IT-enabled Services Center

The IT-enabled Services Center is the heart of any SPCC, around which all other social programs are built. This is principally because it provides the infrastructural support needed for monitoring and control of the operations in the other nodes of the SPCC.

Computer-mediated Training Center

The term computer-mediated communication (CMC) signifies the ways in which telecommunication technologies have merged with computers and computer networks to give us new tools to support teaching and learning.

CMC describes the ways we humans use computer systems and networks to transfer, store, and retrieve information, but our emphasis is always on communication. Many of the Computer Based Training Programs (CBTs) have been extensively tested in the live rural laboratories of TARAhaat.com, spread in several centers across Northern India.

In the ARTS model, the computer network is primarily a mediator for communication rather than a processor of information. As it is currently used to support instructional purposes, CMC provides electronic mail and real-time chat capabilities, delivers instruction, and facilitates student-to- student and student-to-teacher interactions across a desk or across the world. These uses are enabling and promoting several paradigmatic shifts in teaching and learning, including the shift from instructor-centered distance education to student-centered distance learning and the merging of informal dialogues, invisible colleges, oral presentations, and scholarly publications into a kind of dialogic (or even multilogic) virtual university.

CMC promotes self-discipline and requires students to take more responsibility for their own learning. Using CMC, instructors can vary a course's instructional design to include everything from structured projects to open projects in which students are free to work on "messy"--but authentic--problem solving. On the other hand, because students must manage their own learning, this newfound independence may be a hindrance to those students who need more structure.

No one can deny that we have entered an information age in which power comes to those who have information and know how to access it. If we consider which factors of CMC will be most important to education in the information age, it seems that our goals should be to develop self-motivated learners and help people learn to find and share information. If designed well, CMC applications can be used effectively to facilitate collaboration among students as peers, teachers as learners and facilitators, and guests or experts from outside the classroom.

One of the more important aspects of CMC use in instruction is that it is text-based. Facility in writing is essential across the entire curriculum, and with the present technology one cannot communicate on a computer network without writing. Just as important, if used effectively, CMC encourages and motivates students to become involved in authentic projects and to write for a real audience of their peers or persons in the larger world community, instead of merely composing assignments for the teacher. At the same time, we must recognize that not all students can express themselves well in writing, and, even for those who can, the act of writing and using online text-based applications can be a time-consuming struggle.

In this regard, there is an emerging body of literature, added to by several authors in this volume, who speak from their own experiences concerning the empowerment of persons with disabilities, physical impairment, disfigurement, or speech impediments, which hinder their equal participation in face-to-face encounters. CMC promotes an equalization of users.

Sustainable Livelihoods Chapter

Sustainable Livelihood is a job that gives a decent income, gives some status in society and some dignity and meaning in life. It also conserves and, if possible, regenerates the environment. It provides opportunities for people to work right in their own community instead of having to migrate to the slums of a big city. And the purchasing power and lifestyle provided by such a livelihood would be at least comparable to that of a factory worker in an urban area, where the wages have to be much higher than in the village to compensate workers for higher costs of living.  -  Adapted from a lecture by Dr Ashok Khosla at the UN, New York, 30^th April 2001.

The principle objective of the SPCC’s LC is to enable the target rural community to have access to ‘Sustainable Livelihood’ opportunities.

Renewable Energy Technologies Center

The RETs Center REC will provide the targeted rural community with all their information needs and models for understanding the various options for using renewable energy technologies, such as:

·         Biomass Technologies

·         Solar Photovoltaic Cells for electrical power

·         Thermal solar energy

·         Wind energy

The impact of RETs in ARTS in general, and the SPCC in particular, have been discussed elsewhere as shown under the links on the right, and will not be repeated here.

Solar Energy Center

The SEC is an extension of the RETs Center, in which the focus will be on the large numbers of solar energy products offered by our partner - TATA BP Solar - which is the largest solar energy company in India, with a state-of-the-art factory for producing a plethora of solar energy products.

Building Center

The SPCC’s Building Center (Bilcen) is modeled around the TARA Nirman Kendra (TNK), which is a building center promoted by Development Alternatives and co-sponsored by Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO).

The major objectives of the ‘Bilcen’ are to disseminate the various cost effective and appropriate technologies to the masses through training, production and sale of building materials and components and making available trained workforce for construction of cost effective buildings, including:

·         Applied Research and development of building technologies: Field research in appropriate building technologies and field testing of innovative design ideas prior to implementation

·         Training in appropriate technologies: Training of artisans, professionals, students and people related to building trade in appropriate building technologies.

·         Production research and laboratories: Design of production methods and specifications related to building products and their raw materials.

·         Construction and project management: Execution and management of construction projects in appropriate technologies and in-house projects.

·         Production of building elements: Commercial production of Compressed Earth Blocks and Micro Concrete Roofing Tiles.

·         Architectural Design: Design practices integrating climate responsiveness, energy efficiency, economy and optimum utilisation of available material and human resources.

The ARTS 'Bilcen' will also strive to take part in reconstruction activities in disaster hit areas.