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EDUSAT

Introduction EDUSAT, known as GSAT-3 is meant for distant class room education from school level to higher education. This was the first dedicated "Educational Satellite" that provide the country with satellite based two -way communication to class room for delivering educational materials. It is in fact, India's first thematic satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services. EDUSAT is primarily meant for providing connectivity to school, college and higher levels of education and also to support non-formal education including developmental communication. The scope of the EDUSAT program is planned to be realised in three phases. The 1950 kg EDUSAT was launched successfully by GSLV-F01 on 20-9-2004 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) by ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The satellite is co-located with KALPANA-1 and INSAT-3C satellites at 74 deg. East longitude. Compared to the satellites launched in the INSAT series so far, EDUSAT has several new technologies

Objectives of EDUSAT

India’s first thematic satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services, was set up the following objectives:

1.	Taking education to remotest corner of the country

2.	To supplement the curriculum-based teaching

3.	Recurrent training of school teachers, continuous upgradation of their knowledge

. 4.	Enhancing community participation

5.	Ensure availability of quality content online

6.	Providing support to formal and non-formal education

7.	Support total literacy/ adult education and compulsory education for all in the age group of 6-14 years.

8.	Reduce the burden of books

Role and Importance of EDUSAT

A.	It provides virtual classrooms in a multi class and studio environment with seamless two-way interaction between the teachers and students in a collaborative framework.

B.	It provides seamless, one-to-one, one-to-many connectivity, through the broadcasting network in a multicasting mode of delivery.

C.	It seamlessly enables a remote teacher to become a teacher to all the students in a session. Unlike the other video conferencing systems and multimedia tools currently in use for tele-education purposes, this Interactive Universal Tele-education delivery system creates a virtual classroom. It enables the teacher to take the student to a live virtual tour of the subject.

D.	This provides a cost effective solution for interactive content delivery.

EDUSAT project

1.	Pilot Phase

2.	Semi operation phase

3.	Operational phase

In the first phase of pilot projects, a Ku-band transponder on board INSAT-3R, which is already in orbit, is being used. In this phase, Visveswaraiah Technological University (VTU) in Karnataka, Y B Chavan State Open University in Maharashtra and the Rajiv Gandhi Technical University in Madhya Pradesh are covered. In the second phase, EDUSAT spacecraft will be used in a semi-operational mode with at least one uplink in each of the five spot beams. About 100-200classrooms will be connected in each beam. Coverage will be extended to two more states and one national institution. In the third phase, EDUSAT network is expected to become fully operational ISRO will provide technical and managerial support in the replication of EDUSAT ground systems to manufacturers and service providers. Users are expected to provide funds for this. In this phase, ground infrastructure to meet the country's educational needs will be built and during this period, EDUSAT will be able to support about 25 to 30 uplinks and about 5000 remote terminals per uplink. Currently we are beginning the second phase. Typically, two kinds of connectivity have been proposed. Satellite Interactive Terminals (SIT) and Receive Only Terminals (ROT). The details are as follows: • SIT with 1.2 meter antenna for low data rates (other equipment include a WLL connection a PC, a telephone and a television set) and is recommended for higher secondary schools and colleges. It can be used for TV broadcasting and data broadcasting. • SIT for high data rates with an antenna of 1 .8 meter. It is considered suitable for direct interactivity over satellite channel for higher rates and for video conferencing and is capable of receiving TV and data broadcasting. Professional and university network can use this SIT with telephone and a PC for two-way video and two way audio facilities. • 0.7 meter Ku-Band TV antennas known as Receive Only Terminals (ROT) (these shall comprise of antenna, TV set and a PC). It can be used for TV and data reception by the schools as and when required. Each of the National and Regional beams can be split into number of channels. The EDUSAT is designed to support about 72 channels, which are proposed to be distributed as follows: • State channels 56 (28 for higher education and 28 for school education) • 14 National channels each for various sectors: higher education, school education, technical education, adult education etc

EDUSAT network and its Utilization by CIET, NCERT By using this network NCERT, so far has organized the following programs for teachers and teacher educators of our country: • Orientation of Teachers of KVs/ JNVs/ CBSE affiliated schools on new textbooks developed in the light of National Curriculum Framework-2005 • Orientation of Principals and Head Teachers of KVs on NCF-05 and primary level textbooks brought out in the light of NCF-2005 • Orientation of Fine Arts and Music Teachers • Orientation of Teacher Educators of SCERTs, DIETs, CTEs and IASEs on NCF-2005 • Orientation of Teachers on Gender issues in Education • Orientation of Teachers and Teacher Educators on New Trends in Evaluation • Strengthening Guidance and Counselling: Orientation of State Level Key Personnel through Video Conferencing In all about 100 days video conferencing was planned and organized by NCERT through EDUSAT network covering thousands of teachers and teacher educators of the country. RCI EDUSAT RCI (Rehabilitation Council of India) EDUSAT network inaugurated in October 5, 2007, is a special EDUSAT network as the program is directed to the special educators who are in turn responsible for teaching the special children i.e. children who are physically or mentally challenged. As a part of our observation, we found that RCI transmits live program very regularly. Programs run by RCI EDUSAT A large number of progammes in different formats (Discussion, Documentary, Short films, success stories etc.) are available at RCI. RCI channel named as “Navshikhar” transmits program from 10.00am to 5.00pm (seven hours) from Monday to Friday. This channel also telecast a slot for two hours duration i.e. 1400 hrs-1600 hrs. These programs are directed to the students who after passing out the course would working as “Special Educators”. The language of the program is either English or Hindi. Besides, digital resources of RCI are also available on its portal named “Punahbhava”. The monthly telecast schedule is also uploaded on RCI website so that the intended users can plan their routine school/college/institute time table accordingly. RCI owns a studio and a team of content generators who produces programs on differently abled children. Students’ feedback on RCI EDUSAT programmes 	26.9% of the students found all the programs related to the curriculum while others felt that the program has only some with their curriculum. 	 76.9% are very satisfied with the content of the program and found it very informative and useful, 23.1% are not at all satisfied with the RCI EDUSAT programme 	61.5% reported that the program is informative and useful, 7.7% of students did not find the program informative at all. Consortium for Educational Communication Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC)- one of the inter university centers set up by UGC with the goal of addressing the needs of Higher Education through the use of powerful medium of Television along with appropriate use of emerging ICT 	Innovative ways of learning 	Digital repository 	Live streaming of educational content. CEC’s Learning Management System( LMS) caters to educational requirements of the country and world over.

SWAYAM PRABHA

India launched its first educational Satellite – EDUSAT in 2004 as an experiment towards connecting with the remote learners. In 2015, Swayam Prabha was launched with the support of GSAT-15 which gave a major push to the satellite-driven educational delivery programmes. It provided better bandwidth for Direct to Home (DTH) and VSAT Services. Swayam Prabha has 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programs. The Channels are uplinked from BISAG, Gandhinagar. The contents are provided by NPTEL, IITs, UGC, CEC, IGNOU, NCERT and NIOS. 1.	Channel 1-10 – CEC UGC 2.	Channel 11-18 – NPTEL 3.	Channel 19-22 –IIT PAL 4.	Channel 23,24 and 26 – IGNOU 5.	Channel 25,27,28 ( Gyanamrit) – NIOS 6.	Channel 29 – UGC INFLIBNET ( PG subject and Yoga) 7.	Channel 31 – NCERT – Teacher Education 8.	Channel 32 – IGNOU& NIOS – Teacher Education Advantage of EDUSAT

A large number of students can be educated by very few extremely efficient teachers.

Education reaches the doorsteps of students. 	It can be used for all levels of education from primary schools to professional courses.

It provides live lecture session from the best teachers and experts.

Distance education will get strengthened. Students can receive education at their own pace and convenience, especially in case of those who are employed

. Limitation of EDUSAT

Lack of proper infrastructure and internet facilities is not yet available everywhere.

Lack of efficient instructors.

	Lack of electricity in remote areas.

The system is very expensive.

Conclusion

As India enters the new millennium, it is necessary to sustain such kind of effort by continuously tuning it to the fast changing requirement and updating the technology that goes into the making of these sophisticated systems. The challenges continue to grow but that is what attracts and sustains the interests of personnel working in the space program. Even if a satellite is launched, its meaningful utilization in any sector including education. The life span of EDUSAT, which was launched in September, 2004 is seven years and it has provided many facilities and possibilities. But the real challenge before us is how to feed this monster and reach out the rural masses especially millions of student’s teachers and teacher educators in the country. For the successful use of this satellite a rigorous planning is need of the hour and collaborative efforts are essential for designing of the software and its utilization for achieving goals of education. Undoubtedly, we can say that EDUSAT is playing a vital role in this Pandemic to provide education in the rural area but it is needed to expand more and more.