Opportunities of digital television for education: Educational interactive television network Alippe.TV on the basis of an ITU pilot project on interactive multimedia broadcasting in Kyrgyz Republic Orozobek Kaiykov, Almazbek Abekov ITU Area Office for CIS, Moscow and DIMTV Ltd., Kyrgyz Republic
HYPERLINK "mailto:Orozobek.Kaiykov@itu.int" Orozobek.Kaiykov@itu.int, HYPERLINK "mailto:aabekov@gmail.com" aabekov@gmail.com
There is a significant increase of the role of education in this dynamic world today. ITU proposes and realises a number of initiatives in the sphere of education. One of the projects devoted to education occurs to be the project that organises a digital educational television network Alippe.TV. Alippe.TV network is an innovative educational net, which appears to demonstrate the way opportunities of convergence in telecommunications can contribute to development of education and to show an example of a successful partnership of the government and private business. ITU in its activities pays great attention to issues of education and promotes a number of initiatives in that sphere. ITU "WSIS" and "Connect a school, connect a community" initiatives are aimed at development of telecommunications opportunities for achieving the millennium goals, overcoming the digital divide and ensuring sustainable economic growth. ITU supports projects in the sphere of education on a systematic basis, the projects that are nominated by the regional administrations of communication and by the members of the organisation. Issues of the development of telecommunications standards have always been considered in the focus of opportunities in education. One of the perfect examples of regional initiatives supported by ITU-D is the project of digital interactive educational television Alippe.TV, which is being implemented in the Kyrgyz Republic. The word Alippe means ABC-book if translated to English. The Alippe.TV project involves an organisation of the interactive educational television network in developing countries, in conditions of insufficient funding for education, underprivileged people, underdeveloped infrastructure and low Internet penetration.
Alippe.TV is a DVB-T network with a return channel, the air of which is composed only from educational programs with no advertising, news or other programs that are not aimed at acquiring the knowledge. Alippe.TV channel proposes a unique network of about 200 teachers living in remote regions able to give lessons live and open their knowledge to children and adults all across the country. Classes are held live with the return channel so that children are deeply involved in the process, having an opportunity of affecting the course of training by asking and answering questions, holding discussions with the teacher in Online mode. Besides that, each subscriber of the Alippe.TV has an access to e-mail, directories and dictionaries, which will help him during the extracurricular work and communication with the teacher offline. Children develop their skills through using specially invented hardware and software. Children use a computer keyboard and a microphone connected to a special STB. The image is viewed on usual home TV. The Alippe.TV project demonstrates an example of usage of the convergence potential in telecommunications and opportunities offered by DVB-T for the development of the society. In addition to that, Alippe.TV shows an experience of a successful governmental-private partnership, when the government supports business that cultivates socially significant projects. Besides the education for a target audience - children from 5 to 18 years old, Alippe.TV gives a number of opportunities for adult and parental education. It is worth mentioning the possibility of usage of Alippe.TV in the sphere of governmental services as well.
ITU initiatives and the Alippe.TV project demonstrate the importance and the need to continue the active work for development of communities and achievement of one of the key Millennium Goals of Development - the complete overcoming of illiteracy by 2015. It is important to extend the support of projects similar to Alippe.TV and to spread that useful experience in other countries.
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