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Education IT

Indian government school set for a smart classroom

By Thanya Kunakornpaiboonsiri | 12 January 2013 | Views: 1115

Latest pedagogy and learning technology will soon be delivered to a public high school in Manikarampalayam benefiting 432 students with digital content available in local language.

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As an effort to bridge digital divide and offer equal opportunity to students to access new technology, a “Smart Classroom” project has been initiated with a public-private collaborative effort of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, Dell, and American Indian Foundation (AIF)—a non-profit organisation working across India.

A hi-tech Smart Classroom at the Corporation High School in Manikarampalayam—school under Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, will be equipped with a touch screen digital board, projector, 25 laptops, and three-year unlimited broadband connectivity, allowing 432 students from grade six to grade nine to access internet for educational materials and content.

The project aims to change the pedagogy and learning methodology from blackboard to digital.

Commissioner of Coimbatore Corporation Sri T K Ponnusamy said that the final objective of the project was to provide the latest technology into Corporation schools and elevate their standards to bring them on par with the best of private schools.

Apart from offering students a more enjoyable learning experience, similar initiatives to this programme have proved to help reduce dropout rates and absenteeism, he added and explained further that teachers have also received training on the way to conduct a class using the computers and online content.

This project is a part of ‘Digital Equaliser’ (DE) programme—for which the government inked a three-year MoU from 2012 to 2015 with the AIF.

According to the MoU, subject content is to be provided in Tamil language through technology. The MoU covers all the 10 high schools, 16 higher secondary schools, and one special school of Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation, which had provided 464 computers for the project.

Ponnusamy said that all the subjects would be taught via computers by the end of 2015. The AIF provide resource persons while the Corporation is responsible for the requisite infrastructure for this project.

Students from grade six to grade nine will have at least two classes per week in the Smart Classroom.

V Alexander, Zonal Coordinator (DE programme) of the AIF, said that the project aimed to make it “happy and interesting” for students to learn, develop critical thinking and foster creative and collaborative learning.

Under the DE programme, the AIF already completed training to 219 teachers and 5,383 students, out of whom 295 have been chosen as Student Master Trainers. While students submitted 306 projects using computers and all the technology they have learnt, teachers have also contributed 117 projects.

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