A light learning experience

School kids lugging bags heavier than them is a scene most of us wake up to every morning. Imagine a school, where all you need is a tablet that has everything your child needs. In an attempt to make learning more fun and reduce the weight of school bags, venture capitalist Ram Gollamudi and a group of friends have created Edutor, that offers a custom designed solution: the Edutor Student Tab, an Android tablet pre-loaded with a learning platform, Ignitor. It can also be deployed on various makes of tablets to deliver an enhanced learning experience enriched with well-researched content that helps the teacher engage with students and also empowers them to make the learning experience engaging. “We integrated the curriculum with these tablets so that students no longer have to carry heavy school bags to school. I realised that the children were comfortable using tablets and other touch screen devices,” says Ram. Ram adds, “We wanted to make the learning process helpful for both students and teachers. For example, if there was a lesson about the Indus Valley civilisation, these tablets will help students to go beyond textbooks and allow teachers to use multimedia tools and presentations and video aids. It also makes assessment easy as the students can take tests and submit them digitally using the tablets, and the teachers in turn can download the tests using the company’s cloud service, that’s similar to saving books on servers such as Amazon.” The platform also takes parental concerns about device usage into account. “Parents are not against technology as such, but are often concerned about the manner in which it is used. They are worried that children could misuse these devices. We have safeguards in place to ensure that this can be prevented.” Ram contends, “We have more than 25,000 students across India and the Middle East using these devices. Our plan is to spread this message and make this platform popular in more schools. As broadband connectivity picks up in India, I am sure such platforms will increase in popularity in the days to come.” The Hindu