Dr. Amarendra Prasad Behera (Ph.D.)
Joint Director
Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET)
National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)
(An Autonomous Body set up by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India)
Obtained his Bachelor’s in Arts (with Education Honours from B.J.B. College, Bhubaneswar, Odisha affiliated to Utkal University, Odisha in the year 1989), Master’s of Arts in Education (from Panjab University, Chandigarh in the year 1991- also stood First and won University Gold Medal for academic excellence) and got the degree Master’s of Philosophy in Education (from Kurukshetra University, Haryana in 1992), and Doctor of Philosophy in Education (from Kurukshetra University, Haryana, in 1998). His doctoral work was on the theme“ Effect of Radio Intervention Programme on the Language and Cognitive Development of Preschool Children” He has been associated with the education system in India in various capacities. Began his career as a Lecturer in Education in Govt. Women’s College, Jeypore, Koraput District, Odisha and specialised in teaching foundation courses at intermediate (10+2) and degree level on Philosophical, Psychological and Sociological foundations of education, designing and organising courses integrating pedagogy into different subjects to students of Education at 10+2, and degree (pass and honours) level.
Joined the NCERT as Lecturer in Educational Technology (Training) in 1996, he has diversified his involvement into educational media-particularly radio, television and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Education. He was promoted as Reader in 2005, Associate Professor in 2008 and Professor in 2011. During 2012-2017 Dr. Behera became Head of Department in ICTs and Trainingof CIET, NCERT. Dr. Behera is currently working as Joint Director at Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET) a constituent of NCERT (26 December, 2017)
His major contributions include development of audio-video programmes, management of school broadcasts-UMANG through All India Radio stations, development of media materials (about 200 radio and TV programmes), design and organisation of Courses and Training in different aspects of Educational Technology (ET)-especially in Script writing, Production techniques, Instructional design for multimedia programmes, Research Methodology for ICTs in Education, Use of ICTs in Education and development of ICT curriculum for schools, all the SCERTs and Boards of School Education in India and organised training on Media programme production and ICTs in Education for School Teachers and Media Experts from Sri Lanka., development of National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER), launching of Online Courses under MOOCs on SWAYAM and telecast of Educational TV programmes on 24×7 DTH Channel SWAYAM PRABHA etc.
He has been a Core team member and Faculty of Curriculum Group, NCERT from 2004 to 2009. Provided academic and logistic support to 21 National Focus Groups (on Curricular Areas, National Concerns and Systemic Reforms) which provided inputs for formulation of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) – 2005 in India. Dr. Behera provided support in printing of NCF-2005 into Indian Languages (22 Languages) included in the VIII Schedule of Indian Constitution and disseminated those among teachers and teacher educators across the country. As a member of the state level steering committee he was associated with the curriculum revision process of Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhatishgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Odisha, Mizoram, Rajasthan states/UTs etc. Worked as a national coordinator for the states/UTs funding for revision of curriculum project i.e. implementation of visions of NCF-2005 across 28 states and 7 UTs of our country. Disseminated the vision of NCF-2005 through training and workshops in face-to-face (for Teachers of Rural schools, DAV, KVS, NVS and CTSA School teachers etc.) and distance mode (covering 22 states/UTs through video conferencing using EDUSAT/INSAT network of CIET-NCERT) involving thousands of teachers and teacher educators (from Schools, DIETs, SCERTs/SIEs, CTEs, IASEs, Education Department Faculty of Universities etc.). Also provided resource support in training of teachers and teacher educators under SSA and RMSA structure through face to face mode. Involved in dissemination of the vision of NCF-2005 among SAARC countries through planning of seminar on curriculum policies and promoted Universalisation of Elementary and Secondary Education in India.
He has been associated with creation of e-groups, blogs, forums, events, and courses to help teachers and children in cooperative and collaborative learning and learn better. He is actively involved in planning, designing and executing methods and techniques in the appropriate use of ICTs for enhancement of teaching learning, cost-effective uses of ICTs for cooperative and collaborative learning situations, and Free and Open Source software. He has created about 75 learning communities (e-groups, blogs) and continuously networking with teachers and teacher educators on use of new technology and pedagogy. He is also using mobile technology for dissemination of educational messages and resources.
Provided resource support to national and international organisations i.e. NIOS, KVS, JNV, CTSA, SCERTs/SIEs, IGNOU, Academic Staff Colleges of Indian Universities, CEMCA-COL, UNESCO, USEFI, UNICEF, USAID, NIE-Sri Lanka, Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE), Mauritius on educational technology, media and e-contents development, creation of OER Platforms and curriculum development related issues.
Written and published papers in various national level journals attended and presented papers, chaired technical sessions in several national and international seminars as well. Currently Dr. Behera is associated with implementation of ICT@ School Scheme (2004 and revised 2010, ictschools.gov.in) and National ICT Policy for School Education (2012), organisation of National ICT Award for School Teachers from 2010 to 2017, NROER (nroer.gov.in), ICT Curriculum for School Teachers and Students (ictcurruculum.gov.in) ePathshala web portal and mobile apps (epathshala.gov.in) and E-PG-Pathshala (online PG Courses in Education) launched by Govt. of India. Besides Dr. Behera was associated with major research projects i.e. Impact Study of Educational Technology Scheme in India; Evaluation of Operation Black Board and ICDS Scheme; Feedback Study on EDUSAT network of Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) in North Region; piloting of General Educational Quality Analysis/Diagnosis Framework (GEQAF) tools developed by UNESCO in India; Third Party Evaluation of ICT@Schools Scheme in Karnataka state, UT-Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Evaluation of E-Classroom Project of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS).
Dr. Behera attended a Global ICT Conference (2012) at Seoul, South Korea and also supported UNESCO (2013) in implementation of GEQAF in the Sultanate of Oman organised at Muscat and as delegation of NCERT attended a programme on Textbook Evaluation and Exposure visit to various institutions in the Republic of Korea, Seoul (2014) which was sponsored by the Korean Embassy, New Delhi and Academy of Korean Studies. Under Sakura Science Programme of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Dr. Behera led a 103 member delegation (90 students and 13 teachers from various parts of India) to Tokyo-Japan for exposure visit to various research institutes working for science and technology during 5-14, November, 2016. Dr. Behera has also guided three Ph.D. scholars from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla and Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak and has evaluated more than 20 Ph.D. theses from various Indian Universities. Recently Dr. Behera is associated with Digitisation of Textbooks, designing and running of 21 Massive Open and Online Courses (MOOCs) on SWAYAM (swayam.giv.in) platform, Telecast of Educational TV Programme on SWAYAM PRABHA (swayamprabha.giv.in) DTH-TV channels. On 9 July, 2017 Prof. Behera received an award from the then Honourable President of India (Sh. Pranab Mukherji) for promoting ICTs in Education especially online learning and DTH TV transmission. Also Dr. Behera participated and contributed in ICT4ED Expert Group Meeting- “Role of Programming and Coding in Education” at Seoul, Korea on 30-31 August, 2017 organised by KERIS-Govt. of Korea and UNESCO and presented ICT Initiatives in School and Teacher Education in India.
Dr. Behera also supported the Govt. of Mauritius to develop an open educational repository portal for creation and dissemination of digital contents (ssp.moemu.org). Also associated with UNESCO, Bangkok for promotion of ICTs in Education and Learning in SAARC countries. Recently Dr. Behera visited Sri Lanka and Australia (Curtin University, Perth) and is in the process of entering into a Memorandum of Understanding to promote ICTs in Education and learning.