As India's New Education Policy celebrated its firt anniversary few days ago, Ministry of Education (MoE) is organising a series of theme-based webinars on various aspects of NEP, 2020. Today, Ministry of Education and University Grants Commission organised a National Webinar on Use of Technology in Education as technology driven education is one of the major innovative thrust area of the policy.
Union Minister of Railways, Communication and Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw addressed dignitaries who joined from various parts of the country.
In his inaugural address, Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasised upon the need of using technology in education to make it available for all and stressed upon the adaption of technology for smoothening the process of education. Antyodaya, being one of the major philosophies rooted in Indian culture, he mentioned various initiatives to help reach technology to the last person in the society.
Session 1:
While talking about lifelong learning, he emphasized on bringing college campuses at the doorsteps of the learners. Further the minister pointed out several measures by the government taken under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to further enhance the connectivity, high speed internet, and means of communication with the use of advance technology.
Prof. D.P. Singh, Chairman representing UGC in the address shed light on the multiple initiatives taken up by UGC to make the courses available on digital platforms. Prof. Singh highlighted SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha, NAD and other digital platforms which have brought learners in the mainstream of online education as part of UGC’s initiatives.
Anita Karwal, Secretary, School Education and Literacy said that the blueprint for national digital architecture for school education through which child can register and get linked to learning process which will be a digital record of his/her certificates, academic tracks.
Session 2:
The second session of webinar on the theme “Use of Technology for Operationalization of Academic Bank of Credits” was chaired by Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan, Former Vice Chairman, UGC. He explained on how the Academic Bank of Credits is a flexible, revolutionary and forward-looking innovation in the National Education Policy, 2020.
Abhishek Singh, CEO, MyGov spoke about how Digilocker will facilitate the storage and transfer of Academic Bank of Credits. Prof. R.P. Tiwari, Vice Chancellor of Central University of Punjab emphasised on how the NEP will move from digital divide to digital provide. Prof. Rajnish Jain, Secretary, UGC gave insights on how the universities are spreading awareness among faculties and students about ABC and Multiple Entry and Exit.
Session 3:
The last session on MOOCS/Virtual University was chaired by Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE. He spoke on the use of AI for personalized learnings with the help of digital toys especially in the field of school education.
Prof. Saroj Sharma, Chairman, NIOS stated how approximately 1 crore people from rural areas have benefitted from the digital initiatives by the government. Prof. Andrew Thangaraj, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras addressed the webinar on developing virtual plus physical hybrid model of courses. Prof. P.D. Jose, Deptt. of Strategy Area, IIM Bangalore emphasised on creating world class universities leveraging technology to provide high-quality, cost-effective education to students across the world. Prof. Sreedhar Iyer, IIT Bombay concluded the session by providing insights on learner centric MOOCs.
Several academicians, higher education institutions, students, experts from industry and technical fields from all across the country took part in the webinar. Officers from different Ministries, UGC, AICTE and other premier institutions were also present in the webinar.
