If we interpret in terms of ‘e’ as electronic media, the scope of e-Learning can get a vast platform in respect of its concern and long-term effect and coverage.

In the Olympic Games of the electronic advancement, there is a never-ending marathon race being competed by the nations all over the world. But the nations have started at different times with different speed, energy and potential. It is therefore, really challenging job to verify their progress in various sectors of technological advancement and its extent of spread within the nation itself. Keeping this point in mind, we have started the new section under the heading ‘ICT and Education’, a part of which is ‘e-Learning’, a term newly emerged and not well-defined still now.

‘e’ percolating in e-Learning
If we go back to the history of development of e-Learning, we find some phases of its development. 1990 to 99 was the era of custom computer based training (CBT) that was consisted of standalone CD-ROM training courses, playing on end-user computers, standalone training stations and sometimes beyond the clients or server LANs. But it was costly, slow, labour-intensive and had limitations in software. During 1994 to 99, packaged content, which is financially sensible to sell and cost-effective, came to the market. Although the packaged IT training courseware can be quite effective, but the professional skills and learning contents needed to be improved to make it customisable and industry or business specific. 1997 to 99 was the period of rise of the Learning Management System (LMS). The need of strict standards was felt to make the content sources more user-friendly and useful in any type of administrative platform.

In around 1999, Internet boom acted as the next piston in the process of progress of e-Learning. The ‘move to the web’ brought administrators, instructors, managers, workers and learners together under one umbrella providing a consolidated virtual environment. Therefore, ‘do-it-in-house’ e-Learning concept emerged and many portals were also launched offering some learning processes. In the latter half of 2001 and 2002 the focus of e-Learning has become more accustomed to certain specific trends such as blended learning, Learning Content Management Systems (LCMSs), web collaboration, simulation and learning games, training without trainers for knowledge sharing and informal knowledge exchange. With the increasing speed of life in both developed and developing countries, it is a matter of increasing importance day-by-day.

Community radio – is it promoting e-Learning?
e-Learning although prefixed by ‘e’ and many experts comment that ‘e’ does not necessarily mean the use of computer as a must, but to many of us the term still is in half darkness. If we interpret in terms of ‘e’ as electronic media, the scope of e-Learning can get a vast platform in respect of its concern and long-term effect and coverage.

After going through the contents of this issue, if any of our readers ask the question whether community radio is also performing some tasks of e-Learning, what should be the answer? If learning is supposed to be for all and ‘e’ is used as the short cut of the term ‘electronic’, why shouldn’t we interpret the verbal knowledge spread through electronic media like community radio as a part of ‘e-Learning’? Of course, it is, at least from the point of view of the countries of South Asia where billions of people are living in the rural areas without electricity, even without some very basic amenities which the professionals, associated with the core sector of ICT, spending three-fourth of the day with email, voice mail, chatting across the country, SMS etc can’t even just imagine. It must be kept in mind that although ICTs are rapidly becoming available for the use in both formal and informal education, but such process is much more common among the rich and in the developed countries rather than for the poor or developing countries. The development process in this sector is comparatively slow in the developing countries where demographic aspects matter a lot. On the way of development of ICT in education, there is always a back pulling factor of great digital divide which is very difficult to overcome, but can be compensated by easy available amenities.


Education through ‘e’ media
With the advent of the radio broadcasting in the 1920s and ’30s, the use of radio for non-formal education was initiated. After the Second World War, educational radio gained its popularity in the industrially developed nations such as Europe and North America. Later it also spread to the developing countries through the colonial broadcasting. With the development of frequency modulated (FM) radio transmission, the consequent growth of local and community radio stations, the increasing availability of relatively low-cost, portable AM/FM radio receivers etc have paved the way of extending the range and scope of its activities.

As a medium for non-formal education, local and community radio is attractive, available, accessible as well as affordable. Radio talks, documentaries and features, radio drama, music and song, magazine programmes, panel discussions etc all can convey educational messages attractively and because of the attractive audio presentations, it may leave a long-term impression in the people’s mind.

With the advancement of ICT, portable, low cost FM transmitting stations have been developed and digital radio systems that transmit via satellite and/or cellular are being implemented in many parts of the globe. Internet streaming audio software technology has emerged to allow a global audience to listen to news from a distant country. This has provided more scope of utilising radio for community learning in a better way.

The Radio Farm Forums was started in Canada in the 1940s. This idea was later taken up in Ghana and India. BBC Radio provides courses in major European languages for more than 30 years. To help the primary school teachers “Let’s Speak English” project in Namibia was implemented in 1990s which produced 32 radio programmes with two linked textbooks and school-based listening groups. Even if community is not directly involved in the broadcasting and management of radio stations, radio has a special kind of effect on the community in life-long learning process. Now practice of ‘blended learning’ is most common.

It seems that we are at the turning point of ICT where the dead end of traditional education and beginning of technology oriented ‘hi-tech’ education and debatable process of ‘e-Learning’ does not have any clear-cut border.

Out of the bloom
It was a television broadcast. There was news coverage on a village in Birbhum District, West Bengal (India) where there is no single bridge over a canal, the people of the village use local type of boat which is a bigger form of frying pan (kadai in Hindi). Because of the lack of communication facility, the people from the neighbouring villages, even the relatives of the village people rarely visit that village, the school children rarely can go for education beyond secondary level.

If we look at the countryside of the developing countries, such remote areas we can locate in countrysides of the developing countries. The people who can’t think of a peaceful life with minimum basic infrastructural facilities, will need many decades to know the use of computer. Will the young generation be able to receive the materials of distance or open learning, offered by National Open Schools, Indira Gandhi National Open University etc? Will the postman even dare to knock their door, crossing the hurdle of communication? Will any community radio help to raise their voices in near future? Can we ensure that the innovations of Indian Space Reserach Organisation’s DECU/SITE experiments in rural India to promote education and development through satellite broadcasting initiated 25 years ago, will help to produce convergence solutions for e-learning?