On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 6:28 AM, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote:
2011/6/27 Rony :
Nowadays there is a new trend among schools in Mumbai, to install electronic interactive black boards in classrooms. The systems run on Windows and teachers are being encouraged to do everything in MS Power Point slide shows by creating them every day. Another interesting thing is that they have a server installed where teachers must upload all their teaching material so it is commonly available to everyone.
I have done some work for one of the companies that make these products - the Hyderabad-based Next Education (www.nexteducation.in). Such products certainly make the lives of the teachers easier, and are not portents of disaster like you make them to be. Next's products are Linux-based.
The ones in Mumbai are Windows based, unless the Linux ones have been installed in some places too. Lives of the teachers cannot be made easy if they are burdened with extra labour of preparing Power Point slide shows every day or for every topic. What is happening is that the hardware is being marketed with big ideas and to make it look useful, the teachers have to make the software.
My question is that how much computing is needed in teaching today? Apart from showing educational films and slide shows in the auditorium, what more can be done in class using a computer?
I see a whole host of possibilities, really.
Could you expand on this. I would also like to know from the group if any research has been done on electronic teaching aids and how have they actually made a difference. How are things done in other countries? Has anybody had experiences there?