President calls for introducing e-textbooks
President Dr. Arif Alvi on Wednesday called for introduction of e-textbooks in the country to impart latest knowledge to the youth. Addressing the international annual conference of three day 33rd Asian Association of Open Universities hosted by Virtual University in Lahore he also said that the world has changed due to revolution in the information technology. He said modern communication tools should be fully utilized to impart knowledge. He said today people have access to their favorite books through the internet.
President Alvi also highlighted the importance of distance learning saying it helps save time and expenditures. He also said that that poverty, illiteracy and unemployment could be eliminated through economical goal oriented education and easy access to knowledge for all.
President Alvi said that access to knowledge ought to be easier for everyone and copyright should not be implemented on universities' academic material. He said that Internet was an affordable option to further expand knowledge horizons and stressed the students to extensively benefit from digital technology devices – tablets and laptops – for getting access to diverse reference material.
The President Alvi said that 'resistance' for modernization, new technology, as well as latest educational system should be discouraged. "Our society and bureaucratic systems resist modernization in the society and this attitude should change now," he added. He said the concept of a classroom and text books has changed altogether as computers, laptops and tablets are part and parcel of modern teaching methodology.
He highlighted that open distance learning (ODL) is also a modern technique in which students are not bound to a specific place or time. He said that distance learning was getting popular in the world and lauded the role of VU and Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) for imparting knowledge through ODL.
Later, the President gave away awards to prominent students of the open universities for their performance and presented souvenirs to organisers of the conference. It is pertinent to mention that some 450 representatives of open universities from 12 countries attended the conference.