The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Students bring out CDs on tourism, ecology

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Monday, Jul 21, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Students bring out CDs on tourism, ecology

Staff Reporter

Computer literacy under ‘Intel Learning Programme’

PLEASED: Students of Annavasal village near Pudukottai who had prepared some projects with agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan.

PUDUKOTTAI: A group of rural school students in and around Annavasal near Pudukottai have put to good use the knowledge they had gained in computer operations through the Village Knowledge Centres of the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) by bringing out compact discs on varied topics such as tourism, ecology, environment and town planning as part of their project works.

The Village Resource Centre of the MSSRF, which has established Village Knowledge Centres at a dozen villages in and around Annavasal, has been imparting computer literacy to the children, under its ‘Intel Learning Programme.’

Under the three-month course, students are being taught basic computer operation including painting, MS Word, MS Excel and MS Power point. The students had taken up projects on different topics and brought out CDs on the same.

“I chose the tourism potential of Pudukottai district which accounts for a large number of monuments. My native village Iluppur too has some monuments close by,” says P. Keerthika, whose project on ‘Travel’ throws light on the rock-cut and ancient temples at Avudaiyarkovil, Chittannavasal and Kudumiyanmalai. “I have also appended in my project the hotels and restaurants in the nearest town, for benefit of tourists and pilgrims from other states and abroad,” she says. A student of Standard VIII at R.C. High School in Iluppur, she says that apart from learning computer operation, the programme had infused in her a sense of self-confidence.

Two other students – N. Gopalakrishnan and S. Johnson, both students of standard VIII in the Government Higher Secondary School in Annavasal, say that they underwent the practice for two hours from 4.30 p.m. They have chosen ‘Future’ and ‘Park’ as their project-topic. “We have projected the environmental condition of Annavasal village in our project,” they say with a smile in their face.

Foundation Chairman M.S. Swaminathan, who was at Annavasal on Saturday, spent a while with these children, and appreciated their efforts. He appealed to them to continue their efforts in a sustained manner.

The Project Co-ordinator of the Village Resource Centre, R. Rajkumar, said that the studentsevinced keen interest in preparing various projects. What they needed was just an opportunity, he said.

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