CCpur school to replace books with tablets
Source: The Sangai Express / S Singlianmang Guite
Lamka, October 03 2012:
An elite high school in this rural town will soon shed the traditional text books in favour of tablet computers for some of its classes in a significant move aimed at delivering a more interactive learning experience.
At the Lalpuithluaii Foundation School, principal Vunglallian speaks about replacing the traditional text books after their newly introduced digital labs � the Magic Studio, proves phenomenal.
'The digital tablets with which we intend to replace the text books are much more interactive and accessible than the labs so it will take learning into a new level altogether,' he said.
'Things come to life with the digital tablets.
Flowers blossom and trees bear fruit in spring.
Have any doubt about some words � say Caress � just click on the glossary it will gives you the definition, if you are still not sure about it, play the embedded video.
It will show you a hand caressing a dog and it comes with a sound that pronounces 'Caress' with a correct pronunciation,' he said with a grin, on things inside the tablet that fascinates him.
The school after adopting the text books of Pearson Publishing House last year embraces their Magic Studio in the current session only to hanker for more.
As the publishing house prepares to launch the tablet version of their books, theirs was among the 75 schools selected across the country and one among the two picked from the entire North Eastern region, for the launch.
The only other school from the region is in Guwahati.
'This is the future and it will be outdated even as we speak.
The opportunity needs to be seized in time,' said Vunglallian, who is also a retired government college lecturer.
Pearson has digitalized most of their text books but maths.
They told the schools that everything will be ready by April before the beginning of CBSE's new session.
But the school sessions here begin on February so it could slow down the school's plans to discard books.
'We can't let the students buy both the books as well as the tablets.
But we are clear about one thing, that we will adopt the tablets, it could be next year or the year after,' maintained the school Headmaster Muannou.
Tablets, he said, will initially be confined into classes six through eight as and when the school discards books in its favour, but it will still go hand-in-hand with the note books so that students don't compromise with their writing skills.
The Micormax tablets which the school will be procuring from Pearson will cost about 7000 Rupees.
Charges for embedding the subjects from IBM will be borne by the school.