Ground reality is very different from our dreams for a more accessible and egalitarian educational system. . This fact is constantly brought to my attention when I read case studies, visit institutions of distance education, evaluate development communication projects, scrutinize research proposals and try to build an institutional future for an agency such as CEMCA within the social and cultural milieu that is Asia.The gap between the potential and the limitations of communication technology and various applications by well meaning but not so well equipped persons and organizations is what frightens me the most.

It is well and good to pontificate on what should be done, on the wonderful information superhighway, the exciting world of cyberspace and the telecommunications revolution which has made it possible.But when there is no power, no computer, no telephone, and no television, the information revolution to me seems more a myth, less a reality.

So when I returned to Delhi, my conviction that CEMCA must do its little bit to reduce the information inequality among practitioners of educational media and the users of communication and information technology for development grew. We could use EDUCOMM ASIA as a window to all the institutions and individuals who form part of the educational communication community and also to make EDUCOMM ASIA an academic newsletter rather than merely a house journal. We have started this in a small way with this issue.

At CEMCA, we want to focus on distance educators, and media personnel and their needs at the heart of our efforts. And we want to help institutions, rather than individuals, to build competencies and capacities which will help both the institution and the society it serves. Which is perhaps why two out of the last three CEMCA workshops have provided on site training to academics and media persons in areas of instructional design and interactive television.

Working with the day to day problems of institutions, we have tried 10 provide our training programmes with an unusually high interactive content. And we have also developed a software specifically designed for the needs of educational media centres working in conventional and open universities. Both the CEMCA database and MEDLIB, the media library software are available for purchase by publicly funded educational institutions at a subsidized cost . We are also developing a multi media course on scripting for educational video-this will be soon available for public distribution.

In this issue, we bring you the edited text of the fourth annual G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture, delivered by Dr. lan Mugridge on quality in distance education. We also bring you a case study of community video libraries in Bangladesh, a project sponsored by UNESCO.

You will also find our call for proposals-and we are getting many-and our proforma for empaneling you and your colleagues in the database of experts. We know that the experts with field experience are available in Asia. and we call on these experts to send us their filled up proforma or alternately, their curriculum vitae.

If you have a case study or a paper, we would be interested in disseminating its findings. Please send us a copy for inclusion in future issues.

We look forward to hearing from all of you out there.

Dr. Usha Vyasulu Reddi

Research in higher education suggests that students learn best when they engage in active learning in a rich and supportive learning environment. Such an environment provides students with a wide array of learning resources, with the means of communicating readily with teachers as well as fellow students through appropriately structured learning activities, and with the necessary means of supporting their work. It has often been assumed that it is easier to provide such an environment in campus-based, face-to-face teaching; and this may well be the case. But most of us who have practised open and distance education over the last twenty or thirty years would argue that, even if this is true, we have always sought to provide, even in conventional print-based distance education courses, a rich learning environment for our students by attempting to build into their learning materials educational processes that support active learning.

The common impression has been - and still is in many quarters - that distance education is very much content driven. As Sir John Daniel has noted, "much of the commercial hype and hope about distance learning is based on a very unidirectional conception of instruction, where teaching is merely presentation and learning is merely absorption." He goes on to state, however, that "the Open University's experience with two million students over 25 years suggests that such an impoverished notion of distance education will fail or at least have to massivedrop-out problems." With the changes,both in technology and technique, that have occured in open and distance education over the last fifteentwenty years, it is increasingly possible to argue that institutions providing properly designed and delivered open and distance education often produce a much richer and more effective learning environment than the lecture-based mass higher education typical of most universities, at least those with which I amfamiliar in North America.

This has, of course, become more true with the growing incorporation of more and more sophisticated communications technologies into open and distance education. We are now able, in ways not previously possible, to orchestrate educational processess through the use of such techniques as electronic mail, computer conferencing and so on. In principle, it is possible for open and distance education at the university level to meet Diane Laurilard's four criteria for good teaching which are that it be -

-Discursive  (by allowing students and teachers to communicate ideas to one another and to receive feedback)
-Interactive  (by encouraging students to take actions to demonstrate learning and to receive feedback on them)
-Oadaptive  (by building on learning experiences to determine future and learning experiences)
-Reflective  (by encouraging students to reflect on and benefit from the feedback they receive)

The challenge for open and distance educators is to make use of new technologies in ways that enhance learning, that are educationally process oriented and that thus emphasis communication and reflection over simple transfer of content. This challenge must be taken up against a background in which much of the media discussion of, for example, virtual universities seems grounded in a content-transfer model of education and in which many politicians and even university administrators support such a model because of its cheapness. A concurrent problem is that to base participation in open and distance have access to the internet means that those who have it will gain while those who do not will be left behind. This is a problem anywhere - even in such institutions as the Open University in the United Kingdom which reports about 20% of its students with ready internet access or Deakin University in Australia which estimates that some 75% of its students have such access. The issue in such cases is to provide quality learning

The issue in such cases is to provide quality learning for those students with the technological resources to take advantage of new methods while, at the same time, providing learning of equal quality for those who do not have that capacity. This, as I have said, is a common problem anywhere but it is an immeasurably greater one for developing countries, for an institution like Indira Gandhi National Open University.

The simple fact is, however, that the developing technologies are not going to go away and that they are going to be used. The challenge, as I have already noted, is to make use of instructional technologies in ways that provide our students with the supportive learning environment that they need; and a major issue for all the large distance teaching universities, the mega-universities, is to develop and maintain systems that allow this environment to operate in support of the needs of individuals as well as the mass of students that they all serve. Some writers on open and distance education have pointed out the tendency of the mega-universities to become monolithic and unresponsive, to exemplify what Otto Peters many years ago called the industrial model of distance education; and this has led to the suggestion that the future lies with networks of smaller institutions rather than with the now massive, single mode open universities that have developed in many parts of the world in the last thirty years.

Clearly, the problem of becoming what I have called monolithic and unresponsive exists for the major distance teaching universities in ways that may not be the case with more con ventional institutions (even though universities are all too frequently very conservative institutions, little inclined to change unless forced to do so. This ought not, however, to be the case with institutions providing open and distance education which, at least at the outset, were seen to be staffed by people inclined to rebel against conventional teaching assumptions and methods and to develop innovative solutions to old and new problems.

It is clearly incumbent upon institutions of open and distance education and upon those who administer them to ensure that such attitudes do not exist, that an institutional climate as well as policies and procedures are in place that encourage continual review and evaluation of what an institution does and how it does it. One of the ways of attempting to achieve this situation is to attend to the twin issues of quality assurance and quality control. In order to avoid any confusion, let me first explain the distinction between the two expressions I have just used. The first, quality assurance, can be simply defined as measures taken to avoid faults, as the set of activities undertaken to ensure that standards are, first, specified clearly and, second, reached consistently for all the activities in which an institution is engages. The second expression, quality control, is defined as measures taken to correct faults, as retrospective activity eliminating or improving faulty products or services. Both of these overlapping functions, alongwith the monitoring of the procedures themselves, together make up quality management.

In establishing a system of quality assurance and control, however, a basic question is that of what such a system is seeking to assure. Until recently, it was probably the case that there was almost universal agreement on the purpose of a university, on what features of its activities would be judged as important, as indicators of the overall quality of the institution. Increasingly, however, over the last thirty years, this situation has changed so that there is no longer anything approximating to.a common standard for judging the quality of an institution's work. In Canada, for example, EVIaclean's, a national weekly news magazine, publishes an annual ranking of the country's eighty or so universities while, in British Columbia, the Eraser Institute, a local think tank, issues an annual ranking of the province's high schools. But it is frequently argued even by institutions that do well in these rankings - that they are invalid unless they take into account the extent to which individual institutionsmeet the purposes for which they were designed - in quality assurance jargon, their fitness for purpose. If this is a valid objection, as I think it is, it follows that there are significant differences in the ways in which quality should be assessed in, say, conventional universities and in those providing open and distance education.

Within the latter category, there are, by the same token, differences between, for example, an apex institution like Indira Gandhi National Open University, the Indian state open universities and the distance teaching arms of the conventional universities. These differences need to be taken into account in establishing quality assurance systems for each of the; but, within the context of what quality it is that we are trying to assure, it is nevertheless the case, I believe, that the one thing that such institutions and programmes have in common is that they are trying to provide high quality learning outcomes for their students, either in absolute terms (if such exists) or in terms of value added since student entry and that this is the primary function by which their quality ought to he judged.

During the last ten years or so, the practice of quality management has taken an increasingly central position in institutions of higher education as one of the primary methods of ensuring that they develop and deliver a learning experience to their students that is as effective as possible. This has been true of institutions of open and distance education as well as teachers and administrators who have wrestled with the issues that I outlined earlier. Indeed, as Alan Tait has argued - correctly, I think - distance teaching universities were, in many ways, ahead of conventional institutions in this respect. I recall, for example, the development of a monstrous flow chart laying out the process of course development in the early days of the Open I. earning Institute. I say 'monstrous' because it consumed two lengths of paper which stretched from ceiling to floor and half that distance again. It was an elegant concept that was never, so far as I know, fully implemented before it was transplanted by a more manageable procedure. I mention this because the object of the procedure was to ensure that the process of course development was as complete and as foolproof as possible, that it took very measure to ensure the high quality of the final product. Similar procedures were put in place to monitor the activities of tutors, of student services and of other parts of the organization. Part of the reason for these procedures was defensive: we were a new and not particularly popular institution and we knew that we were being watched, a not uncommon experience for new distance teaching institutions at the time. But what we were doing was to establish and implement a system of quality assurance although, in 1979, the expression had not yet penetrated the educational scene.

In the intervening twenty years, such measures, common to distance teaching universities, have been developed and systematised, described and analyzed in a growing body of literature. It is thus possible now to enumerate some broad principles on the basis of which institutions can develop their ow n policies and procedures. These can be reduced substantially to four, each of which I will address separately.

First, there is a need to establish within any institution a culture of quality assurance that will ensure that it and the activities associated with it become not an isolated and occasional act but a continuous examination and re-examination of what the institution does and how it does it. In the development of quality assurance systems in British universities, for example, the Higher Education Quality Council emphasized this point by establishing a system of "one year after" reports in which institutions were required, a year after a quality audit, to review the actions taken as a result of the audit report and those they proposed to take in the future to address its recommendations as well as emerging issues. In addition, the council set up a quality enhancement group that monitored work on quality assurance. both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and provided guidance to institutions and unit within them about current developments in and approaches to the subject. The object of these activities wasto encourage staff at all levels and in all parts of institutions to believe that the practice of quality assurance eis a continuous, necessary and central part of their work.

The second principle follows from the first. The practice of quality assurance can not be undertaken in isolation by selected parts of institutions or by units within them. Although procedures will clearly vary from unit to unit in line with their differing functions, the institutional structure must he seen as a whole and based on common policies and assumptions. Thus, a quality assurance system must embrace the entire organisation and emphasise the mutually supportive nature of quality assurance procedures among departments. This is not to argue for the establishment of a quality assurance unit, which many people - including me - believe to be unnecessary or even positively harmful, but simply to state clearly the need for integration. If this is the case for conventional universities, it is so much more so for providers of open and distance education. Though I have never been much of a believer in the value of models for such institutions, one of their common features is that all the major functions of the institution - development, production and distribution of courses, instruction, student support and so on -must be closely and carefully integrated to provide an effective service to students. Units cannot be allowed to go their own way in isolation from others; and neither, therefore, can their quality assurance policies and procedures. What institutions need for effective quality assurance is a set of processes that establish goals, assess how they are being met and change practice to make necessary improvements. These involve a regular review of programmes, of teaching activities, of support functions, which, while administered by individual units, must be seen within an overall institutional context. It is perhaps worth noticing here that, in a time when accountability to government and public is becoming increasingly important, there is a good deal of merit in establishing some visible quality assurance measures - like student questionnaires - that demonstrate externally as well as internally that an institution is prepared to take quality assurance seriously.

Once again, the third principle follows from the second. I have indicated above that there ought to be strong reservations about setting up a quality assurance unit within an institution. This is because, to be effective, quality assurance cannot be regarded merely the responsibility of management or of a particular group any more than it is seen to be the responsibility of staff. An effective quality assurance system must be embraced by all members of staff wijthin an organisation and must become their collective responsibility in fact as well as in theory. In this context, the question of integration of units, which I discussed earlier, becomes particularly important; but what may be more important is the issue of information and training. Implementation of collective responsibility makes it imperative that all staff be provided with the fullest possible information about quality assurance procedures and with the training required to ensure that they can implement them.

Much of the literature of quality assurance makes the point that, in the context of these first three principles, the improvement of quality does not simply happen, that it requires continuing attention. It thus follows that an institution delivering high quality learning outcomes must have its management processes functioning well, its academic support and administrative process working smoothly and, above all, an organisational climate that encourages and values improvement. If only one of these factors is absent, then quality will suffer.

Finally, a separate principle needs to be enumerated - the vital importance of context. I noted earlier that I have difficulty with the notion that models can be useful in designing institutions of open and distance education. This stems from my belief that the shape of institutions must be dictated by the particular needs that they are established to answer and that these needs are unique to their particular situations. The same consideration applies to quality assurance systems, a situation that has been best described by Alan Tait in his collection of essays, published by the Commonwealth of Learning, on quality assurance in open and distance education. "No quality assurance system can be translated from one institution to another across organisational, social and cultural boundaries. The development must be home grown, creognising its context... Any ' off the shelf solution from the latest management book or passing consultant will not provide [a complete answer], While their simple remedies may seem superficially attractive, in the form of instant programmes that can be globally applied, such approaches are unlikely to do anything but give quality assurance a bad name." I indicated earlier that quality assurance mechanisms must take into account fitness for purpose of individual institutions. Thus, any system involving the establishment of quality assurance for, say, the Indian open universities should, while taking advantage of and emphasising the undoubted commonalities that exist among the institutions, also recognise the differences in purpose and function between them.

The final essay in the collection of papers resulting from the three nation tour by Indian distance educators in 1994 was an attempt by Prakash Deshpande, Director of the Dsitance Education Council, to draw lessons from their views oftoher systems and institutions. In that paper, he made precisely this point - that development of effective quality assurance systems for Indian distance teaching universities must, while drawing on experience elsewhere, be a local development designed to meet the local needs of the system as a whole as well as of the individual institutions involved. It is this development that, properly designed and managed, will help the Indian ocpn and distance teaching universities to dfeal with the challenges I outlined at the beginning of this lecture, the difficult and perilous transition from print-based to technology-based distance and open learning. In terms of the principles involved, this process changes nothing for it involves rather changes in the means of providing and supporting high quality learning outcomes than in the nature of the outcomes themselves. In some ways, the process of quality assurance will undoubtedly become easier as the vital functions of collecting, manipulating and distributing evidence become simpler when they are undertaken electronically. On the of her side of the coin, however, as we move towards more sesource based learning with students being asked to discover through the World Wide Web new sources of material rather than being provided with all necessary learning resources, asessment of quality may become more problematic, calling for attention to new skills such as those required to moderate student efforts, to navigate the web and to support this activity. This process will necessarily be a slow and uneven one: for some cohorts of Indian studfents, use of electronic mail and computer mediated communication is already a reality while, for others, it will not become so for many years. It will, however, occur and will undoubtedly present serious problems, problems than can nevertheless be effectively managed with clear definition of the goals and assumptions on which the institutions involved are operating and of the standards that they will adopt in meeting their goals within a well designed system of quality assurance.

Prof.lan Mugridge is formerly Director ( Programmes), The Commonwealth of Learning. The above article is an abridged version of Prof . G.Rama Reddy lecture delivered on July 2, 1999.

Distance Education Council

Distance Education Council (DEC) is established under Statute 28 of IGNOU, under Section 25 of IGNOU Act, 1985. The DEC became operational in 1992. Its mandate is to function as an apex body of distance education in India for the promotion, maintenance of standards and coordination of open and distance education in India. The National Policy on Education (NPE, 1986) and the Programme of Action (POA, 1992) also give stress to the role of the" DEC.

In India, distance education started in the form of correspondence education in the year 1962. The first open university came into existence in 1982. At present, there are ten open universities - one National Open University, the IGNOU (1985), and nine State Open Universities (SOUs) in India. Of the 229 university level traditional institutions, 62 are dual mode institutions. The latter, through their Correspondence Course Institutions (CCIs) impart education through correspondence/ distance mode.

The DEC, since its inception, is supporting SOUs. From the Ninth Plan onwards the CCIs that were earlier being supported by the UGC are being supported by the DEC.

The Organisation

The DEC is a statutory authority of IGNOU consisting of 15 members. The Vice Chancellor of IGNOU is its Ex-officio Chairman. The members of the Council include the Union Education Secretary, Secretary of University Grants Commission (UGC), a member of the UGC, Director of National Assessment and Accreditation Council ( NAAC), two members of the Board of Management, two Vice Chancellors of SOUs, two Directors of CCEs, three nominees of the Visitor and a teacher from the distance education system. The Director, Distance Education Council is the Secretary of the Council. The Secretariat of the DEC consisting of a Director, a Deputy Director, two Assistant Directors and a complement of supporting staff is involved in policy implementation.

The Role

The objectives of the DEC are as delineated below :
1. Promote the open and distance education system in the country .
2. Coordinate the open and distance education system in the country.
3. Ensure the maintenance of standards in the education provisions made by the open and distance education.

The Activities

Promotion

* Preparation of norms and standards / guidelines for support to SOUs and CCIs
* Dissemination of information
* Assistance for establishment of new State Open Universities
* Support to SOUs for Student Support Services.

Coordination

* Funding for downlink facility, for Wide Area Network (WAN) and Local Area Network (LAN).
* Development of database on Open Universities in India.
* Identification of Common Pool of Courses and Programmes for sharing by distance education institutions.
* Technical assistance to SOUs for adoption of Credit System and Common Grading Pattern for Student Evaluation.

Maintenance of Standards

* Provision of financial support to SOUs and CCIs for infrastructure development ( mainly for equipment)
* Provision of support to CCEs for transformation of course material to distance mode (self learning material)
* Provision of grants for human resource development to SOUS
* Provision of research grants to SOUs and CCIs
* Support to SOUs and CCIs for application of new technologies
* Support for audio-visual facilities
* Establishment of Quality Assurance Mechanisms
* Formulation of norms and guidelines for offering programmes of study othrough distance mode viz., M.B.A., B.Ed., B.C.A., M.C.A., B.lib., B.Sc. ( Nursing).
Collaborations

The different collaborations of the DEC on national and international level are as follows

* DEC-COL collaboration is s like exchange of information, data on distance education and quality concepts.
* AICTE-DEC collaboration for recognition of MBA programmes offered through distance mode.
* NCTE-DEC collaboration for devising norms for recognition of B.Ed programme offered through distance mode.
* NAAC-DEC are in the process of evolving strategies for selfassessment of the open university system.

For further details contact:

Director,
Distance Education Council(DEC),
Indira Gandhi National Open University,
K-76, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016
Tel : 91-11-6569668 Fax : 91-11- 6861340
E-mail : dec@ satyamonline.com

Community Empowerment through Information Services :
The Community Development Library for Bangladesh

Harun-ur-Rashid,Director
Community Development Library
(CDL)Bangladesh
E-mail : cdl@citechco.net

Introduction

Information is the critical missing link between ignorance and enlightenment, between poverty and prosperity, between dehumanised community and empowerment. Information can be transferred into a powerful tool for empowerment of community in Bangladesh where 11.4 million people are living in an area of 147,570 sq. km. Bangladesh is the most densely populated country with low literacy rate, over exploitation of natural resources, frequent disaster, poverty. poor health and social services. The problems are highly pronounced in the rural areas. In one generation or less Bangladesh must win the war on poverty meeting the basic needs of the community people.

Initiatives have already been in process to overcome the situation. Community participation in the process of decision making and implementation is a must in the main stream development. Participation of the community is an educational and empowering process in which people could understand their problems and needs and could assure responsibility to plan, manage, control and assess the actions needed for their own development. Information can play a vital role in this regard.

We are now living in an information age.Development of information technology and information societies throughout the world are changing the way of our life. To keep pace with the information age and to face the challenges of the twenty first century community people should be aware of the significance of information as it plays an important role in economic, social and cultural development.

Communities in Rural Bangladesh

Majority of the population (85%) in Bangladesh live in the rural area in abject poverty. They are primarily dependent on agriculture and related jobs. The situation in the rural areas is characterised by lack of ownership of land and other assets by the majority, Few income earning opportunities exist especially in remote areas, the seasonal nature of production and employment etc. It is further marked by inefficient or inadequate governance structures, leaving the majority of the people without access to basic social services. By and large, the poor, disadvantaged by low levels of literacy and lack of power, are left out of decision- making processes. The rural areas are also typified by a high degree of fragmentation of markets and personalised. unequal relationships. Inadequate access to financial, political, natural and information resources leaves most of the rural people at the margins of subsistence. 20% of rural people are unaware of government and NGO services. Greater participation of the poor community in planning and decision-making and social mobilisation, are therefore desirable objectives of any poverty alleviation strategy as well as for their empowerment.

Genesis of CDL

To meet the demand a group of development activists established Community Development Library-CDL in 1980 to cater to the information needs of the development agencies and social workers. The underlying goal in establishing CDL was to develop an institution which would provide development workers with necessary resource materials and up-to-date information covering development issues.

Vision and Mission of CDL

CDL wants to project itself as a focal point for information and exchange, a centre of last resort in the concerned area, a specialised institution for collection,processing and dissemination of development information at regional, national and nation of development information al regional, national and local levels. With the formation of CDL. the first of its kind, a unique opportunity was created to share development visions and experiences at local, regional and global levels. CDL gradually developed itself into a service organisation addressing a wide range of development issues through its Central Library and Documentation Centre in Dhaka and 27 Rural Information Resource Centres (R1RC) in the remote areas of Bangladesh, Research and Publication. Audio-visual Service and through some other programmes. CDL is linked with academic institutions including universities, development oriented specialised government agencies, professional forums and national and local NGOs for their mutual benefit and exposure.

CDL is providing information services to NGOs. civil societies and community people working at the grassroots levels. This process is enhancing the participation of rural community in the development process of Bangladesh.

Objectives and Strategics of CDL

The main objective of the organi/ation is to raise the critical consciousness of the society personified in catalysts. Catalysts include, among others. planners, development activists. communication personnel, cultural activists, political activists, human rights activists, environmentalists. gender and development activists, researchers, community leaders and so forth. This means that the target audience of the organization are those persons and organisations who are engaged in various activities intending to change the quality of life of the people, particularly the vulnerable sections, the poor and the women. As a service giving organisation. CDL caters to various- needs of the community.CDL feels that a well-planned effort encompassing collection, processing and dissemination of information would help in attaining a required level of awareness in the society and,in turn would accelerate the process of empowerment of the community.

Programme Focus

Programmes evolved in response to the demand of the community. All these programmes are intended to attain the broad objective of empowerment of the community by ensuring their access to information.

Human Rights Education

From its very beginning CDL has rightly sensed the role of information in empowering the community, specially the underprivileged classes through ensuring their legal and human rights. For this, CDL has taken various endeavours through its RIRCs to make rural community aware of their rights and to provide them knowledge of some basic laws so that they can protect themselves against any illegal, unfair and discriminatory social practice. CDL has been playing a pivotal role in community awareness by bringing out a number of posters, monographs, pamphlets and other campaign materials highlighting the major issues of Community Empowerment and Human Rights. Main thrusts of these programmes are :-

- To give rural people access to information about civil law.
- To demystify the law through producing resource materials on legal aspects.
- To raise their awareness about their legal rights.
- To empower the community legally and socially.
- To create a platform from where the community can manifest their thoughts and feelings about their rights.
To ensure empowerment of rural community RIRCs are ceaselessly arranging various workshops, video shows, seminars and other programmes on human rights and gender issues to make the viewers understand the necessary perspectives and to act accordingly. Social activists and researchers are getting information support from the news clippings kept by RIRCs on human rights and other related issues. Campaign materials arebeing brought out to assist various advocacy programmes. Close contact has been maintained with other Human Rights Organizations to ensure adequate moral and information support.

Poverty Alleviation

CDL caters to the need of various organizations working in the field of poverty alleviation. Its documentation programme is largely addressed to this field. Paper clippings are regularly maintained and updated on key poverty issues. CDL has published several .reports and books in this sector under its collaboration programme with partner organisations. Besides, CDL has organised many seminars focussing on poverty alleviation and development. It has produced documentary films like "The Silent Disaster" and "Monga" to indentify root causes of poverty and marginalisation.

Gender

CDL underscores the need for gender balance in the society. The gender strategy is manifested by CDL's past and ongoing activities. In 1983, CDL undertook a case study on Working Women in Rural Bangladesh. In 1992, it has brought out two compilations on Women, one in Bangia and another one in English. Among other publications include Demystification of law for Women, How Empowerment of Women Succeeds: the path of the non-traditional and How to Attain Women's Rights and Power : about unconventional strategies. Study circles and workshops are regularly organised to raise awareness about gender issues. CDL has a rich collection of videos on gender and development which are used by women resource groups.

Environment

CDL works to raise environmental awareness of the people through print and audio-visual materials. It has the largest collection of environmental video films in the country. It made several films on flood, cyclone and highlighted issues of disaster preparedness, river erosion, coping strategies and sustainable water management. A documentary film entitled the Beel Dakatiar Brittanto features the environment degradation and misery of the people by unplanned structural intervention for so-called water management. CDL also undertakes language version! ng of films on environmental issues.

It has published posters as part of its campaign for sustainable environment and has arranged seminar, workshops and projection of environmental film through the RIRC programme. Environmental educational has been in CDL programme activities. Public response to CDL's interventions in the field of environmental education is highly inspiring.

Health Awareness

One of the main thrusts of CDL is to make the community aware of the adverse effect of unhyginic living. CDL has actively undertaken various programmes and activities to make the .ocommunity acquainted with different preventive and curative measures. CDL has arranged study circles, video shows and film projections through its RIRCs at different times showing the ways of preventing common health problems and avoiding health nuisances. CDL also collaborates with other agencies to share the news and views on health and related issues. CDL's Audio Visual Library maintains an affluent collection of video documentaries on health related issues and organizes regular screening of health related films and documentaries for the community people.

Community Information Service in Rural Bangladesh

CDL has been providing information services to grassroots communities through Rural Information Resource Centres (RIRCs). The RIRCs have library facilities and organize seminars. workshops, study circles, discussion meetings, video shows, sharing experiences to enrich the knowledge on development issues of the community people and NGOs working at the community level. RIRCs have also been maintaining newsclippings on regular basis. The RIRCs have network with local NGOs and community people. In 1997 a total of 2,56,297 people received information service from RIRC and 397 NGOs are involved with RIRC activities. The objectives of RIRC is to create a knowledge base and make access to information on health & sanitation, environment, human rights, gender, poverty alleviation and good governance and to provide facilities for continuing education.

Activities of RIRC

Resource Centre:

Information services are provided in every centre through the library. The library materials include books, reports, periodicals, newspapers, magaines, posters, flip charts, bulletins, maps. video films, training materials, annual reports of NGOs, case studies, etc. Before collecting the resource materials, needs of the user community are properly assessed. The need of materials are identified through participatory surveys, users workshops, discussion meetings, personal contact, observation, etc. Structured questionnaires are also used for surveying. The subject coverage of books, reports, journals, etc. are on women issues, child issues, agriculture, primary health care, rural development, population. disaster management, education, environment, governance, etc.

Paper Clippings

To equip the community people and the local organisations with latest ideas and experiences paper clippings are made on 25 development issues. The major issues of paper clippings are child issues, environment, rural development, women, land, human right, health, education, agriculture, etc.

Advocacy through Knowledge Network

CDL has been constantly looking for the effective ways to translate development information and knowledge for the best use of the community specially for the rural communities. Creation of knowledge base, linking global experiences and strengthen the capacity of the civil society in the rural communities the RIRCs regularly organise seminars, workshops, discussion meetings, videoshows, hook fairs and exhibitions.

The programme highlights the priority issues such as human rights, gender, child and child rights, environment, health and sanitation, etc. to raise community awareness. Such seminars/ workshops, discussion meetings facilitates exchange of views and ideas among the development workers and the community. It also enhances solidarity among them and helps to get to know each other's experiences, activities, programme areas, beneficiaries, problems, and successes, which in turn helps to minimize duplication.

Publication of a bi-monthly Bulletin

A bi-monthly Bulletin is published based on the rural experience and global development issues. The Bulletin conveys important news like success stories on projects, natural disasters, peoples' initiatives, social-movements, modern development trends, etc. RIRCs collect successful case studies on activities of peoples initiatives and the case studies are published in CDL bi-monthly bulletin so that, others can learn from those experiences.

Information service through Audiovisual

Video shows are arranged in each centre. The documentary and feature films on development and social issues are screened. Local NGOs and community people are also allowed to borrow video tapes from CDL centres for training, seminar, workshop and motivational purposes.

Information Board

The RIRCs collects information on local communities and display on boards. Information displayed in the board is mainly on number of community organisations and their programme activities, number of educational institutions, hospitals and clinics, area map, land use, crops patterns, communication systems, etc.

Innovations

CDL has developed a video news service, perhaps the only one in the region. Footage on a host of issues and events are collected and preserved for internal consumption in future or for exchange to other potential users.CDL provides a marketing outlet for development literature including NGO publications.This. on the one hand. facilitates dissemination of information on NGO activities to a wider audience, as well as brings revenue earning for CDL.

CDL started the provision of In-service Training Programme (Internship) from 1995.The aim and objective of the programme is to create information worker in the field of development. The Post-graduate students of the department of Library and Information Science (LIS), University ofDhaka. are currently undergoing in-service training in CDL after completing their masters' examination.The students are getting hands on training in documentation of development information, computerised information storage and retrieval systems, operation of e-mail, internet etc.

Constraints

CDL is going through a long and arduous process in order to achieve self-reliance. Capital costs for certain programmes like publication and video making are very high. It would be ideal if users pay for the services. But it is not always possible in a socio-economic setting where a large proportion of the users can not afford to pay to the required extent. It is also not conceivable for CDL to restrict its services for only those who can pay. as it is contrary to the motto of information for all.

Conclusion

Efforts from development activities can encourage the community in activating their inner faculties so that they can determine their own destiny and can strengthen their coping capacity to put up with ever changing and challenging situations. This could be enhanced by generating and providing necessary information to the community in a way and medium which is comprehensible to them. Once it is in process, the community itself will be able to voice their own thoughts and feelings whichwill subsequently facilitate the toilsome task of community empowerment and enlightenment as well.

Educational Channel in India

Heroes the news you have always been waiting tor! At last, after the long long wait. you will finally be able to tune in to an exclusive "Education Channel-DD-GYAN Darshan" shortly.

A joint collaborative venture of Doordarshan & IGNOU, this satellite-based channel will be on C-band at DD (C-12 on INSAT 2B) and free-to-air. The programmes will be telecast from EMPC-IGNOU. It will be a 16-hour Channel with Shours of original programming and 8 hours of repeat telecast daily.

The software for the channel will flow in from various eminent and premier institutions such as - UGC/CEC, CIET & SIETs , NOS. DST. TTIs , IITs , Dept . of Space/DECLJ, Ministry of Rural Development, Labour , Environment etc. , involved in production of specialized electronic media software for different segments of the population such as pre-school children, school going students, non formal education learners , teachers, university students, technical & management students, adult learners and so on. The programme mix for the channel will be a combination of core curriculum-based programmes in the areas of primary, secondary, higher, open and distance education, extension, technical and vocational education along with general mosaic programmes in the areas of health, hygiene, arts, culture, science popularisation , environment and so on.

While the finer details of the programming are being worked out, adequate thought is being given to make the channel relevant , useful, interesting to all besides catering to a 'niche' audience of students nationwide.For further details contact:

Dr.R.Sreedher,
Director,EMPC
IGNOU, Maidangarhi,New Delhi-68
E-mail:sreedher@hotmail.com
Telfax: 91-11-6857079

First E-Text Centre in Hong Kong

Following the launch of the Electronic Library last November, the OUHK will now set up the first Electronic Text Centre (E-Text Centre) in Hong King in 2000. Once completed, it will collect thousands of Chinese electronic texts, eventually becoming one of the largest Chinese E-text centres in the world. The project, which is part of the second phase development of the Electronic Library, will take 18 months and cost $19 million.

Heading the project is Prof. Leung Chunming,Director of Technology Development at the OUHK. According to Prof . Leung, electronic texts currently available on the Internet are mostly in English, with a serious lack of Chinese electronic texts.

Create Internet Connectivity Node in Asia

The RINSEAP and RINSCA Joint Meeting organised by UNESCO held in Ball in March this year recommended that since bulk of the traffic among Asian Countries is routed through internet connectivity nodes in the US, a node in the Asian region should be created. The meeting also recommended the merger of GIP (General Information Programme) and IIP ( Intergovermental Informatics Programme) activities.

The National Informatics centre , New Delhiwill finalise the project proposal on " Content creation in the field of education" Member states were reminded to submit their proposals through their national commissions to IIP for possible funding.

The Asia-Pacific conference ended with a set of drafted actions. They included (among others)

- individual governments with their National Commsions establish technical and educational programmes with UNESCO support. (Source:UNESCO Newsletter)
- the Australian Broadcasting Authority facilitate the establishment of a working group to develop a clear framework of issues;
- it hosts a cybersite for a 6 to 12 months period for information exchange
- there will be focussed IT funding initiatives for developing countries

Asia's First DVD Training Centre to Kick off in Singapore

ACE Daikin Singapore and Ngee Ann Polytechnic, one of the local tertiary institutions,recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding which will see the set up of the Digital Media Authoring Studio on the island republic, making it the first DVD training centre in Asia.Under the agreement, the Ngee Ann Polytechnic and ACE Daikin will team up to offer training in DVD technology and production, targeted at industry personnel and students in the film. media, communications and IT programmes of the polytechnic. More than 800 training and seminar places will be offered during the first three years.Set to open in July. the US$1.35 million studio will be equipped with the latest state-of-the-art facilities, able to rival that of leading DVD studios around the world, including Hollywood. Under the agreement. ACE Daikin will provide Scenarist NT and other related application software, as well as offer consulting expertise. Facility design . curriculum development and technical support in the set up of the studious operations. Commenting on the collaborative efforts. Liew Heng San. managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board(EDB) said. " The Digital Media Authoring Studio promises to give Singapore an edge in digital media authoring technology and provides a boost to the local film. music, television, video and multimedia industry. This Studio , being the first DVD production training centre in Asia , will enhance Singapore's position as the regional hub for the communications and media industry."

Towards a " Virtual Institute": An Internet Forum

The Institute is organizing an Internet Forum on a recently released title in the Fundamentals of educational planning ser.ies- Reducing repetition: issues and strategies. The topic of repetition is one of great interest and concern to many educational planners, and the Forum is intended to give former IIEP participants an opportunity to exchange information and debate issues in a 'virtual' discussion group.

This continuing education activity for former IIEP course participants is being offered to English-speaking respondents at the invitation from the Director that was included in the last issue of 1998 of the IIEP Newsletter. Should there be sufficient interest, a second Forum will be organzed for French-speaking respondents in the Autumn.

All participants in the Forum will receive a copy of the text and guidelines for reading and reflection on the issues raised. In mid-June a three-week Internet-based Forum will be held to discuss and debate issues and concerns of the participants under the guidance of a moderator. At its conclusion a synopsis will be prepared and distributed to the participants as a record of the interchange.For further information on these courses please contact'.s. dantoni@iiep.unesco.org

APTECHs Vidya for School Kids

Vidya,a computer literacy course launched by APTECH,has created over 50,000 new computer literate Indians since January this year. While extending this programme further to facilitate greater coverage, Vidya will now be offering to school students too.Aimed at increasing the penetration of IT education in the country, APTECH introduced a full-fledged computer course through out its 900 Aptech Computer Education Centres. This programme is offered in 7 vernacular languages is now available for school childeren of all ages to avail of during their summer vacation.

Asia to Get First Web Television

The Pt Intel will roll out the first pan-Asian Web TV network before the end of the year,PCG chairman Richard Li announced.PCG has formed a 60:40 joint venture with Intel called Pacific Convergence Corporation (PCC) to provide high-speed Internet access to some 110 million households in Asia who are subscribers of Star TV, the region's first satellite TV broadcaster. PCC will launch a global brand for its Internet service in the coming months and subscribers can access the Net via cable or satellite TV at low cost.The target is the millions of households in Asia which do not have a telephone, let alone a personal computer. Mr.Li pointed out that while only five per cent of Asian households have a telephone, over 70 per cent of them have a TV. PCC also hopes to win over existing Internet users who are frustrated with the slow access through traditional copper phone wires.PCC will sell its service through the same cable operators who deliver Star TV to homes. Cable operators need spend only US$2 per subscriber to buy new equipment and make certain technical modifications.

IGNOU launches Virtual University

The Indira Gandhi National Open University( IGNOU) has teamed up with Satyam Infoway Ltd to provide internet access to its computer students for its unique project. Virtual Campus Initiative ( VC1), IGNOU will provide all its students registering with the School of Computer and Information Sciences( SOCIS), courseware on CD from the forthcoming semesters which will also include software for Internet access.The internet access enabled by Satyamonline, will help the students have online interaction with faculty members , peer groups and external experts.According to Prof. Abdul W Khan, Vice-Chancellor" IGNOU has decided to take the lead in harnessing the internet to further its mandate of providing world class distant learning infrastructure in the country."

Internet Radio for the Masees

Dr.Arun Mehta. a Delhi-based communication engineer and activist, and his colleagues are in the process of setting up the Society for Telecom Empowerment. intended as a voice for the formulation of sensible telecommunication policies. The Society also plans to showcase some grassroot projects based on leading-edge technologies. For instance, the community radio project--- using Internet radio to take health, literacy and other messages to a populace that is illiterate or does not know English --- which will demonstrate the use of the Internet for the poorest.

Under the community radio project, it is envisaged that a village would have a community information centre, with a multimedia PC connected to the Internet. On this community PC.a Real Audio or equivalent server could be installed, which in effect would convert this PC into a radio station, which villagers could use to tape and disseminate audio content. Output of the sound card on the computer could be fed into an amplifier, and distributed over ordinary copper wire to surrounding houses, each of which only needs a loudspeaker. Or, Audio signals can be distributed from the community PC using either twisted pair telephone wires, or the coaxial cable used by cable TV operators. Homes would need a small Internet Radio, consisting of a simple embedded microcomputer , a loudspeaker, a microphone and a couple of buttons for channel selection.

One point might be added'.radio is currently a very restricted and centralised medium in India . and the government is still to open up community radio licences to a wide range of groups, as expected.

Media Beat An e-mail journal which covers selected articles from news media coverage of communication, development and change trends, programmes and policies.Articles compiled by the communication Initiative. http://www. comminit.com

Video Signal Piracy

The emergence of pay TV whereby a viewer is asked to pay directly for the rights to view a programme has presented pirates with new profitable opportunities to illegally access content and sell it at discounted rates.

The earliest, i.e., analogue, pay TV systems provided a set top box with built-in security hardware to decrypt the video signal. This simple approach worked well, until pirates broke the system and issued their own hardware that allowed reception without paying the regular fees. This enabled them to circumvent the legitimate revenue stream to the broadcaster. It is now estimated that in some markets more people have pirate boxes than legitimate ones.The broadcasters then turned to a removable security device, usually a smart card, to protect their signals. The removable device is inexpensive and can therefore be replaced if the pirates succeed in breaking it. When the broadcaster decider to introduce a totally new replacement device, they can knock out existing pirate devices and force the pirates to begin their piracy effort from scratch.

Furthermore, many of the security systems offfer the added ability to electronically target and invalidate the pirtate device while allowing legitimate devices to continue operating.

This is a constant battle, with the broadcasters continually having to keep one step ahead of the pirates and at the same time supporting his legitimate subscribers and providing compelling programming.

In order to carry out this technological attack, the pirate must be able to reverse engineer the device, and access the security system inside. That is why Conditional Access(CA) systems are usually built on secure hardware, and specifically on smart cards. However, most of the smart cards in use in the world are the same off-the-shelf cards provided by a very small number of chip vendors. These cards are vulnerable to attack because their hardware and operating system are well-known to the pirates.

However, a system based on internal generation of keys can easily design the software with traps for the unwary pirate.Taking advantage of these traps, electronic warfare tools make the behaviour of legitimate cards differ from that of the pirate devices. Most systems have not yet implemented such tools, and find themselves very vulnerable once the inevitable hack occurs.

When Your TV Talks Back

While the current television programming offers a passive viewing of whatever the television industry sends out, great strides are being made to add the missing element of interactivity. With interactive television, viewers can have more control over the information they need and entertainment they want.They can summon background information about a concept .They can check their school's examination result while comparing with the neighbour. They can mke choices about which commercials will play.

All this is possible and even likely in the foreseeable future , as being shown at the National Association of Broadcasters convention( NAB99) in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a series of Interactive television demonstrations. Demos include everything from interactive auction, to sports coverage.to weather , and they are all built on the personal Java platform.

Long the holy grail of broadcast industry, the interactive television is fast becoming a reality thanks to adoptation of digital signal and sophisticated new set-up technology in the cable and over-the-air markets. Already,over 50 American television stations are sending digital signals into nearly 40 percent of American homes.In Sun^s booth , NAB99 attendees interacted with compelling Java technology-enhanced content.Sun engineers gathered video footage from these partners then added the programming in the Java language that enable viewers to interact with the television content . And how difficult was the task? Mathew Shilts says." The hard part is getting the production and getting the graphics and working with third parties. The coding is really easy. actually."Aaron Williams adds kt basically, writing all of the applications and making them work on the on the set-top boxes was a two-man job for about three and half months.

Media providers are building their interactive contentfor the personal Java platform, because they are assured that the identical software can run on a -Variety of different set-top boxes.In fact, to emphasize the ease of running the same Java programming language code anywhere regardless of the operating system or microprocessor. Java programming language allows for the creation of application that port easily across a wide number of platforms, reducing development costs and time to market.

Although Sun engineers began writing the new Fox Sports online and BBC America demonstrations long before they recieved their first piece of hardware, they were able to finish development even before the hardware was completely stable.

Java technology explicitly shelters the software currentlyresiding on a set-top box from interference by downloaded code, and the applets necessary for enabling interactivity download safely to consumers'set-top boxes. " Thebest news is for consumers. Since applets run on any set-top box with compatible Java virtual machine, interactive programming written to the personal. Java platform will play virtually anywhere, as demonstrated by our strong content partners." says Eileen Tso, Group Manager. Market Development

Software

MEDLIB: An Electronic Media Library Management Software which automates cataloguing, classifying and storage and retrieval of Audio and Video Programmes including stockshots. Centres producing audio and video programmes, are faced with a daily problem of inventory of tapes and other non-print materials, storage and retrieval of programmes and stock shots for capsuling and production. It is essential for any production centre which cries out for computerization and yet, there seems to be no standard software for ready use.

CEMCA in collaboration with EMPC, IGNOU had taken the initiative to create a specially designed software for non-print audio and video resources and commissioned INFOTEL, India to do the task. Called MEDLIB, this software is a specially designed software on a Windows platform, fully Y2K. compliant, easy to use, enables search on a large number of parameters, from title, content, subject, producer, scriptwriter, etc.

It also enables classification and cataloguing of stock shots, helps your media librarian in classification of programmes, inventory, issue and retrieval, preparation of progress reports and helps your producer to search for stock shots and determine quality of stored material. The software is priced at Rs 20, 000 for educational institutions. For your evaluation,M/S INFOTEL SOFTWARE, can provide you with a demonstration CD on request.

For detailed information contact:

Director, Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for ASIA ( CEMCA)
52, Tughlakabad Inst. Area, New Delhi
Fax: 91 11 6085208 Tel: 91 11 6096730
E-mail : cemca@nda.vsnl.net.in
or
M/S INFOTEL, SOFTWARE,
F-18B,Saket, New Delhi 110017.
Tel : 011 6226779,6480806 Fax : 011-6858412
E-mail: infosoft@nda.vsnl. Net.in

Videos

Series : Why Use Statics ?
Module 1 : Handling Variablity
Duration : 25 Minutes

Module 2 : Describing Data
Duration : 25 Minutes

Module 3 : Using Samples
Duration : 20 Minutes

Module 4 : Bivariate Data
Duration : 21 Minutes

For More Information Contact :

Shotlist,EBS Trust 36-38
Mortimer Street ,London W I N & RB
Tel : 0171 765 4635 / 5087 / 5714
Fax : 0171 580 6246
E-mail :maillist@shotlist.co.uk
Web : http://www.shotlist.co.uk

Conferences 2000

International Conference on M/SET
Mathematics/Science Education & Technology
San Diego, California, USA
February 5-8, 2000
Contact:www.aace.org/mset

SITE 2000

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education
San Diego, California, USA
February 8-12,2000
Contact:www.aace.org/site

Stop Surfing, Start Teaching

Charleston, South Carolina, USA
February 20-February 23, 2000
Innovations 2000
Orlando, Florida, USA
February 27- March 1, 2000
Contact:www.rcce.sc.edu/ssst.html

TeleCon East/IDLCON

Learning Without Limits
Washington, D.C., USA
March 1-3,2000
Contact:www.leaguetlc.org/innvo2000

Innovation 2000

Palm Springs, California, USA
Association Dates: March 6-9, 2000
Contact:www.leaguetlcorg/innvo2000

TechEd 2000

Palm Springs, California, USA
March 6-9, 2000
Contact:www.teched2000.org

Strategies for the New Futures of Higher Education: Riding the Waves

San Diego, California, USA
April 16-19,2000
Contact:www.nucea.edu
Interactive Multimedia-Winter

Kissimmee, Florida, USA
April 21-25. 2000
Contact:www.astd.org
American Society for Training & Development (ASTD 2000)

Dallas, Texas. USA
May 21-25,2000
Contact:www.astd.org/virtual_community

Ed-Media 2000

World Conference on Educational Multimedia &
Hypermcdia & Telecommunications Montreal
Canada June 26-July 1,2000
Contact:www.aace.org/conf/edmedia

GhaCLAD2000

Ghana Computer Literacy & Distance Education
Conference Accra, Ghana, Africa
June 28, 29 & 30, July 1 & 2, 2000
Contact:www.ghaclad.org

INET 2000

Yokohama, Japan
July 18-21, 2000
Contact:www.isoc.org/inet2000

16th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning

Madison, Wisconsin, USA
August 2-4, 2000
Contact:www.uwex.edu/conference

WebNet2000

World Conference on the WWW and Internet
San Antonio, Texas, USA
October 30-November 4, 2000
Contact:www.aace.org/conf