Kolkata, August 05: A tiny device, almost a look-alike of popular iPhone except for its larger screen, promises to bring about a paradigm shift in the way education is imparted in government-owned schools in rural areas.
Called the ePod, the hand-held device aims to make available the fruits of the latest computing technology in the hands of millions of students.
Manufactured by Tidaldata, a storage devices company, based in California, the ePod had become a rage with the students in the US in 2008.
Nagaraj, 12, a student of Class 8 in the Government School in Sakalvara, a sleepy village nestled in the backyards of India’s Silicon city, Bangalore, is happy using it.
At evenings after school he just scrolls the screen for the day’s lessons captured in video formats. He is one of the 30 children at the village who has been given the ePod.
Sakalvara village was the first place in the country where the ambitious project was launched last month by the local Rotary Club. Thirty ePODs, each costing about Rs 4,000 were distributed by the school’s principal, says the journal Technology Review.
Tidaldata is working with civil society groups and NGOs to reach out to thousands of school children in the country.
“We are confident the ePOD will supplement the efforts of teachers and enhance the learning skills of students who can now study at their own pace,” says Srinivas Pothapragada, one of the co-founders of Tidaldata.
The ePod uses the same chip set of Apples iPhone, but with a larger screen. The device, manufactured by another Indian promoted company, MyFi Networks, based in San Diego, California, has been extensively redesigned for the Indian conditions.
Pothapragada says a consortium of NGOs, Tidaldata, MyFi and philanthropic organizations are working together with education software providers to make available school curricula in local Indian languages. School lessons up to Class 8 in all subjects are available in five languages – English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Marathi.
The lighweight device has a simple interface and can store up to 700 hours of video content. As availability of electricity to power the machine is a problem, the design has been tweaked to work on solar power.
Every school in India where these devices will be distributed will also have solar panels to provide power outlets, as part of the project, he said.
Pothapragada said he got the idea about using ePod a year ago when his young son was playing with an iPhone.
–Agencies