The IT@School programme is all set to introduce model smart classrooms in the 140 Assembly constituencies in the State.
Each of these classrooms will be built like a theatre with tiered seating arrangements and videoconferencing facilities. There will also be an editing suite attached to each classroom. Moreover, a seminar or class held here can also be webcast; any school in the State or anyone for that matter can view such presentations.
Content generation
According to IT@School Director K.P. Naufal, the model classrooms can also serve as generation points for content to be used in the digital collaborative textbooks (DCT) prepared by IT@School.
“If a student or a teacher makes a presentation or documentary that is really good, that content can be made part of the DCT. These classrooms will be piloted in one school each in all the 14 district headquarters. By the end of August, all the 140 classrooms will be in place. In the second phase, the scheme will be extended to 1,000 panchayats,” he explained.
The IT@School is also planning to introduce ‘e-learning corners’ in 1,200 government schools in the State.
This facility, according to Mr. Noufal, will be for students to go through the digital collaborative textbooks.
Four computers
“Each corner will have four computers that can be used by students to read through the DCT and work their way through the digital resources that each textbook has. The corners will be ready by the end of July,” Mr. Naufal said.
Also on the anvil are ‘Virtual Connect Centres,’ designed to give a virtual reality experience to the users.
These centres—one in each district headquarters—is meant to organise training programmes for teachers and non-teaching staff.
These will be designed in such a way as to give the participant the feel of a planetarium, the feel of “being there.”
Each centre will cost Rs.15 lakh to Rs.20 lakh.
