2011/6/29 Rony Bill <gnulinuxist(a)gmail.com>om>: On the contrary, the teachers I have interacted with have been quite appreciative of these "e-learning" boxes in the classrooms. The interactive whiteboards are not just simply a place to project the computer screen; they are, well, interactive. What you write on the board is stored for later re-use. The marker pen behaves like a mouse pointer on a web page (tap for related information on the board). Teachers already spend a lot of time preparing for classes (my sister-in-law, who teaches Mathematics for Class XII at NPS Bangalore, spends a good 2-3 hours daily preparing for the next day's class). Powerpoint or any other tool at the basic level only substitutes for notebooks in this task. As I said, I did some work for a company in this field a while back. My team visited several schools in the eastern belt (Kolkata and suburbs, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad and Chennai); almost every teacher we spoke to had only kind words to say about these products. I personally sat through a class (Class II) in South City School, Kolkata - the kids of the class really enjoyed interacting with the whiteboard. Imagine a geography class with Google Earth. Or a Chemistry class with a periodic table on the whiteboard that responds to clicks. The possibilities are endless. Some of the schools we visited had eliminated all paper/canvas maps and charts from their libraries. In summary, school administrators, teachers and students we interacted with were all impressed by these devices - the only thing that inhibits their adoption is that they are quite expensive. Binand

2011/6/30 Rony <gnulinuxist(a)gmail.com>om>: Did you find anything relevant to the Indian milieu during your research? Binand

On Thursday 30 Jun 2011 22:34:15 Rony wrote: You should visit with Dr. Nagrjuna and Ganesh/ Amit etc on their visit to khalapur to understand what ICT is all about. ICT requires the student to be in control, asking questions, generating data, interacting with their immediate environment, in applying the principles of science, maths, arts etc. That is learning and more importantly that is what teaching is all about. Education in most places has degraded to hand me downs from teacher to student and ICT is reduced to gizmos like the white board. How many students have their own lab? or their own music / story / recording facility.

On Friday 01 Jul 2011 17:59:55 Rony wrote: Mostly to Binand's. But also recommend that you visit with Dr. Nags.

On Friday 01 Jul 2011 19:17:57 Rajagopal Swaminathan wrote: Most definetly. Will ask Dr. Nagarjuna / Amit / Ganesh to keep us posted on their next visits. On a related note we have been toying with the idea of a "hackers club" where we can pursue hardware and software fun stuff on anything that takes our fancy. The primary motive is to kindle the spirit of experimentation that seems to be systematically killed by our edu system. Hopefully we will have atleast a few collegians joining in.

2011/6/30 Rony <gnulinuxist(a)gmail.com>om>: In another place, another day I'll take offense on the suggestion that the US leads, and we follow. As JTD explained, these "high end presentation products" allow the students to be part of the learning experience, as opposed to being detached observers. I mentioned in a previous email that I sat through a class where an IWB was in use - the kids were having fun with it, while also learning about seasons and seasonal changes around the world. It was an eye-opening experience. I suggest you too try to sit in a class where an IWB is used properly. As far as electronic syllabus goes, a simple Google search throws these links up: CBSE: http://cbse.nic.in/currisyllabus.htm ICSE: http://www.cisce.org/SyllabusFor_ICSE2011.html Maharashtra: http://msbshse.ac.in/newsite/newhome.html so I don't really understand what you meant when you said syllabi are not available in electronic format. A simple projector and computer becomes the original problem - that teachers then will have to create presentations. An IWB combines a lot of things: a regular blackboard with the capability to remember, a vast library including wikipedia, an arts room and so on. Binand

2011/7/1 <jtd(a)mtnl.net.in>in>: It does, actually (I put the qualifier "properly used"). The class I attended had the kids learning about seasons. The teacher simply got out of the way of children and allowed them to explore seasons using the IWB. One kid tried to visualize how the winter in US is. Another wanted to see what season it is in Bangalore then (her dad had left for Bangalore that morning, apparently). And so on. The teacher was guiding, but not controlling or manipulating the class. It was a fantastic experience for me too. This was South City School, Kolkata and Class II - meaning kids in the 6-7 years group. Binand

On 07/01/2011 09:20 AM, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote: What I meant was that after they had their fill in the US, they are now tapping the emerging markets in India. Schools are buying these gizmos because others have done it too. I am not sure who JTD was replying to and what equipment is used in Khalapur and how. I don't know about other places but in Mumbai there are about 40 to 50 students in one class and approx. half an hour per lecture. There is not enough time to complete the portion itself, where will they get time to play with these expensive gizmos? My mistake. I was referring to course material like all text books and study material professionally made and in electronic format. What is happening is that there is a mad rush to market and buy this hardware for which even the software is not ready. That is why I say that it is an expensive corporate level presentation product that is being pushed into schools as a teaching aid through smooth talking marketing people. Schools are buying these white elephants that are of no use to them and to make them usable, the teachers are being asked to make power point presentations on them. When a school invests half to one crore Rupees or more in this system, shouldn't it be fully ready with proper professional level course material libraries first? Shouldn't the management demand this as a pre-sale condition from those companies who sell these products? How does it justify using a system costing a couple of lakhs each to run small home made slide shows? It is like investing lakhs of Rupees in electronic book readers and then asking teachers to create short notes that can be compiled together into a book. Keeping aside the capacity to remember which is hardly used, an IWB is finally just an electronic black board with a projector screen that can show multi-media content. Why are teachers being trained and asked to make power point presentations on these IWBs? And how do you make a power point presentation interactive? It is a slide show anyway. Isn't it obvious that you need professionally made content to make use of and justify the 'interactive' feature of these boards over the conventional projector and computer? The teachers should not be making slide shows or any content unless they feel inclined to. Professional grade slides, videos etc. should be purchased by the school and that is where money should be invested. The level of the content material should be like those in National Geographic or Discovery channel. -- Freedom is a shared resource. Take some, leave the rest for others. Please trim your replies. Avoid cross posting to other lists. Post your replies below the relevant original text, leaving a line space. Regards, Rony. http://ronybill.blogspot.com/

On 07/02/2011 12:12 AM, jtd(a)mtnl.net.in wrote: If a subject / topic is to be understood for the first time by a student, how will the discovering method work unless he has some clue of what he needs to discover. Somewhere someone through any means of communication ( Amit D. in your example) will have to introduce the chapter / topic to the students. The beauty of professionally made videos is that this introduction opens up a new world to the kids. They don't just tell you what happens, but why does it happen, how does it happen and what are the consequences. The special cameras, the high resolution images, the timed photos turned into videos, their painstaking number of months / years spent to make one film, all make the entire experience so beautiful and it cannot be replicated in a home made video. During the good old DD days, we had those German Transtel science videos that were so informative and mind opening. As a recreation or as a practical lesson, self made videos are fun though. Everything of these is needed in equal doses to make learning fun. Classroom + Practicals + Videos + Field Trips = Learning Fun. -- Freedom is a shared resource. Take some, leave the rest for others. Please trim your replies. Avoid cross posting to other lists. Post your replies below the relevant original text, leaving a line space. Regards, Rony. http://ronybill.blogspot.com/

On 07/03/2011 08:35 AM, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote: True. There has to be some syllabus affiliated to some Board for formal certification and further acceptance of the certification in other institutions. For very interactive communication, the number of students per class has to be drastically reduced too. This is not happening in all the Mumbai schools that have these IWBs. Hardware is being sold with limited or no software and teachers are being asked to make power point shows for their daily teaching. Plus, in case any contract is over, _some_ multimedia content will not open. I am repeating my earlier point that showing a video or a slide show or a web site can be done using a simple computer and projector too. The students can also interact as they do with the IWB, by using the mouse and keyboard. Newton, Darwin, Einsten were not school children. They had experience and learning behind them. For adults, learning new things is easier as they already have some knowledge foundation over the years. For school children learning everything for the first time, this is not possible. -- Freedom is a shared resource. Take some, leave the rest for others. Please trim your replies. Avoid cross posting to other lists. Post your replies below the relevant original text, leaving a line space. Regards, Rony. http://ronybill.blogspot.com/

On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 6:47 PM, Rony <gnulinuxist(a)gmail.com> wrote: easily to smart phones and tablets that in no time they end up knowing more than their parents. And sometimes they end up discovering some of the things which their non-tech savvy parents even fail to understand. I think you're underestimating children's curiosity and ability to learn. -- With Regards, Mehul Ved

On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 10:46 PM, Rony <gnulinuxist(a)gmail.com> wrote: Aren't these teaching aids or are they teacher replacement tools? -- With Regards, Mehul Ved

2011/7/4 Mehul Ved <mehul.n.ved(a)gmail.com>om>: These are teaching aids. Binand

2011/7/1 Rony <gnulinuxist(a)gmail.com>om>: I don't know about others, but both Next Education and Educomp (the market leader in India) have fully developed content libraries that they distribute along with their products. Next's is CBSE-only, Educomp has material for a number of state boards too. Next has a studio in Hyderabad where this content is developed (by teachers, who work on contract). Binand