Maximize use of technology to enhance quality of education

New Delhi/10/03/2013: While inaugurating the maiden ICT Leadership in Higher Education event (24-26 February 2013) organised by the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) in the evening of 24 February 2013 at Hotel Daspalla, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, the Honourable Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India, Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju called upon the participating Vice Chancellors to maximize the use of technology to enhance quality of education. He emphasized that ICT is a leveller between rural-urban divide and between the poor and the rich. The challenge remains in preparing the first generation learners to use technology optimally for learning, he added. Congratulating the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi – regional centre of the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada and the organizers -- Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the British Council in India, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University for organizing the event for senior leaders and administrators to focus and discuss institutional  ICT master plan, Dr. Raju urged the Vice Chancellors to focus on creation of local area networks within their respective institutions to take advantage of the bandwidth available under the National Knowledge Network.   Prof. Arun Nigvekar, Former Chairman, University Grant Commission (UGC), Prof. Gopinath Pradhan, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, Dr. P. Prakash, Vice Chancellor, Dr. BRAOU, Mr. Paul Sellers, British Council, and Dr. Sanjaya Mishra, Director, CEMCA spoke during the inaugural session.  

While the inaugural speech by the honourable Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju strengthened the belief on the ability of ICTs to improve the quality of teaching and learning engagements, the keynote address by Prof. Arun Nigavekar, on the first session of 25^th February 2013 set the tone of the discussions to follow, and highlighted the range of issues before the senior leaders in Indian institutions. While emphasizing the need for creating enlightened leaders in Indian universities, Prof. Nigavekar emphasized the role of teachers in the ecosystem of ICT integration in teaching, learning, research and administrative activities of the university. Educational ICT leadership programmes are the need of the hour, and there is a need to develop benchmarks in ICT in education, he added.

The three day meet was attended by 39 participants including 20 senior leaders and Vice Chancellors of Indian Universities. ICT experts from India and abroad, including five experts from the UK participated in the event sharing their experiences in various areas of ICT in education, especially in the areas of ICT policy, eLearning strategy development, and use of Open Educational Resources. Besides interacting with the experts based on the presentations, the participants engaged in peer group discussions to share best practices and lessons learnt to outline actions that should be taken by every higher education institutions to effectively use ICTs in teaching and learning. The participants also discussed a draft institutional policy on Open Educational Resources developed by CEMCA and offered comments to improve the policy template.

The event was organized in Hotel Daspalla, near the campus of the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, and after the technical sessions were over, the participants visited the campus of the university, and the closing of the event was organized in there. Dr. Mishra while thanking all the participants, resource persons and the organizers said that CEMCA is happy to have played a catalytic role in organizing and bring four significant partnering institutions to organize the event successfully. Everyone involved played their role in harmony, and thereby making it a memorable event. He expected that the participants will implement some of the ideas they discussed with their peers during this workshop, and share their experiences back to CEMCA for circulation though our website and Newsletter.  British Council was represented by Ms. Manula Rao, while Prof. Madhu Parhar represent ted IGNOU at the closing session. Prof. Parhar also presented a brief of the proceeding as recapitulation of the discussions. The event came to a close after formal vote of thanks by the staff of local organizer – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University.