BalaSwecha
BalaSwecha is an initiative of Swecha which aims at bridging the growing digital divide in education at the school level between the privileged and underprivileged. BalaSwecha is a complete learning platform which introduces computer aided education and virtual lab environment to the schools.
Teachers in the Government schools are not well equipped with technology. Hence they are forced to follow the traditional teaching methods. BalaSwecha gives them an opportunity to teach with the help of multimedia content and the students to explore the subject with the help of the applications available.
The applications in BalaSwecha create a virtual lab environment where the teacher/ student can conduct their experiments and explore the concept beyond their textbooks. It helps in increasing the inquisitive thinking among the students. The students will be exposed to a huge platform where they can explore and learn while conducting experiments.
BalaSwecha is a tool which is built to compliment the teachers than to replace.
Swecha conducts a series of workshops for the teachers from the Government schools on BalaSwecha across Andhra and Telangana states. There are around 300 teachers till May 2015 who had attended the workshops.
The feedback collected during the Teacher Training Workshops and our interactions with various educational specialists.
Contents
Teacher Training Workshops
Teacher training workshops are conducted twice every year. One during the summer vacation which includes teachers across the Andhra and Telangana. The other, during vacations like Dussehra / Pongal where teachers get long holidays.
During the teacher training workshop, the teachers are introduced to computer aided teaching.
Road Map
Current Status
- The learning platform in BalaSwecha is equipped with more than 100 applications which create a virtual lab environment.
- With the new User Interface BalaSwecha looks even more appealing.
- The Teacher Training Workshop conducted in May 2015 got another 50 teachers engaged with BalaSwecha
Things to do: (Road map for the next release) =
- The user interface needs additional modules to accommodate curriculum mapping
- Work needs to be done on distro
- Size, Desktop Environment, Wubi, Ncomputing, etc.
- Website
- Develop applications to cater to class VIII & IX
- Develop application for Biology and Social
Cell Division, Microscope, Base Framework, etc
- Improve the Knowledge/Content sharing platform for Teachers
Applications
To be developed
- Pulleys