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Promising market for educational software

ICT solutions allow for simulations and promote interactive mode of learning among students, says RM Group CEO Tim Pearson. In a chat with G. Mahadevan

TIM PEARSON

India is a growing market for ICT-enabled educational solutions and the RM group -- a leading provider of ICT software, services and infrastructure to schools in the U.K. -- has this market as a small but growing blip on its business radar, the group CEO Tim Pearson has said.

In a recent interview to The Hindu , Mr. Pearson said officials of RM Education Solutions India (RMESI), the group's Indian wing, have made preliminary visits to schools in Thiruvananthapuram to try and learn how they operate and to determine the sort of ICT-enabled solutions support they might require. "We have no staff and no financial plans at the moment for this but this is one of the things we would like to do even if there is no money in it for a decade," Mr. Pearson explained.

The company's experience with providing ICT solutions to schools in the U.K. has convinced its CEO that IT-enabled teaching need not be hampered by large classes -- a feature common to almost all schools in India -- or by levels of IT literacy among teachers. According to Mr. Pearson, merely replacing a lecture with a PowerPoint presentation is not what ICT-enabled teaching is all about. "A PowerPoint presentation can be as boring as a lecture," he points out. The real challenge is to free the teacher from the blackboard and allow for simulations and interactive mode of learning. In schools in the U.K., `interactive white boards' are today revolutionising the way lessons are taught. Today, the RM group is producing what is called `whole class teaching' software that allows all students in a class to participate in the learning process. Mr. Pearson argues that the one-PC-per-student system of learning, though useful, has its limitations. Whole-class learning software allows the teacher to present to the class her notes, mix slides, recall what was done last week and even allows students to intervene and interact with the material that is being projected on the class screen.

In the U.K., in the classes following the one-PC-per-student system, it was found that teachers who were IT-savvy outperformed their not-so-savvy colleagues. Whole class learning software, on the other hand, does not demand that level of IT-literacy from a teacher. "Interactive white boards that are now there in 30 per cent of schools in the U.K. are an incremental build on what the teachers have been doing so far. It is not a fundamentally different system. So there is much less teacher resistance," Mr. Pearson said.

Does this mean that with the use of educational software, the teacher will be permanently relieved from preparing notes and that they would be bound by the software in the matter of teaching methods?

According to Mr. Pearson, even with ICT support, a teacher will have flexibility in choosing how to present a lesson. Educational software allows the teaching of a subject in a multiplicity of ways. So, a teacher can mix and match the content in the software and individualise the presentation.

Education is not just about making presentations and handing out pieces of paper in the classroom. In today's learning environment, it is highly inefficient for a teacher to be preparing all his material. With ICT tools, the class can be made interesting to children who may not want to be there in the first place.

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