Sri Lanka must adopt Internet education soon

Sanath SIRIWARDENA

Internet education is not something new in the developed countries. Sometimes we call this online education. The traditional way of learning things by gathering inside a class room has been replaced by this online education system in instances where adopted. Online education system is very effective and convenient to students and other parties who require the service.

The world at your fingertips from the Internet

We still remember how helpful it was when electronic media in the country started to telecast educational programs over the television jointly with the Ministry of education. But the effectiveness of online education system is many times higher than in the traditional television program which carries the education. The built-in flexibility coexistent in online education could bring many features that no other system could offer to its users. Knowing these benefits many countries in the world has adopted this modern method in their education systems. Therefore Sri Lankan education system must go online soon if we really want to be dominant in education in the region.

If initiated, this method would automatically increase the country's computer literacy and the growth. Apart from education such initiative would be capable of increasing country's computer penetration in a shorter time period than anticipated. So one of our major tasks in the country; increasing country's computer penetration could be solved immediately with the onset of this initiative.

We need to understand the main characteristics of online education and the importance of such system in Sri Lanka. Secondly we need to identify the obstacles that we have in front of us and thirdly we need to find a way to overcome those obstacles.

Responsibility

A major part of Sri Lankan education system is still managed by the Government. Ministry of Education holds the responsibility of the schools in the country and its education. The school education has been limited to class room environment where students participate. There is not much of a difference in the secondary education where Universities are concerned. In both instances education is limited to teacher-student interaction in a class room environment. This old fashioned system in education has prevented our students from entering in to the competitive education stream in the world.

This traditional way of learning could be changed in to a more interactive value-added education system with the use of computer based online system. Schools, universities and vocational training institutes could get the opportunity to deliver their education online to thousands of students irrespective of their geographic locations. Hence online education could bring new era in education in the country. When compared to the traditional way of learning inside a class room online learning has many advantages. In traditional way of learning students has to be in the class room during the time of their lessons. Obviously this way of learning has many limitations. The class room environment does not allow large number of students to participate and who ever intended to participate in lectures have to be there personally. However, in online education these two would not obstruct become the learning process anymore.

Students will have the opportunity to select a convenient time to obtain their education lectures over the Internet. In many instances students can watch the program or the educational material many times for better understanding. They can even pause the program and rest can be watched later at a convenient time. Unlike in classrooms in online education thousands could participate simultaneously or in different time slots. This feature is very important especially in secondary education and vocational training. Since online education works over the multimedia platform high tech educational materials could be used to enhance the quality of lectures. In this way demonstrations could be presented to the students in cases where they never get the opportunity to watch them in real. For example students in Sri Lanka could watch the space shuttle and how it works remotely.

At the start we could set off this by putting tailor made educational lessons for grade five, GCE ordinary level and advance level standards. Ministry of Education could prepare the materials required for the use of online education according to the school curriculum. The quality of the lessons could be increased by adding multimedia content such as video demonstrations where possible. By this way we could enhance the quality of our education system in the country in a novel way to suit tomorrow's world. Moreover less affluent students in the country would now have the chance to gain more knowledge online equally with students in other parts of the Island. In latter stages we can introduce the interactive features such as posting questions in to the system.

Educational

Apart from primary education the secondary and vocational education systems also can take part in this. In addition to the Government educational institutes private schools and other educational institutes in the country must be provided with this facility by allowing them to carry online education soon. If provided school leavers in the country who requires further training in any field would get the opportunity to obtain their training online without visiting training institutes personally. The specialty we could find in online education is the flexibility. Unlike in other learning methods in online education students are provided with the opportunity to select their lesson times according to their desire. If someone is doing a job for living he or she could obtain the lessons leisurely at any time which is convenient to them. Now we could see how this method is going to help our education system if implemented. A well designed and wide- spread module has the potential to change our entire education system in the country in a away that no one could ever imagine. Needless to say how valuable it is to the country and to the economy in the long run. More importantly this will increase country's literacy and skill levels with better education that suits the world.

However before we go online there are many things to be addressed. Online education requires wide spread of computers and a nationwide data network that connects all users. Therefore the primary task would be to increase country's computer usage and the availability of fast affordable Internet services among all citizens. We cannot expect wonders to happen. What we should not forget is people would never consider using computers as long as they don't see any benefit. Public awareness programs alone would be not sufficient to carry this massage to the society. But this could be done effectively through a strategic process by allowing citizens to gain practical experience in their daily life. The provisioning of public utility services over the Internet would be capable of motivating people to use computers voluntarily. The incentives could be provided to citizens to buy computers in cases where they cannot afford one.

Affordable

The next challenge is to provide affordable high speed Internet access to all citizens in the country. In this regard latest technology must be introduced in rural areas where Internet is not available. Unethical usage limits must be removed from all Internet packages especially when accessing the local educational content.

Education is one of the most important elements in development. Sri Lanka's education system could be enhanced effectively with the adoption of modern technology based on IT. If adopted timely apart from educational development, this would eventually increase the IT exposure in the country in a shorter period than we anticipated. Therefore the Government must change its policies where necessary to introduce novel methods to its education system to compete with the rest of world.

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