The Hindu Business Line : No eulogies to e-learning

ONLINE learning can democratise higher learning, and facilitate adult education. But, does it, asks Alison A. Carr-Chellman in Global Perspectives on E-Learning: Rhetoric and reality, from Sage (www.sagepublications.com) .

The book is a collection of papers, divided into five parts, each devoting attention to a continent. The Asia section has an analysis of online education in China, Taiwan and India - the countries where "there is a certain loneliness and silence."

The rural countryside of these three nations has been left behind, notes Chellman. "As the software and movie industry booms in the urban centres of India make the rich richer, those in the poor and remote villages are deprived of many of the most basic life needs, from electricity to learning. The result of this rural disconnect is truly a sense of loss and loneliness," she adds.

The China chapter by Ke Zhang informs that the Dianda system there is one of the world's largest education systems, combining `radio-television university system.'

For the `nine-year compulsory education' the TV may continue to be important, especially in rural areas, opines the author.

Of the courses offered by the Central Radio and TV University (CRTVU), 65 specialities are in engineering, and only one in Chinese language and literature, says Zhang, highlighting the vocational nature of education.

There are degrees offered via the Net from foreign online varsities; but these do not enjoy credibility, according to the author. In contrast, Chinese universities offering courses on the Internet insist on the same checks as in residential ones.

Taiwan is known for its strength in IT hardware manufacture, but it isn't stopping with that; the Government there is pursuing a six-year policy to get the country onto IT applications. The plan aims at increasing market demand for e-learning "by promoting its applications to other pursuits, such as on-the-job training and e-commerce of agriculture and commercial fishing," according to Jiang Jia Qi.

"Many people who have computers and access to the Internet at home do not know how to collect data and evaluate information through critical thinking and apply the technology to their benefit," writes Qi, on the literacy gap. But that may be said of many executives too.

The India chapter by Priya Sharma begins with distance education through correspondence courses that has been with us since the 1960s. "Despite the seemingly high number of enrolled students, distance education in India has consistently been viewed as a second-rate education alternative, and traditional education is still reserved for elite, urban consumers," she remarks.

What about online education? Most of the courses offered revolve around "an information technology curriculum, enhancing opportunities for white-collar workers who are looking for professional and career development opportunities," ignoring the "basic literacy and primary education needs of the marginalised populations."

A disappointing commentary, that is, about a country that produces "one of the largest numbers of software engineers who are `exported' all over the world".

A must-read for policy framers and curriculum shapers.

Move from crafting to manufacturing

WE run programs on computers to automate our jobs. That's fine, but let's move on to the next level: `industrialisation of software development', as Jack Greenfield and Keith Short explain in Software Factories, from Wiley Dreamtech India P Ltd (www.wileydreamtech.com) .

What have we been doing all these decades? Crafting software. But the task has been "slow and expensive," and the product suffered from "serious defects that can cause problems of usability, reliability, performance, and security." The solution is to shift from the labour-intensive era to manufacturing, to software factories.

These are configurations of "languages, patterns, frameworks, and tools that can be used to rapidly and cheaply produce an open-ended set of unique variants of an archetypical product."

We're not going to stop with making software development easier in organisations, vow the authors, aiming at a broader horizon of using the SF (science fiction!) concept to promote "the formation of supply chains, distributing cost and risk across networks of specialised, and interdependent suppliers."

John Crupi's foreword concedes that you may be sceptical about `software factories', and clarifies that the book isn't about `wizards and property sheets'; "it's about architectural and design specifications that are core to the development process." Crupi predicts that the concept can become `the next big thing', not just a fad.

If you feel the status quo is fine enough, read the following numbers relating to the US: Annual expenditure by businesses on software development $250 billion. Average project cost $430,000 to $2,300,000. Projects completed on schedule and within budget 16 per cent. Cancellations due to quality glitches 31 per cent, or $81 billion in losses.

"Another 53 per cent cost more than planned, exceeding their budgets by an average of 189 per cent creating losses of about $59 billion annually."

Even the projects that reach completion deliver "an average of 42 per cent of the originally planned features."

Gosh, get your software teams to abandon their ongoing projects to first read this!

Tailpiece

"I installed a new technology wash basin where... "

"Water flows only when the user comes to the tap!"

"No, mine's something smarter; it won't let water out if the tank is empty!"

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in

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