Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1240] RE: Constraints on lecturers and students
Jon.Dron@bton.ac.uk
Date: Thu 22 Feb 2001 - 14:38:31 MET
From: Jon.Dron@bton.ac.uk Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1240] RE: Constraints on lecturers and students Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 13:38:31 -0000
> I am trying to identify what are the constraints faced by university
> lecturers in the developing world to successfully implement on line
> learning (digital education, webbased teaching, etc) . And also what
> are the constraints facing the students to make use of opportunities
> created for online learning. Any ideas?
>
I have been attempting to collaborate with a colleague in Delhi to provide
an shared online resource for students in Brighton (UK) and Delhi. We have
identified several major problems, among which are:
1 bandwidth.
Although it is improving rapidly and (according to the news I have received)
may soon reach terabit rates, as of last year, I was told that the entire
country shared around 4 mbps of bandwidth to the outside world. Internet
access is available from almost every block in the cities, but this often
means one very unreliable and slow dial-up modem connection shared between
several users. I was regularly achieving rates of 4 bits (yes, really)when
it was working, which was rare. Infrastructure in general is shaky, with
many outlying villages lacking even a 'phone line. Hybrid online/cd-rom
solutions are the order of the day.
2 reliability.
It is not a question of whether the power will fail, but when, and for how
long. Although computer equipment is as good as anywhere in the world, the
need for truly enormous uninterruptable power supplies, dealing with
voltages which regularly swing between 100 and 400 volts, dust, heat, the
odd monsoon and so on make the true cost of a PC significantly higher than
in the UK, and reliability significantly lower.
3 culture.
We are collaborating on a networking resource and it is surprising how much
local variation there is, especially given the kind of constraints mentioned
above.
Students in Delhi are used to a very different pedagogical model than in the
UK as well.
Tacit knowledge and understanding plays a large role in communication and is
significantly varied even within the Indian subcontinent, let alone in a
wider context.
In India it is also notable that the majority of computing lecturers do not
make a lot of use of email. Indeed, several will get a secretary or
assistant to print out their email, and then reply to it by hand. This is
partly a result of the unusually hierarchical nature of Indian society.
There are many more issues, such as cost, lack of training in schools (many
of the truly excellent students at Delhi University South Campus have never
used a PC when they arrive), competition from global providers etc (
although, given large cultural gulfs between India and the West, local needs
are better served by local solutions). On the positive side, demand is
extremely high. A plethora of officially unsanctioned and unaccredited
training shops and institutions has sprung up around Delhi (and I imagine
elsewhere) to attempt to fulfill the need for learning, especially in
computing.
Jon Dron
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