Proliferation of ICT in Education – Major Govt. Initiatives - Challenges Dr. B. K. Murthy Director & Head National Knowledge Network Division Ministry of Communications and IT Govt. of India Presentation at Nagpur, 11 th June, 2011

2 Key Factors of Knowledge Economy Govt. role is to act as a catalyst

3 Challenges: Digital Students By age 21, the average college student would have spent: 10,000 hours video games 200,000 s 20,000 hours TV 10,000 hours cell phone 10,000 hours of PC/Internet usage Under 5,000 hours reading

Challenges for Technology Countrywide classrooms? Various Tools & Technologies Sharing of Educational resources on the Grid/Cloud Various Gadgets High end Workstations to low cost access devices Content for all: Multimodal, Multilingual, locale specific, Just-in-time Creation of Closed User Groups: Online Collaborative Research Open Source Drug Discovery/Design/Engg. Network protocols to support various gadgets Knowledge Centers to Host various portals Network Security/QoS to cater to all types of traffic s/chatting/lectures/telemedicine/VC/e-Gov. etc. on the same Backbone??

5 Challenges – Social The challenge of numbers/Scalability The challenge of Quality The challenge of access/Reliability The Challenge of Sustainability/affordability The Challenge of Inclusiveness The challenge of course management Guiding a student through a curriculum Tapping the right content from the right source But the most important of all…….. The challenge of the mind-set !!!

ICT in Education: Role of MCIT/DIT Initiate Pilots in frontier areas before the formal system responds Courses on Microprocessor in late 70s UG/PG Courses in ICT in early 80s Establishment of ERNET, CDAC, DOEACC in late 80s Language Computing/Learning Material Development in Emerging Technologies in early 90s E-learning activities: Courseware for MS (BITS Pilani), ADIT of IGNOU etc. in late 90s Currently UG/PG Courses on VLSI Design/Embedded Systems Design/Information Security Technology Innovation Promotion Being initiated and nurtured till the formal system takes over and now establishment of National Knowledge Network

7 ICT in Education: Major Govt. Initiatives Department of IT, Ministry of Comm. & IT Establishment of National Knowledge Network National Skill Development Initiative Ministry of HRD National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) About 400 courses (40 hours each) in Engineering & Technology developed by faculties of IITs/IISc and available for free Usage by Tier II and Tier III colleges National Mission on Education Through ICT

8 National Knowledge Network To interconnect all Institutions of higher learning and Research for knowledge sharing and collaborative Research across the country with a high speed data communication network. Objective To build a scalable network, which can expand both in the geographical coverage and Speed. To be a common Network Backbone like national highway, wherein different categories of users shall be supported. Design Philosophy

Distribution EDGE 9 Features of the NKN Network consists of an ultra-high speed Core ~10Gbps & ~ 1500 nodes. A distribution layer at appropriate speeds. The participating institutions can directly connect to the NKN at speeds between 100Mbps to 1 Gbps connect to the distribution layer through a last mile connectivity bandwidth (Edge nodes).

10 NKN Educational Institutions Research Labs CSIR/DAE/ISRO/ICAR INTERNET Connections to Global Networks (e.g. GEANT) EDUSAT MPLS Clouds Broad Band Clouds National / State Data Centers National Internet Exchange Points (NIXI) Cert-IN

To create CORE for NKN Final Phase at the earliest. Backbone 2.5G to begin with soon 10G This provides the required redundancy and availability of NKN CORE. Gateways at Mumbai & Chennai apart from Delhi Hyderabad Complete rollout in 2-3 yrs Implementation by NIC

12 Current Status 20 PoPs were set up across the country 200+ Institutions of Higher Learning were connected Virtual Class Rooms in 26 IITs, ISERs Inaugurated by the Hon’ble President of India on April 9, 2009 Final Phase: PoPs, 600+ secondary PoPs, 1500 core institutions (400+ universities, R&D labs) to be connected Traffic from the affiliated colleges/centers/institutions are aggregated through MPLS-VPN to connect to NKN

13 National Mission on Education through ICT Vision Catering to the learning needs and providing a one stop solution to all the requirements of the learning community. Objectives Development of knowledge modules & the right content Research in the field of pedagogy Standardization and quality assurance of content Spreading digital literacy for teacher empowerment Providing support for the creation of virtual technological universities;

Connectivity at Institution Level 20,000 Colleges, each with 20 BB VPN connections High Speed LANs in Universities each having 400 nodes Connectivity ~ 1Gbps to universities NMEICT-NKN Interconnection, 1GB each about Locations Internet connectivity to BSNL VPN cloud.

INTERNET NMEICT Connecting: Universities BSNL Cloud UNIV #2 UNIV#1 NKN CLOUD UNIV #3

INTERNET Universities merging with NKN BSNL Cloud UNIV #2 UNIV#1 NKN CLOUD UNIV #3

INTERNET Universities Aggregating Affiliated Colleges BSNL Cloud UNIV #2 UNIV#1 NKN CLOUD Colleges Colleges MPLS CLOUDc Aggregate Traffic to NKN

18 Schools Scheme of MHRD launched in 2004 and now Revised in 2010 Coverage: All Govt./Govt. aided Higher Secondary/Secondary schools Target is to cover about 100,000 schools by 2012 Objectives: Establish enabling environment to promote usage of ICT in an inclusive manner Providing infrastructure & connectivity Promote development and dissemination of e- content in regional language To promote ICT tools for distance education

19 National Skill Development Initiative Government of India has approved the ‘Coordinated Action of Skill Development’: Three tier structure set up: Prime Minister ’ s National Council on Skill Development National Skill Development Coordination Board National Skill Development Corporation National Skill Development Policy announced To create a pool of 500 million trained persons by the year DITs Target in NSDI is 10 million in ICT by million IT literates by 2022

Through a 3 pronged strategy:  Scaling up of capacities of DOEACC Society to train 1 crore persons by To cover the entire spectrum of Training & Education starting from certificate level to Doctoral level (both Formal as well Non-Formal)  Scaling up of capacities of CDAC to train ~ 7 lakh persons by High end courses, close to Industry needs, quick cycle time for introduction of New Courses to meet emerging needs  Financial Assistance to States/UTs for setting up of ICT Academies in each State/UTs - To ensure quality faculty who are current with the latest development in IECT sector DIT ’ s Initiatives for Skill Development in IECT

21 ICT infrastructure Connecting Global

22 Class Room Teaching CBT/WBT Mobile Learning Virtual Class Rooms Instructors Authors/Experts Students/Learners Administrators/Govt. Colleges/ Universities National Knowledge Network National Mission on Education Internet/ Broadband LMS/ Authoring Tools Local Language Support tools Learning Models Compression & Streaming Compliances & Conformance Multi Modal Content Multi Modal/Multi Lingual Delivery Blended LearningUbiquitous Learning Integrated Learning Secured Reliable/Affordable Reachable Increased Quality Motivation & Retention Just in Time Infrastructure Tools & Technologies Standards Delivery Output Multi Modal Delivery gives Rainbow effect Localized

23 Summary Missions such as NKN & NME-ICT require enormous determination and vision continuity. The philosophy is “ Encourage, Enable, Enrich, and Empower ” the users. Collaboration, Interaction and Sharing are Important Paradigms for Quality Education and Innovation, Government would act as Catalyst. ICT is expected to bring in revolution in Education the way Text books revolutionised a few hundred years ago Ultimately it is the Mindset of the stake holders requires a paradigm shift – ICT is only a tool it is not a replacement Laptops can not replace Headtops

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