Two weeks ago, after 18 years, I went back to school. Except, my school was nothing like this. I had a tablet PC in front of me, only 10 other students for company and hardly any books in my backpack.
The teacher, Joe Campana, used a projector to beam our homework — we were supposed to write an alternative ending to any of the stories from Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories — on a whiteboard, and made corrections on the screen itself, which instantly got registered on our PC screens as well. Had I attended music and physics classes later that day, I could’ve started work on my score for the next Transformers movie, and created a circuit board through simulation, using appropriate computer software for both.
That’s an average day at the American School of Bombay (ASB). In the city’s most futuristic school, where teachers log on to teach and grade assignments, textbooks are becoming extinct. Even music, drama and gym are sometimes taught online.
The entire building, in Bandra Kurla Complex, is wirelessly internet-enabled, so staff and students can sit in any corner — the classroom, cafeteria or even poolside — and catch up with work, or visit the immense virtual library. Kids in pre-school through grade 5 work on laptops they share, while in grades 6-12, each child has a tablet PC. They submit assignments, not on paper, but in a ‘turn-in’ folder on the school portal. This is a 24/7 facility for teachers to post assignments and grades; students to postwork and parents to check for bulletins.
No swine flu break
One of the advantages of being so networked is that students never have to miss any lessons. This was unexpectedly put to the test during the H1N1 outbreak, when the government shut all schools. ASB follows “a punishing IB schedule”, where every day counts. So staying shut for four days would set the students badly behind. That’s when the school decided to set its distance-education programme in motion. Since all the students had internet access at home, they were instructed to log on at a designated time (as if they were attending school) and start working on online assignments.
“It was the first day of a new school term, and suddenly we found we would not be able to meet the students,” says English teacher Brian Chanen. “So we went online.”
Most of the lessons included a brief ‘vodcast’, a video podcast of the teacher introducing the assignment, followed by slide shows, quizzes and problems posted for students to solve. Using a software called Adobe Connect, the kids could all log on at the same time, and have online discussions with their teacher and other students through a chat facility (which even has an icon to indicate a student raising his hand to ask a question).
“It worked really well,” says Grade 12 student Aditya Bhandari. “Many kids loved the idea of staying in their pyjamas all day or lounging on the bed while attending online class. And we ended up doing more work than what we do in school.”
Ankit Sud, who did his music assignments online, also helped his younger brother ‘attend’ a physical education class. “I took photos of the exercises he was instructed to do, and posted them for the teacher to check,” says Ankit, 16.
Both students and their teachers are excited about what the virtual space allows them to do. “The tablet programme makes us all more productive,” says math teacher Jason Roy. “It frees us up for more discussions in class. If I wanted my students to access some information, I would first have to write it on the board, have them copy it and only then could we begin work. Now I just post it online, and they come prepared.”
Roy has taken it a step further by creating online games to teach problems (Jeopardy is a favourite). Going online has also helped ASB have tie-ups with schools in the US and Canada, for common projects or teaching modules.
Lessons for other schools
The Tablet programme has been such a success that ASB routinely has administrators from other schools coming for a dekko. In a ‘showcase workshop’ in February, it will share its ideas on going virtual with other schools. There could, indeed, be a lesson in this for them. And it is this — you don’t need an expensive, wi-fi-enabled building or even provide your students with laptops, to come up with an innovative method of instruction. You need an all-purpose portal and a reasonably good server to give students access to a host of online material.
At ASB, the stars of online education are a dozen or so software programs like DyKnow, Miscrosoft OneNote, Audacity and Adobe Connect. Besides, with students becoming more networked, all they need is a nudge towards the best sites. For instance, when students can’t understand concepts, math teacher Jason Roy directs them to math.tv, where a professor explains things on camera.
The distance-ed programme has also prepared ASB for any eventuality. “You never know what may force you to suspend classes,” says superintendent Paul Fochtman. “But this way, students won’t find their studies interrupted, even in case of floods, terror attacks or something like the H1N1 outbreak.” Adds director of technology Shabbi Luthra: “With some basic things in place, other schools can also go online.”
Many city schools already have online components — though not as much as ASB. RIMS International has a website where it posts student updates for parents. One IB school is also asking teachers to post notes though online groups put together by students. “It’s not hard to go online,” says the principal, “But then, we will need more resources to scale it up.” A South Mumbai school with an “active website”, now plans to use it to reach out to students, by making it more interactive. When it does that, it will probably discover that a whole new world of learning is within reach.
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