India Launches World's First Education Satellite

samfisher writes "New Scientist is reporting that India has launched EDUSAT, the world's first satellite exclusively dedicated to distance learning. EDUSAT will use the virtual classroom concept to offer education to children in remote villages, quality higher education to students in areas without access to good technical institutes, adult literacy programmes and training modules for teachers. The educational programmes can be viewed on any television set through a simple low-cost receiver costing about $65."

Comments

Good Pricing in India

[superpulpsicle]

If a simple low-cost receiver costing about $65, I think that's alot cheaper than U.S public education. I really don't know how edumacation money is spent in the U.S. Teachers are low paid, principal might be better, but all resources don't remotely add up to our tax dollars. Though all in all that's still better than colleges. Which now charges $65,000 easily in two years.

Re:Good Pricing in India

[Barlo_Mung_42]

"Teachers are low paid, principal might be better, but all resources don't remotely add up to our tax dollars."

The problem is that we far outspend the rest of the world in military spending to maintain our illusion of superiority. We spend more than the next 23 nations combined for our ability to fight a multi front war while school funding continues to slip. In the city I live in they had to close schools three weeks early last year because of lack of funding. It's a complete misplacement of priorities and both political parties are guilty of it IMO.

Re:Good Pricing in India

[h4rm0ny]

So India has found a more cost effective way of educating the population. Not only is this bloody fantastic, I also like the way that India is able to profit from the educational progress of other countries to leap ahead of them. All the technological innovation that took place in Europe and America - satellite technology, rocketry, etc., has been picked up and used without all the preliminary development having to be repeated.

I hope Europe and America can do the same a few more years down the line to leap forward on the backs of Indian technology developed with their new low-cost education system.

Of course, international patent agreements pushed by the US may prevent that. ;)

Re:Good Pricing in India

[h4rm0ny]

Well, in terms of percantage-GDP, we spend less than most developed nations.

Not disagreeing with everything you say, but for the above... that's a unviable justification. Military strength is not determined as a percentage of GDP, but as an absolute. Once you have topped the military power of another nation by a secure margin (which we'll take the relative budgets as an indicator of) there is no point in continuing, regardless of the relative percentages.

The US spends way too much on its armed forces and the population suffers at the expense of the military-industrial lobby.

I also think it would have a significant and positive effect on the rest of the world if the US scaled back it's military forces. After all, many nations follow their example. This will be especially true of space based weapons. The US has an unprecedented chance to try and stop mankind's wars spreading into space which they are walking away from. "If we don't do it, someone else will."

Re:Good Pricing in India

[ImaLamer]

I believe most of the money that you are talking about ("all resources don't remotely add up to our tax dollars") goes to administration. You know, the people that don't belong there.

Really, the problem with public schools and our tax money is that the school don't have to be competitive in the marketplace. No matter what the results, voters choose who runs the school board. Failed leaders get re-elected based on their name recognition and advertising spending, successful leaders are ofter pushed out no matter what. On the otherhand if someone raises through the ranks and changes schools, and they aren't liked by the schoolboard then they also hit the streets.

A good example is El Paso's Yselta school district. It's one of the countries poorest schools and one man Anthony Trujullo raised test scores to some of the highest in the country. Parents were happy with the change but he was fired by the board 4 to 3. One of his supporters said it was politics, and they fired him based on no more than "a personal dislike by four members".

There is no 'market check', if you want to call it that and no competition for funds. Not that I'm for starving bad schools to death, but it makes you wonder. There is no incentive to actually make the schools better.

"No Child Left Behind" was supposed to fix this, but it has by and large failed. That isn't just my opinion. (See this NYT Article, reg required... basically there isn't room in "better" schools for those wishing to switch from "bad" schools, a provision of NCLB.)

Many times, the failures of the public school system in America is deeper than it looks. Take school violence for example. I had to do a report for school with 4 others. When I suggested that violence had nothing to do with video games or TV people looked at me with awe. For more into that subject, read Preventing Violence in Schools Through the Production of Docile Bodies by Pedro Noguera (PhD). Good read, I promise. It basically says the failure of the public schools in general is based in the founding years and how they were formed after mental asylums and prison...

We all have to be educated in these areas in order to exact change. Better public schools are our way to make this country better for all, it's the first line of defense (IMHO).

Re:Good Pricing in India

[AoT]

The big problem with education in the US is that the money doesn't actually get to the classrooms. It's all tied up in the administration. All the damn managers get paid *way* too much while teachers make relatively little and spend far too much on supplies.

Re:Good Pricing in India

[killjoe]

Catholic and other private schools get to cherry pick the best students. It's much easier to teach smart kids.

No matter what your criterea is if a school can get to pick who goes and who does not they will always win against a school that has to take everybody.

BTW the reason for the higher salary of public school teachers probably has to do with the fact that they are unionized. As a general rule union members get paid more in any industry.

Re:Good Pricing in India

[h4rm0ny]

You are a muppet.

Re-read my post. Nothing in there is anti- (or pro-) capitalism. For what it's worth, I tend towards a capitalist view of things, but Capitalism is an economic system. It is not a trademark of the Pentagon.

I also take great delight in informing you that the horrible capitalist industries do not generate 80% of the world's food. You'll find that most societies (even communists) have a tendancy to grow food regardless of their economic model. I can't think why that is.

Now to your actual point (such as it is):
And your proof is...nonexistant.

Nope, I just assumed that it was obvious that if your government didn't spend about 400 billion dollars a year on the military, then that money could be spent on something else. Assuming that they ploughed even some of that budget into education rather than explosives, then we can conclude the american public would be better off. That's logic. The only justification is if you really think the US needs to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more than everyone else on its armed forces to ensure it's citizen's safety. I think it is equally clear that it doesn't.

And finally,
Time for you to put on the big kid pants and stop complaining.

Nyah nyah!

Re:Good Pricing in India

[apoc.famine]

Another major issue is that a lot, if not most non-us countries only test their high-performing students. In the US, we test *everyone*, and yet for years people have been duped into comparing those results against the top 50-25% of students in other countries. We mandate that *all* students get a moderately equal education, and that everyone gets tested. In the rest of the world, there are a lot of countries where students don't see any real equality in education, and a lot of kids don't get educated at all. Comparing scores from the US to other countries is really comparing apples to oranges.

As someone who just started teaching, I can honestly say that there isn't a lot wrong with education in the US, at least compared to much of the developed world. Standards for teachers have continued to rise, and the people I see entering the workplace now are more skilled than teachers were 30 years ago. Is everything roses and chocolates? Hell no! But we're not doing badly. There's always plenty of room for improvement, but I'm not worried about this country collapsing due to the educational deficiencies of the next generation.

What could be done to improve the educational system in this country? All sorts of things. The problem is that nobody can agree on those things. Personally, I think standardized tests are a crock of shit, and that they don't reliably test content knowledge nor the ability to use what one has learned. Do I have a better method to reliably and fairly assess a student's knowledge, which works flawlessly across all cultures and languages? No. And neither does anyone else.

Would more funding help? Yes. But funding is useless without training and direction. I would love to see technology fully integrated into public schools, where we teach students to make good use of it. But until we get both funding and knowledgeable teachers and administrators, that won't happen. At the moment, my high school doesn't even teach programming, and it's one of the largest schools in the area. I have a celeron 400 for a workstation, running XP, Novell desktop environment, with mandated use of Gradequick for attendance and grades. I can't run multiple apps on it at once. But it's the best we have, because the funding isn't there, and the administration doesn't see better computers as a priority. Combine these things with a school board composed of non-educators, primarily concerned with chopping down the school budget, and there will be no change in how the school views technology for years to come.

The bottom line is that in the US, we have made equality the goal, rather than maximizing the abilities of our top students. While it's a noble goal, we still aren't there, and the system is set up to force all students to a middle-point. We're a country that wants everyone treated equally rather than fairly. Education reform is tied to the government, the economy, and the citizens. The only way to make education better is to educate the general public on education, and hope that it trickles up to the government. We've been debating educational reform for hundreds of years, and we will continue to do so for hundreds more. If you want change, be sure to vote, and get on a school board, because they help set the policies and goals for schools.

Low-cost?

[slavemowgli]

65 USD may be low-cost for someone in the USA or Europe or so, but is it really for someone who doesn't have proper access to education yet? And of course, you need a TV set, too, which further adds to the costs attached to this... Don't get me wrong, I think that this is a good idea, but I don't see how it would help those who'd need help the most.

Re:But how much for the electricity

[KitFox]

Electricity may be the bigger problem, but the government and private organizations will likely be funding the equipment for classrooms. We're not talking about "Home education" here, we're talking about classrooms set up with the video equipment, a generator, and a satellite dish, serving the whole local community.

Where Can I Get One?

[LuYu]

Where can one buy one of these $65 receivers? I figure the signal probably reaches about half of the globe, so mostly anybody in Asia should be able to get the signal, right?

Re:But how much for the electricity

[Baricom]

You have created another division around the power issue.

I'm assuming the power issue was there already. It doesn't make sense to blame an existing technology gap on something new.

i hope the implementation works out well

[Anonymous Coward]

there have been local projects in rural india where small pilot projects have been hugely successful. weather forecast for fishermen in quite a few places. the indian fishermen have small boats & cant afford GPS. hence they benefitted enormously from the satellite + MET office. farmers in villages have taken to drought predictions/ rain forecast in many arid zones. the sub continent is really unique with different weather conditions, different levels of affluence, religions, languages. etc. also complicating the problem is the presence of close to a million villages (there are 700,000 of them). in this regard, satellite is truly a tool that could be used. there are pilot projects running in IIT for low cost VSATs, and cheap telecom tools for tech to enter into villages. already, the government run telecom giant has penetrated the villages with mobile that gets access at a pittance. just wanted to point out the complexities involved, most of /. wouldnt know the ground realities in india.

Educational TV...

[eselgroth]

I am reminded of when -- back in the 50's -- the State of Indiana sent an airplane up in the air every school day. It circled around and around, broadcasting educational films to every school in the state that had a receiver. Ain't nuttin' new under the sun... -- TE

Bi-Directional?

[KitFox]

What I am wondering is whether this is a two-way link. It's not specifically stated in the article that it is, however some things in the article inmply such a situation. Specifically the fact that it makes claims about "each link catering for up to 200 classrooms". If it were just a broadcast bird, I'd expect that anybody in the signal range could nab the signal off the air and use it. But if classrooms have uplinks, then the channels would be limited in bandwidth.

If the classrooms have return uplinks, then this project makes much more sense than the current "Education alongside other functions", because two-way communications for students can be very important, and the multipurpose satellites would not be well-suited to the uplink needs of the classrooms themselves.

Low cost?

[Geburah]

"The educational programmes can be viewed on any television set through a simple low-cost receiver costing about $65."

In India average urban household income is estimated at US$2,847, while also having an average household size estimated around 5.07 people.

Thats like you feeding a family of five on $7.50 a day.

My point being, $65 is not "low-cost" for this part of the world, whether it be schools or familys purchasing this technology.

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Source

Re:But how much for the electricity

[DrMrLordX]

That's not much of a division. Generating sufficient electrical power to operate a television set and receiver is trivial. Private generators, solar cells, wind power, manually-operated cranks, or any other number of devices can be used to power the setup. And nobody's said that only one person can watch the set once it's receiving signals from the satellite. Even a relatively poor community in India should be able to cobble together a set, receiver, and power supply. It wouldn't be impressive by US standards, but it'd work.

troll alert!! move your a**es and get back to work

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like any post about anything happening in India seems to attract all the trolls like moths to a burning candle. The problem is not India - they are doing what needs to improve their lives; even if that means taking jobs for cheap from Americans. Capitalism and global economny are American ideas - we cannot ignore them because they are starting to hurt us now.
Instead of sitting on our fat behinds (yes, 60% of our country is overweight - that is a whole different problem), it's about time we figure out how to get the house in order before blaming others. Schools suck, college costs have sky-rocketed - have the stupid politicians fix this first.
All the jobs that were outsourced are history - manufacturing jobs in the last two decades to China, and now some of the tech jobs to India and elsewhere. And any amount of crying aren't going to get those back. Figure out what is relevant in today's economy and work towards using that to your advantage.

not for long

[Illserve]

If it's for education, I'm sure Bush will find some reason to have it knocked out of orbit.

Re:First America outsourced its jobs to India

[tarunthegreat2]

Oh for God's sake. let go of that pride somewhat, and instead of viewing India as a competitor, why not think of it as a gift to have a country that is halfway across the world from you, with 1 billion people, who doesn't hate your fucking guts and isn't trying to blow up your citizens with its nukes, and happens to be a democracy - a system which is comprehensible to Americans? Why not push for some sort of partnership, technological, business or other which ay fuel more jobs for all of us. India is in desperate need of infrastructure, and political will. Try and find ways to help India get that, and make some money in the process. I remember somebody beforehand who said that India's market is closed to American goods. That's bullshit. American companies don't consider India a market lucrative enough for their products. I used to be a former employee of Amazon.com, and I got the opportunity to ask Jeff Bezos (circa 2000) when he was gonna start up Amazon India, and his response was to look at me quizzically like India was about as close to America as the distant star Vega and say "It's not on our top 10 list of things to do at this point". Then sometime early this year, eBay (whom Amazon considers a competitor) went and bought Baazee, and has thus stolen a lead on Amazon. Instead of saying trade is one way between India and America to India's ultimate benefit, why not try and develop the Indian market so that you can sell your products there? India WAS a closed market, but that was way back in 1991. If American companies aren't going to India now, it's because they don't want to go and do the hard work. They'd rather find a new way to sell chewing-gum flavoured toothpaste to a bunch of Europeans. Unilever, a dutch company involved in the sale of Household goods (like P & G) wanted to sell Shampoo in India. But of course being a low income country, they couldn't figure out how to do it. Then one of their marketing suits realized that instead of selling the shampoo in large bottles, it should be repackaged into small single-use plastic satchets. The reason was that most of the Indians never had large amounts of money on them but they could afford the small and cheap satchets. End result, they ended up selling a shitload more shampoo than they ever imagined. Find a way to sell something to a 1 billion people, and you won't be bothered about losing a few thousand jobs to them. Heck all of you have degrees, you can read and write. How hard can it be?

Re:But how much for the electricity

[teetam]

The state that I come from in India has 100% electricity coverage since the last 50 years! Every house in the even the most remote village has electricity and almost everyone nowadays has TV.

NOT FLAMEBAIT: For news stories like this, if you are totally ignorant about the foreign country being discussed, it is OK to not say anything. Seriously.

Re:But how much for fixing Indian culture?

[frodo from middle ea]

At best you are trolling and at worst you really take your comments seriously ? In either case you couldn't be more mislead about your views of Indian Culture.

Your view seems to be, western culture is good, eastern culture is bad. We Indians were doing just fine, till the western world came to zindia in mid 15th century. The current problems that India deals with have a lot to do with the 250 years + of slavery under the British rule rather than its culture. India has always been on the radar of the world conquerors, dating back to alexander in the BC era, to the moughal and turks in and around 1000 A.D to all kinds of europeans from 17th to 19th century.

And yet the Indian culture has survived and thrived . It has gracefully accepted all other cultures and yet maintained its own Identity.

Industrialization and world domination may be your idea of progress , but not every ones. Maybe family values and education take priorities in other cultures.Did you know, that the first book written on Classical Music in India dates back 3000 years. We had universities where not only locals but students from as fas as china and other oriental places used to study.

There is a old adage in Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages and mother of most modern day indian languages. May be it will sum up the importance of Knowledge in Indian Culture

A King is respected in his Kingdom, But a learned one is respect everywhere.