Page 8 - IJET_July2021_final

Editorial
“The Gods love what is mysterious, and dislike what is evident...”

- Brhadaranvaka Upanisad

Like many other countries, India too witnessed a huge surge in COVID-19 cases in previous
months. The so-called second wave of the pandemic brought untold miseries to the affected
families. Most of the State Governments were forced to notify lockdowns. Schools and colleges
which had started opening physically in some States too were closed down again. Vaccination
drive has a long way to go. The third wave of the pandemic looms large upon us. It’s been more
than a year since the schools, colleges and universities were closed to prevent the spread of
pandemic among the young population. Possibility for reopening of the schools and colleges in
the short future remains bleak. Technology appears to be the only way to ensure that learning
of the children goes uninterrupted. However, technology mediated learning has its own issues
to navigate such as digital divide and hazards associated with the long exposure to screens. The
fact that children are more comfortable among their peers make technology based learning so
forlorn.
In such a context, India continued to make strides towards technology mediated teaching-
learning. Under PM eVIDYA program, which was announced in May, 2020, Ministry of Education
(MoE), Government of India has undertaken several initiatives such as making DIKSHA a state of
the art digital platform, telecasting curriculum based television programs on 12 DTH TV channels
(one class, one TV channel), broadcasting educational radio programs through 226 Radio Stations
including All India Radio stations, Community Radio Stations, Gyanvaani Radio Stations and iRadio,
starting hundreds of online courses using SWAYAM platform, more than 2.4 million in-service
training of teachers through NISHTHA, Online integrated Continuos Professional Development
(CPD) programme through Diksha, etc. For addressing the concerns and issues including psycho-
social issues two Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) were created and extensively used
during the pandemic. Efforts were made to provide a resilient and coherent digital education
system for the stakehoders through - portals, apps, telecast, braodcast, webcast, online, offline,
blended/hybrid approaches and bridge the digital divide. In all these initiatives equality, equity
and quality remained the central concern of the government.

Going in-line with the existing educational scenario and digital platform as an important medium
of sharing knowledge and discourse, the July 2021 issue of the journal has 21 manuscripts under
various categories: research, review, general and opinion article to book review. There are 20
research articles alongwith review, general, opinion articles each and a book review. The themes
of all these articles mainly focus on recent research and developments in the field of ET & ICT.

I take this opportunity to thank all the contributors and reviewers of the Indian Journal of
Educational Technology for continuing the academic discourse amid COVID-19 pandemic. I also
extend my gratitude towards the editorial board members for their guidance, whenever required.
I hope the sixth issue of the journal will add another set of research in the knowledge world.

(ABHAY KUMAR)
Editor

vi