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Web Enabled Education Material at Indian Institute of Remote Sensing
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P.L.N.Raju and P.S.Roy
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing
Internet has revolutionized day-to-day lives and its impact on education will be far greater than just the ability to access instructional material from the global network. The technology will bring remarkable benefits coinciding with societal trends in life-long learning, globalization and greater participation in virtual communities with lower significance of geographic proximity to instructional resources. The curricular impact will include increased need for internet and technology literacy and shifting to learning materials and teaching styles compatible with problem solving any time/anywhere, just-as-much as needed instruction. Opportunities for Internet based learning will expand dramatically, while continued vigilance will be required to screen materials to provide an appropriate content for teaching learners and utilize suitable information. Online education not only gives us an excellent source of information, but also saves time, money and it is extremely convenient.
Real time physical class room environment may not be able to reproduced by Internet/Intranet based education/training, however the developments which are taking place in widening band width for internet access, enormous speed and storage capabilities of computer hardware and software developments are certainly helping in bringing virtual class room environment, so that the individual can learn at his own phase, anywhere and anytime in the global village. Developments are particularly taking place to communicate interactively by way of text based chat, electronic white board, sharing applications running on one/many computers with students in a virtual class room, file transfer and video conferencing on the contents of education material to make the students learn in best possible manner.
2.0 Role of IIRS in Education and Training :
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing was established in 1966 with an objective to transfer the technology among the user community, education at Post Graduate level, promote research and value added services in the field of natural resource management. The institute is one of its kinds, in whole south East Asia and supporting the user needs with the expertise gained over 35 years since it's establishment.
The institute has trained more than 4200 professionals in the field of Remote Sensing and GIS for Natural Resource Management that includes 300 foreign participants from many developing countries. With the widening of demand for Education and Training in Remote Sensing and GIS, a big gap is created between the demand and requirement. According to some estimates, the requirements are around 1300 per year. Around 500-600 persons are trained per year on all India basis. Still the gap is very high. Through training one can create skilled professionals in specific area of application in Remote Sensing and GIS. The demand will be still higher, if we need to introduce Remote Sensing and GIS as an education program where in-depth understanding of the subject & research is required. The demand is as high as 500 or more per year for training teachers alone, if we consider at all universities in India. This type of demand can not be satisfied by way of physical classroom training and education as it is always limited by number of students at any center. The developments taking place in the field of Internet, computer assisted instruction, multi-media, video conferencing, distributed education/learning and virtual class room can be thought off as an alternative to satisfy the present requirements of education and training. The motto of Education for all may only be possible through this method of Virtual Internet Education. In this direction IIRS has initiated the process to develop few multi-media and Internet based education material. They are:
- Remote Sensing and GIS
- GIS Tutor
The first CD on Remote Sensing and GIS is made for postgraduate course participants of Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in the Asia Pacific. It covers details of technological concepts in Remote Sensing and GIS and Application to Natural Resource Management, well supported with illustrations, diagrams, tables and figures. The details of it's content are given in figure 1.
The second education material is on GIS Tutor. It is a multimedia tutorial, which provides an opportunity for an individual to learn GIS starting from basic concepts to applications, and one can assess his understanding by testing through quiz session of this tutor. Figure 2 shows the contents of GIS Tutor.
Conclusions:
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing is a premier institute in transfer of technology through education and training in remote sensing and Geographical Information System. The total number of trained manpower is very less as compared to the total requirements. Especially at IIRS the demand for various training and education programs is very high and many could not be admitted due to limitations seats available and infrastructure to support. The expertise developed over the last 35 years can be used effectively by development of web enabled education material. The above described web enabled material developed at IIRS can be utilised for full fledged virtual classroom in addition to other material required for specific type of training/education. The education/training may not be complete without hands on experience on real time applications, particularly with remote sensing and GIS. This can be thought off by way of network of institutions that can support few days/ months' study at these centers and obtain certificate/ diploma/degree based on type of education or training. Modalities have to be worked out with all the organizations in India and abroad for the development and implementation of web enabled online education and training in the field of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System for Natural Resource Management.
References:
- Elizabeth Obara, 2000, "The Internet Role in Education", http://weblogs.deanza.fhda.edu:81/ifft/
- Nelon B. Heller and Jim Brazell, "Internet's Role in Tomorrow's Education, an Asia Cyber Education Program", http://onezine.s-onzine
- Microsoft NetMeeting and the Role of Internet Conferencing for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users http://www.microsoft.com/netmeeting/
- P.S. Roy, 2001, "Education and Training in Geoinformatics - Opportunities and Challenges, Map India 2001.
- Bhan, S.K., 1997, "Training and Education in Remote Sensing, Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Vol. 25, No.1.
- Bhan, S.K., S. Jonna, P.L.N. Raju and K.V.S. Badrinath, 1989, "Training and Education in Remote Sensing Applications to Water Resources Development in India", proceedings of International Seminar on 'Education and Training in Water Resources in Developing Countries, 4-8 December 1989, Aurangabad.