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Why Ektara? What is so special here?
There are many examples of e-learning or online education in India and abroad, using a number of media and methods. What does Ektara provide which others do not?
- The goal of Ektara is not so much to become an ‘encyclopaedia’ or provide full syllabi used in schools and colleges (which is what many of the e-learning companies are doing in India). Ektara is a source of ‘enrichment’ in education, providing alternative insights into concepts and facts which may not be found in the conventional sources of education. Our biggest strenght for instance is the video interviews and interactions with experts of different subjects.
- ‘Facts’ of history are easy to find. But what about the whys and hows of what happened in history? And more importantly, how did this information come down to us? This is the important approach with us.
- Ektara discourages the culture of copy-paste in doing homework and assignments. This archive allows the students and users to learn through watching (videos, images, maps) and reflecting on concepts and facts. Visitors or users of Ektara will be able to get a short briefing/training on how best to use it.
- Ektara is not only a source of basic, school- and college-level information, but also an archive where scholars and advanced researchers or journalists would be able to find insights into concepts of history and heritage. Ektara doesn’t provide straight-jacketed or text-bookish knowledge. It gives some information but raises more questions about it (or lets the user pose questions), to answer which you need to explore further through various media available here. Ektara takes the visitor/user into as deeper sources of information as they wish, by maintaining a hierarchy of knowledge-tree.
- An example of Ektara’s module or search experience would be something like this: A visitor needs information on king Akbar. She types Akbar in the search box, and gets a number of results including a short video clip which is like a video-wiki or introductory video on Akbar. A parallel window shows all the keywords or tags used in the video, many of which are clickable. For example for Akbar, you may get tags like his biography, his important contributions to architecture, governance, economy etc. These could have further/deeper links to videos and interviews. Each stage is also highlighted for what level of scholarship it involves.
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