Aspiring to get admission to the University of Delhi (DU) this year, Neha Kathuria plans to carry a laptop with her. “I am excited about the news of an ICT rollout in the colleges. In the initial days, I think this could also solve my problem of making friends, as I will have my machine to keep me busy,” she says jokingly.
Connectivity means different things to different people, and the youth certainly have their own take. For Poorvi Aswani, a third year student of B.A. (Hons) Political Science at Sri Venkateswara College, the ICT rollout comes with regret, as she will soon be leaving her “now IT-empowered” college. “Before my exams, I sneaked into the new computer lab in the college. The adva-nced machines, quality Inter-net — no so-cial networking sites allowed — and the opportunity to research as much as you want to, gave me a glimpse of the good times the juniors will have. Hopefully, the latest ICT infrastructure will give DU colleges a break from their image of institutions with obsolete set-ups,” she says.
Not just two, but about 4,50,000 students and staff members stand to benefit from the ICT rollout at DU’s 56 colleges, reports say. Put up at a cost of `12 crore and connecting structures across north and south campuses, DU’s wireless network voice, video and data communications are something that is exciting students and faculty alike. Among the plans are a futuristic virtual learning portal with interactive and intuitive learning applications, further connecting the university to other institutes across the country through the National Knowledge Network; live and pre-recorded lecture streaming; interactive student-teacher communicatio-ns; online assessments; lib-rary subscription for journals and options to take online exams. “In this era of barrier-free learning, communication technologies are real enablers. They are also the best way to connect with the youth. Not stopping at linking our campuses with ea-ch other, but the entire varsity with other prime institutes such as the IITs and soon foreign universities and the industry — there are so many milestones one can achieve in the journey,” says Dr Sanjeev Singh of the Institute of Informatics and Communi-cations at DU and coordinator, ICT and e-learning, Institute of Life Long Learning, which is involved in content creation, dissemination and the aggregation of learning material for the mission.
A few colleges plan to make their campuses Wi-Fi enabled this year. “The prime areas which will see a major boost include libraries and research projects. This is where inputs and outlook outside the curriculum are needed in order to build the knowledge base and eventually broader viewpoint of the students,” adds Dr Singh.