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By Josefina S. Patron, Ed.D, Special
To The Manila Times
First of three parts
Projects in six countries using
satellite-based learning technologies have been invariably mentioned
by the Department of Education as possible models for its proposed
Cyber-Education Project.
These are Mexico’s Telese–cundaria,
India’s Edusat, Indonesia’s Jardiknas, Thailand’s Wang Klai
Kang Won, South Africa’s Mindset Network and China’s Cernet or
China Education and Research Network Project.
Research made by the organizing
group of the November 9, 2007 roundtable on CyberEd (e.g. from the
Unesco Comprehensive Review of 90 ICT in Education Projects and
papers sourced from the Internet) did not, however, yield definitive
data showing results of studies evaluating the projects’ impact,
their effectiveness in the teaching-learning process and other
significant pedagogical outcomes. Most of the available information
deal with the operational aspects—infrastructure, transmission
modes, courseware and program design and content, grade-levels
targeted, use of the materials, the classroom teacher’s role, and
project reach, among others.
Mexico: Telesecundaria
Telesecundaria in Mexico was
launched in 1968 as a means of extending lower secondary school
learning with television support to remote and small communities at
a cost inferior to that of conventional secondary schools.
The early model was pretty
simple. Lessons corresponding to grades 7 to 9 were transmitted
live, through open public channels to television sets placed in
distance classrooms where students listened and took notes in the
presence of a teacher.
Lessons were transmitted six
hours in the morning and retransmitted for another six hours in
the afternoon per day, Mondays to Fridays, for the length of a
school year.
Each hour of class was made up of
20 minutes of television and 40 minutes of discussion on what had
been seen with the teacher.
The system was inexpensive
because the airtime was donated to the Ministry of Public Education
by public networks and required one teacher per grade while the
conventional system needed eight or nine.
By the end of 1993, Telesecun–daria
was being offered in more than 9,000 schools throughout Mexico to
nearly 600,000 students (some 15 percent of the lower secondary
school population). Each received one or two books per subject.
In 1994, a more powerful and
advanced satellite was launched, capable of covering more territory.
The new system was made up of six channels capable of transmitting
24 hours a day.
The curriculum takes its
programming contents from the nationwide “Study Plans and
Programs” designed for the lower secondary school level. Three
main didactic aids complement the television system.
The system has gone through
various stages of improvements to reach its present level. As it
evolved, the design of television programs was handed over to
specialized teachers who had the sole and specific task of producing
scripts and materials.
Teaching roles also had to adapt.
Classrooms became more interactive places with the teachers becoming
facilitators of pupil learning rather than just dispensers of
information.
The TV programs moved away from
the idea of “talking heads,” toward more interactive modes with
charismatic speakers and simple use of language. Student books also
adopted a more targeted approach, corresponding precisely to the
television programs in detail and content. The program writers
particularly built on the way the students could use their products
to the maximum whether it be alone or in group sessions. Textbooks
serve to encourage individual study topics, homework and sound
methods of studying.
Mexico is a large and diverse
country of scattered communities and vast distances. Until
relatively recently it has been impossible, in economic and human
terms, to provide a secondary education along conventional lines to
these communities. Today, the Telesecundaria project has been
instrumental in changing this situation and Mexico’s
communications infrastructure is now opening up to different forms
of education and learning.
Currently, Telesecundaria is
building on the possibility of communities producing their own
materials, extending the concept of learning beyond the classroom.
Mexico’s Telesecundaria is said
to have changed the situation of inaccessibility of remote and small
communities to lower secondary school learning.
India: Edusat
Edusat, the first Indian
satellite built exclusively to serve the educational sector, was
launched in 2004 by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
All educational institutions in
India having Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) or Receive Only
Terminals (ROTs) can receive programs from Edusat.
Curriculum-based education is
being imparted via satellite by the University Grants Commission (UGC)
through the Consortium of Educational Communication (CEC).
The institutions can also
interact and ask questions through audio-video conferencing or text
mode or through telephone.
All states and union territories
committed themselves to use the satellite but, as of 2007, only 14
were using Edusat.
With several new technologies,
Edusat carries five Ku-band transponders providing spot beams, one
Ku-band transponder providing a national beam and six extended
C-band transponders with national coverage beam. It will join the
Indian national satellite system (Insat) that already has more than
130 transponders in C-band, extended C-band and Ku-ban providing a
variety of tele-communication and television services.
The infrastructure of Edusat is
being used by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for
curriculum-based education, teachers’ training, professional
educational courses and teleconferencing sessions for
software-content generation.
The National Council for
Educational Research and Training (NCERT) also uses it to conduct
interactive orientation/training programs of teachers and educators.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) utilizes the Edusat
Network for group discussions, lectures, demonstrations, video
shows, training and capacity- building programs.
Through Edusat, educational
programs would reach some of the most interior and inaccessible
hilly areas through video-conferencing. The Northeast Space
Application Center (Nesac) is coordinating with the Indian Space
Research Organization (ISRO) for the launch of the project. The new
venture is expected to bring down the dropout rate among school
students in the region.
Source:
http://www.i4donline.net/new/news-details.asp?newsid=12058 (November
2007); indiaenews.com (June 2006)
Indonesia: Jardiknas
Indonesia’s National Education
Network program (Jardiknas) is expected to build access and maximize
the use of information and communication technology in Indonesian
education. Jar–diknas is used for learning, education management,
and other education activities.
PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia tbk.
(Telkom) supports this program by launching Speedy Community
SchoolNet, a low budget high speed (384kbps) internet access for the
education community.
Telkom offers two product
packages: Speedy Community SchoolNet Limited and Speedy Community
SchoolNet Unlimited 
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