Kendria Vidyalaya I in Madurai is being equipped with smart boards.

Updated on: Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The teaching methodology in the Kendria Vidyalaya I in Madurai is all set for a change, with 10 classrooms now being equipped with smart boards. These interactive boards allow running preloaded contents of lessons and other animated content. The school has installed 10 such smart boards in each classroom for the third to 12th standard students. As there are four sections for every standard, one board each has been set aside per standard, school sources said.

Principal of the school, C Muthiah said that the smart classroom concept had been launched at the Madurai KV for the first time, from the Chennai region that consists of 47 KVs in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. "On a pilot basis, 20 KVs in the country have been selected for the installation of smart classrooms and Madurai KV I is the first in the Chennai region," he said. An expert team selected from the teachers of KV schools are working on the content for teaching materials that can be used in the smart classrooms, he said. The e-contents would be shared among the schools by the regional office of KVS and the teachers are undergoing training on content writing at present, Muthiah stated.

The smart classroom consists of an interactive board, projector and visualiser. The interactive board can act as the conventional blackboard and with the projector, the lesson contents can be played for the students. Further, the smart board can be connected to the internet to download any relevant contents for subjects, the school sources said. Another advantage for the teachers is that the lessons written on the boards can be saved and used again so that they need not start from the scratch at the next session.

G S Murugan, mathematics teacher in the school says that the smart board would be of great help to save lessons and the entire lesson could be revised during exams, without much difficulty. "These boards relieve us from the chalk dust that we are forced to inhale while writing on blackboards," he said. The school management also said that it would aid students a great deal in learning. Unlike conventional methods of learning, their cognition could be further strengthened with the help of live materials and animated content. For instance, a teacher would find it much easier to explain the functioning of a heart with the help of simple animations, school sources said.

"The lessons taught in the classrooms can be carried home by the students in a pen drive or with the help of printouts. We believe this concept can revolutionize the teaching and learning experience in schools," principal, Muthiah said. The boards were installed on Saturday and the teachers were asked to take demo classes for preparation, he added. Each board costs Rs 3.7 lakhs and the project is funded by Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangadhan in Delhi, school sources said.

Kendria Vidyalaya I in Madurai is being equipped with smart boards.

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