Intervener: Aatish Bhattarai on behalf of MSP Blogging Team
Interviewee: Mr. Yoshiaki Hayasaka
Mr. Yoshiaki Hayasaka, Former JICA Nepal Senior Volunteer and has worked as a high commission officer for information commission in Nepal. He worked 35 years in Mitsubishi Electric Corporation as a Semi Conductor Engineer and runs computer to make semi conductors.
Every year he came to Nepal for ICT. Though hi is not a teacher, he came here to present in ICT about the Education trial in Japan. He said that the two days tenure of ICT was not enough. Next time, it should be 3 days or more. He also suggested that the time keeper for every presentation is required since the time could not be managed for all presentations papers and some presentation papers are to be left.
He is going back to Japan in 23rd November and gave a very good feedback about the ICT Conference. The 5th Conference was very better than the previous one and hope the next would be more better than this.
After 38 presentation papers in two long days ICT has concluded its 5th conference.At the mean time Prof. Najimuthu appreciated the small effort for the blogger team and the video streaming team. Secondly Dr. Woo from Korea shared how he felt about the conference and hoped to visit Nepal soon and often as he loved the Himalayas of Nepal. Mr. Y.Hayasaki hoped to contribute more and see ICT in Nepal to flourish more and more. Christene Regnier stated her interest in ICT despite of not being an expert. She appreciated all the presentation and the depth of the research and effort made to develop ICT. She hoped to be a part of the development. In addition to this Mr. Madhur told that there is no point to fall cause we are at the bottom and all we can have to go is up towards to the peak of success.Pedro from Cuba pointed out different developments that has come up and is encouraging for more to come.”I believe in ‘we’ as I am already half Nepali”, he said. Geologist Tanka Ojha was amazed with the conference and expressed his deep concern towards the possibilities of development in rural areas where young people are not able to see as opportunity .Emphasizing on the future in GIS he thanked for letting being a part of this effort.Sanjiv Tiwari from Australia briefed about what has been shared in 2 day long conference.“Don’t stop when you find something don’t just leave it there explore it”, he quoted the saying of Steve Jobs.“Life is LER: Learn, Earn and Return.Learn from what resources you have,Earn with it and Return it to the society”Mr. Madhur added.Lastly certificates were distributed to all the supporters.
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR NOV 16-17
About the Speaker
He is a professor of Economics and International Trade at Chungnam National
University, Daejon, Korea. He can be contacted at kyoh@cnu.ac.kr. His blog can be seen at blog.naver.com/kyoh5555
Recent Papers and Books
- Trade Structure and Competitiveness of LCD Industry in East Asian countries
- How to measure the Effects of IP negotiation in Korea-US FTA on the
Pharmaceutical Industry in Korea?
- Effects of Patent on the Total Productivity of ICT Industry in Korea
Daejeon city, Center of Korea
Location of CNU
DAEDEOK INNOPOLIS
- Established in 1973 as the Daedeok Research Complex
- Different names
Daedeok Science Town, Daedeok Valley
Daedeok R&D Special Zone
Daeduck Innopolis
- Research and Business
28 government research institutes
14 public corporations, 5 universities
38 private research institutes, 2,000 venture firms
Human Resource( as of 2008.12.)
Abstract
- This paper uses conventional and contemporary approaches to test for the
decline in digital-divide across 42 Asian nations over 10 year period from 2000
to 2009.
- Conventional approaches (GINI coefficient, HH index) show that countries
are becoming more equitable in relative terms with regard to information and
communication technologies (ICTs) use. And the convergence rate is about 9%.
- Contemporary approaches show little evidence of convergence among
countries.
- Even though the ICT use is growing at higher rate in the lower level
countries, the absolute size of gaps between countries has not shrunk.
- Thus, we need to focus how to reduce the absolute gap as well as the equity
of ICT use. The convergence rate seems not to be enough for the poorly accessed
countries to catch up in absolute level.
Introduction
- Considerable benefits ICTs would accrue to only certain groups which are
already advanced in society.
- In developing and transition economies, the lack of access
- This implies that instead of narrowing the gap between them and advantaged
groups, the gap is likely to increase.
- This paper deals with the issue of convergence among Asian countries, as
defined in terms of their ICT access.
- This paper uses conventional and contemporary approaches to test for the
decline in digital-divide across 42 Asian countries over 10 year period from
2000 to 2009.
Possible contribution
- This research is different from earlier studies on the following points
- the paper develops various methods to measure the degree of digital divide
- the study employs latest econometrics techniques to see the convergence
- it uses more recent data until 2009
Digital-divide: Definition and Context
- OECD (2001)
- “… the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas
at different socio-economic levels with regard to both to their opportunities to
access ICTs to the use of ICT for a wide variety of activities.”
- Digital-divide is talked with respect to three key components: a) internet;
b) personal computer; and c) landline and mobile phones
- Virtuous circle of DD and income level “Low income – low use of IT – low
income – “
Four different levels of digital divide (Keniston, 2004 )
- The first divide is within a country between those who are rich, powerful
and educated and those who are not.
- The second divide is linguistic and cultural. Since the computer uses
primarily English as a language for the content etc., only English speaking
population would be able to use the computer and the net.
- The third digital-divide is across nations i.e., between rich and poor
countries. There are rich countries like U.S. and Nordic countries which have
household telephone connectivity over 90% vis-à-vis poor regions of Africa,
Asia, and most South American countries having connectivity of less than 3%.
- The fourth digital-divide has come with the emergence of a new class of
affluent people, who have gained their position and wealth by working in IT and
knowledge sectors.
Literature Review
- Wong (2002) examines the ICT diffusion/adoption performance of eleven Asian
countries’ vis-à-vis 32 non-Asian countries for the year 1998.
- Asian countries lag behind the overall mean for non-Asian countries and
there exists a clear digital-divide between the more advanced and less developed
country groups within Asian region. The digital-divide between the two groups
over five year period from 1994 to 1998 was not shown to be narrowed.
- Chen and Wellman (2004) indicate that the divide is occurring along four
diverse lines – socio-economic status, gender, age and region.
- A recent study (ASEANONE, 2005) for 10 ASEAN countries shows that the
differences in performance are declining, thereby indicating that the
digital-divide gap is falling.
- Sciadas et al.(2005) constructs a digital divide index using 21 indicators
for 139 countries for the period 1995-2003 and finds that the magnitude of
digital-divide remains huge and is widening among the countries.
This paper
- tests for the decline in digital-divide
• across 42 Asian countries
• over 10 year period from 2000 to 2009
- computes an index of ICTization using three indicators
• internet subscriptions per 100 inhabitants,
• mobile users per 100 persons
• fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants
Method
- Conventional approaches
• We first borrowed from the ‘income inequality’ literature and ‘market
share’ literature
• GINI coefficient and Hirschman-Herfindahl Index
GINI coefficient
• Use Lorenz curve ‘income inequality’
• Checking of inequality in income distribution
• A higher value of GINI coefficient Þ a greater DD
Data
- internet subscriptions per 100 inhabitants
- mobile users per 100 persons
- fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants
- data for 42 Asian countries from International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) (2010)
Shifts of Lorenz curves over 10 years period
- The shift in the Lorenz curve suggests a declining digital divide across
the nations over 10 year period.
GINI coefficient and HH Index
- the digital inequality during the period has been shrinking
β-convergence
Contemporary Approaches results
Results : mixed, but favorable for “no convergence” in three cases out of
four
This is different from the results of conventional approach.
Discussion
Results
• The conventional approaches – converging tendency
• The modern approaches – no converging tendency
• Note that the conventional approaches are referring ‘relative’ convergence:
inequalities of distribution, negative relationship between the initial level
and the growth rates.
• It seems that, even though the digital has been getting faster growth in
the low ICT accessed countries, there still exist long way to go for enjoying
similar level with leading countries.
Discussion : further evidence
- SD (standard deviation) of ICT level has grown – suggests that the DD has
been getting worsened in the absolute terms
- CV (=SD/average) has been falling: converging in relative terms
Absolute divide vs. Relative divide
Conclusion
- Since our results do not find firm evidence of convergence, we need to look
into what factors augment or reduce digital divide.
- If these factors can be nailed in the laggard countries, we may find
convergence in due course of time.
- The literature has found a number of factors militating against ICT
diffusion.
(eg)
• non-availability of communication infrastructure
• access to electricity
• regulatory and intellectual property rights institutional environment
Speaker: Narayan Shrestha, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
Mr. Narayan Shrestha in his paper presented the present status of ICT in Nepal’s education, challenges, Need of ICT in Education, Opportunities/Strengths, the ways forward, and the policies and the plans to develop ICT education and develop education through ICT.
As the world is turning into the world of the IT, development of education has become very much essential.ICT has a wide role for the development of the education as it expands the educational access and access to the educational resources. To establish an IT foundation on the mind of the childhood, make learners active in learning process and horizon wider, enhance learning achievements, enhance professional competencies of the teachers, strengthen management information system, build knowledge-based society and to eradicate digital divide ICT has become the necessity today.
He also highlighted the policies that ministry of education is working on to develop ICT for education. It is developing the internet access to the school. Also it has been focusing on establishing the co-ordination and collaboration with national and international institutions to develop skilled human resources for continuous, relevant and quality education. In school an interactive environment has been tried to establish so that wider range of knowledge in short period of time. For the region where establishing the school is difficult an alternative method of schooling through ICT is in process to be implemented. Professional Development of teachers and personnel (distance and online mode) course for professional development is being implemented.
However establishing the information Developing ICT enabled environment (prerequisites for ICT) and Integration of ICT in all aspects of education and maintaining its sustainability is a great challenge during this hour of localization vs globalization. It can easily be overcome by collective efforts and continuous motivation.
Presented by Dr Sumitra Amatya, Solid Waste Management Technical Support Center, Nepal
SWMRM recently completed development of Solid Waste Management Information System (SWMIS) and is currently in the process of implementing it. The main objective for the implementation of this SWMIS is to collect various data, information, reports, etc. regarding SWM in municipalities in Nepal and to identify key information required for making top level decisions, strategic planning and policy making regarding solid waste management in the municipalities of Nepal.
Key Features of SWMIS
-
SWMIS is a web based application
-
Profile of all 58 municipalities
-
Waste generators in the municipalities
-
Daily and yearly waste generation by type
-
Daily and yearly municipal waste collection
-
Map of waste management sites (transfer stations, processing site, disposal sites, and landfill sites) in the municipalities
-
Location map of waste disposal sites with their detail information
-
Location map of sanitary landfill sites with their detail information
-
Location map of waste processing facilities with their detail information
-
Waste collected at transfer stations
-
Waste disposed at disposal sites
-
Waste disposed at sanitary landfill sites
-
Waste collection facilities
-
Collection and transportation vehicles
-
Organizations involved in waste collection and transportation
-
NGOs and other private organizations involved in solid waste management
Major actions taken by the municipality in waste management
-
Human Resources involved in solid waste management
-
Financial resources for solid waste management
-
Composting practices in reducing waste
-
Bio gas practices in reducing waste.
-
Special other waste management practices
Target Users of SWMIS
-
Municipalities
-
Residence of Municipalities
-
Hospitals of municipality
-
Industries of municipality
-
Government Line Agencies
-
Other Stakeholders (INGOs, NGOs, Researchers, etc.)
Architecture Overview of System
Benefits of Web-Based Applications
-
More Manageable
-
Highly Deployable
-
Low Cost Support and Maintenance
-
Updates can be made quickly and easily
-
No Special Configuration or changes are need in User's PC
-
Centralized Data is secure and easy to backup
As there are security risks in any Browser-based System, proper hardware procurement should be done. Application should be user-friend for successful implementation. Proper and regular user training is necessary for end-users. Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) should be in place for continuous support of the system. Regular Backup of Application as well as database should be done and kept in offline location.
This way solid waste management can be done in a managed and systematic way.
Bibhushan Bista presented very good presentation about the Mobile Networking.
Firstly, he said the smartphones that we carry with us have more powerful than Neil Armstrong carried in when he landed the moon.
Previous –> Between –> Now
Wonders of Mobile Phones @ Present:
These are the wonders which are the most evolving mobile technologies currently.
Possibilities at present
Global Mobile Statistics (2010)
World Population live in mobile network coverage area 90%
Global Mobile Penetration – 5.3 billion (77% of the world population)
Mobile Penetration developing 70%
He less talked about the recent trend of the mobile development of US. Talked about the efficiency of Supply Chain Management with the mobile communication development.
In Nepal, currently, Mobile Penetration is 41.70% and Internet Penetration Rate is 11.46% (including all Internet services)
Mobile Phones in Nepal will now going to replace the wallet in our pocket since many multifunctional mobile services are going to be developed as: Kumari Cash Mobile Wallet, Nepali Patro App.
Mobile Ecosystem:
- Mobile Apps Developer
- Mobile Operators
- VAS Providers
- Consumers (e.g. Bank, Organization, individuals)
- Investors
- Regulators
- Government
These are the main factors that are actively taking part in Mobile Eco System. Mobile Network has become mostly used system that every one in the world has been playing the vital role in the Mobile Eco System.
Bibhusan Bista talks more about Young Innovations Pvt. Ltd. which also has become active participation in conducting mobile application/devices activities only how to get the people involved into the mobile world. One of the activity is BarCamp. BarCamp 2011 is the new activity that helped people to get more involved in the mobile applications and mobile devices.
Presented by Madan P. Pariyar
“Information is not a magic cure for hunger or poverty. However, the right information at the right time can help in finding a solution.”
In Nepal, half of the population is below the poverty line. How can ICT contribute to the alleviation of the poverty in Nepal? Well this has been a really interesting question.
Information and knowledge are critical components of poverty alleviation strategies, and ICTs offer the promise of easy access to huge amounts of information useful for the poor. ICT includes a whole range of technologies that facilitate communication and the processing and transmission of information by electronic means – from conventional radio and landline to computers, Internet and mobile phones.
Globally there are, however, anecdotal evidences to illustrate that ICTs can reduce poverty. A direct correlation can be established between levels of ICTs and level of overall development. Nepal lying along the lower tier of ICT development is among the least developed countries. However, we could establish a distinct linkage between the growth in ICTs and poverty levels in Nepal.
ICT developments in recent past
-
During the past one and half decades, there has been a tremendous growth in mobile phones. Even in remote rural areas both in the hills and mountains, people have been using mobile phones
-
Community radios/FMs have expanded their networks extensively
-
Local TV channels have come up covering far and wide across the country
-
Computer and Internets have widened their access
-
Rural telecenters are providing services to increasing mass of population
-
These technologies have been sources of information to poor people all through the country
IDE Projects/NGOs in Rural ICT
IDE through Smallholder Irrigation Market Initiative (SIMI) developed a partnership with the High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) to test the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in support of agricultural development. The commission provided computers and equipment to rural Vegetable Collection Centers in two districts (Palpa and Kailali). The collection centers utilize the equipment for three purposes:
(i) to earn revenue through providing information services
(ii) to support operation of the Collection Center by retaining data and producing documents,
(iii) to access agricultural, technical and price information.
In various parts of Nepal, TVs and Radios have been disseminating agricultural and various other information.
ICTs are important for Poverty Alleviation in Nepal. There is, however, a need to accord greater priority to the developments of ICT sector. The existing digital divide requires to be narrowed down to the minimal.
About the speaker
Mr. Yogesh Purna Shrestha is an ace Urban and Regional Planner.
ICT for Development & Education
ICT for Development & Education
Social and Economic Development & Public
Awareness
Physical Infrastructure
Development
Institutional and Financial Strengthening
Increasing Role of ICT in Local Governance
Local Governance
Local Governance/
Municipalities and Village Development
Committees
Municipalities
Social and Economic Development
Public Awareness
Physical Infrastructure Development
Institutional and Financial Strengthening
Use of ICT
Stakeholders for Development
Orgnizational Structure (then)
Orgnizational Structure (now)
Initial Stage of the Use of ICT
Developed Stage of the Use of ICT
Local Governance – a Hub
Speaker: Yoshiaki Hayasaka
Mr. Y. Hayasaka is Former JICA Nepal Senior Volunteer and has worked as a high commission officier for information commission in Nepal.In his presentation today he briefly described about the ICT education in Japan.
In Japan, January 2001, the Strategic Headquarters for the Promotion of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (IT Strategic Headquarters) was established within the Cabinet. He briefed that it’s objective is to help adapt people to the world's rapid and drastic changes in the socio-economic structure caused by the utilization of information and telecommunication technology. According to statistics there has been a very good development in lT section in Japan. New trail for the development of the ICT has been already started in 2010 and will end at 2012.
MIC (Ministries of Internal Affairs and Communications) works to construct the hardware infrastructure like as Network, Interactive Whiteboard and Tablet PC etc. in school and technical problem extraction and analysis.
MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) works the software infrastructure like as the contents development and the teaching way etc.
They offer the unitary Digital teaching materials, portal sight, ICT support and tablet PC for students and Interactive Whiteboard (one for each room).
By practicing the lesson utilizing the ICT equipments, they inspect the technical condition for realizing
co-operative education and the effects.
The government in Japan is concerned that student get more chance to experiment on their own and research and discuss in the ideas they want and is using the technology to provide resources and platform to broaden their knowledge and increase its depth.
- Dr. Subarna Shakya
Information and communication technology to provide citizen and organizations with more convenient access to government information and services and to provide delivery of public services to citizen, business partners, and those working in the public sector. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve the activities of public sector organizations. ICT has very significant role in the development of a nation.
It has brought revolution in the governance of the government. According to Economist Intelligence Unit the e-readiness index of Nepal is low.
The implementation of ICT is very challenging because of the low level of literacy, low per capita income and insufficient infrastructure for the implementation of ICT in Nepal.
ADB has been continually supporting for ICT Development Project and some estimated date and cost and date are mentioned as in the presentation slide:
Estimated Project Completion Date : June 2014
Executing Agency : Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM)
Total Project USD 31.2 M
Asian Development Bank USD 25.0 M
Government of Nepal USD 6.2 M
ICT Development Project in Nepal
According to the PPTA, the implementation plan was initiated and ADB agreed to invest grant fund for Nepal and after that the government of Nepal and Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed the grant agreement of ICT development project dated 23 May 2008. Then after ICT development project starts in Nepal.
The Project involves
-
Modernizing rural communities, particularly in remote areas, by improving rural connectivity through wireless broadband networks, mobilizing community socioeconomic activities through village network portals, and building tele-centers to improve last-mile access to services in remote rural areas;
-
Building a government information and communication technology (ICT) network, which allows government-to-government exchange of data and information and central management of government data and information;
-
Developing various priority e-Government applications;
-
Developing and implementing human resources development programs.
There are various challenges for implementation of ICT in Nepal:
- Implementation of ICT has changed the way of living of the people in many countries.
- However, in Nepal the implementation of ICT is little difficult because of its developing status.
- The government agencies find lot of difficulties in the smooth implementation of ICT in Nepal because of low literacy, low per capita income, insufficient infrastructure and limited financial resource.
Strategic Framework for Implementation of E-Government
- According to study of e-readiness in Nepal and found the implementation challenges of ICT in Nepal.
- A conceptual framework is suggested for the effective implementation of ICT in Nepal.
- The five stages of the conceptual framework is suggested as follows:
- Vision and Action plan for e-government ICT implementation
- Framework for e-readiness Assessment
- Overcoming challenges of ICT
- Developing the environment for ICT
- Implementation of ICT
The Lower Per Capita Income
As conclusion of ICT Implementation in Nepal he talked that the main challenges are like low literacy, low per capita income, and limited financial resource. A vision and leadership is required to implement the ICT in Nepal. To meet the vision the challenges in the implementation of ICT should be overcome and needs to be developed environment for the effective implementation of e-government. A conceptual framework is developed for the effective implementation of ICT in Nepal. This conceptual framework and can be further validated in the real life situation.
He talked about the causes for the geographic diversity and its effects on the humanity. Admiring the questions aroused by Saraha and Pedro: how powerful is GIS technology and how powerful is google ?he also visualized the possibilities of colonization with the other planet with the discovery of water vapours in other planet.
Briefing about the process how earth shaped as it is today. An exciting video of how India became what it is today geographically was shown. He mentioned that India was at the positions Australia is today.
This movement caused many thrusts and mountains. Another method of the change in the geographic structure is the constructional works of the roads and other structures. Bad land topography can also be caused by deforestation and other unavoidable natural disasters like earthquake and erosions.
Mountains are very beautiful and very fragile structure, he mentioned. We cannot establish a nuclear reactor in the mountain region and there are some other acts we need to take care of to prevent from the disasters to happen. Otherwise there is no guarantee of people in these areas their future.
We have some of the disasters in the past that are due to the geographic structure changing. And everything there is a big change it leaves a mark of different kind.
Nepal is small country with highly contrasting biodiversity and huge geographical variety. How can ICT have a role in saving the humanity by saving these geographical diversity and the people here? Well it can sure create a database about the changes causes of them and create awareness to control in the area that are possible. That is what has been done by Professor Tank Ojha.
Hempal Shrestha, ISOC Internet Governance Forum Ambassador had a really very great presentation about the perspective on Internet Governance Practices in Nepal.
Internet Usage, Internet Usage by Us, Business, Government as some of the good subtopics that he gave importance in the presentation. The reality of the every personnel, business and government as well is the Internet. The Internet has become as the basic need for every individual, business or government and in very sector as well.
He categorized some of the points for Internet related from the individual to the Government of Nepal.
Internet is my (our) reality !
-
Do I do Emails, blogs and News (on the Internet) - Yes, I do!
-
Do I do Facebook and other social networking? - Hmmm.... Well, I do
-
Do my critical decision and progress depends upon Internet? – Yes, very true
Internet is Business's Reality !!
-
Do I do business, in / with the Internet, - I Do !
-
Do Business depends upon Internet – Yes, very heavily
-
Do new business model are based on assumptions that Internet is a fundamental resource/infrastructure? What do you mean, like Roads, water, patrol – Well Yes,
Internet is Government's Reality !!!
-
Does the Government recognize the Internet? - Yes, they do
-
Do they have necessary and adequate laws and understanding about the Internet- Certainly they do, but some
So Who Governs the Internet? What Governs !!!
- In World - the one who have the power (very true!)
- In Nepal – its NTA, Government of Nepal
- Who runs it – All – Public, Private and Personal Enterprise!
He defined Internet in his presentation as “The Internet can also be defined as a worldwide interconnection of computers and computer networks that facilitate the sharing or exchange of information among users. ”
Internet Governance
“The development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet”
He also mentioned the status/opportunities of Internet in Nepal by showing the picture which is really awesome:
He also mentioned some of the Internet Guiding Principles from his side. i.e. He’s thinking from his side.
-
Transparency and inclusiveness – Love other's transparency and inclusiveness, where they include me, but about my transparency- well I have some reservation!
-
Do not re-invent the wheel- Well I am not inventing at the moment, even if I invent, I will get a patent with other name, not a wheel, huh!
-
If it ain't broke, don't fix it- I hope there are someone to fix it, but if I am the fixer, others must obey/follow my instructions/ solutions.
-
Promotion of Holistic Approach and Prioritization:- From my centre, I am holistic, did anybody said something about religion?
-
Principle of Technology Neutrality: Well I believe in neutrality and but I love technology, I invested in.. hmm...
-
The Principle of Net-neutrality: Again, I trust this fact, but my website / network should be the most preferred platform, no matter what :D
-
Make Tacit Technical Solutions explicit policy principles: If I am the inventor, I will prefer to be ahead of the policy guys. Follow me!
-
Avoid the risk of running society through programmer's code.:- Agreed, but I cannot innovate and change if I do not code new fuzzy stuff, I make money out of.
Almost every aspect of Internet and its governance has a half in-half out view collision and cohesion for social, legal, technical, cultural and knowledge change. Nep Netizens along with the world community have to decide...
“holding broadband service providers to account”
Presented by Dr. G. Vijayakumari, Research Assistant Dept. of Education,
Periyar University, India
6000 years ago, things were written in stones, marbles so as to recall them later on. From 1300 B.C, people started keeping notes in papers and compiled it in the form of books. With the development of printing press in 1455 A.D, it was no more necessary to write everything by hands. Everything could be typed and printed. and now WEB Revolution has turned everything. It no more the world of stones or papers, its the digital world. Everything is digital.
Electronic gadgets can not substitute teachers no matter however advanced they are. But it can re-teach the content in an effective way. And it helped as a guide and facilitator of student’s learning.
In India, the purpose of ICT in education is generally to familiarize students with the use and workings of Computers and related Social and ethical issues.
Only 62% of the teachers in India have the ICT skills. Rigid structure of traditional education systems, traditional assessment work, restrictive curricula to use ICT, restricted institutional structure, poor electricity breaks in regular intervals and location of ICT equipments was locked and it is available inside the Principal / heads of the institution are the reasons why very few Indian teacher have ICT skills.
E-learning as a key factor
Information is a key factor in the generation of wealth. E-learning can be used as a core to the teacher training process. E-learning is a form of technology that are used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information in any classrooms.
Advantages of e-resources
To authors:
To publishers:
-
Paperless mass production makes publishing & distribution easier
-
Potential end of the “out of print” era
-
Easy and multiple distribution channels
-
Readily reformatted for independent platforms
-
An inexpensive format for works that require colour
To libraries:
-
instant online activation purchased e-books
-
lower production costs could lead to lower prices
-
eco-friendly; saves shelf space
-
no lost or damaged titles
-
Simultaneously share book (if networked)
-
No risk of damage, No risk of tear or theft
To readers:
-
Speed,
-
Portability,
-
Interactivity,
-
Print on Demand,
-
Personalization,
-
Add Ons.
-
Convenient storing,
-
less expensive,
-
instantly available through downloads
-
text can be searched, except when in the form of images
-
type size and type face may be adjusted
-
zooming in facility very useful in case of electronic map
To classrooms:
-
A vehicle for assessment and communications
-
Linked to additional resources
-
Capable of customization and annotation
-
Easily selected and isolated components (learning objects)
To society:
Benefits of E-Journals in India
-
Scope for electronic archives;
-
Availability and monitoring of usage statistics;
-
Getting lower unit cost of information;
-
can be read anywhere in the world
-
allow the inclusion of audio-visual material as well as the other formats
-
articles include links to e-books, and other
-
Developing common resources databases;
-
Effective document delivery systems;
-
Enhanced search facilities;
-
Better scope for a union catalogue
To be effective, however, technology must be used to promote new learning goals and teaching strategies that are student-centered, collaborative, engaging, authentic, self-directed, and based on development of higher-order thinking skills.
About the speaker
Dr. Han Insoo is a professor at Chungnam National University, Korea. He can be contacted at ishan@cnu.ac.kr or kyoh@ cnu.ac.kr
He opened his presentation with a bit of humor. He said ‘he is unaware when lunch time starts in Nepal where as in his country it starts at 10.45 AM’.
He further added don’t trust me as the words of all presenters is a lie.
Contents
I. Introduction
II. The e-learning situation in university education in Korea
III. Establishment of Regional University E- Learning Centers
IV. A Case of the CNU-University E-Learning Center
V. Conclusions
Introduction
- Recently, much emphasis has been placed on facilitating e–learning in university education in Korea.
- Many universities and colleges have made efforts to build their own cyber-campuses and have developed various forms of e-learning content for their taught courses.
- Among them, 10 universities have been designated as “Regional University E-learning Centers” (RUECs) by the Korean government. These centers have the objective of promoting the development of e‑learning content for classes.
- According to the ‘2010 Higher Education E-learning Survey , 71.6% of 215 universities and colleges that responded to the survey had adopted various kinds of e-learning in their teaching.
- Specifically, 83.2% of universities, 59.5% of technical colleges, and 100% of cyber universities that depend on online teaching made use of e-learning in their teaching. The figures for state and private universities were 65.5% and 72.8%, respectively.
- Content for e-learning has been actively developed. Indeed, the number of e-learning courses was 637 in 2006, but it had increased markedly to 2,029 in 2010.
The e-learning situation in university education in Korea
- Wide use of e-learning in university education in Korea
- E-learning is no longer an unusual phenomenon in Korean universities. They have been eager to adopt e-learning for their regular teaching and classes. Many universities have established their own cyber campuses on their intranets and have been given incentives to make their teachers get involved in e-learning. Their efforts have also been supported by a government policy to stimulate e-learning in university education.
Establishment of Regional University E-Learning Centers
Background
- In Korea, RUECs have played a central role in e-learning in the university education system. To encourage IT-based university education, the Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology formulated a ‘University E-Learning Center Building Master Plan’ in 2003, which divided the nation into 10 regions and set up a regional university e-learning center in each. Under the plan, many leading universities, building consortia with smaller universities, applied to participate in the program. Initially, only two or three universities were finally approved as regional university e-learning centers by the Ministry, based on their facilities for, and commitment to, e‑learning. Now, this has been extended to the 10 planned centers.
- When a university is designated as a regional university e-learning center, it can get certain subsidies from the government. However, the major portion of the budget for the centers is raised by the universities, with a matching fund for the project.
10 Regional University E-Learning Centers
Functions of Regional University E-Learning Centers
Support for the development of e-learning content
- The main task of the institution is to secure sufficient and high quality content for the purpose of teaching.
- Top this end, the center has operated the ‘E-Learning Content Development Program’, which gives financial and technical support to professors to encourage content development. Every semester, proposals are submitted to the center by professors who want to develop e‑learning content for their class
The typical content development process at the e-learning center
E-learning content developed by regional centers (2008-2010).
Credit transfer among participating universities and centers
- Sharing of the developed content is important in maximizing the development effect. Although most content developed at a university is mainly for teaching in the university where the regional e-learning center is located, some content is shared with other participating universities in the same region.
- Many participating universities agreed to open the content of their ‘online-only’ classes to all students at other participating universities. In such cases, the credits that students received from the e-learning course can be transferred to the universities that students are attending.
- This credit transfer started at the regional level, that is, among participating universities in the same region, but soon expanded to the national level, that is, other regional university e‑learning centers. Now, over 100 universities participate in the scheme.
Trends in credit transfer among the universities
Sharing e-learning content with the public
- Sharing e-learning content is not limited to universities in and between regions. Some of the content developed by regional centers is open to the public or even to foreign nationals.
- This is actively encouraged by the Korean government and is considered as a contribution to the Open Educational Resources (OCR) movement.
- Content is loaded on the Korea Open Course Ware (KOCW) website (www.kocw.net), which can be accessed freely. As of 2011, 8,482 course contents have been opened to the public on the KOCW website.
The expanding use of content
- content developed can be used and shared at multiple levels, as Figure 3 illustrates.
- The use of content is at first limited to the university that supported its development, but can be expanded to the national level so that anyone can have free access to the material.
Opportunities to continue study during military service
- Military service is mandatory for Korean male students over 21 years old. For a period of 22 months, they have to leave their university, take a leave of absence, and discontinue their studies.
- However, e-learning provides an opportunity for students in military service to continue their studies. These students can gain credits by participating in online classes authorized by the government and those credits can be approved by the universities.
- As of August 2011, 101 universities and 5,637 students participated in this plan.
- Of these, 129 classes and 51% of the participants were covered by a regional
university e-learning center.
A Case of the Regional University E-Learning Center: the CNU-University E-Learning Center
- Chungnam National University’s (CNU) University E-Learning Center (UEC) is a regional center in charge of e-learning in the Daejeon-Chungnam area. CNU, a representative university in the Daejeon-Chungnam area, is located in the center of South Korea.
- Originally, CNU had a small division for the diffusion of e-learning for university teaching, for their own institutions.
- In 2007, a CNU-led consortium applied for a Support Program and was designated as a regional e-learning center by the Ministry of Education. Now, the center is under the leadership of the CNU-Education Development Institute.
Functions and Results
Support for content development for e-learning
- As a regional center, the main task of CNU-UEC is the development of e-learning content for lectures. For this purpose, the center has run an E-Learning Content Development Support Program by which the center selects proposals and provides financial support for developing e-learning content.
- The program has two kinds of grants. One is a government grant and the other is a university grant. The former is for the subjects that have basic academic orientations, including the liberal arts areas and humanities, and the chance to apply for grants is available to all professors at participating universities in the region. The latter is given only to professors at CNU.
- For selected proposals, 3.5-5 million Korean Won (USD 3,000-4,400) is given for course development.
- Development of some content was assisted by professional agencies, but most content was developed by professors by themselves using development assistance software, such as Activetutor, Expert, Presto, and Commones. In each process, an original manuscript can be redesigned and improved by professional web designers.
- Recently, some forms of content, developed with special software, has been loaded onto smart phones, making the content readily accessible by students anywhere.
E-learning content development by the CNU center
Transfer of credits
- Based on the developed content, the CNU center facilitated the transfer of credits among the participating universities in the region.
- As shown in Table 3, transfer of credits has been agreed for 22 subjects by the participating universities to date. The credits that students get for the subjects authorized by the center can be transferred to the universities the students attend. The numbers of participating universities, students, and subjects increased a little in 2011, compared with the previous year.
Offering e-learning classes to students in military service
- Since 2008, the CNU center has offered some online-only classes for the students in military service so that they can continue their studies. The number of subjects and students participating in the program has increased steadily. In 2011-1st semester, five subjects and 157 students participated in the program that CNU initiated.
Sharing content developed with the public
- Some of the content supported by the CNU center has been uploaded to the KOCW website, so as to make it available to the public. Since 2007, in total, the content of 15 courses (eight government-supported and seven university-supported) have been shared with the public through KOCW.
- Their subjects are: “the secrets of life and death”, “e-business”, “programming languages”, “humans and the universe”, “written and verbal language in our life”, “the world of fashion and technology”, “basic English”, “understanding e-commerce”, “introduction to university mathematics”, “history of the universe”, and “basic engineering”.
Evaluations of e-learning at the CNU center
Student satisfaction with e-learning
- The CNU UEC recently conducted a survey to investigate responses of participating students to the Learning Management System (LMS) at the cyber campus run by the CNU center. The survey was conducted online. A questionnaire was administered to 11,322 students who participated in e-learning during the first and second semesters of 2010. However, only 293 responses were returned and used in the analysis.
- Students were asked to rate their satisfaction with online classes they participated in. In total, six Likert-type items (from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) were used to measure satisfaction. Table 4 presents the survey results by gender.
Survey results regarding e-learning
- respondents rated their satisfaction with e-learning as above average, but not very high. In particular, they reported slightly higher satisfaction with course design/operation than the other issues.
- Overall, female students showed more favorable attitudes to e-learning, which may indicate that female students concentrate more on lectures in class than male students.
- respondents rated their satisfaction with e-learning as above average, but not very high. In particular, they reported slightly higher satisfaction with course design/operation than the other issues.
- Overall, female students showed more favorable attitudes to e-learning, which may indicate that female students concentrate more on lectures in class than male students.
Course evaluations of e-learning classes
- We wanted to investigate the effects of e-learning in terms of improvement in course evaluations by students. The paired t-test was used to compare the means of the course evaluations before and after e-learning in 17 classes for which data were available. Courses were evaluated by students using Likert type scale (1 = very dissatisfied, 5 = very satisfied). Table 5 shows the results.
Course evaluations before and after e-learning
Challenges for e-learning at the CNU center
- Some output data suggested that e-learning at the CNU center produced positive results. However, it still has a long way to go. In a survey, students were also asked to mention what was needed to improve the e-learning in which they had participated
- “communication among the learners” is what the students wanted most in e-learning. They felt that they needed to communicate more with each other in the process of e-learning. Technically, such provision is not very difficult. Additionally, the students also need ‘motivation for learning’. This indicates that more enthusiasm and skills are required to stimulate e-learning on the professor’s side. Students want more communication with the professors as well as with each other.
What the students want from e-learning
Conclusions
- To date, we have looked at the role of regional university e-learning centers in promoting e-learning in university teaching.
- It is clear that these institutions have contributed to the development of e-learning content and to initiatives for sharing content among universities in the same region, with universities outside the region, and even with the public.
- E-learning also leads to higher course evaluations by participating students.
- On the quantitative side, it is no exaggeration to say that e-learning initiatives have achieved remarkable success in a short time.
- On the qualitative side, however, much remains to be improved.
- Based on the analysis presented here, some suggestions can be made for promoting e‑learning in university teaching.
- First, instructors should fully commit to e-learning. They have to enhance their skills in operating e-learning classes and invest more time in giving feedback to their students, and in motivating them for learning. Continuous training courses for instructors are essential to enhance the effectiveness of e-learning.
- Second, learning systems need to be designed and operated to provide a forum where students can freely discuss issues and topics with each other online. Through such interaction, they can be motivated to be more involved in e-learning.
- Third, e-learning systems operated by regional university centers have to be upgraded, based on continuous two-way communications between centers and participating students, to ensure the effectiveness of e-learning.
More Posts
Next page »