I reached New Delhi at around 10.30am on 31st July 08, and immediately took a taxi to Pragati Maidan. It turned out to be a big event with all sorts of people attending it. Although the event was organized on a massive scale only a few attended. By few I mean the general public was sparse and only the top notch, individuals involved in technological developments and others who would market these developments like school principals, marketers, other product manufacturers, competitors and those types of individuals attended. As such, the real individuals whose lives would be impacted with decisions made by the higher ups or so- called decision makers were negligent.

However, I was disappointed by many things which I shall mention as the letter proceeds. The positive aspect to the disappointment is that it gave me clarity about how decision makers think.

Anyhoo, I was on time for my session, and the mother of all technological failures at a technological event. My presentations which was on the PPT refused to work. It wasn't my fault really. They hadn't updated their software. I was glad that I had checked on it before the seminar started. I wasn't the only one. There were a couple of others who wanted to use their own laptops resulting in delays. However, my presentation was finally working when someone ran all over the place and got it fixed.

I was the first speaker, but due to the frenzy, they pooled me as the last one. We were told earlier that we had ten minutes each, but as the presentations proceeded, I was allowed only about 6 minutes. Why? The presenters before did not confirm to their time.

Unlike us the other presentations were not so subtle. They spoke about their company and what they had to offer to the public. As such, there was no such discussion on what needs to be done about digital learning and how it can actually help youngsters gain perception and at the same time help educators better their skills in imparting education.

In a gist, everyone lost the point!!

The guy who was proceeding through our session was an idiot. He didn't know who to cut short and who to allow going on. He didn't encourage audience participation and allowed for only two questions from the audience. I don't really remember the first question: but the second question was a very valid and important one, "how can digital learning help bridge the gap between rural and urban education?" No one could answer that and since everyone was against social – networking, they didn't think it could be answer to any technological developments.

I don't imply to sound peeved or resilient, but the session I was put in really didn't make any point.

It seemed to me that what was discussed was irrelevant and outdated. The first few speakers spoke of their products, like an e-scholarships portal they had to offer, a language learning tool developed by a company (I would still like to go to an institute and talk to real humans instead of virtual people, when it comes to learning a language, but that's besides the point) and few other educational instruments created by them. There was another science educational tool by this company (ah I forget), who say that you can conduct experiments and combine chemicals online to see their results instead of working on it manually. (What would be the point of it, I don't know) They also spoke of how progressed students have become. They like to cut and paste pictures and Google notes, and teachers can also partake in it to make class interesting by cutting and pasting pictures. The teachers can now use the cutting and pasting technology in class to make projects. One speaker then showed us 100 photos of Dubai, the developments taking place and how Dubai will look in the next 10 to 15 years. It was of course a PPT we had to sit through, and was combined with streaming music composed by Mozart.

The impression I got was that everyone was against social – networking; they didn't think it could be an answer to any technological development. The truth is that they completely abhor it; they don't realize that it is a result of technological development. The only picture they have of it is of teenagers, whiling away their parents' money whilst chatting with strangers on the internet, commenting and scrapping friends unnecessarily and watching porn. This point was reiterated not once but four times in the next session; the speakers had sat through my session and therefore didn't quite buy the idea I suppose.

The point of the discussion really should have been how to use technology effectively so that it can be beneficial to the masses in general.

Like I said, everyone lost the point really.

The second session was a mess really. It started off with this Koshy Lady who showed us an advertisement. The advt. showed a priest running a school, a kid comes for admissions and he is not able to enroll her due to lack of space, he feels sad and prays at the church. He is struck with the idea that he could educate more with the help of a mobile phone. So, he gives every village a mobile phone and the students come to class to listen to a teacher teaching on a mobile phone. Koshy went on to elaborate how useless technology is in connecting people; and how futile it is to be taught through a mobile phone.

The speakers of that session ended up taking potshots at each other; citing instances of how isolated technology can make you. They also defined "DIGITAL LEARNING" ten times in their own words, and slammed educational software manufacturers for taking the cake out of the educators hand by restricting their creativity. A few seemed to be completely against technology. Chatting is of no consequence, I guess… because they were pretty peeved by the idea, and kept mentioning Orkut and Chatting all the time.

In the end, everyone had bad feelings for each other. They seemed to hate each other, I think. What should have been a healthy discussion about what the next step in technological developments should be, turned into total heartburn.

In retrospect, we had an extremely valid point of discussion. Only that, they couldn't see beyond Orkut. It was another form of a generation gap. The speakers, participants, panelists and perceivers had entered the arena with fixed ideas and thoughts; they were not willing to embrace a possibility of using a tool (social networking) which was readily available to the youth. The movers and shakers of the technological world couldn't see beyond what they thought. In the end Internet meant chatting; nothing more and nothing less.

I'm not a biggie when it comes to technology. I don't create technology; but from what I see around me, I don't think anything new will be developed right now for the next how many ever years. The real challenge will not be in creating something new, but how effectively we use the one's we already have.

Speaking of which, I did meet a principal from Jharkhand. He has been granted some funding (by the government of India), to organize a proper educational structure for children; but unfortunately he is not being able to organize manpower. Why? The area is dangerous to live… what with shooting happening everyday. No one wants to teach over there. He was exploring possibilities in working with us to do something about it.

We finished our sessions etc, and left around 4.30 pm. I headed straight to the Airport after that….

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(c) 2008 Puja Goyal
Publication: Bangalore Mirror

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