|
INTRODUCTION
Today, the Internet and web-technologies have become commonplace and are rapidly
decreasing in cost to such an extent that technologies such as Application Servers
and Enterprise Portals are fast becoming products and commodities of tomorrow.
Web enabling any information access and interaction - from Enterprise Portals,
Education to E-Governance or for Healthcare, and every thing that one can imagine
- is fast becoming all pervasive to such an extent that almost everyone one the
world is affected by it, or contributing something in it. However, much of it
does not create significasnt value until and unless, the architecture and services
over it are suited to the needs of the organizational and institutional framework
of the relevant domains. While IT is getting perfected, there is inadequate work
in perfecting the large and complex distributed information systems, associated
information sciences and the much needed institutional changes in every organization
to effectively benefit from these developments. The
Kerala Education Grid is a project specifically addressed to the Higher Education
sector of the state to set in place effective IT infrastructure and methodologies
and thereby improve quality and standards of learning imparted in all the colleges. Under
the aegis of its Department of Higher Education, the State Government of Kerala
has taken a major initiative in establishing an Education Grid across all colleges,
universities and premier institutions of research and development (R&D). The
Project is called Education Grid for two important reasons: Firstly, it aims to
equip the colleges with necessary IT infrastructure, network them among themselves
and with premier institutions of R&D. The second and more important reason
is that the online assisted programmes planned to be put in place over the Education
Grid enable the knowledge base, and associated benefits of experience and expertise
to flow from where it is available - the better institutions and organizations
to where it is needed - the teachers and students in the numerous colleges. The
issues of how exactly this project helps, and how it is to be made a part of regular
college or university is explained next. The
articulated vision of this project is to provide "Quality Education to all
students irrespective of which college they are studying, or, where it is located".
Having set this objective, one needs to probe in some depth the key factors that
really ail our college education today. Firstly, formal education is conducted
in a mechanical way of syllabus - classrooms - lectures - practical - examinations,
with little enthusiastic involvement by teachers, or, education administrators
alike. Students attend the classes and taking examinations with an aim of getting
some marks or grade and a degree. In this process, the primary aim that education
should impart scholarship, learning, earning for leaning and capacity for self-learning
hardly get the attention they deserve in the formal education system. In
this context one may quote Alvin Toffler, "The illiterates of tomorrow are
not those who can not read and write, but those who can not learn, unlearn and
relearn". This brings the key question of what exactly are the attributes
of knowledge, scholarship and learning that we wish to impart through our educational
institutions. The key to India becoming a successful knowledge society lies in
the rejuvenation of our formal higher education system. Education Grid approach
appears to be the most practical, cost-effective, and perhaps the enlightened
and realistic way to achieve this. With
the completion of the State Information Infrastructure, and with the implementation
of projects such as `Kerala Education Grid' and `Education Server,' schools and
colleges can start offering quality e-resources to students, irrespective of the
geographic location of students and teachers. Piggybacking
on virtual campuses, school and college education in Kerala is poised to fashion
citizens for the knowledge society of tomorrow. With the completion of the State
Information Infrastructure, and with the implementation of projects such as `Kerala
Education Grid' and ` Education Server', schools and colleges can start offering
quality e-resources to students, irrespective of the geographic location of students
and teachers.
<<back |