Educational Web Portal for school kids soon

KOZHIKODE: At a time when social networking sites and web portals are fast becoming tools for dissemination of knowledge, the Government of Kerala is all set to launch a free and open educational web portal for the school children in the state, which would function as an online multimedia virtual classroom.The project, which targets nearly 20 lakh high school and higher secondary school students in the state, would be the first-of-its-kind in the country, according to the State Institute of Education Technology (SIET), which spearheads project.With the launch of this web-portal, high school and higher secondary school students can access interactive multimedia modules in subjects like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology on the website www.sietkerala.gov.in.At present, the modules are being uploaded on the internet by SIET. The portal that would also include Vocational Higher Secondary subjects like agriculture, clothing and embroidery, civil construction, domestic nursing, office secretaryship, travel and tourism, and medical lab technician, for which special modules have been formed.The project, on which research has been going on for the past five years, has used self-developed instructional design, content development technology and implementation style. “A multi-sensory learning process is being offered to make the studies perfect as the traditional model of learning by hearing is getting obsolete,” said Babu Sebastian,director of SIET Kerala. He also added that the idea behind the project is that learning should be available to ‘Anyone, anywhere and any time’. The server space for the project is being provided by the National Informatic Centre.All the subjects in the portal would be divided into almost 20 smaller frames and would have animation, graphics, text over screen and voice overs. “It is a leap that we are making through this project in the educational system of Kerala. We hope that this project would later lead to a text book-free system,” said Babu. There are also a number of informative games that have been designed for the students in the portal. There would also be reference links to other educational websites.