The city Corporation is in the final stages of implementing a digital classroom project for government high schools and higher secondary schools.
The clauses of the agreement with the implementing agency, Keltron, have been finalised, and both parties are expected to sign the agreement within a few days. The project titled ‘Brain house’ will be of considerable help to schools that are lagging behind in digital infrastructure.
K.S. Sheela, chairperson of the Corporation standing committee on health, said the aim of the project was to improve Class X results, and help higher secondary students who intended to appear for entrance examinations.
Rs.15 lakh allocated“A total of Rs.15 lakh has been allocated to the project in the current budget. Since setting up a single digital classroom costs Rs.3 lakh, we will be able to cover only five schools this year. More schools can be included in the next phase,” she said.
Keltron will supply the equipment, including CPU, projector, interactive whiteboard, green board for writing, speakers and other accessories. Also, it will provide software support with its in-house product ‘Technext,’ which can be customised for different classes, according to course content.
ModulesThe course content is organised in a hierarchical structure with each chapter broken down into modules. The average run time of a module has been limited to six minutes. The modules will be more character-based for the lower age groups, and focus relatively more on content for the higher age groups.
The software solution comes with comprehensive reports that show syllabus coverage and progress across courses. It is designed in a user-friendly way so that teachers without much knowledge of computers can operate it. It also has features such as NextStudio, an interactive whiteboard software, NextDictionary, a digital dictionary, and NextTools, a collection of tools such as graphs, pH indicator, equation balancer and periodic table. Another feature is a library of over 10,000 images.
The entire package is based on the Linux operating system which makes it comparatively stable and virus free.
As per the contract, Keltron will provide all the technical support for a period of five years.
“The only requirement on the part of the school is that it should have an extra classroom to accommodate this system. It is conceived on the lines of facilities such as laboratories with a specific period of access weekly for all classes in the high school and higher secondary sections,” Ms. Sheela said.
Though the system is now limited to students in the science stream, she said it could be customised to cater to students from humanities and commerce streams too.
