmsen.net sort of information are we talking about, should not only define what comprises the system, but also what
and the delivery mechanism, including the is not part of it and how the system interacts with the environ-
target audience, the technology used and the sustainability of ment. In figure 1, the system is represented by a rectangle, and
the operation. The notion ‘development’ has, of course, a range the area outside the rectangle is the environment.
of aspects, including the development strategy, the policy and Once the field has been defined, one has to determine where
socio-economic environment, the institutional environment and a particular system under consideration is located in the broadly
governance, and the delivery mechanism, including target sys- defined field. In the case of a country, one can make use of the
tems, target audience, and the actors and institutions involved World Bank Indicators, the UNDP Human Development Re-
in the developmental process. ports, reports of State Planning Commissions, or reports of oth-
er organizations that work at the national level. In the case of a
Strategic analysis particular rural area, one would need information on the status
In order to produce a development strategy one needs to define of natural resources and agricultural systems, education and
the system one is talking about, identify subsystems relevant to health, socio-economics, including physical and knowledge in-
the analysis, perform strength-weakness-opportunity-threat frastructure, access to input and output markets, availability of
(SWOT) analyses for each of those subsystems (or ‘segments’) rural credit, income distribution, class or caste, ethnic parame-
and environments, define the situation one would like to reach ters, language, culture, the role of gender and many other pa-
at some stage in the future, and then design a ‘road-
map’ for implementing the strategy. Although it is
not the intention of this paper to elaborate exten-
sively on the notion of ‘strategic analysis’, I will briefly
discuss the stages of such an analysis, as it may be
relevant to actors involved in the developmental proc-
ess.
The first stage of a strategic analysis is to define
what one is talking about. This may be an entire coun-
try or region, in which case the analysis obviously
would be very complex, or it may be a rural area some-
where in South Asia, in which case the analysis may
be less complex, although not necessarily very much
so. In the case of a country or region, one would
need information on an aggregate or macro-economic
level and one would probably address policy makers
at the national level as the primary target audience.
In the case of a rural area somewhere in South Asia,
”
edge industry,” according to the authors;
They must spend the 21st century creating and managing experiences
this includes academic, entrepreneurial,
— C.K. Prahalad and V. Ramaswamy
communitarian and big-business cultures.
“Communities of practice will become
reorganised as the predominant organisa- innovation to radical innovation. distinct from work) learning, and a shift
tional form in the e-Knowledge Economy. Challenges will arise in overcoming the from “tinkering” towards active transfor-
They will be the epicentre of autonomic digital divide (e.g. between digital natives mation. The use of storytelling, bench-
learning and the development of individ- and digital immigrants), moving beyond marking of e-knowledge practices,
ual and organisational capabilities,” the digitising and Webifying, and creating new nurturing of knowledge flows, and infor-
authors predict. vocabularies and standards (technical, le- mation/collaboration models driven by
Enterprise KM will be driven by “ex- gal, financial). portals will become important in the en-
perience gateways” which can bypass “Competency and capacity develop- terprise context.
knowledge silos and legacy IT systems. ment is a top enterprise priority. Major
Communities of practice will seamlessly human resource challenges arise in creat-
link to business processes. “The goal is to ing enterprises that are e-knowledge
reinvent the conversational space of the savvy,” the authors observe.
enterprise,” the authors advise. Towards the end, the authors’ recom-
Enterprises will have to reinvent their mend a mix of “revolutionary vision and
knowledge ecosystems, including infrastruc- expeditionary action,” a blend of “struc- Madanmohan Rao
ture and cultures. The challenge will be to tured and autonomic learning,” a migra- IT consultant
migrate from improvement to incremental tion towards “fused” (as opposed to madan@inomy.com
Making Web Pages 5 - 11 Clear guidance and advice for those wishing
to start making web sites. Particularly useful
for anyone thinking about setting up a new
school web site.
KS1 Colouring Activity 5-7 A simple ICT activity to use with younger
children at the start of the school year.
Contributed by Pennie Coren.
Make Your Own Postcards 7 - 11 Let children use computers to make lots of
great personalised postcards (real and
electronic).
Source: http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/ict/contents.htm
• Satellite image
processing
• Digital map data creation
• Data analysis using maps
• Statistical analysis
Indian RTD and Academia will encounter European Enterprises, Research &
Academia to discuss co-operation and develop joint RTD projects for Research
& Technology Development that are now eligible for institutional funding by the
European Union.
India is presently a key partner for Europe and this event can contribute effec-
tively to your organisation’s business strategy with a diverse programme of
numerous opportunities for participants featuring:
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