Abstract:

In 2007, India embarked on one of the world’s most ambitious initiatives for human empowerment through its Common Service Centre programme, by aiming to create an ICT infrastructure for education, e-governance and employment generation in 100,000 Indian villages. The design task was to develop a nationwide, self-running, self-evolving, and self-expanding system with a common purpose of bringing prosperity through knowledge.

There is a general agreement now that ICT has the potential to overcome the problems of remoteness, reach, connectivity, and content dissemination in developing countries. One of the considerations in planning is the rapid pace of developments in ICT, with constant emergence of better technologies, with reduced physical form factor, and lower price. This phenomenon of rapid obsolescence led to conscious avoiding of heavy expenditure on fixed physical infrastructure components; and focusing on creating enabling environments rather than fixed physical solutions.

A product called Community Computer developed at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay) in 2004, as an enabling device for multimedia-content delivery and interactive group learning vehicle has proved to be one of the most successful solutions for delivering content for various e-learning platforms. Besides being deployed all over India in large numbers in schools and colleges, both government and private, many new applications of K-Yan have emerged for education at all levels from early childhood learning to school, college, and professional and technical education.

Named K-Yan (K=Knowledge, Yan=Vehicle), the product is an integrated, portable multi-media device for e-content delivery in classrooms and creating rich learning environments in different learning contexts. K-Yan integrates a full-feature multi-media computer with internet connectivity, with a data projector, TV tuner, audio system, and DVD player in a single, easy-to-use portable product, with an ultra-large display enabling large audiences to share the projected content.

The modular construction of K-Yan, and the set up of accessories which can be attached to it, allow it to be customized for many different classroom situations and use contexts. K-Yan as a stand-alone device is sufficient to create a portable classroom anywhere, if a wall to project content is available. A folding self-standing screen allows K-Yan to be used in open fields and grounds. Power from inverters, car-batteries, and solar power can be used in situations where there is no power.

K-Yan has also become a key-enabling device to support the concept of portable classrooms, which consists of being able to create a rich learning environment anywhere, for learning any subject, for learners of all ages. Such learning environments do not depend on a fixed physical location, and on dedicated school buildings to conduct classes. By taking the classroom to the potential learners, many more people would join organized learning endeavours to upgrade themselves, and opens up the possibility of learning in the evenings or in the night as convenient.

The presentation will focus on the many educational applications of K-Yan with real examples from different use contexts which have emerged in the seven years since it was first introduced in India; and give an overview of the ‘Learning to Understand’ approach to interactive group learning which K-Yan enables in classrooms.

Keywords:

Interactive Group Learning through ICT, Community Computer, K-Yan, Learning to Understand Approach.