| Venue:- Le Meridien Kochi, India |
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| Official Conference Manager |
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Conference Themes
Community Development
Community Development covers three major sub-themes as follows:
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Community based Learning and Outreach |
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Open Education Resources: Models to Choose, Adopt and Adapt |
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Innovative Pathways to Knowledge Society |
Over the centuries, universities played a social role but indirectly through creation, preservation and extension of knowledge to society in general and communities in particular. However, for various reasons, universities gradually started looking more and more inward in the name of specialization and have turned themselves into ivory towers. Though the importance of research, discovery of new knowledge and application of it in controlled situations of experimentation need specialisation, with the growing demand for democratisation of education at all levels, universities can ill afford to remain as islands of excellence when the communities sustaining then are silently turning into deserts due to global warming, climate change and various forms of industrial/ nuclear pollution.
 The link between the universities and the communities has never been felt as keenly important as it is today. The universities have to reach out to the communities by making their own policies and structures more flexible and relevant to community development in all aspects. Different types of educational institutions such as new forms of university campuses, community colleges, virtual universities/colleges, online/e-learning institutions etc. need to be created to effectively respond to the needs of the community, keeping in view the geographical, social, economic, political and cultural specificities in view. Mindless homogenisation certainly leads to a weakening of the different spheres of human learning and also results in the extinction of traditional economic activities, cultural mores, languages, art and culture of people. In order to arrest this process - a perhaps inevitable part of the impact of globalisation - the role, potential and possibilities of ODL philosophies and practices need to be rethought with the view to reversing the present negative trends and ensuring as far as possible the continuity of communities with their individual identities. |
