LMS to enhance Learning Using E-Tablets in Goa

The academician in me is extremely thrilled at the very prospect of all that can be achieved when every child in my Goa will be empowered with technology. I can almost visualize Samaya, my friendly farmer neighbors 13 year old daughter, sitting under the Mango tree outside the village school in Divar, deeply engrossed in surfing for information on insects and other tiny creatures whom she adores so much. That surely is an entomologist in the making! Now, I am surely not daydreaming. If the proposed empowerment of Goan students with technology takes place as envisaged, scenarios like this would be a commonplace. Government of Goa has initiated several schemes to ensure that all the students in the state from level V onwards are equipped with a tech gadget like netbooks, Notebooks, laptops ,desktops etc. Thousands of machines have already reached the students. Schemes have also been floated for teachers to buy computers. Due to all this, Goa has one of the best PC penetration in the country. The netbooks to be given to students from V standard onwards are expected to be power packed with relevant contents as per the syllabus. This must be complemented with updated contents from the world wide web using the GBBN. Goa Broad Band Network (GBBN) has already taken high bandwidth connectivity to almost all the schools in Goa. Connectivity may or may not actually have been commissioned in the schools, but the underlying necessary cables have already been laid for schools across Goa. It will be just a question of few more hardware, software additions here and there to make every school internet ready. A Wifi router in each school can make the campus of every school in Goa a WiFi HotSpot. With anytime, anywhere connectivity within the campus and your own E-tablet or laptop in hand, will the scenario in the intro be too very difficult to achieve. I sincerely dont think so! Hurdles there will be many, but since the ground work is done to a considerable extent it will comparatively be a smooth sail. But as always the political will (which at the movement at least is favourable) and the persistence and enthusiasm shown by implementing authorities will be the deciding factors. Nonetheless, if our Goan institutes are expected to make the best use of such connectivity and infrastructure they need to be empowered with one more tool. A content management system (CMS) also referred to as Learning Management System(LMS) in the academic context. Learning Management Systems are an assortment of software tools that are designed to help in organizing the teaching-learning process in a very structured manner. LMSs have the capacity to extend the boundaries of the classroom much beyond its four walls. In fact, its an implement that is designed to help put into practice the concept of anytime anywhere learning.

Imagine you are a student struggling with a math problem on your own and are stuck up at a point. You just post a message for your teacher and lo and behold your difficulty is solved! What else could a student ask for! LMS enables such environment where one can get in touch with the teacher anytime anywhere. As and when the teacher is free she could look at the queries and help the students accordingly. In addition, it is quite possible that the difficulty one student faced was the difficulty of many others. When they see the additional explanation by the teacher, they too will have a smooth sail with the problem. This gives the teacher an opportunity to be a 24x7 learning facilitator. Another advantage of LMS is it promotes collaborative learning. Through online discussions and posts with teachers and other students a lot of useful learning can take place. Such platforms will be a boon. More so for introvert or shy students who are apprehensive about asking queries in front of the whole class. Even those who are not comfortable with face to face interaction on a one to one basic with the teacher can interact with her online. Generally we tend to talk with and discuss things/issues online on facebook with known or little known people at length. Many of us would not have done the same discussions offline face to face. The same thing happens in an online learning environment. Studies have shown that students tend to voice their queries and discuss more freely online than offline. This leads to collaborative learning where each one contributes to the learning process. LMSs have systems in place using which entire courses can be designed and organized in a structured manner. As the course progresses additional resources can be added by the teacher and also contributed by the students. There is no bar on the type of study material -it could be plain text, presentation, pictures, audios, videos, links to quality subject resources and so on. Learning using all these resources will surely be more fulfilling and fun too. At the same time what the student will be learning will be most contemporary. Academics has always been blamed of sticking onto outdated syllabus, we can get rid of that tag once and for all. LMSs can be used to build mechanisms for continuous evaluation. This can also include test, quizzes of different types including audio-visuals etc. which could help in judging what the child has actually learnt from the course and not just how much he/she has been able to mug up. Under an LMS environment every subject grows to become a more enriching one with each year that passes by. The next teacher who takes up the subject can build on the previous work as the underlying course structure in already in place. And the best part is that certain Learning Management Softwares like Moodle are available free of cost for download and use. What I have discussed about the LMS system is just the tip of the iceberg. Top notch institutions like IITs are deploying free open source LMSs like Moodle to supplement their teaching-learning. Goa University has been using LMS for quite some years now. Chowgule college, Margao has been a torch bearer of e-learning in Goa for several years now. I myself

have used LMSs in academic institutions in India and abroad with very positive outputs and experienced the benefits of such systems. Many will feel that I am talking about hypothetical things without knowing the ground realities. But that is not true I have been to most remote schools in the state. I am absolutely aware of the fact that the existing infrastructure in schools in Goa is not that great. I know that many of our schools dont have potable water and proper sanitation facilities. But the fact that each of our student will get a computer or some variant of it is equally true. The GBBN cables have also been physically laid out so it is just a matter of time that things fall in place in the right perspective. Sources in the department also inform that the Goa Government is planning to deploy content management systems in schools in Goa with funding from world bank . If this becomes a reality the academic environment in the state will be highly enriched. And our next generation will be appropriately armed to take up the challenges of the new world head-on.