User:Vkrish

 EasyNow: Introduction

CEMCA as part of its mandate to develop, support and popularise easy technological options to all teachers both in formal, non formal and ODL systems, engaged Mr V Krishnamoorthy, a renowned IT expert with more than 5 decades of experience in computers, to give shape to his own idea first formulated at the start of the millenium, the Easy now. CEMCA's efforts helped him to develop, pretest, amend the concept into a workshop module of 'EasyNow', integrating all the procedural requirements of Educationl media deliveries. Any one engaged in knowledge sharing can learn the system by attending a five day orientation course, provided of course he has the basic computer skills like web browsing, office skills, and an interest in multimedia.

The system which was tried in more than 20 institutins across the commonwealth asian region, found acceptabliltiy with all the participants in Sri Lanka, Maldives, India, Bangladsh and Malaysia. Universities such as Open university of Malaysia, University of Malaya, Wawasan open university, Open university of Sri Lanka, State Institute of Educational Technology, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India, D Net, an NGO Bangladesh, ANDC colege, University of Delhi, and Individuals like Prof Subbiah Pandian, Professor of Physics, Presidency college, Chennai, India are regular users of this system.

The system integrates various open source software and also includes certain easily available software from systems like Windows and allows the teacher/knowledge provider to just use a mouse click and record his message/lecture and then electronically changes the same into various electronic formats such as video, audio, presentations, interactive multimedia, and also sometimes live interactive participatory sessions without much help from professional media personnel or IT experts. There is no need to buy any new software. Easy now takes into account the users available resources.

The materials developed by various participants in the workshops and later on their own can be accessed through CEMCA's website www.cemca.org. An offshott of this was the development of the four quandrant approach for delivering materials on humanities and social sciences entitled 'Radio enabled Learning'. Developed similar to the National Programme on Technology Enabled Learning' (NPTEL) through which the world famous lessons from the Indian Institutes of Technologies are delivered, the REL is capable of taking such high end technologies to the hitherto neglected areas in Humaities and social sciences.