Introduction

India's efforts towards eradication of illiteracy date back to the pre-independence period. "Illiteracy is a curse in our country," said Mahatma Gandhi. One of the major factors which has thwarted total development in India since independence is the lack of universal literacy. The literacy and education have been termed as the best defence of a society against rising population, poor health, social strife and tensions, poor economic conditions, higher child mortality rate, educational. This is amply illustrated in case of Kerala in India. Literacy and education is the nucleus of social and national development. Though literacy percentage rose from 18.33 in 1947 to 52.1 in 1991, illiterates above the age of 6 years are estimated at 336 millions, And, unfortunately, India is predicted to be the world's largest reservoir of illiterates by the turn of the century.

A universal definition of literacy is not possible because it may imply functional skills, like reading books, or growing good crops, to write letters, to keep proper accounts and so on. UNESCO defines literate person as "one who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his(her) everyday fife". A person is "functionally literate when he (she) can engage in all these activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his(her) group and community".

Alarmed at the number of illiterates in the country and need for making them literate, recent years have witnessed unprecedented activity in adult literacy. Government of India set up National Literacy Mission Authority in 1988 for eradication of illiteracy through district level literacy campaign that is area specific, time bound, volunteer based, cost effective and outcome oriented in the target group of 15-35 years. The aim of the campaign is to ensure functional literacy for all by 2000 AD. The implementation and evaluation of the program of adult literacy has confirmed that eradication of illiteracy is possible, feasible and achievable. Ernamulam in Kerala, Midnapore in West Bengal are some of the early examples of distinction of achieving total literacy. The model has been extended to large number of districts in India and more than 46 million illiterates have been liberated through this TLC Campaign. The people and area to be covered are so vast and varied in nature that no single methodology of education would be adequate for this challenging task. A large variety of approaches, methodologies and material have to be used.

Despite the development of a strong social movement in favour of literacy, and some sense of achievement, it is nonetheless important to examine how far adult education as practised in India has optimized its efforts by utilizing the fruits of recent research and developments in human learning, particularly, educational technology.

In today's world, education is seen as a right and as a mechanism for self actualization. The goals of learning changed from acquisition of facts and information to higher levels of cognition, acquisition of the psychomotor skills and affective qualities of values, attitudes, emotions etc. From literacy to highest level of education, research indicates enormous scope for optimizing learning. Let us at this stage consider the nature of adult literacy and the learning needs therein.

In this paper, an effort has been made to examine the application of educational technology in adult education.

Adult Literacy

The adult education program endeavours at functional upgradation of adults, improvement of economic skills so that the participants are able to earn more and effectively use the money, cultivation of basic literacy skills of reading and writing to benefit from the printed literature to raise the level of awareness with regard to social, cultural and political life. This effectively should lead to empowerment.

The history of adult education in India is as old as the Indian Republic. One of the important schemes for the promotion of adult literacy initiated in 1950s was the Social Education Program. This program consisted of literacy, extension, general education, and social consciousness. Another program Gram Shikshan Mohim started in Maharashtra to impart basic literacy skills. In this program the achievement of literacy was substantive but relapse into literacy was equally massive. Farmers' Functional Literacy Program aimed at providing well organized functional literacy for illiterate farmers in high yielding varieties program. The project was not successful as there was not sufficient supervision.

The Education Commission (1964-66) also signalled high priority to eradication of illiteracy. The report recommended the use of mass media as a powerful educational aid to create proper climate and motivation. In 1978, the National Adult Education Program was launched. Universities, colleges and Nehru Yuvak Kendras participated in the program. The evaluation studies to these programs in the states of Bihar, Orissa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu revealed that in spite of the stress on literacy the achievement appeared quite low (Mukhopadhyay 1992).

The POA (1986) highlighted the need for development of systematic adult education programs linked with national goals. As a result, promotion of literacy was identified as one of the five missions. Objective of National Literacy Mission has been spelt out as 'lo impart functional literacy to 80 million persons in 15 to 35 age group, 30 million by 1990 and additional 50 million by 1995."

For the first time, the country was very specific in terms of its goals and objectives as far as literacy was concerned. However, we failed to achieve the target, once again. Serious doubts exist whether India can achieve universal functional literacy by 2000 AD. Whether target is achieved or not, much better results can be expected, if along with social mobilization, the process of teaching learning in adult literacy classes are modenized and made more effective by applying educational technology,

Educational Technology

Educational technology has been defined in a variety of ways. The major concern of educational technology is optimizing human learning. For some, educational technology means the sophisticated gadgets and equipment like TV, radio, film projector etc. From professional angle, educational technology means much more. It stands for a systemic approach to teaching learning process so that an individual learner or a group of learners may achieve the desired objectives more effectively and efficiently. It does not prescribe any single methodology but prescribes a multichannel learning to suit learning needs of different people at different time, The goals of adult education can be better achieved through application of educational technology.

Educational technology, in professional parlance, is seen as an interactive product of technology of education and technology in education - the abstract and the discernible components of educational technology, respectively. The technology of education provides the systematic framework for instruction or the instructional design and technology in education provides the instrumentalities for translating the instructional design into instructional practice (Mukhopadhyay, 1998). Educational technology has, thus, been identified with all such instructional efforts where instructional design forms the backbone of the delivery system. Hence, structured learning material, radio, television, interactive television, computer mediated learning are some of the identifiable forms of educational technology. The relationships among the various components has been best represented by Perci val and Ellington (1984 - diagram 1).

Technology of Education

Intangible Aspects (theoretical considerations and findings from appropriate research in a range of subjects)

Technology in Education

Hardware Aspects Software Aspects

(technical equipment) (educational materials designed

for use with hardware)

Fig. 1 The relationship between the different aspects of educational technology,

(Percival and Effington, 1984)

Structured Print Material

Emphasis being on reading and writing skills, adult literacy depend heavily upon printed instructional material. The material used in adult literacy programs are specially developed in terms of their content, their methodological design and variety. The texts use larger letters and life related contents to facilitate reading.

Under the NLM, a beginning has been made for utilizing educational technology for adult literacy through Improved Pace and Content of Learning (IPCL). This is a strategy devised for achieving the goal of taking literacy to millions of illiterates, The consideration behind this is that adult learners can sustain their interest in learning for a short duration and it is possible to acquire the expected level of functional literacy in just 200 hours. Teaching teaming material prepared on the basis of this approach is based on the needs and interests of the identified groups of learners. These materials are given to learners through a primer prepared in three parts. Each successive part of the primer is progressively difficult in content. Each lesson of the successive part of the primer is progressively difficult in content. Each lesson of the primer integrates reading, writing and numeracy exercises, drills and tests. The periodic tests serve as tools of self assessment and indicate the learning outcome.

The quality of the material is further enriched by incorporating national values e.g. national integration, conservation of environment, empowerment of women, population education, small family norm. Regional and local concerns are also adequately integrated in the material. The literacy material is developed in all national languages and some local dialects, These teaching learning material contain subjects of local relevance and include folk tales, folk lores and local stories.

There are several dimensions of educational technology that can be used to make learning material more effective. These are relevant content, known vocabulary, pedagogical structuring( programming or semi-programming), attractive lay out, illustration and production. The literacy material as mentioned above have carefully chosen the content for their relevance. The material are not prograrmmed material but significantly structured to facilitate learning. Most of the material are amply illustrated, well laid out with large type size and well produced.

The research evidence in educational technology (Mukhopadhyay, 1989) is almost uncontroversial that structured self instructional material are more effective for immediate as well as delayed learning gains across subjects and age of the learners. Adult learning could have been more effective if educational technology was used more deliberately in designing the instructional materials. Such an effort would require involvement of instructional designers particularly those who are well conversant with the psychology of adult learning.

Mass Media

Mass media have been used extensively for adult literacy and education in many countries, particularly for awareness building and mobilization. Short capsules on Indian radio and television conveying the message of literacy at prime time is another such application of educational technology for adult literacy. Radio and TV are used for promoting awareness. The content varies in interesting ways from one program to another. These programs emphasize empowerment. Some other programs, in advertising or non-advertising forms on diarrhoea control and polio, care of the girl child and women's equality, family welfare, anti-child labour, various types of rural employment programs, etc. are some of the important media inputs through mass media on adult education.

A TV serial Chauraha was telecast by Doordarshan every week in a bid to teach Hindi alphabets through animated puppets and a drama narrative. This aims at Facilitating the process of adult literacy. A large number of video films have been produced.

PREAL (Project on Radio Education for Adult Learners) spanned over four states. Two-in-one radio-cum audio cassette players were given free by the government to approximately 3500 adult education centers where approximately 100,000 women listened to weekly radio lessons broadcast by eight broadcasting stations. The aim was to emphasize functional literacy and reinforce instruction at adult education centers. Programs are recorded on audio cassettes and sent out for use in broadcast areas.

There are two more components where educational technology can enrich adult education significantly. Adult education instructors use print material in the most conventional manner. Radio or audio is used as independent activity wherever these are used. The instructors can be trained to use audio with visuals in the form of charts and models. There have been some interesting audio-vision experiments in India on the school children. But this can be meaningfully used for adult education.

One important segment of functionality is the listening and communicating skills. Audio has been used only to communicate. This can be successfully used to develop the listening skills with simple exercises of listening to a program to be followed by discussions around specific questions and issues, This would improve their comprehension skill. Similarly, narrating a social event, creative story telling on the audio followed by critique and appreciation would improve their skills of communication including use of vocabulary, syntax and construction of sentences. Such exercises would also enrich the learning experience of the adult learners.

Small Media

While mass media has been extensively used for environment budding and awareness development, small media has a special place in adult education. Government of India, Department of Electronics (DoE) experimented with the small media in project mode, Vivek Darpan. Under this project, the DoE provides

a video,

colour TV set

a portable generator set,

pre recorded video cassettes on health, adult education, women's development, family welfare, vocations, etc. and

women's development family welfare, vocations, etc. and

some token funds for animators.

The experiments are usually carried out by the NG0s at the grassroots levels. In one such experiment in the village around Udang in Howrah district of West Bengal, Institute of Education, Rural Studies and Development trained three village girls as animators. They carried the video/TV sets and the generator on a head load of a local labour to cluster of houses in the village. Women were gathered together at noon when they were through with their household chores and the men folk were out in the field. They were given a set of questions before .screening the film. After viewing the film women were encouraged to participate in animated discussions, The increasing demand on the video/TV sets indicated the growing appreciation of the medium; The women not only found the shows and the discussion that followed interesting but also useful to them. This media was also used with the illiterate and neo-literate men. Response of the women was', however, more rewarding.

In another innovative approach Department of Electronics has designed an electronic equipment that can be hooked up to a television set. By manipulating just a few keys the alphabets can be formed on the screen. The device has also programmed the first primer for literacy. This will facilitate learning of alphabets land the first primer by the illiterate without any substantive tutor help. This however awaits field trail.

Interactive Television

India has established several interactive television facilities both in the industrial, defence and education and training sectors. One of them is the TDCC Channel for education and training. The channel comprises about 200 reception centers belonging to seven different agencies supported by two earth stations -- one each at Ahmedabad and New Delhi. The TDCC supports one-way-video and two-way audio communication. Several institutions like IGNOU, NOS, IIT, NCERT, NIEPA have used this channel. One of the interesting experiments was use of interactive television for women's development in Karnataka. The participants found it not only interesting but also exciting. DECU experimented with two-way video interactive channel for training and development activities in the remote tribal area of Madhya Pradesh. In another ongoing practice, National Dairy Development Board uses interactive television for training and development of illiterate and semi-literate persons in animal husbandry. The channel is also used for management of milk cooperatives. In view of the emerging new networks with the state of the art technology interactive television can reach deeper into the rural areas to support adult education.

Conclusion

The account given above would indicate that there have been some conscious efforts to make adult education programs and materials unconventional and effective. There have been definite thinking in not only choice of contents but also on illustrations, choice of type sizes and fonts, printing and production. Even though there is considerable scope for improvement of the instructional design, important point is that the material is not without design. Adult education have been actively supported by media, more for environment building and awareness development on certain major social issues. The media has not entered into the day to day business of transacting primers or post-literacy materials. What is significant is that adult education is quite sensitive and receptive to new ideas and new modes of learning.

Adult education can be significantly modernized and made more effective, if programs can be designed more thoroughly on the basis of predefined instructional design, print materials can be presented in semi-programmed format, and transaction.of primers and post literacy material can be supplemented with audio, video or improvised audio-vision programs. NOS program is in fact a good example of how best to utilize educational technology in designing programs for the adult and grown up learners. The initiatives of the DoE in terms of use of VCP/TV and computer mediated learning deserves special attention. Similarly, the interactive television holds great promise for innovating in adult education methodologies.

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