Introduction to THDL Education
Education represents an innovative extension of the library into the dynamic center of the classroom. The Education area primarily publishes instructional courses in different areas of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, with a particular but not exclusive emphasis on creative programs directly drawing upon the resources of digital technology and the Web. These courses ultimately aim not only to serve higher education, but also extend into the K-12 educational levels. In addition, they aim to serve remote education needs of the populace as a whole interested to further their knowledge for either professional or personal reasons. The Education area also highlights specific case studies and examples of student work in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies using technology. Finally, this area of the library also disseminates elements of the Tools area that facilitate the incorporation of technology, digital content, and Web resources into the classroom on the part of teachers and students alike.
Education at present thus consists of four distinct areas:
(i) Courses
(ii) Languages
(iii) Programs
(iv) Software
Courses provides access to various course modules and materials in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies as contributed by participants in THDL. This could be as simple as posting a syllabus, or as complex as an entire on-line course. Please contact us if you are interesting in posting materials.
Languages provides instructional materials for studying the languages of Tibet and the Himalayas. At present we are developing a powerful new software suite called Savant for teaching languages using natural speech discourse video and audio. In addition, we have a major international initiative on making new curricular materials for studying Tibetan literature and spoken standard Tibetan using that software. We hope to expand coverage to Nepal in the near future.
(Lhagang, Kham)
Programs provides access to information about major Universities with Tibetan and Himalayan Studies programs, as well as to information about study abroad programs.