On 07/01/2011 09:20 AM, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote:
2011/6/30 Rony <gnulinuxist(a)gmail.com>om>:
It is still young and what happened in the US is
now happening here with
the same players amongst the rest. What I feel individually is that
these are high end presentation products meant for corporate offices and
not for schools, that too in every classroom. Simply calling them
teaching aids does not change things. We don't even have the entire
syllabus of every class and subject available fully in professional and
electronic format. If schools want to go digital then a simple projector
and computer in every class or in a special room is sufficient. Schools
must invest in professional grade content not gadgets.
In another place, another
day I'll take offense on the suggestion that
the US leads, and we follow.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Regards,
Rony.
http://ronybill.blogspot.com/