"Learn through your handsets" by G. KRISHNA KUMAR

IGNOU is exploring the concept of M-education (mobile education) and the university authorities had already initiated talks with service providers to deliver educational content through mobile phones.Advanced education: The mobile medium would help students study at their own pace and to top it all they can do it from the cool confines of their home. The prestigious Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is exploring the concept of M-education (mobile education) to take its academic programmes to the nook and corner of the country. Aimed at fulfilling the country’s 11th Five-Year Plan motto, ‘Education for All’, the move is an effort to take education to the marginalised and disadvantaged people of the society. According to IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, the use of mobile handsets for education delivery will help in the strengthening of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which is extensively used by the university for its various programmes. “The concept is novel, when the call is democratising education. Even as a number of ICTs have been pressed into service in the country for the same goal, expert educators and mobile service providers rightly think it is always advantageous to boost the existing ICTs with an additional line of service for education delivery at the learners’ best reach,” he told The Hindu Education Plus. The university authorities had already initiated talks with service providers to deliver educational content through mobile phones. The plan is to deliver content in the form of text, audio and video to students.
 


The idea for tapping the potential of the mobile education concept was discussed in detail during a roundtable conference held in New Delhi during November last year. IGNOU had received the full support of the Communications and Manufacturing Association of India (CMAI) in this project. Experts from the telecom and academic fields, who attended the programme, had suggested stepping up rural connectivity for capacity building of students and learners. The event had also recommended identification of other cost-effective communication technologies for education delivery that are best suited for distance education.Prof. Pillai said that the CMAI was looking forward to building up on the opportunities which this new medium of M-Education has created by providing IGNOU study material. “When connectivity is combined with the contents of study material, access to education can become massive. The access to course content and classroom dissemination of lessons also can be developed into providing and taking of examination papers through mobile telephony,” he said. The mobile medium would help students study at their own pace, and they could do it from home. Students could have access to the most advanced learning infrastructure and at the end of the course, corporates would be waiting with dream job offers, he said.
 


According to CMAI, M-education can cover far-flung areas in the country and assist to bridge the physical distance using wireless technology. It will help make mobile phones a great leveller in the society. Contents can be easily accessed though handsets, no matter wherever are you or whenever you want. A number of tests can be immediately identified. Besides reaching out to the rural marginalised people, a number of competitive tests -- CAT, JEE, GATE, GMAT, SAT, TOEFL among a slew of others -- can be taken using the medium, it said.