Let the old nature and structure of teaching institutions yield place to a new order, which may be more responsive to the changing demands of our times, pleaded Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan, President of the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada.

Prof. G. Dhanarajan, Prisedent, COL, delivering the Inaugral address

Delivering the Inaugural address at the three-day Conference on Collaborative and Networked Learning, organised by the Indira Gandhi National Open University at New Delhi from February 16 to 18, 1998, he added that the first challenge was the reorientation of our teachers and the pedagogy they applied to their vocation.

Another challenge, according to Prof. Dhanarajan, was overcoming the perceptions and the fear of faculty to the changing nature of their role in the new learning environment. He, however, hoped that learners would have easier access to technology, as we near the end of the century.

Over 100 papers , covering the 8 sub-themes of the Conference, by Indian and Foreign specialists were presented.

Prof. G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION, PREDICTS DR. ARTHENAYAKE

"A career in Distance Education would be the most sought-after profession in the 21st century", said Prof. N.R. Arthenayake, Vice-Chancellor, Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). He was delivering the 3rd Prof. G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture, 'Profile of a Distance Teacher in the 21st Century - A Developing World Paradigm", organised jointly by COL and IGNOU at Delhi on July 2, 1998.

Prof. N.R Arthenayake,VC,OUSL (right),addressing the
gathering with prof. A.W.Khan,VC,IGNOU(left)

CEMCA AND FTII COLLABORATE FOR CAPTURING ACTION OUTDOORS

Intensive research in the subject, effort to capture the unusual and unexpected, use of modern technology to save time and to improve quality and sharing of ideas with the team - are a must for a good director while shooting outdoors. This was the viewpoint of Mr. Siddhartha Kak, the well-known TV personality. He was delivering the key-note address at the Inaugural session of a Workshop, "Capturing Action Outdoors", organised by CEMCA in collaboration with Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, from June 1 to 6, 1998.

Prof. Ram Takwale, former Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, in his address as the Chief-guest stressed that the very concept of learning was fast changing in our times. The conventional class-room teaching alone would not do, and help would have to he taken from the emerging technologies, like Internet, tele-. conferencing, etc. he advocated.

In his presidential address, Dr Mohan Agashe, Director, FTII made a strong plea to make the educational programmes interesting and exciting; otherwise the risk of viewers skipping even good ones was imminent.

Earlier, while explaining the objectives of the Workshop, CEMCA Director. Mr. Gopal Saksena stated that field coverages could be more authentic, have greater movement and involve more number of local people. Mr. Iftekhar Ahmed, Dean, TV, FTII, welcomed the first-ever collaboration of FTII in a training-programme meant for the staff of Open Universities in particular. The participants (18) produced three programmes in the relevant formats - "TV Report", "Documentaries" and "Inter" views". Besides the faculty of FTII, a few noted media professionals from outside like Mr. A.S. Tatari, former Additional Director-General Doordarshan (India TV); Dr. Vishwas Mahendale, Mr. Yezdi Engineer and Ms. Sheila Chaman (TV Presenter) were invited.

The Workshop was coordinated by Mr. Iftekhar Ahmed (FTII)and Mr. Gopal Saksena(CEMCA), assisted by Mr. Kewal Krishan (CEMCA).

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MULTIMEDIA COURSEWARE

The emerging communication and information technologies were adding newer dimensions to the techniques and processes of imparting education in our times. But the pace at which these were changing posed a challenge.

It was stated by Dr. S. Ramani, Director, the National Centre for Software Technology (NCST), Bombay in his presidential address ' at the Valedictory Session of the Workshop, organised by CEMCA in collaboration with NCST.

The five-day participant-paid Workshop attracted 27 professionals, including those belonging to Bangladesh Open University, Allama Iqbal Open University and Open University of Sri Lanka.

The Workshop had a combination of presentations and demonstrations as well as hands-on practical sessions. Some of the areas of multimedia covered were Courseware Design; Multimedia Authoring Tools; Graphics and Animations; Digital Audio and Video; CD-ROM and World Wide Web. In practicals, the participants familiarised themselves with the salient features and potential of WWW tools, used for developing the multimedia presentations, incorporating text, images, graphics, audio, video etc.

By the courtesy ofCOMNET-IT, the Workshop had two key-resource persons. Dr. David Robinson and Dr. Tracy Cariton of Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. The Indian experts included Dr. S.P. Mudur, Dr. K. Anjaneyulu, Mr. Jitendra Mandalia and Ms. Apurva Joshi. The Workshop was coordinated by Mr. K. Ravikanth (CEMCA) and Dr. S.P. Mudur (NCST). The participants welcomed the COL-CEMCA initiative in organising the Workshop, relevant to most of the Asian region partners.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOOGY,
Open University of Sri Lanka

Department of Educational Technology ( ET) of the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) has the state of art facility for audio and video production of educational programmes. For this purpose, specialised divisions have been established for both audio and the video productions, as also for editorial and graphics works. In addition, staff training and research on distance education are carried-out in collaboration with the academic staff of OUSL.

The Open University of Sri Lanka came into being, and enrolled its first batch of students, in 1980. With Prof. A.R. Arthernayake as its present Vice-Chancellor, OUSL, is essentially a distance teaching University, offering academic programmes, leading to certificates, diplomas, degrees and post-graduate degrees.

The primary objective of the Department of ET is to produce study material for distance education for OUSL. In addition, sponsored production of educational documentaries, AV packages for training, community education, development education, cultural, sociological and environment education are undertaken.

The state of art equipments available with the Department of ET, were gifted by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It has the following facilities:

Video Studio
A Studio of 200 sq. metres with full lighting complement - all motorised: Sony cameras, audio-recording/mixing units and a 3-camera switching system.

Studio Control Room

Grass Valley Group video switcher, stereo audio mixer with digital reverberators and digital delay unit, stereo cassette and tape recorders, caption scanner, video tape record



Video Editing

Post-production facilities include 10 channel audio mixer, video switcher, effects -generator, BETACAM recorders, audio tape recorders, cassette recorders, computer graphics and animation, caption scanner and video typwriter.

Audio Studio

The audio studio has a 8-channel stereo audio-mixer with digital reverberator, delay unit and equaliser, stereo turn-table, stereo tape-recorders, DAT recorder, stereo monitors.

Audio Dubbing

12 channel stereo audio mixer with digital reverberator.delay unit, equaliser and exciter, remote tape recorders, 4 channel tape recorders. two dubbing cubicles.stereo monitors.

AWARDS

A number of its programmes have won awards in various national and international competitions.

PROF. DHANARAJAN VISITS CEMCA Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan President, COL, paid a visit to CEMCA on February 19,1998, despite his crowded engagements in order to appraise himself with the on-going and future activities of the centre.

He held discussions with the director and other members of staff. He also exhorted that in view of the increasing importance of distance education in the coming years , CEMCA should gear itself to play, its onerous role more effectively.

Prof. Dhanarajan also advised that CEMCA should try to seek greater involvement of other members in its activities and to be more responsive to their needs and demands.

VIDEO PRODUCTION GENERATION

In an endeavour to diversify its activities, CEMCA has forged ahead into video production. As a follow-up of negotiations between the Commonwealth of Learning.Canada and WETV, a non-profit making international public broadcasting network, CEMCA has offered the pilot programme, k Images India' , bearing on Indian agriculture and allt^d subjects, with special intcrcsi on women, for a one-hour slot.

Shivani Wazir

Anchored by Shivani Wazir, a popular TV presenter, the magazine offered a judicious mix of hardware items and soft stories like the recall of the sucess of Green Revolution in India, Integreted pest management; Women's empowerment and an Intro to a great woman - achiever, Santokha Dudhat an illiterate agricultural labourer who, when well past 65,painted the entire Ramayana and Mahabharata, the two great epis of India.

On the basis of the pilot, WETV are reported to be seeking financial support from some funding for putting out the series regularly.

Experimenting with Computers



By Dr.Sugata Mitra,
Vice President,
National Institute of Information Technology,
New Delhi

There are three lessons from my experiments with computer education in India. They are simple lessons and, in retrospect, I often wonder why it took so many years to emerge.Perhaps it is the simple and powerful idea that take the longest to become evident. Here are the factors that contributed tothe proliferation of computer education in India:

* First of all, you must have a model. The model must be simple robust and, most important of all, repli-cable. The model must be thoroughly tested for effectiveness and reproductibility. Then it must be allowed allowed to replicate. Using it, the people will themselves operate the mechanisms that will educate them. We used a franchising model to clone our organisation across the country, somewhat like a virus or a Fractal equation if you are more mathematically inclined.

* Instruction design and technology must change to take into account the diversity of India. Personal Comput ers and the Internet are ideal media for this country. They can be inexpensive and robust, with a little help from the industry.

* User interfaces must evolve into more human systems. Our country is ancient and intensely human. Indians will interact effectively with machines only if they are able to do so in human terms. Speech, vision, gestures and cognition will all have a role to play in the evolution of such systems.

The Technology Model: Here is a Scenario. There is a little room in the library that has the server with its terrabyte of disk. The 1 Mbps Internet line also drops into some room. Outside, a couple of multimedia CD servers nestle among the books. There are shelves full of CD ROMs. After all they are subsidised and free of duty for schools. The school is completely wired. Every classroom has a Multimedia workstation connected to the network. There is an Internet cafe with sixteen terminals next to the Gym. After all, both are compulsory. The faculty room is similarly wired. Everyone has e-mail and the children and adults often say things to each other in cyberspace that they could not in the days before the net. Every teacher has her trolley. It contains her terminal, audio and video systems and a projector. She wheels it into her class and plugs it into the ethernet. There was a time when everyclassroom did not have a black board. Now also, none of them have.. The equipment and software get upgraded every year. Money has stopped being a problem eversince the hardware and software manufacturers hiked up their prices by a dollar on every product and passed it on to schools.The school has its own web server. They use this for posting interesting lessons, projects and software. The server is a part of the global school network and sometimes teachers from other places in the world telecommute into a class for a chat. Sometimes the teachers are not even human, they are adaptive computer programmes.They are fun and the children love them. After all, it is their net work. It's their world. Children miss school very rarely. They say they feel "cut off. When they are ill, or on holiday, they log on from home or from wherever they are.

The "More Human" Paradigm

Human beings like what they are used to. We use only one kind of interface. The human interace. We speak and gesture. We listen and look. We emote (if you don't know what thatmeans, you are probably an engineer). If we could understand this hu man interface and reproduce something akin to it in a machine, we would find that familiar and interesting. It would be the user friendliest interface that I can imagine.

Not that engineers don't realise this. They have been trying to reproduce it for years. The have analysed human communication end lessly. And spent millions on speech processing, natural language processing, fault tolerant recall and such terribly technical things. Well,I think they should because its not hard to understand and inexpensive to make.

More than a hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud had worked out one of the models of how human beings interact with each other. His model of the mind has three layers. The outermost layer is the Superego, the part that is put in by parents, religion and society. This is the layer that makes you say things like, "Hello, its soooo nice to talk to you" on the phone to your landlord. Below the Superego is the Ego, the part that you create for yourself as you grow up and the one that you love the most. Below the ego is the Id, the part that you inherited from an incredibly distant past. The part that is animal and knows no rules of civilisation.

When Superegos interact, you have a "civilised" conversation. When egos interact, you have ego problems - or maybe you fall in love. When Ids interact, you have wars, or you reproduce. Compare this with the personality of PC. Also a three layered structure.The Operating System at the Innermost layer, protecting the system. Application Software at the middle layer, giving the PC its character (a "Game" machine, a "Word processing" machine, a "database" machine and so on). And then the polite and pretty outermost layer of the Graphical User Interface. Just a coincidence? Or are we trying to create a machine in our own image.

The CUI

Imagine a PC that says, "You have a meeting at two" and a few minutes later, "You really should be getting up if you want to make it to that meeting at two" Imagine a CD that says, "How many times are you going to press the same button? Don't you know how to operate this package? Imagine a notebook that says, "I sorted your e-mail and put your wife's message first. I also found the picture you were looking for on the Internet yesterday and put it in the passowrd protected directory where you seem to keep all the the others.

Imagine a system that says, "You typed the correct password, but that's not the way in which my owner types it..I am going to give you one more chance and then e-mail the cops.Each example is an easy programming job for a graduate student. There is very little technology involved. The design is cognitive, not analytical. Lets call the results a Cognitive User Interface. ACUI..
I think the computer will need a CLJ1 desperately, if it has to exist in the real world out there. Shoulder t'o Monitor with their human owners and their mysterious emotive interfaces.

REGIONAL LITERACY FORUM

Literacy and linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity in Asia; literacy for human research, evaluation and assessment of literacy; technology and technological innovations in literacy were among the many issues that were addressed at the second Asia Regional Literacy Forum: Innovations and Professionalisation in Adult Literacy", held at New Delhi on 9-13 February.

The consensus that emerged from the meeting was that illiteracy could not be eradicated through a "one-size-fits all" approach.

The forum was convened jointly by the National Literacy Mission of India, UNESCO, and some other international organisations.

YCMOU COLABORATES WITH INDUSTRY

A giant industrial group, Tata Electric and Locomotive Company Ltd (TELCO) recently invited the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) to launch a Certificate Programme in Industrial Painting to meet its manpower requirement. The university has designed and developed a One-Year Programme under the guidance of the experts in the field.



GITA-GOVINDA MULTIMEDIA EXPERIENCE

The Gita Govinda Multimedia Experience was created and presented by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts after three years of development work with technical inputs given by Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre, California.



The Multimedia Experience allows the user to browse through the text of the 12th century poem by the eminent poet Jayadeva, at three levels. In all, 19 artistic genres-Dance, Music and Painting - are included in this presentation, which comprises six of Gita Govinda's 24 poems. This multimedia experience would be available in CD Rom formatsshortly.

CETM's MULTIMEDIA COURSEWARE WORKSHOP

The Centre for Educational Technology and Media, Universiti Sains, Malaysia, (CETM )recently conducted a five-day course titled ""Designing Multimedia Courseware Using Authorware, Professionals at their Computer Laboratory". The participants were the officers from the Educational Technology Division, Malaysia and the personnel selected from all State Educa-tional Resource Centres.

DOORDARSHAN AND AIR ON INTERNET

Doordarshan-India (DDI), the National public broadcaster, comenced its Internet Service on February 25, 1998, from 6.30AM to midnight. The regular features now available include news-based programmes, educational items and entertainment-oriented shows. The site has become immenesely popular with the Indians abroad. The wesite address is"ddindia.nct.."

All India Radio has also started feeding one channel of AIR programmes live on Internet. This channel is available 24 hours nonstop. The AIR programmes on Internet are reported to be accessed by over 3000 listeners in about 60 countries around the world everyday. The website is "htpp://www.allindiaradio. com.

AIR NEWS - ON -PHONE

AIR news highlights can now be accessed any time on telephone. One to two minutes capsule of news is available 24 hours a day and can be accessed on any type of telephone -fixed or mobile - from any corner of the world. News highlights are available in Hindi and English. These can be accessed at Delhi Telephones -0091-11-3324242 and 3324243. The service launched on February 25, 1998 by All India Radio, has become an instant hit.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DISTANCE EDUCATION

Distance education can provide an impetus to higher education in India. The new tools, like satellite technology and Internet, should be utilised to make it more effective and popular. This observation was made by Dr. Upinderjit Kaur, the Minister for Technical Education, Punjab, while inaugurating the Fifth National Conference of Indian Distance Education Association (IDEA) on "Sustainable Development of Distance Education o Opening Windows of Technology for a Better Future", at Chandigarh on April 18-19, 1998.

Describing distance education as a boon to thousands of learners. Dr. Kaur said the system was serving a social cause by imparting education to the poor and women, who could not go to conventional institutions.

Prof. Bakhshish Si;.gh, President, IDEA, in his welcome addiess stated that the Open Universities would in future not only be able to start more number of relevant courses but also increase the accessibility of education to a large community of aspirants.

CEMCA Director Gopal Saksena in his presidential address at the Valedictory Session pleaded that greater attention must be paid to the software needs. But, good software, he felt, could not be produced by the push of a button; instead, it needed a lot of creativity, skills, resources and technical support. He welcomed that many an international agency, like COL, were coming forward to support DE institutions in sharing the technologies and expertise.

Organised in collaboration with Technical Teachers Training Institute (TTTI), Chandigarh, the Conference got the financial assistance from the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada. According to Prof. K. Murali Manohar, the Secretary-General, IDEA, about 125 delegates attended the Conference

COL-NOS WORKSHOP ON OPEN SCHOOLING

The Commonwealth of Learning and the National Open School (NOS), India, convened an International Workshop to raise the profile of, and increase the awareness about, Open Schooling.The Workshop brought together educators from Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan. Canada, Kenya, Malawi, Maldives, Nepal, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UK and India



Experts felt that Open schooling provides flexibility not found in the traditional schooling system and adds to the educational opportunities for a large number of people.

Ms. Susan Phillips, who represented COL, and Prof. Mohan Menon, Chairman, NOS, expressed their gratitude for the financial support recicved by them from UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank.

PLANS FOR BRUNEI - SINGAPORE CO-PRODUCTIONS

Radio Television Brunei and Singapore Television have begun a series of co-production projects. To begin with, the two networks have agreed on four such projects. The first one was a series of English and Malay debates. The first co-produced romance drama is entitled, PutihAwan, Biru..

BROADCASTING IN HONG KONG MARKS 70TH YEAR

Radio Televison Hong Hong is this year celebrating its 70th anniversary, which also marks 70 years of broadcasting in Hong Kong.

Broadcasting in the territory began in June 1928 with the call-sign GOW. This marked the founding of what is known today as Radio Television Hong Kong or RTHK. To celebrate its 70th anniversary, a series of activities is being mounted throughout the year. These include seminars, on topics such as TV Documentaries, Chinese Broadcast through the Centuries and New Direction of TV in Hong Kong.

Prof. G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture The Vice-Chancellor ofOUSL stressed the need to identify the distant teacher as distinct from his counterpart in the contiguous system. And for this he/she has to acquire certain attributes, like flexibility, creativity, futuristic outlook, technology-orientation and, above all, commitment to the career as a DE teacher. Such a specialisation, he felt, could be built-up on a firm foundation of multiple skills and qualities of head and heart.

The lecture was telecast, via satellite, by Allama Iqbal Open University, OUSL, Bangladesh Open University, DE institutes in Nepal and Maldives, State Open Universities in India and Regional Centres of IGNOU.

While presiding over the function, Prof. Abdul W. Khan, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, said that Prof. Ram Reddy was a pioneer of Distance Education in India and great promoter of the system at the international level. Your views on the current issue of the"EDU COMM ASIA" and suggestions for the next are invited.

NEW BROADCAST MODE IN JAPAN

Sanyo Electric Corporation and Kippon Television Network Corporation have announced that they have successfully developed the world's first digital three-dimensional broadcast system. Mr. Yukinori Kuwano, a Managing Director at Sanyo, said that "We will propose the system worldwide. If it is accepted by other companies, will be happy. Worldwide, countries are changing to digital TV broadcasting. He added that the technology can be used for both terrestrial and satellite television broadcasting system. (Source: AWSJ: Broadcasting)


INTEL-SAT UNVEILS PLANS FOR ASIA

INTEL-SAT has outlined plans to provide additional satellite capacity to the Asian region to support a wide range of video and interactive applications.

The K.TV satellite Intelsat's "hot-bird for Asia" is scheduled for launch in early 1999, and has been designed to cover the Indian subcontinent Asia-Pacific for direct to home and interactive services. (Source: ABU News)



BROADCASTERS' PLEA FOR LESS STATE CONTROL

Top regional broadcasters and policy-makers called for a reduction in government controls over public service broadcasters.At a three-day meeting at Kuala Lumpur in December last year, the leader broadcaster and officials from more than 20 countries in Asia and the Pacific urged governments to provide more financial support and introduce clear and precise laws to ensure that public service broadcasting prospers. (Source: ABU News)

TELEVISION, TEACHER AND TAUGHT " AT WORK

ETV is virtually a triple relationship. Television is placed first, followed by Teacher and then last comes Taught. For, television is 'autocratic', * ruthless' and 'nonstop* in its bombardment of wisdom. A teacher comes next because he can atleast be told' something, though he may be equally averse to the taught's needs and reactions. Poor taught naturally comes at the end of the ladder, being at the receiving -end of both. But ETV's success lies in the three partners developing a harmonious relationship and understanding.

To make an Educational Television presentation a success, students of TV classes have also to play their part. They should not forget that



television offers to them an opportunity to have another... even if not better... perspective. And, certainly a more visually embellished show. - o Gerald Millerson

Style is a sort of melody that comes into my sentences by itself. If a writer says what he has to say as accurately and effectively as he can, his style will take care of itself. - - George Bernard Shav

Every comentator worth the name must be able to communicate. To do this, he must not suffer from a tongue-tune - the same pattern of intention which lulls a listener into a state of blank- mindedness... Remember, it is not always what is said but how it is said, that kindles and maintains listening pleasure. - - Melville de Mellow The Art of Running Commentary

One of the surest signs of deteriorating conditions in an organisation is low-job satisfaction. High-job satisfaction, on the other hand, is the hall-mark of a well-managed organisation. (but) it cannot be persuaded into existence or even bought. - - Keith Davis

The script of a television programme is its very soul. It serves as the basic foundation for the higher structures of a show to be raised on, with visuals providing the decorative Music and sound-effects add colour, flourish and edven realism at times. But what matters most is the total communication.. - - Gopal Saksena, in his paper "The Television Language".

CETM's PROGRAMMES

The Centre for Educational Technology and Media (CETM), Universiti Sains, Malaysia, plans to conduct several training courses in 1998 which include Internet for Education, Creating and Building Homepage, Desk Top Publishing, Introduction Multimedia, Basic and Advanced Video Production.For further details, con^cf.Director, CETM, Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800, Minden, Malaysia (Email: dir-cetm@usm.my)

12TH AAOU CONFERENCE

The OUHK will host the 12th Asian Association of Open Universities from 4 to 6 November 1998. The main theme for this Conference is "The Asian Distance Learner'. For Further information, contact : Phone (852) 2768 6800, Fax (852) 2789 1170, e-mail: tmwong@ouhk.edu.hk

UNESCO-IlEP Workshop on * The Planning & Management of Distance Learning*, Nonthaburi Thailand, December 14-18 ,1998.
For further details, contact:
Mr. John Hall,Fax-33140728366,
e-mail: j. hall@ iiep. unesco. org

PROF. A.W.KHAN



Dr.Abdul W.Khan,an internationally recognised expert in media, development communication and distance education, has taken over as the Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, New Delhi, on June 1,1998

Dr. Khan has been conferred with the prestigious Distin guished Service Award by Commonwealth of Learning, Canada for his exceptional contribution to the work for COL in pursuit of Excellence in Distance Education for the people of the Commonwealth.

His immediately preceding appointment was as the Principal Communications Specialist with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL)Canada. As such, he was responsible for setting up and over-viewing the activities of CEMCA as the COL's Regional Centre. Earlier he served various international agencies, like UN, FAO and UNFPA.

Management Information Systems; S. Sadagopan, Prentic-Hall of India New Delhi PP. 217,

World Communication Report 1998: The Media and the Challenges of the New
Techniogies; Author: Lotfi Meherzi;
UNESCO Publishing; 298pp
298FF Hype,
Hypocrisy And Television In Urban India; Amita Shah, Vikas
Publishing House,New Delhi