Technology reshapes America's classrooms

From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves.

Just ask 11-year-old Jemella Chambers.

She is one of 650 students who receive an Apple Inc laptop each day at a state-funded school in Boston. From the second row of her classroom, she taps out math assignments on animated education software that she likens to a video game.

"It's comfortable," she said of Scholastic Corp's FASTT Math software in which she and other students compete for high scores by completing mathematical equations. "This makes me learn better. It's like playing a game," she said.

Education experts say her school, the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Boston, offers a glimpse into the future.

It has no textbooks. Students receive laptops at the start of each day, returning them at the end. Teachers and students maintain blogs. Staff and parents chat on instant messaging software. Assignments are submitted through electronic "drop boxes" on the school's Web site.

"The dog ate my homework" is no excuse here.

The experiment at Frederick began two years ago at cost of about $2 million, but last year was the first in which all 7th and 8th grade students received laptops. Classwork is done in Google Inc's free applications like Google Docs, or Apple's iMovie and specialized educational software like FASTT Math.

"Why would we ever buy a book when we can buy a computer? Textbooks are often obsolete before they are even printed," said Debra Socia, principal of the school in Dorchester, a tough Boston district prone to crime and poor schools.

There is, however, one concession to the past: a library stocked with novels.

"It's a powerful, powerful experience," added Socia. Average attendance climbed to 94 percent from 92 percent; discipline referrals fell 30 percent. And parents are more engaged, she said. "Any family can chat online with teacher and say 'hey, we're having this problem'."

Unlike traditional schools, Frederick's students work at vastly different levels in the same classroom. Children with special needs rub shoulders with high performers. Computers track a range of aptitude levels, allowing teachers to tailor their teaching to their students' weakest areas, Socia said.

SURGE IN ONLINE COURSES

The Internet is also a catalyst for change. U.S. enrollment in online virtual classes reached the 1 million mark last year, 22 times the level seen in 2000, according to the North American Council for Online Learning, an industry body.

That's only the beginning, said Michael Horn, co-author of "Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns".

"Our projections show that 50 percent of high school courses will be taught online by 2019. It's about one percent right now," said Horn, executive director of education at Innosight Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Massachusetts.

K12 Inc, which provides online curriculum and educational services in 17 U.S. states, has seen student enrollment rise 57 percent from last year to 41,000 full-time students, said its chief executive, Ron Packard.

Much of the growth is in publicly funded virtual charter schools.

"Because it is a public school, the state funds the education similar to what they would in a brick and mortar school, but we get on average about 70 percent of the dollars," Packard told Reuters.

"We don't usually get capital dollars, or bond issue dollars. Sometimes we don't get local dollars. So on average it works out 70 percent of the per pupil spending that an average school in the state would receive," he said.

"We're getting the kids who the local school is not working for. And the spectrum goes from extreme special education to extremely gifted kids," he said.

U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley says K12 and similar companies look set to capture an increasing share of the $550 billion publicly funded U.S. education market for children aged from about 5 to 18 as more U.S. states adopt virtual schools.

Virginia-based K12 recently opened an office in Dubai to expand overseas. Packard says he expects strong offshore demand for American primary and secondary education tailored for foreign nationals who want to enter U.S. universities.

Apex Learning Inc, based in Bellevue, Washington, is seeing a similar surge in demand. It started in 1997 by offering online advanced-placement courses to parents and individual schools but now sells an array of online classes for entire school districts and state departments of education.

"Over the last two years in particular we have seen very, very significant growth in the interest and demand for our type of digital curriculum," Apex chief executive Cheryl Vedoe said in a telephone interview.

Apex enrollments rose 50 percent to 300,000 in 2006-2007, and likely grew at the same pace last year, she said.

"Where we see the greatest growth today is actually in brick and mortar high schools for programs for students who are not succeeding in the existing programs," she added.

Online tutoring is also expanding rapidly. Bangalore-based TutorVista, which launched online U.S. services in 2005, estimates its average global growth in active students at 22 percent a month -- all taught by "e-tutors" mostly in India.

Horn expects demand for teachers to fall and virtual schools to boost achievement in a U.S. education system where only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school -- a proportion that slides to 50 percent for black Americans and Hispanics, according to government statistics.

"You deliver education at lower cost, but you will actually improve the amount of time that a teacher can spend with each student because they are no longer delivering one-size-fits-all lesson plans," he said. "They can actually roam around."

Vocational courses in government schools soon

Students will soon be able to opt for vocational education as a full-fledged stream after Class X in government schools. The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry is in the final stages of putting together a project proposal to start vocational education in +2 offering over 150 trades in more than 10,000 government schools. Once implemented, students will be able to choose two vocational subjects along with a language under the scheme, which is proposed to be executed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis.

The Rs 5,070-crore proposal aims to bring to school the in-demand courses associated with the sunrise sectors like aviation, hospitality, banking and medical fields ranging from air hostess/cabin crew training to cookery courses, front office training, nursing, accounting skills and career skills required at departmental stores to entrepreneurial training among other trades. The ministry also plans to set up a separate board on the lines of CBSE to hold examinations and take overall charge of vocational education.

“The scheme will be launched in collaboration with private players and we are in talks with banks, hospitals, aviation companies and so on already. The private sector that we will tie up with for these courses will also help absorb some of the students and recruit them. The rationale is to get school children career-oriented as many of them drop out and do not go for higher education either due to low marks in the existing streams or family necessities/pressure to earn or take up a trade. With these courses priming them on a job-oriented field, there is a better chance they will study further to specialise in that field or even land a better job,” said a senior official.

The project proposal is pending approval from Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC), and once cleared it will go to the Cabinet for final implementation.

While in 1988, the ministry had launched a scheme on vocational education in some 10,000 schools, it was a failure with poor infrastructure at schools, lack of specialised teachers/trainers and a general lack of interest. This time, the ministry wants to make no mistakes and has conducted exhaustive surveys and studied the popular vocational education courses offered in schools in Germany and Australia before devising their own plan. They have also ensured that new and relevant subjects are included to reflect the current professional demands.

The scheme is proposed to be launched in 10,000 schools that will develop additional infrastructure for such courses with the help of private players who will also train students. The government will reimburse the private concern for admitting these students in the course.

“Some 15 lakh students per annum are expected to benefit from the new scheme. As far as addition to school infrastructure is concerned, we will only need to add 2-3 rooms in each school for these activities. Each school will also be given a grant for the salary of specialised teachers for these courses and for infrastructure upgradation. We will also slowly try to bring in the new scheme to all schools, even those where the 1988 scheme is still running,” added the official.

The government plans to take up vocational education on a “mission mode” in the 11th plan period to cover 20,000 schools and reach out to 25 lakh students by 2011-12. At present only 5 per cent of the population is able to receive skill training through the formal system.

Puppet classes make learning science fun

What do puppets have to do with rain harvesting, fissures in the earth’ surface and environmental issues?

A lot, if you ask the participants at the just concluded workshop organised by the Indian Science Communication Society at the Regional Science City in Lucknow.

The 35-odd students from various schools mastered the art of ‘Joyful Science through Puppetry’. They made puppets, then wrote scripts on issues related to science and then did a bit of acting to convey the message to the audience.

“The workshop was designed to familiarise children to issues that concern their lives. We brought in puppetry because it made the whole experience of learning science rather joy ful. It was a unique marriage of science and arts and the children enjoyed it thoroughly,” says Mr P. K. Jain, education officer at the Regional Science City.

The participants, all of them from class 7 and above, took up the issue of rain harvesting and water conservation and enacted it through a puppet skit titled Pakdo, Pani Bhaga. The issue of the earth surface developing fissures due to excessive ground water exploitation was also addressed by the children.

Pahada Pa Ka highlighted the relationship between tree and water while Kahan Se Kahan Tak underlined the pollution due to increasing vehicular traffic. It also urged people to understand the need for a clean environment. Niyati Das, a class 9 student who participated in the workshop, found the experience ‘unique and interesting’.

“We got to learn how to make puppets, how to write scripts for plays and how to act.

Somewhere in between, we also learnt about science and its impact on our lives. With my friends, I now plan to star a similar workshop in my colony,” she says.

Mr Jain says that the idea of the workshop was top spread the message through children.