The Hindu : IT@School to revolutionise classrooms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 22, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

IT@School to revolutionise classrooms

By Biju Govind

KOZHIKODE APRIL 21. Curriculum at the high school level is all set to change with the implementation of the ambitious project, IT@School, from next academic year.

Classrooms will no more be monotonous with the conventional learning process. Boring lectures on mathematical hypothesis, physics theories, balancing chemical equations and grammar will give way to new modes of teaching using spreadsheets and database systems in tune with the cyber age.

The new project will enable the 19 lakh students in the State to log on to their computer sets for the collection of data, inputting, sorting and statistical operations. Animated lessons on computer screens, video clippings and sound tracks will be the new order in the life of a student -- instead of the dull textbooks.

Education Department officials said the new teaching methods using computers would free the students from mechanical computation and allow the logical thought process to flow freely. The curriculum, textbooks and multimedia contents for computer education and computer-aided education have been finalised. Textbooks prescribed under the curriculum would be taught using the latest multimedia tools.

The students would have a minimum of three to four periods a week for the programme as part of the new curriculum. The computer laboratory exercise will be handled by the faculty teaching the respective subject. In addition, there would be one theory period a week for teaching the basics of the technology. One of the subject teachers or an expert would be responsible for teaching the subject.

The valuation will be done through written and practical examinations. Written examinations will be designed to test the knowledge of the basic concepts as well as check up whether the practical exercise has been properly done.

The use of computers in science subjects such as physics, biology and chemistry, earth science, social science and environment science can develop the ability of students to critically evaluate the accuracy and underlining assumptions of information that is presented by a computer.

This encourages the problem solving process of identifying a decided outcome, devising a plan constructed on a series of logical procedures and implementing and checking the plan. Even the young can explore and play with the patterns in the list generated by spreadsheets prepared by the teachers.

Graphing programmes remove the time-consuming and often tedious process of manual graphing. In the learning of languages, especially English, information technology tools will help relating to language tasks, dictionaries, data bases and expert system (dialogue generators and spelling helpers) and to practice acquiring language skills through tutorials and grammar drills. Besides, word processing, design and printing will be included in the syllabus.

The officials said the computer laboratories at the Government-run schools would be set up using the funds from the State and Central Governments in a phased manner. Some of the training centres will be converted into computer laboratories. Private aided schools will be permitted to establish the laboratories with the assistance of external agencies. But these private entrepreneurs will have to follow the procedures of the curriculum.

These laboratories will be utilised exclusively for teaching students during school hours and other commercial purposes like data-entry, training and enabled services like net browsing and games during post-school hours. The schools will be allowed to collect a nominal monthly fee from students for maintaining and upgrading the system. The Directorate of Public Instructions (DPI) and Intel Asia Electronics have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Thiruvananthapuram on April 12 to spearhead the project in the State. Intel will impart training to 300 teachers as master trainers for the IT@School programme before 2002 as per the MoU.

The master trainers will in turn impart training to 25,000 teachers before December, 2002. A total of 60,000 teachers out of the 86,000 will be made available for the project in future.

Intel has already given training to 108 master trainers between October, 2000 and January, 2001. The State Government has allocated Rs 400 lakhs for the project this fiscal. It is also banking on the assistance of the Non Resident Indians (NRIs) to provide at least a system to their alma mater. The Federation of the Keralite Associations in North America (Fokana) has also committed to contribute its mite in this regard. Six private telecom companies have been given the right of way (ROW) in the State for further development in the project.

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