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At
the recently concluded trade fair IIW 99, among all the hype surrounding the
Internet and the brave new frontiers of e-commerce was a small stall (No. 713)
displaying an educational product. What made it interesting was that this was
an intranet which actually displayed homepages and websites made by middle
school students and teachers. High-speed access to the net on all terminals, a
school magazine on the web with very innovative designing. A school timetable,
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report cards on the web, interactive discussion forums for students and
teachers, internal and external e-mail. All this on a simple browser based
front end, which uses very little resources. The software was displayed on
three generations of computers, from an Intel 486, with 8 MB Ram a Media Gx
computer with 16 MB Ram to a P-III 450 with 128 MB Ram. This was appropriate
technology for India where a large number of schools have very few resources
to devote to the latest generation of computers. The surprising part was that
this was the only stall which made sense to the common man, displaying a
practical approach to revolutionizing education in schools. India has over
half its population illiterate and only web based methods can really close the
gap. The stall for iSchool2000 was sponsored by APERF a non
profit foundation . Developing iSchool2000 which is a
complete school management system and functional Intranet based on the open
source platform from a scratch has been a very challenging task. This has been
developed after a comprehensive systems study and evaluation of an actual
school with 5,000 students at 3 locations. The complete school Intranet
comprises of over 22 modules, which will be a first of its kind in the World
using a cost effective Open Source Platform, which is fully scalable and
economical. All this is purely on Internet protocols, with a simple browser
front end, which greatly facilitate the day-to-day administration of the
system. The unique part is that this will be completely based on the LINUX
system, the de-facto standard that is shaking up established products and
operating systems and currently runs on a majority of the worlds Web Servers.
The
Wondersoft stall attracted over 2,000
visitors and generated more than 300 valid
enquiries for setting up similar
systems in their organizations.
COMMENTS
I-School 2000 is impressive and informative,
ideal for students! The net being put to excellent use!
Cecil Correa,
Business Manager, Trinity Group of Companies, Mumbai, Kanikamittal@123india.com
Very good
software, which can benefit both educational institutes and students. One must
go for it.
Gurjeet Singh,
Center Director, World Wide Web Institute. Modinagargurjeetk@webmaster-india.com
Most
impressive, I have seen many Indian Schools, paying only lip service to
computerization, but this is the first time that such a product has been
developed by a school and that also without any financial support from the
Industry or Government. I will try and help out in the USA by appealing to the
community there to give some funds to support such an activity.
Susan
MacTavish Best, Editor-in-Chief, www.posthoc.com,
San franciso, USA
Being an
ISP, we can provide this product over the web. We have plans in Maharashtra to
connect over 20,000 schools. We would like to work jointly with you.
Kapil
Dhatingan, Manager Strategic Planning & Business Development, Dishnet
Limited, Pune. kapuild@ip.eth.net
There is a
tremendous scope out there for enabling our children learn with joy and in an
interactive way, and thus a great service to the society. I wish you the best
in realizing this great opportunity.
Sughil
Ramola,
Vice President, Corporate Planning, HRD & Systems, SRF LIMITED, New Delhi.
Srf.corp@srf.sprintrpg.ems.vsnl.net.in
I am happy
to see that applications on the LINUX platform are proliferating. I-School
looks like a good product. Best of Luck
Ramanpreet
Singh, Marketing Specialist-Network Services. IBM Global Services India Pvt.
Ltd., New Delhi, sramanpr@in.ibm.com
Very
impressive, keep up the good work. We would like to implement this product in
Oman.UAE
Abbas M. al
hassan, www.al-hassan.com
We feel
that this product can be successfully implemented in schools in Kuwait.
Vikas
Sagar,
Director, Global Information Distribution Corporation, Kuwait vsagar@global-books.com
From what I
have heard, this attempt appears to be highly commendable and praiseworthy. I
hope they achieve their objectives and spreading ways of computers/Internet
for education at a low cost
S.
Sriram,
Associate Professor, S.P. Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai sriram@spjmr.ernet.in
We would
like to support this activity in India, as a venture capital firm
Ashish
Dhawan,
Partner, Chrysalis Capital, New York ashish@chrysaliscapital.com
Interesting
concept for schools
Rahul Singh,
Manager Marketing Services, HCL Infosystems Ltd. NOIDA srahul@hclinsys.com
Distance
education specially web based, is the future of India
Prabhu
Jhingran, Director Deeksha Television, Lucknow, UP pjhingran@hotmail.com
Very
impressive, Wondersoft deserves the highest praise for their vision in
developing such a product on the LINUX platform.We feel that industry should
support such activities. I can try and get CEI and FICCI to come forward
R.S. Sharma, IAS, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Deptt. Of Economic
Affairs, Government of India rssharma@del2.vsnl.net.in
Commendable effort. Keep it up
B.S.
Grewal,
Vice President, PAX International Company, Rochester, USA
The product
really connects the education world
Anshula Gaur,
anshugaur@yahoo.com
Good
project, Keep it up. All of us need to do our little bit for the future
leaders
Pradeep
Kar,
Chairman, Microland Group, Bangalore pkar@microland.co.in
We would
like to market this very good product in Saudi Arabia.
Samer
Bazyan,
General Manager, Arabic Computer Systems Ltd.
Riyadh,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia samer@ae.net.sa
The idea is
absolutely lovely. We came here to know how we could gear up our school for
the next millennium. Found everything in just one stall!
Deepsha
Bhandari, Mata Jai Kaur Public School. Delhi deepshabhandari@hotmail.com
Seems very
interesting, this is the first effort I see to bring Internet culture to
schools on a large scale.
N.B.
Bhai,
ICICI Bank, New Delhi Bhai-nb@icicibank.com
I am very
glad to see this use of IT for education. We need to discuss this in greater
detail
Gyanendra,
Sec. To Chief Minister, Old Sectt, Delhi
We would be
interested in implementing this in our school. Please send more details.
M.I.
Hussain,
Principle. Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, New Delhi
Great Job
Being Done! Best of Luck
Munkesh Kumar,
I.R.S. munkeshkr@yahoo.com
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