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Editorial

मन एव मनुष्याणां कारणं बन्धमोक्षयोः ।

(The mind is the cause of bondage and emancipation for humans)

(Brahmabindu Upanishad)

The avowed goals of NEP 2020 are to increase access to educational opportunities, 
enhance the quality of the education offered to millions of students, bring 
equity into the educational systems given the existence of vast diversities in 
the population, make education more affordable, and create an accountable 
educational system. The use and integration of technology in education, too, have 
similar concerns regarding access, quality, equity, affordability, and accountability. 
In India, the scale at which we are functioning is staggering. We have more than 334 
million students studying in more than 900 universities, 17000 teacher education 
institutions and 1.5 million schools, of which nearly 1 million are government 
schools. Continuous professional development (CPD) of 10 million teachers and 
imparting skill development to youth comprising two-thirds of India’s population 
remain challenging tasks before us. As per ASER (2021) report, 67.6% of all enrolled 
children have at least one smartphone available at home, but 26% have no access. 
The 75th round of the Household Social Consumption survey by NSSO (2020) 
revealed that nearly 4% of rural households and 23% of urban households only 
possessed computers, and almost 24% of the households in the country had 
internet access in the survey year, 2017-18. The proportions were 15% among rural 
and 42% among urban households. Across India, only one in ten households had a 
computer — whether a desktop, laptop or tablet. Moreover, having computers or 
the internet had no guarantee that one use them also, as only a small percentage 
of Indians above the age of 5 years (20 %) had the basic digital literacy to use digital 
devices or access the internet.  Given the context in which we operate, the use and 
integration of technology in education have to do with children’s learning more 
than the technology itself. 

There is a tendency to consider technology a panacea for all the ills of the country’s 
educational system, and each time a new technology emerges, one starts believing 
that the miracle is around the corner. Miracles have not happened despite using 
technology in a big way. We have yet to achieve 100 % literacy rates; quality 
education has remained elusive to the vast majority of students; technology has 
failed to empower students to overcome the discriminations and challenges 
faced by children with special needs (CWSN) or children belonging to marginalised 
sections. Therefore, the use and integration of technology in education cannot be 
seen bereft of the socio-economic context. Many studies have pointed to the lack 
of adequate infrastructure and teachers’ training as the key barriers to effective 
technology integration in diverse educational settings like India. Teachers’ fear of 
being replaced by technology too impedes the use and integration of technology.  
Addressing these challenges requires coordinated and collaborative interventions 
from various quarters at various levels. 

Recently, we have seen similar expectations for using artificial intelligence in 
education (AIED). AIED has immense opportunities to offer. One area in which it can 
help is overcoming the central contradictions (that we provide uniform instructions 
to a class of diverse learners) that exist in any classroom. AIED makes personalised 
adaptive learning (PAL) a possibility. As teachers have to work increasingly in 



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artificial intelligence (AI) rich environments, their training on various aspects of AI, 
such as data mining, algorithms, and machine learning, as well as their ethical and 
human use, is paramount. An algorithm, which is the keystone of AI, can be biased, 
reflecting the mindset of the developers or data on which the algorithm is based 
can be specious. Therefore, responsible use of AI is sine qua non for its application 
in education. It must be remembered that it can solve many of our educational 
problems, but not all of them. Technology is best served if we lead them, not vice-
versa.

In November 2024, the Union Cabinet approved an ambitious One Nation One 
Subscription (ONOS) scheme, which seeks to provide the best international scholarly 
articles, papers and journals to all the stakeholders, viz., students, researchers, 
teachers, faculty members, scientists of all disciplines, including those in tier 2 
and tier 3 cities, etc. A total of ` 6,000 crore has been allocated for this initiative, 
from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027. The funding will cover the subscription 
charges for all participating institutions across the three years. Access to journals 
is being provided through a national subscription coordinated by the Information 
and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, an autonomous inter-university centre 
of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Gandhinagar, Gujarat. One can access 
the journals through a unified portal, “One Nation One Subscription“ (https://www.
onos.gov.in/). This is a crucial scheme, especially for institutions that face a resource 
crunch in subscribing to quality and costly international journals. Moreover, 
different institutions paid a hefty amount as subscription charges for the same 
journals, thus indulging in wasteful expenditure of the public money.  

This edition brings together a diverse collection of research articles, review articles, 
general articles, communication and book review exploring critical themes in digital 
and blended learning. These articles delve into the teacher’s attitude towards 
blended learning, the impact of SWAYAM MOOCs, and the effectiveness of online 
and offline internship training. Our authors examine blogging as a form of action 
research, the use of branching programming learning materials in economics, and 
the role of revised Bloom’s Taxonomy in AI-driven digital learning environments. 
Additionally, they explore the mental health effects of social media on educated 
individuals, the potential of augmented reality in mathematics education, and the 
rise of augmented podcasts and YouTube educational videos as transformative 
tools. This compilation not only contributes to academic discourse but also offers 
valuable insights to educators, researchers and policymakers navigating the digital 
educational era.

(ABHAY KUMAR)

Editor