Thread:Your excellent blog - sharing a great vision for educating he nation (1)

Dear Dr. Mishra, I found your blog very insightful and visionary. The very first word 'TeachKnowLogist' sums it all.

We have to reach out to all people of India to empower them through education. Distance education can be a very powerful tool for educating the nation. You have given an incisive example of IGNOU. I found your 'academic connecivism' very profound. It can be a powerful tool knowledge resource. Use of ICT in education will reduce the digital divide. If our technical and engineering colleges use MIT open courseware there would be huge qualitative imporvement in our education. IGNOU has also made its courseware available on the web for free access (gyankosh). It will reduce the digital divide. I thnik that digital disparity would be worse than economic disparity.

Time has come to make India a knoweldge society. The National Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda reiterates your vision as enumerated on your blog. We need to move to the next level of education - knowledge for all and access to all.

I remember interviewing India's Super Computer scientist Dr. Vijay Bhatkar. He told me a beautiful meaning of the word 'BHARAT'. 'Bha' means 'Knowledge' and 'rat' means the one engrossed in it. Thus Bharat is a land engrossed in knowledge. Thus, we must explore all possible knowledge expaansion and spreading opportunities as India's great destiny could be realised through knowledge.

Sadly, I found in my recent study that we have a lot of teaching but no learning, a lot of government but no governing. We have lakhs of schools but no education and if we have education where is knowledge? I go as a visiting lecturer for B.Ed. colleges and find to my utter dismay that even in so-called progressive state of Maharashtra (where MS-CIT of MKCL is compulsory) very few teachers use internet.

I think India is best positioned to exploit internet to reconstruct India as a k-based society.

I feel happy to discuss these points with you. I shall be in touch going beyond this course. I deeply share your vision. Prakash Almeida