Education Minister M.A. Baby inaugurated an e-learning website recently. skoool-Kerala, a local version of Intel's educational package skoool Learning and Teaching Technologies, will provide an online platform for teaching and learning key concepts of Mathematics and Science.
Online tools
Jointly launched by Intel and IT@School Project, skoool Kerala includes interactive tools and multimedia kits to elucidate concepts and provide free resources on these subjects through the website www.kerala.skool.in, in both English and Malayalam mediums. Students from Std V to X can benefit from the website.
Speaking after launching the website Mr. M.A. Baby said that e-learning tools like skoool Kerala should focus on ensuring increasing involvement of students in the knowledge dissemination process. “E-learning content should have space for the contributions and critical reactions of students. We should also focus on making this technology useful for the specific educational needs of disabled students,” he said.
Secretary General Education James Varghese, Director of Public Instruction A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Intel programme manager Gerard Smyth, Intel South Asia sales director R. Ravichandran, Higher Secondary director C.P. Chitra, SIEMAT director Johny K. John, SIET director Babu Sebastian and IT@School Project executive director K. Anvar Sadath were also present at the function.
Student-friendly
Mr. Sadath said that Kerala is the first State in India to customise skoool and translate the learning content to the local language. “The biggest advantage of skoool Kerala is that it makes the educational content freely available for students via internet and CDs. The tools in skoool Kerala can also be accessed using free software,” he said.
Mr. James Varghese also emphasised the need to enable students to construct their own knowledge using e-learning tools. He added that teachers also play an important role in taking such technology to the students. “These technologies are not for displacing teachers but to enable and empower them to explain things better,” he said.
Mr. Ravichandran said that Intel's skoool Learning and Teaching Technologies project is being successfully used by teachers and students in countries across the world. He said that skoool Kerala is not a static website and students can also upload content in the website.
Speaking about ICT content dissemination through the skoool project Mr. Gerard Smyth said that Intel was open to customising the educational content of skoool Kerala as per the curriculum requirement in the state.
