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Journalism of Courage
Not mama8217;s scolding, but a computerised alarm clock waking up a child with a good-morning. After some time the same computer gives the child the time table in school. You are appearing for written and oral examination using a computer and the examiner and the student can see each other on the computer screen. This may happen from your home or from a Cyberdhaba.
You log on to your computer and get educated on Shivaji8217;s history by Babasaheb Purandare, on Windows 2020 by say Bill Gates. Mangesh Padgaonkar is teaching you Marathi poems. Vyasa.com website is teaching you Mahabharata. Students carrying palmtop computer in their pocket with matchbox sized CD8217;s instead of huge and bulky school bags. These CD8217;s have the homework and text books are on the websites. Capacity of these micro CD8217;s is more powerful than hard disk capacities of today8217;s mainframes. A housewife of an IT professional from California is appearing for Pune University8217;s MA Marathi external examination using the Internet. After few hours the Vice Chancellor himself comes up on the website and awards her the degree if she has passed.
Sounds incredible or more like a fairy tale. These are some of the emerging technologies in the Information Technology IT, which will definitely change the day to day life of every student, graduate and professional. In the next few years, all professionals will use computers for their day to day work. The frequency of usage of computers in the next 10 years will be same as that of a wrist watch. Till recently a person who could not read or write was called an illiterate. But the day is not far away when a person who cannot use a computer will be termed as illiterate.
Information technology of tomorrow:
Information Technology encompasses computer hardware, networking and software development. Each of the component of this technology is changing rapidly.
Estimated trends in IT in the next 10 years:
Convergence of PC, telephone and television into one instrument. As a thumb rule the cost of the computer will be half of what it is now and its capacity will double very year. Dial up modems of very high speed will be integrated with this device. This device will be of the size of today8217;s mid range mainframe and will be available for Rs. 50,000 in the year 2005. Embedded computing will make a PC disappear and computing will be done from all household as well as business gadgets such as calculator, credit cards, ovens and refrigerators. User Interface will be Speech Based. Internet will flow through the Cable Network, Telephone lines, cellular phones.
Impact of IT on Education in the next 10-15 years:
When one starts talking about impact of IT on education we assume that the only implication is that every graduate and undergraduate level student should learn IT. While this observation is true, I can see a severe impact on the quot;Management of Educationquot;. I have witnessed in the last 10 years the impact IT has made on business houses. When I was in Sydney University, Australia, I have closely observed the modern management system using ERP for their graduate level and post graduate level education.
I feel that all the new trends rocking the business management systems will also have a long lasting impact on the way education is managed in India. All new technologies from 2001 onwards will get implemented and adopted very fast. As a result a new trend of quot;Education Process Re-Engineeringquot; like Business Process ReEngineering BPR will be prevailing in the Indian universities. Due to this one of the critical success factors of the performance of a university will be, how well, the knowledge of students, industries employing them, courses, question papers is managed in the university.
Trends in Education Management in the next decade:
Edutainment : In my opinion sometime in 2020 the word learning8217; will disappear from our dictionaries and it will be replaced with the term edutainment. There will be no boring lectures of 45 minutes in colleges. Learning will be real fun. More and more IT companies are investing a lot on Web based content creation. After all Internet is all about richness and reach. With both the aspects taken care, the dream of Education On Demand will soon come true. These tools will definitely aid college lecturers and professors.
In tomorrow8217;s world the teachers will work more as co-ordinators and help in the spread of knowledge and their core competence will not be teaching.
Education on Demand through Internet:
Internet based education will create a severe impact. In tomorrow8217;s world, education will soon become a basic human right. This will create a definite impact on the tuition or coaching class business and this should be a welcome sign for colleges. You can get educated on any subject by the best breed of faculties on that subject. This technology will improve quality of education in all colleges. Examination as well as Certification will be Internet based.
Microsoft has successfully demonstrated how examination of MS certified consultants can be conducted on the Internet. This trend will soon become a common practice even in our Indian universities. This technology will surely reduce malpractices like paper leakage and copying in the examination hall. If the questions are objective type, there is no reason why the checking of the answer sheets cannot be done by the software programs. This can also certify candidates instantly. Cyberuniversities : With the above trends coming up, Universities will go online on the web and will implement modern software tools for managing the education. Like Cyberbanks, Cyberuniversities will come up. These universities will conduct web based examination based on their syllabus. This will be a big jolt to the present model of certification. Like banks even universities will start competing with each other. Entry of modern banks form abroad forced nationalised banks to change their management techniques and modernisation. Ipredict similar trend in Indian universities.
Conclusion: It is changing world into a Global Village. The technology spread is very fast and will be even faster in the years to come. Education Systems and management will need to change as a result of that. The idea of this article is to start the thinking process in the minds of experts in the education field, on how IT and modernisation needs to be quickly applied even in India.
I always start thinking who is the customer of the university? Student community or the industry which absorbs the students. Each university has to ask this question to itself and depending on their answer re-orient the customer service accordingly.
The writer is Chairman, Computer Society of India, Pune.
