Getting a sufficient amount of network connectivity with a sufficient amount of bandwidth to serve course materials in the developing countries is clearly the main challenge. However, given the ubiquity of cheap cellular phone networks in these countries, I suspect that the ball will start rolling when someone creates a cheap way of piggybacking internet onto basic mobile devices that everyone has access to.

On the other hand, classrooms can teach without chalk-and-talk. There need to be more and better incentives for qualified, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic teachers to actually want to do it, and training for how to do it, but it's certainly possible. Education reform does not need the internet.

We've all heard about the dismal failure of the much hyped 'Aakash' tablet. The greatest challenge to using e-learning to provide accessible education in the developing world will be cheap hardware.

In India, where internet penetration is a little over 10% and telecom penetration is a little over 50%, getting people connected is a major hurdle as well.

Plus, there's the issue of multiple languages. How do you make elearning accessible when most people don't speak a common language?

Even chalk-talk has its' function in the teaching and learning process. Not all processes are replaceable by e-learning nor is it necessary to do so. Experiential learning, authentic learning is still relevant. That cannot be replaced by a machine. What divide? Are they deprived of any meaningful learning experience by using the chalk board, say? We have to distinguish between technological divide and pedagogical divide. All for now ..

Tablet teaching in higher education: One Tablet Per Student

Ian Geoffrey Kennedy (2012)

*It is manufacturable

The one-laptop per child endeavour can become the one-tablet per child and one-tablet per student.

The touch screen doubles as a keyboard, allowing annotations to be input.

USB ports allow keyboards to be connected for heavy text input and large scale storage.

The addition of a camera allows the students to document their projects.

The ability to take the tablet home allows parents and siblings to learn informally, with charging and downloading occurring at school.

The student can keep the tablet after say three years, encouraging the student to look after it.

*Costs will drop

Costs are plummeting, but orders for a complete country are needed to bring down prices.

Physical specifications have to be improved to allow for hard knocks, high temperatures and high humidity in developing countries. This pushes prices up.

*Political, educational and pedagogical problems still abound

The not-invented-here syndrome abounds. Siloed government departments cannot transform textbook budgets to be tablet budgets.

The education system will transform from individual delivery to mediating help. Students will find that student-oriented learning and peer group learning play a greater part in their learning. Self-directed and discovery-based education will flourish. Home-schooling is the new model in place of chalk and talk. Teaching will be across the curriculum. Learning will be fun.

The curriculum needs to shift to modern methods used in commerce, industry and practice. For example, we can assume that the graduate will enter a world where there is always a spelling checker to catch the odd typo.

*Regulatory matters need to be tightened and adjusted

Textbook delivery systems are far from perfect, and will have to be audited before being used to deliver tablets.

The quality assurance systems in accrediting the education will now have to focus less on establishing the correctness of the content, but more on ensuring that learning really is taking place at the level of the individual student by means of field inspections.

*Quality

The best material can be commissioned and distributed nationally. Delivery in Standard English will ensure that the graduates match the needs of the international marketplace. Mother tongue education will probably be truncated earlier in the pupil's life.

*Quantity

Quantity will be limited only by the national budget for tablets.

Learning is a community activity. It cant be totally replace with a individual establishment. Face-to-face, experimentation and other fact made learning a human activity. I think is not necessary to be full e-learning. It will be a lost, not a gain.

This comment compliment what Rozhan Idrus just comment.

yes,as mentioned by Johanna, traditional chalk-talk can' t be totally replaced with e-learning in the developing world.

Definitely this process takes time and the problems such as technical problems are inevitable in this process which should be taken into account beforehand

E learning is yet to go with its full function. It has its own technical set backs. Bandwith, interactive quality course materials, evaluation techniques, feed back mechanism are some of the set backs. The habit of using technology for learning is another problem in developing countries.

There are different approaches in using technology. In a context, lacking of connectivity (not just bad connectivity, I mean no connectivity at all), new strategies can developed, using very cheap resources.

We had an experience, teaching postgraduate courses to bolivian teachers. They received all lessons and materials in CD, organized in virtual enviroment developed under an educational model, specially oriented to low resources conditions. Main communication means were email and discussion lists. Final evaluation was face-to-face.

There exist other very simple resources and techniques, like accessing Internet (or any insititutional intranet) by email (FTPMail, GopherMail, WWW4Mail, etc), networking by telephone call (does anybody remember UUCP protocol?). There are free Linux distributions for virtually any type of computer architecture, no matter how old or obsolete it was.

Of course, it´s better to develop an infrastructure based on moderm Internet protocols and services, mobile technology, but we don´t need to wait for them. Alternative solutions can be applied while they aren´t...

Lack of infrastructure has not Been the biggest problem in the use of ict in universities in Brazil. the government has the support of Various Sectors to invest in the purchase of equipment and, in the area of health, telehealth programs Were created to Facilitate the accessibility of continuing education in remote areas.

On The Other Hand, Introduce the technology in teaching does not imply innovation. The use of ict may be just playing the same "modus operandi" conservative. The challenge is to ask the teacher what would be the most Appropriate pedagogical model for the use of Certain technology and the faculty to know how to evaluate which are the most appropriate ways to Introduce technology into curriculum.

If we assume that all the challenges like electricity supply and good bandwidth are overcome then by combining today's advances in computer science, artificial intelligence, Natural Language Processing techniques and machine learning techniques it is possible to replace traditional chalk-talk method with complete e-Learning. However, what Johana said is correct. Community plays a great role in effective learning. Even recently started virtual universities like Udacity (http://www.udacity.com/courses) and Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) valued the learning community interaction. Even that can be managed by using online forums. Still there is something which humans can give but computers cannot. We need wisdom of humans which can be passed onto next generations by some face to face teaching. So, blended approach will be most effective. Overall development of children as a good human being happens with interactions with friends, peers. In fact by e-learning techniques can be effectively used to bridge the gap between education in developed and developing countries. E-learning should be used for teacher training and updating teacher's knowledge.

No and why would you want to totally replace anything with anything? There is no silver bullet.

I think there could be a misconception here. We seem to automatically associate “chalk-talk” with face to face, authentic, experimentation, human and at the same time associate e-learning with learning with machine, self-paced, individual study. Would that stereotyping still true? Internet today is equally, if not more, of a platform for collaboration than simply a huge library of eBooks.

The problem of lacks of internet connectivity (physical telecommunication connectivity) is still relevant, but to position e-learning anywhere far away from collaboration could be incredibly inaccurate.

IMHO physical telecommunication connectivity is a matter of economic calculation. Businesses can also tap into that same infrastructure to push its growth. So if physical telecommunication connectivity investments can be seen as a shared infrastructure for education and commerce, it might be more palatable for the limited economical capability of the developing world. From time to time generous donors can drop a pile of funding to boost things up at the different spots within the developing countries that do not have strong and urgent arguments to attract funding from their own government to invest in their local community’s physical telecommunication connectivity.

If infrastructure is available, even though limited, then the discussion could be around selecting the appropriate technology that offer the learning affordance which required or needed by the community.

Connecting a classroom in the developing country to the internet can connect them to comparable classrooms across the globe nurturing human connections, understanding and empathy as well as appreciation of other culture. How can that be said to replace human-learning with learning-with-machine? The internet can help a science class in the developing countries to submit questions and participate in discussion with experts in the field that is not available in anywhere in that country. How is that not improving the learning experience and quality?

Of course there are uses of technology that is supporting individual learning as well, such as internet allows students to read information in Wikipedia or look at the map to figure out the location of the earth’s plate and its relation to the earthquake in certain countries. Internet also affords such learning affordances, and that affordance by no means to replace good qualified human educators. But there is other affordance of internet that seems to be quickly overlooked when arguing against it.

IMHO, one of the key is to look at the appropriateness of offered learning affordances.

e-education cannot replace a good teacher in a good school with highly motivated students.Traditionl approach of learning is highly instructor centric where e-education is completely learner centric. “Blended Learning is an educational formation that integrates e-learning techniques including on-line delivery of materials through web pages, discussion boards and/or email with traditional teaching methods including lectures, in-person discussions, seminars, or tutorials.” It is a more modern approach towards e-learning.

It can replace traditional chalk talk but remote areas cannot be reached instantly . We should take care of all the facilities which can give 100% success.

absolutely yes, e-learning firstly has started in common web sites. New educational stratejies must contain this approach. In times, ıt will be developed high level. we have to follow current young population behavior and habits.

No, it cannot. By analogy, try to answer this question: Can e-commerce completely replace traditional trading in developing countries? E-learning is just another tool, another kind of chalk. And in natural sciences, a simplest experiment (performed personally) is worth more than the most advanced simulation or YouTube presentation.

Hello, e-learning, is a way of thinking about organization, which requires models to address the actions of individuals routed there this engine of development and interaction of the masses in accordance with the powers of human talent ( Knowledge - content, skills - skills and academic interaction with the other) for a functionalist thought. But not just stay there, while allowing the beneficiary community to interact with their skills allowing mobility and acculturation in a region or solving a problem in socialist thought (Because lets you interact with your environment problems immediately). The e-learning company, requires large human experts to plan it in the educational, the technological and organizational. (Enter a teacher who plans to direct thinking in student learning). Work on e-learning is purely investigative and that "The methodology should support the learning objectives and, therefore, can not be generalizedif we try to design training programs and diverse content, every type of discipline or subject will require methods, resources and specific techniques to be more effective, have to think, then, pedagogical design that takes into account the specific didactic (Guardia, 2000) . "In e-learning largely employ learning units encapsulated in a learning object, which requires: Scope methodology, which would decide the way they facilitate the student learning from a methodological point of view.Technological field, corresponding to the technologies applied to the development and production of the material.Disciplinary field, which would be relevant to the discipline of matter, since it would include decisions on the conceptual approach. (Who knows the area the expert, the professional author of the objects)The team will perform a production technology that can be stored on digital devices, play in telematic networks (Internet or mobile). To conclude, if possible replace content, skills, performance and academic relationships with e-learning. The practice in the real laboratory evidence of learning completed. Evidence will find the skills acquired in learning self-study or regulated. http://www.uoc.edu/web/esp/art/uoc/bates1101/bates1101_abs.html

E-learning cannot replace a traditional chalk and talk where there is pesonal eye to eye contact between teacher and taught. There iwill be emotional bondage between the two. E-learning/teaching is an artificially created more or less tailor made environment that may not be able to provide spontaneous time to time modifications. It will be of great value after a traditional class room teaching for revising the subject content and for better understanding with more informative visuals and for practising. By chalk and talk teaching the minimum required for the student can be presented ie. a kind of first time exposure to him/her developing a confidence and creating interest in the subject. Depending on his/her ability and the level of confidence the next higher level of teaching and understanding the topic can be planned. It is also difficult in developing countries to provide the necessary infrastructure for e-learning in all the Institutions. The content preparation for e-learning requires lot of commitment, ability, skill of the teacher. Most of the techers were not trained to use/ not inclined to learn the use of electronic media and have an inbuilt mental make-up that it has to be prepared by a computer person not a teacher and with the result the content may not stimulate either the teacher nor the student. The purpose of e-learning should be made a more meaningful experience on both sides (Teacher and taught)

Dear friends, it has been a captivating discussion so far. While popular arguments remain that personal contact and guidance will be missing in e-learning delivery of education, we can not deny its existence. Besides Phoenix University's pioneering work in this field, many new players with ever evolving LMS are springing up on the horizon. Khan Academy brought in some imaginative changes in the mind set. For a country like India and many in Africa and Asia, higher education is beyond reach of remote areas as also due to affordability question. Technology can help bridge the geographical gap and where good faculty is impossible to reach, VSAT or broad band rinding e-education can deliver. Of course logistics and practical issues of language etc will always be there. Issue here is can we ride on the new technology, VSAT, broad band, 3G etc and increase penetration of higher education. It is not the question of replacing but adding on to the existing set up!!! Any models that you know of, will be useful.

Like myself, there are many teaching in African universities and using the efficiencies of technology and e-learning to expand learning, make it more relevant and efficient. We are on the ground doing it and armchair preconceptions like widespread lack of infrastructure, poor connectivity, etc, are not as important to us as the results of the use of technology in the classroom.

By using a Moodle platform, my students continue learning outside of my classroom. All my students have mobile phones and though they may not be high-end smart phones, I can show you my students' lively discussions of topics on twitter and facebook.

I haven't tried "totally replacing chalk-talk" with e-learning since my university prefers the blended learning model, but I am aware that of many distance-learning courses in Africa.

To begin any discussion on e-learning in Africa with presuppositions that "lack of infrastructure, qualified faculty and accessibility" are the main factors is jumping the gun. It may be true for primary education, but it's not totally so for secondary schools and nearly all higher-education institutions in Africa are in towns with relatively-modern infrastructure, connectivity and all.

In universities, the main challenges in rolling out e-learning tools are largely similar to elsewhere, such as entry-level user resistance (faculty), administrative and organizational hiccups. Unique challenges are the cultural irrelevance of the available re-usable tools, which has led to some African researchers (especially in South Africa) developing local platforms.

Ian Wairua

no, it cannot. because that method of teaching will improve students creativity If Teacher know how to use it. I also used that method in my teaching My black board is look like a WHITE BOARD.

In my point of view, it cannot totally substitute the conventional chalk-talk but can be offered as optional learning support or as supplemental instruction (SI). Although emerging of computer-mediated communication tools for the educational purposes are given considerable attention nowadays, other important social and individual issues go unacknowledged and unresolved. For example, issues regarding with confidential and privacy of online communication. Besides, problem such as miscommunication due to lack of non-verbal cues, lack of control of equality contribution on online discussion for reciprocal of peer learning and interaction, less of normative pressure from instructor and other peer as online learners are inhibited from each other. It would be due to social loafing / Ringelmann effect. Learners feel that they are hinder away from each others, and it may lead to inactive participation and online discussion frustration.

Indeed, different community and contexts, with different interest and roles have different perspective towards online learning. Not all instructor savvy to online learning system. Training instructor as online instructor would be time consuming.

Another issue is sustainability of online learning. Talmadge (2004) suggested that in order to solve these issues, it is necessary to build and sustain a sense of community or belonging in which participants could feel truthfully connected to each other besides being able to share thoughts, ideas, and feelings.

E learning is a most convenient medium to interact at 24\7 this cannot replace a teacher of face to face

The question here is wrongly phrased. We shouldn't worry about what can or should replace what. Instead we should worry about what is effective and under which conditions. In countries or areas in which the electrical supply is poor, then it is unlikely that e-learning will be effective, at least until a reliable electricity supply can be maintained. Under these conditions, traditional methods have an advantage.

Likewise, if a person has good access to computers, but cannot afford to go to a university (or other school,) then e-learning may be their only option (other than giving up.) In such cases, effectiveness isn't a consideration as it's either e-learning or no learning.

I would like to see hybrid models more widely used, but these are as expensive as traditional university models, and simply may not scale up to the majority of the world's population.

1988 interview with Isaac Asimov. It was not called e-learning at this time, but still a nice summary (10 min only) about computer assisted education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJAIERgWhZQ&feature=colike

Why look at anything with the idea of replacing! You replace what is already available. In many places, traditional learning does not exist. So anything you provide is good. We have all benefited by referring to multiple textbooks on a subject -- why would one need multiple textbooks? They provide different perspectives, and have different strengths and weaknesses. Same with all these methods. Use them all, as available. When used correctly, they provide tremendous value.

And just to change the perspective fully -- can traditional learning replace e-learning? I think the answer is "no". There is so much technology can bring to education, that is not possible in traditional models.

Traditional chalk-talk can be replaced by e-learning to some extent, but not totally for certain. E-learning will work where learning is driven by learners alone. So learners are expected to be mature and self-motivated. For example, higher education courses, employee training programs can be completely online. The major challenge in use of tools for education would be to retain the attention of the learners for a long time, and motivate them to complete the courses. Use of interactive/multimedia content suitable to the learner would be one way to retain the attention.

@Kirk, Sergiusz and Sasi, your take is very convincing and appropriate in whatever context we place the topic in. As Madhavi puts it, replacement to some extent is possible but only if it is driven by a learners' initiative. It is knowledge acquisition, no matter what the source. Unlike the colleges in the West, a student in a developing country like India attends regular college classes for less than five months in a year. While I agree with Don that question should not be on replacement, we have to depend on the technology to bridge the gap between what is learnt in a classroom and what ought to have been taught. Initiatives of Khan academy, coursera, NPTEL, even TED or many such 'you-tube' driven knowledge sources can be effectively dovetailed into our program deliveries. Students can then search and acquire this information. Hybrid is possible where the students can afford to enrol into a regular program. The way knowledge base is exploding on the internet, a keen learner can find tremendous value in spending a few hours going through his/her lessons. Thanks for your views...

No, it should not....

Blended learning and teaching approaches are more effective. And the technology alone does not necessarily improve learning. IT is just another delivery tool. How one uses the tool to enhance learning is the important thing.

This generation of learners live in a very digital world, so bridging the digital divide in education makes sense. In the developing countries, infrastructure and access are huge challenges. From my experience, mobile learning strategies seem to address these challenges more than elearning platforms. As the majority of students have a cellphone in their hands, even when they cannot "afford" textbooks. But this is a discussion for another time.

I totally agree with Madhavi....elearning strategies suit the mature students far more than school leavers. They seem more committed and motivated. So, constructivist teaching approaches are successful.

The younger digital generation seem to want to be "entertained" and Web 2.0 applications make suitable "toys`" and cater multiple learning styles.

eLearning complements traditional/face2face interactions and vice versa.

Thanks Roshnee. The question was provocative specially for the those who are engaged in class room teaching. But your perspective is welcome and appropriate.

E learning is a great tool. It helps to enhance the classroom experience. It is also useful for the student to visualise and interact with custom made simulations. However, it is hardly a replacement for human interaction, which is core to our way of imparting knowledage. No e learning course can ever be designed without the course designer having a first hand experience of classroom teaching with the topic. Each batch of students is different. All teachers would agree that, they have to modulate their lessons every year to suite them for the batch of students in hand. This improvisation is not possible in e learning mode. Having one to one talk with the student on any topic/ lesson is a soothing and satisfying experience for the teacher and the student. However, using e learning prior to formal classroom session greatly improves students grasp of the topic during the session.

Work has been done on adaptive learning by Kinshuk. Does anyone know of work done to motivate students through e-learning? I Am thinking of the ability to create "a sense of intimacy and immediacy" and how to incorporate the "human touch" and "positive human interaction"?

@Ian many writers and experts have been studying technology driven education and impact thereof. William Bertrand in his article on HE and technology transfer, (Journal of International Affairs, Fall/Winter 2010, Vol. 64, No. 1) had argued that the modern university has failed to bring in technological change and therefore is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the reality of life in an interconnected world. His study attributes this to disciplinary and institutional arrogance and entrenched structures resisting change. Katherine, Lee and Zanakis in their study Engaging Group E-Learning in Virtual Worlds (Journal of Management Information Systems / Summer 2009, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 73–100) had discussed poor support for group oriented e‑learning technologies and projected virtual world as a potential place for e-learning. But most important study I have come across is by Luigi Proserpio and Dennis (Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2007, Vol. 6, No. 1, 69–80) on teaching the virtual generation. I am sure there are many more studies relevant to the discussion here. A list of some other references that I have been compiling on the topic is attached - if anyone is interested.

@Kulwant: Thanks for the reading list. Apart from your Business interest, the main keyphrases in your docx file are:

"distance education"

"distance learning"

"e-learning"

"online education"

"higher education"

postgraduate

It is fun to send these to scholar.google.com to expand your document library. You can leave out some of these, and add in others that are of specific interest to you, such as Business education.

I do respect all opinions in for and against either traditional teaching and learning or e-teaching/leaning as all have some valid arguments and opinions.

However, I would like to recount on of my experience on the ResearchGate. In the forum of Ecological Modelling a very learned scientist with more than one thousand scientific contribution posted that a particular software like e-calculator to calculate different kinds of values which are difficult to work out manually, may guide a researcher through various steps of ecological modelling. What I responded in respect of concept of research is another matter, but I pointed out that availability of books and computers could not replace class room teachers, how a software can undermine the need of a human research guide/supervisor. I got email from the ResearchGate that the person who posted the question liked my response and when I returned to that forum, the post was removed. When I searched the person on the internet, I found out that that very renowned scientists has developed that programme.

My argument is that even in interactive e-learning teacher is very professional and replies a question in a very formal and technical manner which may be good for passing out but not to acquire knowledge.

To me teaching-learning is two-way. Teacher assesses students and get some points to learn and ponder over. Interaction in spite of classroom discipline is informal in the sense that students may ask even dumb questions or questions, the answer of which is expected to be known to them. But, teacher does not laugh out their questions and make them comprehend the topic even though he has to clear the fundamentals.

In this manner, keeping assessment of students, teachers prepare their next lecture.

Further, to me teaching is not to repeat what I have lectured previous year. A good teacher has to keep abreast with developments in his field but also related area and has to synthesise his previous knowledge with new development. In this way, teaching is an art like composing music.

In e-learning and distance learning, students are provided with lecture notes or reading material prepared for that course. If a student deviates from lecture delivered or reading material provided, irrespective of the fact that his/her answer is based on a more advanced knowledge, should expect a lower grade.

Thanks Ian. @Firoz, excellent points and I fully agree that for all of us who studied in class rooms, teacher remains the ultimate knowledge provider, besides books in the libraries. Of course the teacher has to be fully engaged and learners must also attend the classes regularly. There can be no argument against the validity and superiority of class room teaching, be it a chalk-talk or lectures without even chalk resource. But look at the modern youth and his/her take on the technology. They are logged on to social networking sites, spend hours in virtual rooms or gaming consoles and use App or texting as if it was the lifeline. UGC says that Indian HE institutions are deficient of faculty by 51% on an average and most private institutions have freshers as faculty!!! IN North I measured students' attendance never more than 30%, where the colleges function from Aug to Feb!!! Can we therefore re-model our education delivery and use available tools to 1) enhance the experience and bring in different perspective inside a class room in hybrid model and 2) provide a quality jump to our staid and decaying distance education by bringing in on-line e-learning as a part of the knowledge delivery.

The argument is to bring technology in a complimentary role, though the question is about replacement. Look at the way NPTEL videos or khan academy video guides a learner - step wise step. And the Moodle provides a forum to discuss and interact with anyone interested in the subject, exactly the same way as we are discussing this topic over a period of time. As you have rightly articulated, it is the end use of technology that matters. used incorrectly, it can become a hindrance in learning. But the fact is that students are much more web dependent and reading books - even digital libraries are not to their liking in most of the colleges. We need a fix to that.

My other perspective is on making better material available to the students pursuing DE due to non affordability, lack of time or inaccessibility. Just a thought.

Thanks Prof Firoz, I appreciate your viewpoint and coming from JMI, it has the academic rigour after all.

Thank You, Sharmaji.

In fact the malaise is neither with the student nor with the teachers. It is the system i.e public-private partnership in education whereby teaching shops have come up allover the country. Even in government-added institutions, management is making money. They admit more than 300 students in undergraduate science classes with only one class room of a capacity of 50 through self financing. Teachers are never regular. They are hired on lump-sum salary which is even less than that of a LD clerk in a government office. A 300 strong crowd and an underpaid teacher, do you expect that this crowd may be accommodated in a class room of 50. Neither teacher would be interested to best of him/her, nor students would be able to attend classes. The crucial part is that private colleges which get sanctioned courses in them in most than none have a laboratory, the absence of which undermines even sincere teachers give their best. All that taught goes waste.

However, in view of high pressure on academic institutions, need of supplementary teaching /learning either in distance mode or through e-learning is strongly felt.

I am a fan of MIT Open CourseWare. Their lecture notes, exercises etc. are highly valuable. They have made science and mathematics so easy that an ordinary Indian student may build his/her educational career on those lecture notes. In case of search of quality teaching material this source is highly commendable. After obtaining permission this material may be used, of course, with editing to make comprehensible to students not very strong in English. Also, if need may arise some lectures explaining fundamentals may be added to teaching material with a list of book recommended for consultation.

On the part of examiners, they should be instructed not to ensure that the examinees have gone through the literature provided or not. Students apart from literature provided and book listed for consultation have other sources as discussion with a highly qualified friend/relative or downloading research papers of high quality. Naturally, as is experienced in the class room teaching, students come from different background and have different levels of understanding.

A class room teacher teaching an undergraduate class and in the process asks a question, he is never surprised that a student gives answer expected from a post-graduate student.

Never!!

To start with , we have to accept the fact that in developing countries the basic needs are to be looked after. After completing these needs the people think of education. Though it is said that 'Online education has an unique ability to span the divides at a lower cost.' ; it is not possible at this stage to start it .

As you have rightly mentioned, qualified faculty and accessibility in remote areas are the main barriers in this system. So let us hope , it will take some another 10 years to run system totally online.

Vinay

I appreciate your bold appraisal of situation in our country. I know people go hungry ro sleep, while food is rotting in Government's Stock. I also know that people don't have access to potable water and when there is a disaster, government agencies are caught unprepared, though we as a nation feel proud to be in exlusive club of countries which are venturing in space. To me it is unfortunate for the country in long term, even then corporate sector has opened opportunities for educated middle class. It cannot be argued further or sunbed that OURS IS LOPSIDED DEVELOPMENT. I know that saying goes in our rural part of the country, “bhookey pet hari bhajan na hoye” (hungry stomachs never sing in praise of the Lord). It is same with the education. When the most basic need of food is not satisfied, who is going to school hungry stomach. Parents would like that their children of even non-productive ages economically should engage some remunerative job to augment to family income so that at least their children get meal once a day. In such a situation, education seems a big and unattainable ideal. Even schemes of the government through aganwari etc. to make people to dent illiteracy have failed. Officials don't supervise, teachers don't teach and men, women and children after hard work of the day are not simply interested to be educated.

It is also true that "qualified faculty and accessibility in remote areas" are lacking. Private sector does not seem to explore this potential because they find invest in these areas as unprofitable. Therefore, they open rather mushroom their quality teaching shops in metros so that they could make profit.

Stop the mid-day food scheme in primary school, then watch how many students go to these schools, parents send their children to primary school so that they will be able to put something in their empty bellies. They don't send their children to school for education.

However, ours is a democracy with equal rights (equality to be corrupt) there is no denying that growing middle class is putting pressure on the educational system. In politics, this class is clog in swinging voters in favour or against a party. Its demand always remain on the fore of the politicians. In the absence of resources to allocate in education sectors, it is considered a viable means to deliver education through distance or e- means, because this class is has access to these resources.

e-learning can be a good tool to learning something additional, but i thought its bad !dea to replace with traditional one because, we cant clearify the doubts if any immediately, secondly we teacher can get some feedback through body language of students by which we can help them to understand the concept.

One more thing is It can be appeciable in the intellectual society as the time will be as per the individuals convinience. But it is strongly discouraging to the rural & tribal people across the world cause they dont know the basic funda of 'e' itself.

Dr. Narkhede wrote:

"... i thought its bad !dea to replace with traditional one because, we cant clearify the doubts if any immediately ..."

If there is a discourse space in which the students and teacher work together, then often the other students will clarify doubts, correct errors, and elaborate on valid points without the need for teacher intervention. That frequently happens in the online portion of my classes.

The simple straight answer is no.

However, this does not mean that the option is to taking one or another. E-learning has proven to be a powerful way to spread knowledge and its purpose is to strengthen the capacities of a good educator. Yes, a good educator, knowledgeable in his field but also in all the tools available to achieve the development of the students, and one of this tools a really powerful one, is e-learning. There is no magic solution on using e-learning, even the so argued cost reduction can be a trap if a good strategy and a careful planned process is not considered. There is still much to be done in developing countries so e-learning can become of generalized access, but there are really interesting initiatives in place that provide us hope about the good results that can be obtained in benefit if those that have had less opportunities. We need to start integrating e-learning for developing countries so we can continue learning and finding new ways to deal with the present obstacles, so we could learn how to “climb the walls”.

No Sir. Now-a-days, in India some of the State Government introduced SMART classes. Even Electricity will falls, they themselves skipped to Traditional method like chalk- talk method. But in future, due to younger generation and their social network link, all the institutions, try to reach the e-learning methods. But it can need a three to four years in INDIA.

Not everything about e-learning is very positive. Paper, pen, chalk and blackboard are fine to use from time to time. It depends what are you learning/teaching and what age are your pupils.

Senhores,

Respeito a opinião de todos, mas acredito as transformações serão bem maiores. Temos lembrar que o modelo de aula expositiva é do tempo que não havia outros meios para distribuir o conteúdo. Também é bom lembrar que nenhum professor distribui conhecimento. Nosso trabalho é organizar e distribuir informações que consideramos relevantes para a formação. Hoje não é mais necessário o professor para distribuir conteúdos pois temos diversos meios para fazer isso de forma bem mais eficiente que ouvir aulas. Esse professor está cada vez mais sendo dispensável. Porem precisamos de educadores capazes de orientar o processo de aprendizagem, mas quem fica no centro é o aluno. Temos que entender que o objetivo do processo educativo é a aprendizagem e não o ensino. Nesse contexto, o aluno é o elo mais importante do processo.

As inficated chalk and talk should be regarded as another tool in ther bag of learning and it in itself can be adapted from the old traditional way of only the teacher having the chalk. Used in an appropriate way it can in itself be a very interactive method and at times changes can be made quicker than trying to adjust web based materials.Like everything else it is important to appreciate the context in which any learning is taking place.

@Leonard

Chalk-talk never meant rote learning. Chalk is used to write equation, to draw diagrams to make points clear. Even in cases where people use PPP method, very often there is felt a need to draw are make a point clear either using chalk or drawing on paper to be projected anyhow. It is very often when well thought of diagrams etc. fail to make home in the minds of students and to further clarify the points the teacher. has to resort to this old resource.

Yes it is the time to change... It should be..

A 'chalk talk' will always be a more flexible way to educate because of the ability to adapt instantaneously to the query of a student.However, future technology will probably provide the same capability so the question is moot.

Chalk dust is an occupational hazard (!) Chalk should only be used in case of emergency when the data and overhead projector fail!

The influence of Information Communication Technology (ICT) of “now day’s education” is obvious and evident. Computers (all types and sub types) are in the center of the usage of ICT in current as you called online education - learning.

But we had a "similar" tool: TV, projector-foil etc., before. The main difference between these, auxiliary tools and computers is the possibility that the user (student) could communicate with the computer, to have a dialogue with the computer, i.e. ask questions and get answers, like communication with a human teacher. The question is whether the eLearning systems "capable" for it. Another problem is individualized, each student learns according to his abilities, and again the question of whether e-learning systems "capable" for such studies.

The problem is that most eLearning systems, relying only on the number of presentations of a matter that is being processed, no explanation, no help, no way to objectively assess whether the student has actually learned, has adopted the domain, i.e. lesson.

Therefore, the future of eLearning will be the appropriate research in psychology and pedagogy of how to learn (teach) with the aim of ICT!

We have a lot of problems to realize the good software for learning with the computer, i.e. we have to find out “new” learning strategies, and/or to formalize the impact of emotions on learning process, to formalize “new” pedagogy, etc.

The problem is that computer is “dumb” machine, so we have to write the good software. The algorithm of learning is not found yet, in the sense of human learning. We have to find out the proper knowledge representation and appropriate heuristics for searching and applying that knowledge, to understand fuzzy logic and reasoning, non-monotonic logics and reasoning, other kinds of logic, etc. Too many open problems, right?

At, the end my answer to your question is NO!

PS. I started the topic “eEducation - forty years of promises?” about that, so you could find there some new ideas about all of this.

E-Learning systems are very capable of adapting to the student's main problem, namely, speed of intake (hence 'asynchronous learning'). There is no need to further pander to the student's style of learning. Explanation, help and assessment must be built in to E-Learning for it to be considered to be a learning tool. It cannot be a 'photocopy' of a poor textbook. How to teach with E-learning is a wide open area for research.

Manual means have their own virtue ..................and still are very capable in specialized microscopic coverage of course material

E-learning is effective, but there are times when I miss the chalk-talk.

I do not miss the sneezes from the chalk-dust. However, I do miss being able to show off that I can draw a perfect free-hand circle on the board, or quickly draw a squeaky dotted line. ................

leaving aside the question of why should we even think about abandoning chalk-talk teaching, e-learning cannot replace traditional in class/ from books (even if they are e-books) learning in developing countries while internet access is so expensive, so unreliable and so slow as it is nowadays (at least in the developing country I live in).

Some notes of e-learning for developing countries.

1. The e-learnig center will be most probably located in some capital, or even abroad. Students will miss all the benefits resulting from personal contacts with the teacher.

2. The cost of IT infrastructure will be high, most of it will be probably imported. On the other hand, local teachers are relatively inexpensive by comparison.

3. There are also other challenges: cultural differences, selection of right subjects and approaches, ignoring of local specificity etc.

For developing countries e-learning is like GMO, a lot of benefits but be aware of dangers.

Sir,

I am not accepted the word" TOTALLY REPLACED". But the same time, we welcome a new method as well as innovative to help the class hour; particularly for learning efficiency. Hence we can adopt e-learning method as one of the method for helping the extra knowledge of traditional mode. Thanks

Sir,

As I think that this is a technology and we have to welcome it. but if you asked about totally replaced .... it is not feasible..... but if you asked about some concept where chalk-board takes more time to draw, then yes we can use it.

As my opinion . E-Learning system can only provide supplementary way of information and knowledge delivery . At the moment , it can't replace the On site face to face teaching . I have been conducting Diploma in Family Medicine programme with Open University Malaysia . We have tried the with extra seminar ( face to face session ) will help to make almost 80 % of those trainee medical officer understand the topic better ( Especially Dermatology and Micro Surgery section ) ! It is found this means of teaching have a better reach ,and flexibility to some of those medical officer from the remote area !

Chin

Programme Manager

Diploma in Family Medicine

Academy of Family Physician of Malaysia

We will not trust a student who 'graduates' without practical work!

Dear Kennedy , I do agreed with you , even when I was in IBM Malaysia , we do have all sort of learning and training method to train all the new trainee . But , the mentor-ship of teaching still existing ..even I have left IBM for years !

Open Universities use no chalk. Thus they can be totally replaced with e-learning.

Let hand and eye coordination be part of learning rather than only eyes:)

E-learning should require practical participation. We remember x% of what we hear... y% of what we see, z% of what we do. x

W% of what we teach (w>z).

We have collected some statistical data about the effectiveness of E-learning system ,and the outcome is very interesting ! But , we are trying to put in additional function to make student to grasp the concept and understand the content better !

The basic and minimum entry qualification for my course are : MBBS graduate with 4 year General practitioner experience !

I also think a total replacement is neither feasible nor responsive to the unique needs of specific disciplines. The best way students learn to solve complicated mathematical problems is through the classroom chalk-talk.

I don't believed that e-learning could totally replaced chalk and talk method. Especially when we 'Only Use Module' as our learning platform.

The same question was posed in a conference at Kasthooribha Gandhi College of Education, Namakkal, Tamilnadu, India by a participant. ya. It will replace in the years to come. Already it started replacing. Teachers started making use of ICT (white boards) in the classroom. We had a micro skill called "Blackboard Usage". For the white board, we should have a skill called "white board usage".

Dear Pushpa , Our school have been using ICT to support teaching for all Art subject , but , we facing difficulty to apply it for the teaching of Mathematics..and we end up with keeping a lot of senior me thematic tutor .

In Mathematics, Science and Engineering teaching we often have to "spot the student misunderstanding", in order to undo it. This requires 1:1 interactions with a wide-awake tutor. The original question is phrased in terms of replacing the formal lecture with e-learning, not replacing tutoring.

Please note that e-learning can be individually slow-motioned, paused, or replayed -- not possible with traditional chalk-and-talk. This should reduce some student mis-conceptions from forming, especially if the world's best presenter is used each time.

Dear Yew Chin

It can be applied in the case of Mathematics teaching also. My friend Mr.Thiyagu from Tiruchendur, Tamilnadu is using ICT in mathematics classroom effectively.

100 % replacement would not possible perhaps. It depends upon the economy of the country and the availibilty of the e-learning resources too. Teacher n chalk -talk can not b replaced. ICT fails sometimes, but chalk talk doesnt.

Dear Pushpanathan, Please send me more information about this . My email : [email protected]

Dear Jagpreet , Our school have to make use of technologies ! we have 5,200 students in my school , for any student want to join our school , entrant exam will be use to screen those below average students , student must come in with no less than 85 % of the total mark out of 5 subjects . This is to maintain our standard ,and also to full filled the requirement from the board of director of the school ! Now, our challenge was , we need to push at least 55 % of our student to score A in all mathematics subject ! since ,we are represent our nation for Mathematics competition , we have to do this to push our student move to another level .

On line learning can help grasping the basics of a content. My experience is that if the students are very demanding and agile, we need to have chalk and talk method both to expand what is provided in the e learning content and also to improvise new solutions to student's question. I personally do not find the e learning content very handy in these situations. Further, there are many subjects like science, engineering and medicine where we need to resort to chalk and talk.

Dear Kumar , I do agreed with you . Mathematics is hard to teach by using E-Learning method ..but Physic and Chemistry may be have some chance to make use of ICT method !

e-learning can supplement the efficacy of learning through conventional methods but is not the replacer. e-learning is helpful for the methods which can't be executed at every places, or rare phenomenons, place specific phenomenons, etc. But the traditional, especially practicals in real situation are the best ones which can't be replaced with technology/e-lessons. SO, my overall idea is that e-learning is COMPLEMENTARY and SUPPLEMENTARY to the traditional methods and not the replacer. However, traditional chalk-talk can be replaced with SMART e-learning tools or modules with feasible practicals in the developing world.

A free world e-learning university should be created on a collaborative model. Retired faculties around the world could provide an accreditation system so diploma would have credibility.

@Louis: We have today all the tools to make a global, open, virtual, collaborative university.

I still want to look straight into the eyes of my students when they respond to my questions... After all these years of my research, how to use computers in education, and kind-such a success, I still do not believe that e-learning can replace a GOOD TEACHER!

Ian,

But it is not a reality yet. Regular universities, I only know a few in Canada, have become very buracratic institutions. It does not have much in common with what the first universities in Athens or in the middle age in Paris or Oxford used to be. At the time, if you could choose (if you had money) your teachers. I never could choose a teacher. I choose my university and my field of study and everything else was chosen for me. Imagine a collaborative global university where one could choose a teacher, and maybe one of the best teacher in the world!!! That would be refreshing.

Sure. The answer is yes for this specific question because less than 1% of the teachers pass teacher eligibility test (in India, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education). Then again what specific way can we measure the quality of e-learning materials and their delivery? Better to have a human that cannot teach than a dead machine or a machine that has content that is not relevant or of low quality.

@Ljubomir and Louis: I am assuming that we can coax the world's best lecturers to provide the video lectures. It will certainly advance the developing countries.

E-learning cannot replace the Chalk-talk. Because chalk-talk is the base for E-learning. As Mr. Sergiusz Patela from Wroclaw university rightly opined by asking a question "Can e-commerce replace our traditional marketing system?" The answer is absolutely no. It cannot be replaced. Even e-commerce is dominating the entire world, still our traditional market has its own value. Like that, our Chalk - talk cannot be replaced by E-learning. E-learning may supplement chalk-talk method.

What Mr. Ian Kennedy assumed is a worthy one. If we can coax the lecturers and their lectures (in videos), definitely we can turn the table.

Yesterday Jimmy Wales said "I thought at that time, in the future, why wouldn't you have the most entertaining professor, the one with the proven track record of getting knowledge into people's heads? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22160988

E-learning can be a part of "learning", but I agree with Ljubomir, that the personal relationship between the teacher an the student still has some (in fact really big) importance. Of course, you can also have some kind of relationship based on e-learning, social network... but it will never be ass rich as e real "physical" (don't misunderstand that...) relationship. It is important to exchange and discuss different point of views, meanings and to interact immediately to build knowledge and skills.

No, the purpose of E-learning was never to replace Chalk-Talk totally but to suppliment it where posible. Patela rightfully indicate that e-learning is another kind of chalk.