See and learn faster

Updated on: Monday, February 06, 2012

Children understand better when they see than when they read. If technology can be made an enabler to let children study subjects with a visual dimension added to books, learning is faster and consequent dropout rates of students also decline.

"Computers bring about a dramatic change from the mundane process of learning at school and reduce dropout rates, as seen in pilot projects we have conducted in Karnataka. Using networking technology, teachers and students can see each other real-time . While kids from multiple villages can see and hear one another on a screen, they also take the same class together. Every child is audible and visible in the different classrooms," explains Aravind Sitaraman, president, inclusive growth, Cisco.

Cisco is using networking technology to educate children in rural areas. 'One teacher - many classrooms' is the method followed whereby students can see the teacher and what he/she teaches; the teacher can point out at students individually to answer questions using audio-video connectivity, and teach using applications online, which are all visible to attendees. The focus, says Sitaraman, is to make technology a knowledge-enabler as the disparity of teachers in rural versus urban India makes it imperative to have one teacher for a much large number of students across geographic spreads.

So, what does it take to build a model like this? According to Sitaraman, it requires a number of stakeholders, and hence, cohesion with the ecosystem and service providers is critical. BSNL is the largest network provider, which has a national presence and helps in network connectivity; companies, big and small, with specific strengths in particular domains, content providers who provide content in local languages; partners in education space, etc, are the main stakeholders in this service.

Finally, government itself is a major stakeholder, which spends a huge amount of money and has made considerable infrastructure investments. According to Sitaraman, the model can be replicated by the industry. Technology can enable education to be interactive and fun as well as reach the masses. Skill training and other services including healthcare are the other initiatives where technology can play a major role in India.

Times of India

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