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EDUSAT

EDUSAT

EDUSAT is the first Indian satellite built exclusively for serving the educational sector offering an interactive satellite based distance education system for the country. It is specially configured for the audiovisual medium, employing digital interactive classroom and multimedia multicentre systems.

                                    EDUSAT is primarily meant for providing connectivity to school, college and higher levels of education and also to support non-formal education including developmental communication. The scope of the EDUSAT programme is planned to be realized in three phases.

                                 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 INSAT system that already has more than 130 transponders in C-band, Extended Cband and Ku-band providing a variety of telecommunication and television services. The EDUSAT offers opportunities for using satellite for human development in general and for education in particular. EDUSAT can be used for:

• Conventional Radio and Television broadcasting

 • Interactive Radio and Television (phone-in, video on demand..)

• Exchange of data

 • Video conferencing, Audio conferencing & Computer conferencing

• Web based education 

Technological Possibilities

    

EDUSAT network and CIET (NCERT)

                  Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), NCERT has been utilizing satellite technologies for about three decades. It has gained a wide range of experience in design and organisation of programmers using such technologies. Some of these experiments are:

 • Participation in Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) in 1975-76 in collaboration with ISRO

• Training of 48000 Science Teachers using multi-media programmers

 • Conduct of Classroom – 2000 Project in 1993 using technique of teleconference for direct teaching of Physics and Mathematics to the students at Senior Secondary level.

 • Undertaking four experiments in the year 1996 and 1997 for the Orientation of Teachers under SOPT programme of MHRD and Hard Spots of Mathematics in the State of Karnataka and M.P.

• Telecast of video programmes on National Network of Doordarshan and the cable channel Gyan Darshan (February, 2000)

 • The EDUSAT configuration has allowed CIET, NCERT to develop a network of institutions, together constituting a national network. This network facilitates an on demand two-way communication between institutions and within the schools of each institution. The school sector is to get a National Channel along with necessary uplink and down links. CIET (NCERT) has taken an initiative in this regard and entered into a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with ISRO for this purpose. A Ku-Band Sub/Mini Hub has been installed at the CIET along with 100 terminals for installations at different locations in all the states and UTs

 • The proposed school network could be used by various agencies for undertaking training programmes directly with the target groups as against the current approach of training master trainers, key resource persons and then reaching out to the target groups. The various institutes of NCERT require distance mode of satellite education for conduct of training programmes, holding of virtual conferences, exchange of data and other services viz. linking of libraries and media resources of various Institutions.

EDUSAT network and its Utilisation by CIET, NCERT

                                  

                            By using this network NCERT, so far has organized the following programmes for teachers and teacher educators of our country:

• Orientation of Teachers of KVs/ JNVs/ CBSE affiliated schools on new textbooks developed in the light of National Curriculum Framework-2005

 • Orientation of Principals and Head Teachers of KVs on NCF-05 and primary level textbooks brought out in the light of NCF-2005

 • Orientation of Fine Arts and Music Teachers

 • Orientation of Teacher Educators of SCERTs, DIETs, CTEs and IASEs on NCF-2005

 • Orientation of Teachers on Gender issues in Education

 • Orientation of Teachers and Teacher Educators on New Trends in Evaluation

 • Strengthening Guidance and Counselling: Orientation of State Level Key Personnel through Video Conferencing In all about 100 days video conferencing was planned and organized by NCERT through EDUSAT network covering thousands of teachers and teacher educators of the country.

Conclusion:

                As India enters the new millennium, it is necessary to sustain such kind of effort by continuously tuning it to the fast changing requirement and updating the technology that goes into the making of these sophisticated systems. The challenges continue to grow but that is what attracts and sustains the interests of personnel working in the space programme. Even if a satellite is launched, its meaningful utilization in any sector including education is a million dollar question and raises many eyebrows. The life span of EDUSAT, which was launched in September, 2004 is seven years and it has provided many facilities and possibilities. But the real challenge before us is how to feed this monster and reach out the rural masses especially millions of student’s teachers and teacher educators in the country. For the successful use of this satellite a rigorous planning is need of the hour and collaborative efforts are essential for designing of the software and its utilization for achieving goals of education.