UGC-CEC, C-DIT, EDUSAT-ROLE IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF

TEACHING LEARNING
INTRODUCTION
In India, before the 1960s, the term educational technology was almost unknown to the
education system. If at all this was used, it was used as a synonym to audio- visual teaching aids.
In the early 60s, use of the term educational technology took its root through programmed
learning. The programmed learning movement contributed a lot to the improvement of
instruction in a number of ways. Gradually, the meaning and concept of educational technology
has grown wider. At present, educational scenario in India witnesses the latest emerging trends in
the field of educational technology. There are many resource centres for promoting educational
technology in India.
CIET,UGC,IGNOU,SIET,SITE,UGC-CEC,C-DIT,EDUSAT,IT@SCHOOL,GYAN
DARSAN etc are some examples.

UGC-CEC
The consortium for educational communication popularly known as CEC is one of the
inter university centres setup by the University Grants Commission of India. It has been
established with the goal of addressing the needs of higher education through the use of powerful
medium of television along with the appropriate use of emerging information communication
technology (ICT). Realizing the potential and power of television to act as means of educational
knowledge dissemination, UGC started the country wide classroom programmes in year 1984.
For production of such programmes media centres were set up at six universities. Subsequently
CEC emerged in 1993 as a nodal agency to co-ordinate, guide and facilitate such educational
production at the national level. Today 22 media centres are working towards achieving this goal
under the umbrella of CEC.
These programmes are telecasted through Vyas-24 hour higher education channel and can
be received on DTH platform of DD Plus. CEC is a nodal body of UGC for implementation of econtent development scheme on higher education.

Objectives of CEC

Close co-ordination, facilitation, overall guidance and direction towards the activities of
the media centres set up by the UGC in various universities throughout the country.

Dissemination of educational programmes through broadcast as well as non-broadcast

modes.

Production of educational programmes and related support material further setting up of

appropriate facilities for such production

Research activities related to optimizing the effectiveness of such programmes.

Providing a forum for the active involvement of academic and other scholars in the
creation of appropriate educational programmes.

Studying, promoting and experimenting with new technology that will increase the
research and / or effectiveness of educational communication.

CEC co-ordinates, facilitates and directs the activities of media centres. By all these, CEC
provides an academic forum for the creation of educational programmes, thereby improving the
process of teaching and learning.

C - DIT
The Centre of Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) was established by the
government of Kerala in December 1988 for the advancement of research, development and
training in imaging technology. C-DIT has four groups, each specializing in a core area, viz.
communication group, technology group, education and training group and operations group. CDIT functions as a total solutions provider to the departments and agencies under the government
of Kerala in the areas of ICT applications and in supply of holography based security products. It
is a unique organization working in the area of convergence and beyond of ICT and content
development and dissemination in multimedia formats.

Objectives of C-DIT

To reinforce the role of administrators, technologists and enforcement authorities to work

in tandem towards the common goal of preventing counterfeiting.

To inform and educate the target group about the advancements made in anticounterfeiting technologies to tackle various levels of counterfeiting.

To familiarize the target groups with diverse equipments, machineries and technologies
being utilized to provide sophisticated anti-counterfeiting solutions.

Benefits of C-DIT

Attains a thorough understanding of various counterfeiting technology options being

practiced.

A platform to gain knowledge on the latest technological developments in anticounterfeiting arena and about various innovations being proposed and utilized to

enhance security of documents, products, processes and systems.

An active participation in interactive sessions and informal discussions on varied topics

on anti-counterfeiting technology with domain experts and like-minded people,
facilitating knowledge sharing and deriving optimum solutions for everyday security
issues.

Acquires knowledge on how good governance can be offered to the public through
effective utilization of suitable anti-counterfeiting technology.

An opportunity to establish personal rapport with experts in the anti-counterfeiting

solutions space.

A unique platform to familiarize with diverse equipments, machineries and technologies.

This enviable technological institution is proud of having a talented pool of creative

personnel co-existing with technological work force. Presently, C-DIT has undertaken a number
of security holographic production, high security printing and e-documentation projects for
various government departments. C-DIT envisages being a total anti-counterfeiting solutions
provider. It is now a major pillar of support to the government of Kerala, thus earning the
coveted position of total service provider of the government.
In 2002, as a part of its diversification and development plans, C-DIT formed a new division
on Educational Informatics, a term coined by C-DIT, to refer to the science and art of
comprehensive application of information and communication technologies to all facets of the
process of education. The activities of educational management, administration, teaching,
learning, evaluation of educational outcomes, instructional design, counselling, distance
education, research etc. fall within the preview of educational informatics. C-DIT has started, for
the first time in India, a Post Graduate Diploma in Educational Informatics (PGDEI). Thus,
nowadays C-DIT has a different objective for improving the process of teaching as well as
learning.

EDUSAT
EDUSAT, Educational Satellite, is the first full fledged Indian satellite built exclusively
for serving educational sector. Its first operational flight took place on 20th September 2004,
from Satish Dhavan Space Centre, Sriharikkottah. It is mainly intended to meet the demand for
an interactive satellite based distance education system of the country. It is a collaborative
project of the MHRD, IGNOU and ISRO. The projected life of the EDUSAT is 7 to 10 years.
The main purpose of EDUSAT is to provide education to all people primarily children from
remote areas of the country who cannot go to schools or colleges. The classes would be
conducted by various State Education Boards, NCERT, CBSE, universities etc. in a studio
environment using power point presentations as well as the common black board. There could be

interactive as well as non-interactive sessions offered.

The classes would be beamed to pre-destined areas using the EDUSAT similar to
regional TV programmes on Dooradarshan. It will be in the form of TV programmes. Students
attending the classes will be able to ask questions to the teachers conducting classes through
SMS, e-mail or other modes of communication. To enable this facility, schools or colleges should
have an interactive receiving terminal which is being currently supplied free by ISRO to selected
schools or colleges. EDUSAT can cover whole geographical area of India with its 5 spot beams.
The spot beams used in the EDUSAT are more powerful than that of INSAT. Therefore, its
signals can be received with a smaller satellite dish.

Benefits of EDUSAT

It is a satellite fully dedicated to the cause of education.

It covers all geographical area inside the country.

It can provide interactive and cost effective education.

It can provide consistency to information.

It can provide audio-visual medium and interactive multimedia facility.

It is useful to provide virtual classrooms in remote and rural schools.

It can provide lecture sessions from the best and expert teachers.

It can facilitate provision of equality in educational opportunity.

It can open up many possibilities like online teaching, video conferencing etc.

It can enhance distance education in the country, especially in medical, technical and the
higher education streams.

Students will get the facility to see what they read in their textbooks and to do
experiments with the help of multimedia technologies.

Objectives of EDUSAT

Ensure availability of quality content online and through variety of access devices in
schools.

Promote a shift from current passive learning to active learning.

Inservice and recurrent training of school teachers continue the upgradation of their

knowledge and skills.

Enrich the curriculum and pedagogic by employing all the technologies available
including virtual classroom, video on demand.

EDUSAT in Kerala
Using EDUSAT, the government of Kerala started an experimental project named as
Virtual Classroom Technology on EDUSAT for rural schools. Today the government of Kerala
utilizes the services of EDUSAT for providing quality education to all, to the students and
teachers from primary classes to the college level. This will be implemented with the help of
IT@School project and with the co-operation of ISRO. This programme has three stages and
wide technological arrangements were needed to receive these programmes. The main
beneficiaries of this scheme are the students from 1st to 12th standard. The teachers of primary,
secondary and higher secondary schools as well as the public will also be benefited.
EDUSAT has revolutionized classroom teaching through IP based technology. EDUSAT
has five KU band transponders providing spot beams, one KU beam transponder providing
national beam and six extended C-band transponders providing national coverage beams. CEC is
one amongst the five primary users of this educational satellite. At present, there are over 100
satellite interactive terminals and receive only terminals under CEC EDUSAT network installed
at various colleges, academic staff colleges and universities across the country. Many more are
being added with the purpose of providing quality higher education to the remote areas through
satellite network.
The launch of EDUSAT has helped in providing quality instruction through video
programmes to students studying in the interior villages. The students have benefited from the
video programmes delivered through the satellite. The benefit gained is in terms of gain in
knowledge and understanding of the content, improvement in the attendance and holding
attention and interest in viewing programmes. The teacher involvement during the broadcast as
facilitator and conduct of pre and post broadcast activity is noteworthy. Thus both the learning
and teaching processes get improved due to the promotion of EDUSAT.

Conclusion
The ultimate goal of any plan for educational technology should reflect two intentions,
equitable access to technology for all students and teachers and comparable levels of educational
technology for all educational institutions. In setting up on educational technology, resource
centres have to be addressed. Technology is utilized and implemented meaningfully by using
these resource centres. Thus technology can become the force that equalizes educational
oppurtunities of all children regardless of location and social and economical factors as well as
improving the teaching and learning process.

References
1.Information and Communication Technology and Communicative English- Dr. K Sivarajan, K
Shanavas, K P Baby Sumam Aboobacker.
2. https://www.ugc.ac.in/page/c-e-c-aspx
3. https://edutechnofriend.blogspot.in/205/06/role-of-edusat-its-functions-in.html.
4. https://edufocus.blogspot.in/2014/08/media-skills-in-teaching-and-learning.html.
5. https://cec.nin.in/pages/home.aspx.
6. https://reshmaak.blogspot.in/2014/09/a-study-on-resource-centre-and-services.html.
Submitted by

Reshma Suresh
1st B.Ed. English
2016-2018