Going 'e'
Hi friends,
As I have not had the opportunity to meet all of you personally, let me first introduce myself. I am Shiranee Dissanayake, the new Social Marketing & Community Animation consultant to the OUSL – CE project. I thought it would be nice if we got to know each other and interacted regularly on matters pertaining to our work at the OUSL, so that it would help me get an insight into the OUSL and its work through your valuable experience at this university.
Going ‘e’ has been discussed at many a forum associated with education and as you are already aware, the modernization process of the OU is now on its way. Once the systems are in place undoubtedly, life will become so much easier in terms of the work load and certainly more interesting, with on- line course design, delivery and learning coming on stream.
This crucial transition from ‘print-based’ to ‘online’ will naturally give way to a complete paradigm shift which will change the way we think, work and act in the future. If implemented effectively, it would not only improve the image and prestige of the organization but would also signal a bright future for the OU in terms and financial strength through the high marketability of its courses both here and abroad. Therefore, this is indeed an opportune moment to reflect, discern and act to put things right by doing away with old practices which have cramped your style so far and impeded progress by preventing you from giving your best for the betterment of our country through the democratization of higher education.
So I thought of sharing this article written by a friend of mine Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma who is an accomplished instructional designer himself. I am sure you will find it very meaningful to your current work.
Just go to the following URL (http://edriveeditorial.blogspot.com/) to read the full article. Don’t forget to give your comments and suggestions as I am looking forward to receiving them.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Shiranee
Bridging the Gaps Between Urban and Rural Sectors with e-Learning
by Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma
posted by think @ 2:56 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
It is true e-lerning make the things easy for academics. But have ever thought of making the life easy for other end-students. How many pupils in remote areas of this country has the computer access. How is the affordability and reliability. In my view vast majority our students (ODL) depend on parents for their expenses in higer eduacation unlike in other countres. In a situation like this one has to seriously anayse the our students' readiness to swift to e-learning.
Hi,
I am delighted to have a response from you regarding "Going 'e'". Your concern is extremely valid and it would be really good to start a debate on this subject. Thank you for responding.
There are many initiatives now underway to provide connectivity and computer facilities to rural areas. Infact I saw fully fledged computer centres being established at the Open Univeristy regional centres at Kandy and Kurunegala recently.
The Information Technology Agency ICTA is involved with opening up "Nenasalas" where rural communities can have access to computer facilities and internet.
This is an extract from the ICTA website which may answer some of your concerns:
The project aims to have 1000 Nenasala centres in operation by the end of 2008. A majority of the Nenasalas follow a community model where the centres are established in a central place of a village such as a religious institution, public library or a community organization. These centres provide a range of services including high speed internet to access national, local and international information; e-mail; telephone; computer training classes and other ICT related facilities. Content essential to the rural community is available in Sinhala and Tamil language to all users. To solve the affordability gap; a voucher Programme has been introduced to offer free access to services by men, women and children. The Nenasala will act as a resource center to the village to disseminate knowledge and to share information through the Internet, with the ultimate goal of reducing poverty, peace building, economic and social development and improving the IT literacy rate of the country.
These are just a couple of initiatives and no doubt they will expand in the future. Currently students pay for the OU courses and there is no lack of demand for many of the courses offered by the OU.
What is needed, is to provide high quality courses and create awareness among the students about the benefits of e-learning to motivate them to shift to e- learning.
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