CHENNAI: EZ Vidya, a city-based company specialising in instructional design for schools, on Wednesday launched "Chrysalis," a comprehensive computer science curriculum for classes I through X.

Schools could adopt the curriculum to replace the conventional textbooks and classroom learning. Chitra Ravi, CEO of EZ Vidya, said Chrysalis was designed by their R&D team with inputs from teachers and professionals from various fields.

"It is a new way of learning where the students won't have to memorise computer definitions that they don't understand." In other words, the curriculum was aimed at making students `IT-capable than just IT- literate'.

She said the company drew from its experience over the past 6 years with over 70 schools across the country to come up with the curriculum.

A typical classroom module from Chrysalis, for example, would encourage students to create multimedia packages on general topics.

The students will use sound and animation files in the module to create presentations. "Merely explaining what multimedia is would be boring. Instead we encourage students to create multimedia presentations on topics of their interest," Ms. Chitra said.

Through Chrysalis, EZ Vidya hopes to reach several schools in the next academic year. "That is the reason for choosing computer science curriculum for a redesign," Chitra added. "Most schools do not seem to worry about computer science marks until the class X, when there is the board examination. Hence they are more open towards experimenting new ways of teaching."

Apart from Chrysalis, EZ Vidya has partnered Wipro in "teacher empowerment programmes" across the country. It has also brought out a multimedia CD title `Thiruvalluva Ula" for the Azim Premji Foundation.

For more details about Chrysalis and EZ Vidya, contact 2817 0345 or 2817 4992.

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