Prof. Prema Nedungadi was invited as a Distinguished Panelist in the Plenary Session- Learning and Leading with Technology at the 4th Edition of International Conference of School Principals 2015 (ICSP 2015) on December 3, 2015 at PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, New Delhi. Over 500 school principals, managements, educationalists and administrators participated at the conference. Prof. Rajaram S. Sharma, Joint Director, CIET, NCERT and Prof M. M. Pant were present in the panel.
At the conference, Prof. Prema Nedungadi gave a brief introduction of AmritaCREATE and the Center’s efforts to design and provide quality education content for enhancing learning experiences of both students and teachers. She highlighted the development of Amrita Online Labs and Amrita RITE (Rural India Tablet Education), the two main projects of AmritaCREATE, which are developed with the aim of improving the learning needs of multi-grade students and keep them engrossed in the learning process by using personalized learning systems such as personal computers (e-learning), mobile devices (m-learning) and tablet technology.
Amrita Online Labs, based on the idea that lab experiments can be taught using internet, helps students with no access to physical labs to compete with students in better equipped schools and thus bridges the digital divide. Amrita RITE- Rural India Tablet Education is designed with the aim to provide after-school tutoring and adult literacy to the illiterate people in rural and tribal villages of India with the help of tablet computers. The different educational projects developed by the Center are available free of cost and are designed to work where there is little or no internet connectivity.
As the part of the conference, AmritaCREATE exhibit showcased Online Labs (OLabs) for Science Lab Experiments. Over 350 visitors tried out OLabs at the stall. Our team showcased OLabs using tablets, desktops and touch screens to explain the cross platform compatibility of the project. An example of an experiment in animation and simulation modes was displayed on each screen for the visitors to test and explore the touch based technology. The team was led by Rathnam C., Sindhu B. and Suresh D. from AmritaCREATE. Visitors showed keen interest in trying out OLabs and hearing explanations by the team members. Some of the visitors at the stall requested the team to participate and organize Online Labs Workshops at different upcoming science related conferences, workshops and programs.
