If the recommendations made in the national policy on use of technology in Indian schools go through, blogging could become huge in India.
The draft recommends that Internet access be provided in all schools and that students be encouraged to blog as part of curriculum.
This draft policy, still under discussion, says - “Blogs are powerful tools to support creative writing that can be published and shared not only with the teacher but also with peers and the world, alike.”
The document will be submitted to the Ministry of Human Resources under Government of India. And this particular recommendation on use of blogs in school education as a “tool to support creative writing” was originally made by Shuchi Grover in this paper [pdf].
Update (August 06, 2008): Shuchi Grover responds to the Mint story:
Pallavi, I am thrilled to see quotations and suggestions from my paper “Technology as a Tool and Enabler in the post-NCF 2005 Constructivist Classroom in India” that I submitted in response to a call for papers to help draft a National Policy for ICT in School Education.
I have to clarify though that these are quotes and suggestions from my paper and NOT the draft policy, so your article has misrepresented facts, besides omitting to cite the correct source of your quotes. All the technology tools that you have alluded to- blogging for creative writing, spreadsheets, databases, concept maps, hypermedia & the “use of digital devices like robotics kits, digital microscopes, graphing calculators and GPS devices for science, math and social sciences curricula” come from my paper and NOT the “draft compendium”. I do not even know if these recommendations are being considered for implementation in actual Policy!
You may be interested to know that I was invited to a meeting of educationists at NCERT as a follow-up to this - academics and educationists who have unfortunately been sidelined from this process of drafting a National Policy. The process described on the CSDMS website, has saddened several luminaries in the field of education in India, and we are hoping, jointly, as a group, that we will be able to influence the process better than large corporations with vested interested who the MHRD is looking to instead. This group includes, among others Dr. Krishna Kumar, Padma Sarangapani, Poonam Batra, Anjali Noronha, Rohit Dhinkar & Vinod Raina. Read this article by Gurumurthy K.
I expect you to publish a revised version of this article with corrections, without omissions and certainly with appropriate acknowledgments. Thanks!
Shuchi Grover
Educational Technologist
http://educatorslog.in
http://shuchi-edblog.blogspot.com
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/blogging/promote-blogging-in-indian-schools/4036/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
This is really a good suggestion..students can improve writing and express their thoughts…
Written by Joy on 07.31.08
I am impressed.
-Nikhil
Written by Nikhil Narayanan on 07.31.08
Good. Changing with the time and technology is obvious. I did not find like these even in my engineering also.
Written by hemu on 07.31.08
Seems to be a good idea.
Any way how far it is going to work i am having some doubts.
Rural India don’t had enough building for schools and every one regarding the power crisis.
Even in regular day there is at least six hours power cut in villages.
Then computers,blogging … are still distinct dream.
Waiting for better future eagerly.
Written by suresh on 07.31.08
If this is like most of the things the Govt does…
..expect to see this implemented in 50 years. Min?
Ofcourse, we can always hope that this turns out to be something that the govt. does in a way that’s not the usual “govt” way of doing things…
Written by Yuvi on 07.31.08
…Hmmm need some dedicated political interests or else it will too remain only on papers like anything, this is India, and here politicians rules for themselves : (
Written by Piyush K on 07.31.08
Thats a good news. Blogging at an early age to voice their opinion!
Written by Raveesh Kumar on 07.31.08
ha ha ha
Don’t forget that this is just a policy and how Indian government deal with these kind of policies you know it.
They even can’t provide buildings to schools in villages, teachers gets their pay after many months,furniture is not there, students usually study under trees,almost everyday we get news about contaminated mid day meal..ohh
And you believe they are going to provide internet in these schools?
Well Amit you are a technical blogger thats why you put this news here otherwise even a highly optimistic person can’t even think about it.
They do have 100 cr for MPs but for school teachers they don’t even have few thousand bucks.
Written by Jay on 07.31.08
Good initiative from the Govt.
Written by Prasada Rao Dhaaipule on 07.31.08
So now blogging is part of academics! I initiated a website for the kids of Chennai yocee.in encouraging the kids to write from their campuses. But I find the school heads want the reports to be scanned by them before it is mailed to the website! No creativity is encouraged!
On the other hand the parents compares the reports with the other kids, not for quality but for numbers! They too are not bothered about the creativity!
It will take a long time to allow the young people to do what they like to! In India especially!
Written by Revathi on 07.31.08
I am impressed. Certainly a great idea but barely feasible for lack of infrastructure(bandwidth) as of now.
@Jay : agreed
Written by Rohit on 08.03.08