Top 03 Free Digital Medias for Education in Pakistan

When one listen about YouTube in developing countries, its perception take him to kingdom of entertainment. It’s quite natural for someone to think about YouTube as gigantic source for watch free entertaining videos. During my parents-teacher meeting conducted for the students of higher secondary classes, when I told them about the use of YouTube as an educational source for their children. All of them were astonished.

I belong to Pakistan and I have been working as a computer teacher in a college since last 14 years. Like other developing countries we, majority of us, are far behind in the race of use of information technology in our children’s education. Mostly parents, due to lack of awareness, keep their children away from using internet in the classes of schools and early college. Although we have some dazzling stars children in the field of Computer and technology. Late Arfa Karim (Computer Scientist), Syed Sumail Hassan (Pakistani eGamer) and Rafay Baloch (ethical hacker) are few of them. Their parents pumped up their children and didn’t abide them to use digital media as a source for their education and positively they delivered he bestest services. Hence by giving awareness to the teachers, parents and students about the use of digital technologies in the learning process may increase their performance and bring many more starry performances as well.

1. YouTube as educational Source

As discussed in the starting, YouTube is not more than a collection of mixed quality of videos depicting the latest internet craze, painful-looking accident, music videos and entertainment videos. This is truly a misconception and underestimation of this real potential of YouTube that I consider is best, free and cheapest source of education. From how-to instructional videos to TED talks videos from experts, YouTube is the most significant educational source this time for Pakistan and other developing countries.

The raw statistics about videos being watched on YouTube are astonishing. With over 100 hours of content being uploaded every minute, peoples of in 61 countries around the world approaching and more than 10 billion hours are being watched per month. The statistics about educational videos are so healthy that more than 400 millions of people around the world are shaping up to be a new educational course. A growing number of free educational channels like thenewboston and theITeducation are providing anyone, anywhere, access to a huge collection of almost any topic videos that one can need in education. This is a lucky and happy news for the people in developed and especially developing countries as the peoples of developing countries like Pakistan perhaps could not have sufficient budgets.

Schools and universities are integrating free video platforms like YouTube into their classrooms. Sessions are produced either by content developers or by the teacher/lecturer themselves, using a webcam and some easily learnable software, and uploaded to YouTube. The link is then embedded in the course website where the students can watch it on demand. These videos can be public or private.

2. Educational mobile Apps

Mobile are now evolved to smartphones and has become the part of daily life of parents, teachers and students today. This new technology might also be used as an education tool using modern, simple and versatile educational apps. Mobile apps like Edmodo, Khan Academy are providing collaborative, interactive and planned learning possible on figure tips. These advanced gadgets are being used in classrooms to integrate the books, tests and quizzes. It motivates students about the ‘Learning Study’ from vocabulary learning to literacy skills and build on comprehensive knowledge. Worldwide researcher has found that younger people are utilizing smart-phones with emphasis on iPhone, iTouch apps and widely contributed through iBook Textbook. This has boosted the skills of scientific inquiry with content development and active and productive learning. It has rightly been termed as ‘Learning with Technology’ that has produced excitement for learning with an increased sense of self-confidence, pride in their abilities and hope for a spectacular future.

3. Virtual University TVs

Educational technology is the application of scientific knowledge about learning and conditions of learning to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and training. TV is one the most commonly used device for educational technology. It plays important role in making learning-teaching process interesting, objective and scientific. It brings appreciable change in behaviors of pupils and teachers. In Pakistan, the world’s first virtual university was established in 2000. Virtual University of Pakistan launched its own four TV channels. All lectures of different subjects are broadcasted on these channels that are telecasted by Cable TV network all across the county. It is mandatory by Govt. of the Pakistan for every cable TV operator to broadcast these channels. All the devices are provided to these operators free of cost. But unfortunately, students are not using this facility. All lectures are recorded by PhD professors which are free on air to watch for everyone on free of charge. Parents, students and teachers must tell their students to take help from these TV channels.