By IE
Wednesday September 26, 01:54 AM
When Lakshmi Narayan, a class V grammar teacher, gave lessons in adjectives, she had an array of recording instruments, computers and technicians to give her company. She is part of a project, under which classroom lessons are recorded and simultaneously converted into nine different versions for telecast.
This new education programme, called ‘Easy Now’, seeks to make learning accessible to students across India by converting classroom lessons into multimedia versions. A brainchild of a former Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Nuclear Physicist and IT wizard, V Krishnamoorthy, the programme has been designed for the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre of Asia (CEMCA). The CEMCA works with institutions in Commonwealth countries to promote education through multimedia.
Krishnamoorthy hit upon the idea while trying to take higher education to 40 villages in Tamil Nadu where he found that charts were more effective than lectures.
The medium used are audio, video, slide shows and texts which will cover subjects like maths, english and biology. The plan is to air the recordings live through radio, television and internet to remote areas.
The programme uses a host of softwares, apart from conventional editing technologies. “One of the softwares used is Easy Now which automatically converts text into voice and vice-versa, while another called White Board which adds suitable illustrations to an audio teacher’s voice,” said Krishnamoorthy. He said, “The best teachers will be chosen and as they teach in the classroom, the lessons would be recorded simultaneously.”
CEMCA Director R Sreedher said, “The advantage is its simplicity, affordability and reach because of the use of multimedia which appeals to students and teachers alike.”
Talks are on with the National Open school and IGNOU to implement the programme. A training programme for teachers will soon begin.
Publication : IE; Section : National; Pg : 7; Date : 26/9/07
URL : http://in.news.yahoo.com/070925/48/6l79d.html