WHAT'S IN VOGUE IN INDIA?

Technology trends are changing at a very rapid pace globally and E.T. is no exception. Recently, i had the opportunity to attend eIndia, an Indian ICT event held in New Delhi from 29th - 31st July 2008. The Event was big, rather magnanimous in the way that it had multiple tracks, pertaining to different aspects of 'e'. It had eHealth, eGov, eTelecentre, Digital Learning, etc. The participant turnover clearly highlighted the pervasiveness of 'e' in just about every area of human activity.

Throughout three days ( that i spent at the event), i was in the Digital Learning section, either attending some session or in the exhibitor's area, looking at the products on display. The trends are clearly not very encouraging as far as India is concerned. Whereas, the trend, globally is aligned to evolution that has occured in education because of Internet and Web 2.0, the trends in India are still far far behind the rest of the world. The three major trends that i saw during the event (in the exhibitor's area) are :

1. Interactive Whiteboard : There were about 10-12, both local and global companies displaying their product, with very little variation or deviation from the other. The Interactive Boards on display ranged from the most basic type (with just a board and marker) to the most sophisticated one ( with tablets, et. al). The Interactive Board revolution is still to catch up in India, as far as effective use of it is concerned. It is more of a fad than a neccessity in majority of the cases.
2. Ready-made Content : You can never have enough of it (in India at least). Just about every 2nd stall was by some content vendor. Everybody out there to prove that their content is better than the rest. Some have even gone to the extent of creating 'Spectroscopic' stuff and people thronged to these stalls. Globally, the trend, worldwide is changing from e-content (readymade) to e-lesson ( created by teacher itself) and here is the wide range of content to choose from and almost all catering to science. The teachers and schools in Indian scenario are yet to get rid of this complete dependency factor in teachers which is using the readymade stuff as this is what is hindering their evolution as a teacher. Just hoping that things change for the better very soon.
3. Powerpoint addon : I don't know how to put it but it was an overhyped product which just added some gadget to control the powerpoint responses. There was this presentation and there was this hand-held gadget which could record the responses of the students as each student used it to give response to the query in the powerpoint presentation.God knows when this obsession with powerpoint will end. why can't vendors contribute to bring better products for teachers and help the education process.

The onle way out of all this is a teachers' uprising to say 'no' to all that doesn't do their teaching-learning process any good but just adds to their burden !