Interaction Radio Counselling in Distance Education

Interactive Radio Counselling

MEDIA IN DISTANCE EDUCATION

Print Media

Printed Study Material

Advantages

Disadvantages

Audio Media

Audio Cassettes

Educational Radio

Interactive Radio Programmes

Audio Conferencing

Audio - Vision

Video Media

Video Cassettes / CDs

Educational Television

Interactive Teleconference

Computer Mediated

Asynchronous

 E - mail

 Internet

 CD Rom

 Bulletin Board Service (BBS)

Synchronous

 Web Based Chat

Educational Radio

Radio technology was first developed during the 19 th century.

It came into popular usage during the 20 th century

Main Advantages

Capable to reach to a wide geographical range of audience

Improving educational quality and relevance

Lowering educational cost

Improving access to educational inputs particularly to the disadvantaged groups

Usage

Interviews

Dialogue

Pronunciation

Quizzes

Panel Discussions

Dramatizations

Common misconceptions

RADIO IN DISTANCE EDUCATION

Limitations

Interaction is limited

Instructor feedback and clarification is generally not available

Instruction is uninterruptible and not reviewable

Pace of the lesson is fixed for all the students

Note –taking is difficult

Time for reflection of the content is minimal

RADIO IN DISTANCE EDUCATION

Worldwide Usage of Educational Radio

Thailand, to teach mathematics to the school children and for teacher training

Switzerland, for public health purposes

Mali, for literacy training

Columbia, for various programmes

Mexico, for literacy training and other programmes

Nigeria, for management courses for the agricultural sector

Kenya, in support of correspondence courses

Nicaragua, for health education

The Philippines, for nutrition education

Guatemala, in order to promote changes in farming practice and to improve production

Sri Lanka, for family planning and health

Trinidad and Tobago, to promote breastfeeding

South Korea, in support of family planning

Botswana, for civic education

The Dominion Republic, in support of primary education,

Paraguay, to offer primary school instruction

United Kingdom, UKOU, for undergraduate programmes

Worldwide Usage of Educational Radio

Major Educational Radio Projects in India

The School Broadcast Project, commissioned in 1937. The target group was the school children. The programme started from Delhi, Calcatta, Madras and Bombay.

Adult educational and community development project, commissioned in 1956, the villagers of 144 villages in the vicinity of Pune (Maharashtra) were the main beneficiaries of this project. This was agriculture – based project, originally designed and tried out in Canada in 1941.

Farm and Home Broadcast Project, commissioned in 1966, for providing information and advice to the villagers on agricultural and allied topics.

University Broadcast Project, commissioned in 1965, with an aim to expand higher education among the different strata of the society.

Language Learning Programme, commissioned in 1979 – 80, jointly by the AIR and Department of Education, Government of Rajasthan for teaching Hindi to the school children.

IGNOU – AIR Broadcast

Started in January 1992 through AIR stations of Mumbai, Hyderabad and Shillong for broadcasting of IGNOU programmes for the students of open / conventional universities. Shillong has discontinued it later. Presently this programme is being broadcast from AIR Mumbai (Every Thursdays and Saturdays from 7.15 AM to 7.45 AM) and AIR Hyderabad (Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 6.00 AM to 6.30 AM). These programme are still popular in the respective regions.

IGNOU – AIR Interactive Radio Counselling

Started in 1998 for students of open / conventional universities, in order to bridge the gap between the institution and the learners by instantly responding to their queries and also to provide academic support in the subject area. The project was initially started in collaboration with AIR Bhopal in May 1998 on experimental basis. With the success of the experiment, it was extended to other states.

Gyan – Vani (Educational FM Radio Channel of India)

It was launched in 2001, for the students of open and conventional universities and also to extend mass media for education and empowerment, suited to the educational needs of the local community.

The Gyan – Vani is operating as media cooperative with day – to – day programmes contributed by different educational institutions, NGOs and national level institutions like, IGNOU, NCERT, UGC, IIT, DEC etc. Each station has the coverage range of about 60 KM radius.

USAID launched Interactive Radio Instruction – and educational communications efforts that makes teaching difficult concepts easy through interactive radio lessons. The state of Karnataka began using the math, science, and social studies modules, while the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are using English modules. The lessons are broadcast through AIR.