BHAGYASHRI UMADI
NASHIK :
With children being obsessively a part of today’s digitalized smart world, education nowadays stands in favour of being outsourced in digitalized smart ways too. With 70% of India’s population staying in the rural areas, an innovative digital classroom solution could revolutionize rural education system in India.
Living in the digital era, interactive smart boards have taken over chalkboards and paper based lessons connecting students to the digital world of education and its profuse advantages. An interactive smart board encourages students to both engage and enjoy lessons taught in the classroom and with similar motive the need of interactive board at ZP school in Pimpalkhute was brought into existence.
The aim being education to be imparted amongst students by helping them experience and understand abstract concepts accelerating student’s persistence was brought into a wider picture trying to curb monotonous and non-interactive education which failed in engaging students devotedly dooming education at rural areas.
Funding the interactive board system was not within the reach of the school and the only alternative being local contribution, the role of public participation was requested in bring in the system. With the help of public support around, the interactive board could be installed in the school.
During the initial days, the students avoided touching the interactive board trying to be careful about its unique features no one was aware of. It took almost a year to fully understand the system. Recognizing the changing expectations of parents, reading and conversing in English were put into action as well as mathematics is given utmost importance.
The children also answer the question asked in English satisfactorily. Also, using verbs in English to extend a sentence and usage of pronouns and such other innovative changes are now positively affecting the parents making them feel proud about their children.
Initially, while using the sensor pens on the interactive boards, the finger of the students trembled, but with time the confidence amongst them was built making them use the sensor pens correctly and now they can even draw geometric figures easily and can name them too with filling colours in them on the interactive board.
The students also began to use the framework to solve mathematics by scanning essential parts of the e-book, strengthening their knowledge with the help of the content in the textbooks. On the interactive board, the children can be shown the taught lesson repeatedly helping them practice it. Study material in Marathi, Mathematics and
English are available in PDF format which is to be scanned to be explained to the students. Since the interactive board is connected to the internet, it is possible to teach any aspect to the children. Interactive boards are a very effective tool in making the study and the teaching process interesting and pleasing.
Even when the parents of many students in our school do not have Android mobiles today, I can say with certainty that when we see children interacting easily with interactive boards, even those who use android mobiles cannot handle the interactive boards as easily as them. But when our children in the school handle them with ease now, it is a pleasant sight to watch.
– Praveen Vinchu, ZP School Pimpalkhute 3
