Bridging the Digital Divide in the Changing Times: Application of A5 Solutions

Abstract

Disasters, either natural and man-made, adversely affect humanity including human lives and, the knowledge creation, as a standard of the progress of civilization. The development of education of a country depends upon the present economics, academic structure, research facilities, health issues and involvement of government ministry. The outbreak of present pandemic Coronavirus (official designation COVID-19 or 2019-nCov) has a clear negative impact on academic and research activities. It creates a global threat and people keep themselves at home to maintain social distancing for reducing the outbreak of community transmission. This COVID-19 epidemic is neither the first and confidently nor the last epidemic that will pose a threat to the conventional education system. Both the effects of education i.e. direct and indirect effects are a subject risk to such pandemic and other disaster vulnerability. Instead, efforts should be made to find measures which can ensure the continuation of the education system for posterity. This requirement of an alternate way of learning proves us for the transformation of the learning process from conventional to digital. The primary requirement of this transformation is the availability of a sophisticated and multitasking platform for online learning, which conforms A5 solutions. This A5 implies the 5A’s of access, i.e. Availability, Adequacy, Accessibility, Affordability and Appropriateness; which bridges the digital divide by ensuring the equal access of web for all. In this paper, the authors have discussed the tool FCC (Free Conference Call), after evaluation and comparison which can use by learners and educators as an alternative solution of the physical classroom. This is a dissemination or sharing platform and most versatile and comprehensive free web-conferencing solution which can be used by academic institutions and educators for online classes. In addition, this paper also go through the comparative study of FCC and other known web conferencing tools to clarify the judgement of its acceptance.