For students of Classes 10 and 12, preparations for the board examinations next year have been made interesting by the School Education Department. Instead of simply looking at a diagram of the human heart in their textbook and learning its parts, they can now look at a 3D image using Information Recognition Application Technology (IRAT).
In a bid to make textbook concepts more interactive and demonstrative, the Information and Communication Technology(ICT) cell of the School Education Department has come up with these modules in Mathematics and Science for Classes 10 and 12, where students can use an Android app ‘Tamil Nadu Schools Live’.
The concepts are from the Tamil medium textbooks of the students studying in government, government-aided and matriculation schools in the State.
“Nearly 141 concepts from their textbooks have been taken and are available on the app for learning through IRAT technology. The app can be used on any handheld device and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has worked on the pilot project with all the technology developed by the department ,” said D. Sabitha, Principal Secretary, School Education Department, referring to the initiative as a first of its kind for the country.
To help wider access at the grassroots level, teachers are being trained as well. While over 1,600 teachers from government schools across the State have been trained on using the app, 240 teachers had been initially trained and involved in the content creation process for the app.
“Since many might not have an access to a handheld device, the concepts are made available on CDs as well, which have been distributed to government schools from August. They can be accessed through computers in the schools,” said Asir Julius, assistant professor with the SCERT.
Any student with a handheld device can access the app and point the device’s camera towards a diagram or a concept on the page which will either be available as a 3D virtual image or 2D Animated content.
Ms. Sabitha said that the SCERT will next focus on 600 more such concepts from the textbooks of classes 6 to 12 as a part of the next phase.
“Digital content not only makes learning more interactive but we also provides wider access,” she added.
