Dr. Arun Mehta : 

1. ComCom: Can you elaborate the term,"Global Learning Day" ?

Dr. Arun Mehta : "Global Learning Day" is an annual Internet event. This event viz. Global Learning Day V - is the 5th event - it is taking place today 6th October, 2001. Global Learn Day is a 24 hour, non stop, live, interactive webcast that is part global celebration, part conference, part experiment, and part exploration. It uses the web, streaming audio, and text chat to allow presenters from around the world to share their unique projects and ideas.

The day starts at 00:00 Hrs. GMT and runs upto 00:00 Hrs. next day. The event is started from International Date line and progress gradually. The day travels Through FIJI, New Zeland, Japan by the time the event reaches India it is 07:30 Hrs. GMT, that is 13:00 Hrs (IST) and the idea is to highlight :

What is Happening in Distant Learning?
What are the technical possibilities?
What are the problems that one may face across nations?
What are the ares of possible cooperation?

Global Learning Day brings together Technical/Education experts, Teachers and students from around the world to discussed the subjects with the hope to evolve more projects in this area as time passes more and more people are getting interested every year there are more and more distant learning courses - to start with the number was 5000, but now there are more that 100,000 such courses on the Internet. I am really very happy to note that the number has grown exponentially.


 

2. ComCom: What are the major areas in which lessons are available on the internet?
Dr. Arun Mehta : You name any course - it is there. Of course the first people to get into the Internet and do new things are the technocrats, the people who deal with the technology. They do not face much of a problem in connecting different kinds of audio devices, Video modes and Special devices like modem etc. So initially they were the people who could debug the hardware so lot of computer related courses were made available. But now the technology is becoming more and more user friendly. So lay person with little technical knowledge like ordinary teachers are able to start course so now there are course on wide variety of subjects, in a Global learning mode.

 

3. ComCom: Can you throw more light - you mean to say that there are well defined, cheaper, authoring tools, learner's support etc.- are readily available now?

Arun Mehta: Yes, yes they readily made available - authoring tools, learning tool what ever you call it, with audio/video support utilities 
Are there for asking. 

The specific tool we are using in global learning, you can visit the URL:

http://www.cyberclassrooms.com/conf1/clienthtm. 



The tools allow the teacher to be with the student and carry out Audio conferencing, text chatting also a modest amount of video conferencing and very important support is that, the teacher and student can push pages. 

The Teacher can display (push) a message to others as every body to see like a black board.

4. Comcom: Do you mean to say controlled Slide shows are possible online/live, are the students expected to download slides before the live show? Do mean to say things will open-up in the user-end computer system also?

Arun Mehta: Yes, Controlled slide show supports are provided. They are dynamic slides show live, No prior downloading. Things will be dynamically change in the user machine also. Its exactly like a Class room kind of facilities - extremely cheap) 

As teachers use the transparency in conventional classroom, they can use on the internet the dynamic supports. So it is completely like live class-room experience. 

5. ComCom : With these supports what type of changes will be taking place in the distant learning?

Arun Mehta: Well first and foremost thing more people than ever before will be able to access distant education. Handicapped people working people, housewives and all those who cannot attend regular school or college can start doing it from their homes that too in remote areas. People who have the problem of reaching a good institution, people who cannot find a course in the areas of interest in their own country/town, can attend a Global Class room. Suppose a student is interested in ikebana, Bonsai like subjects he can learn the art right under the guidance of Japanese Masters. 

So a whole new area of co-operation becomes possible. I fundamentally believe that - Any good student is good teacher and good teacher is a good student too. The dichotomy of teacher and student can be broken in to that way. We are learning to gather and that is the model the distant learning is heading for. 


6. ComCom : What will be changing scenario in the student-teacher communications and in concepts like Smart school?

Dr. Arun Mehta: First and the foremost the problem is good quality teachers, teaching in my opinion is the most neglected profession. Unfortunately, now in distant learning your teacher can be located far away. For example the model we are proposing for Guwhati is one week out of every two months(eight weeks), an industry professional will teach in person. Rest of the time the students will get guided through distant learning mode.

This the model we are pursuing over North East in India and we feel there is lot of interest in the model now, as the communication bandwidths are improving and with the available communication supports audio/ video conferencing on the simple phone line is feasible. No special hardware, uplinks and satellite dishes are required. Normal Internet dial-up connection can be used to configure sophisticated Video conferencing.

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. ComCom: As there is an international shortage for teachers, after the "dot com" bust can we turn towards this market? Don't you fell this will open-up new avenue for this country in terms of human resources support? For e.g. (Demand for English teachers in Japan, Computer Trainers elsewhere) 

Dr. Arun Mehta: Of course it can, but I think we have such a shortage of teachers here, how are we find teachers for fulfilling such demand? How we can spare our teachers for the rest of the world? I think what is very important in this country is teacher training. If we want to cater to the Inter national market we should make a professional approach. We have to produce good teachers. 

8. ComCom: You mean to say we have to look for good teacher educators, to train teachers and that teachers can be used for export operation in terms of teaching international students?

Dr. Arun Mehta: Correct, we are certainly talking to IGNOU in these lines.

My focus is IT teachers. There is a huge market for IT teachers. I think they should be paid better and there is a need for industry professional to be teaching part time in educational institution using Distance Education Teaching techniques. I think there is lot of room for this and I would like to have lot more discussions on this subject,
As it is needs a serious approach.

9. ComCom: What will be the future scenario for the book-based learning?

Dr. Arun Mehta: That is a good question - ultimately nothing can replace books. Again the situation is not - "either/or". Many people have no access to the books? Internet will cater this section. Electronic distribution is much cheaper than paper distribution and it lasts much longer than paper media. The choice is not between electronic modes and paper, both should be there.