ICT Workshop CIET, NCERT New Delhi

I just came back after attending a two day ICT workshop for Secretaries, Directors, ICT Coordinators etc. organized by CIET, NCERT New Delhi. It was a good experience to see the state representatives making their presentations on the status of the CAL initiatives in their respective states. Some of the presentations like those of Gujrat and Punjab were pretty interesting. Presentations by Dr. Rajaram, Joint Director, CIET, Prof Pant were interesting and thought provoking. They put things in perspective - especially the fact that the BOOT model has served its purpose, especially deepening the reach of hardware as far as the schools are concerned. This was the first generation of the so called CAL programs. The time has now come for the second generation programs, which is system embedded and based on the "Total Cost of Ownership." The focus should be more on the effective integration of technology in teaching rather than hardware procurement - a shift from procurement to an output oriented model. My own observations based on the two day deliberations are mentioned below:

• ·  Boot model which is currently considered as the most popular approach to computerization of schools, in a majority of the states, has failed to achieve the expected results. It has resulted in a monopoly situation whereby selected vendors are working in a majority of the states. This has in turn led to a lack of freedom of choice on the part of the customer – the schools, teachers, students et al as far as the basic requirements are concerned – be it resource persons (who are at best hardware mechanics) or content is concerned.
• ·    This in turn is symptomatic of a deep seated malaise, which is systemic in nature – over emphasis on a procurement model rather than an output oriented model. Thus one finds a proliferation of high power purchase committee’s which endlessly deliberates on the configuration of the hardware to be procured, tender process to be followed, utilization certificates to be sent rather than the training requirements of the teachers, training modules and approach to preparing the same (top down or a cafeteria approach), mentoring, monitoring and evaluation etc.
• ·   A system wide approach designed to extract the full impact of employing ICT in schools, is the need of the hour. A system wide approach takes into account the total cost of ownership, which includes the long term costs of purchasing, deploying and maintaining ICTs, costs for replacements, disposal or even operating costs for refresher training, maintenance and technical support etc.
• ·     The boot model has served its purpose of increasing hardware coverage to schools and the time is now ripe for a switch over to the second generation CAL programs – focusing on a more effective and appropriate integration of technology in teaching learning.