INNOVATIVE MAPPING PROGRAMME
LAUNCHED
An
innovative mapping programme has been launched as a small step
towards the creation of a knowledge-based society. Technologies
are now available to transform the mere passive consumers of knowledge
produced elsewhere, to becoming active producers of knowledge
for their own use.
Using
the expert services of the Survey of India, the Indian Space Research
Organisation, various institutes of technology, university departments
of geo-spatial sciences and the Centre for Spatial Database Management
and Solutions, hundreds and hundreds of schools along with their
children and teachers will start creating neighbourhood maps.
The teams will be equipped both with conventional devices like
compasses and modern instruments such as palm-top computers with
a built in GPS receiver, to enable the school children map their
adjacent areas and locality.
Mapping
here means not only of the terrain and the physical features but
also of natural, cultural and traditional resources knowledge
of the country. The village government i.e. the panchayats will
be integrally involved in the exercise so that the information
generated is fed directly into the process of de-centralised community-governance.
For children, production of knowledge would become the primary
means of learning. In other words, instead of learning geography,
history and environmental sciences from books, children will learn
by producing knowledge of relevance for their community.
