The Hindu Business Line : Set off with your laptop

BHARAT Dohdy is working on a project on organic farming and wants some data. He does not need to wait for the library hour or wait for his turn at the computer lab. He can simply log on to the Internet using his laptop and get what he wants.

No, Bharat is not an MBA student at a top-notch college, he is a 13-year-old eighth grade student of Pathways World School on the outskirts of Gurgaon. Claiming to take the benefits of IT literally to the next generation, Pathways School insists that all its students (except the tiny tots) study, sorry, work on laptops. So, every student from the sixth standard has to buy a laptop that supports wireless Internet.

On a typical day, Bharat switches on his laptop in the morning and is instantly connected to the Net, thanks to the entire school being Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) enabled. The students are encouraged to minimise the use of paper in their daily academic activity. "The software creates a virtual classroom and it is not necessary for students to be present in one place. They log on to the group and whatever the teacher writes on his or her laptop is instantly reflected on the students' screens. The teachers have remote access into any student's system at any time to check what the child is up to," says Prashant Jain, a Director on the board of the school.

Having a Net-enabled laptop in a hot-spot is not carte blanche for doing whatever the students want, and Sudhanshu Agarwal, 16, who will take his international baccalaureate next year, knows it only too well. His teacher can always check up if he is up to any mischief, thanks to Network Class, an IP-based software package developed by Net India Solutions. "The teachers can access our computers anytime. They can also check on which sites we visit, so it is not a free for all. At the same time, the school gives us ample freedom to plan our work and produce results," says his classmate Kamaldip Singh.

The students cannot visit pornographic sites or Web sites inappropriate for them. To ensure this, the school has also implemented an Internet firewall called `Cyberoam' that constantly filters pornographic sites and sites the school finds undesirable for its students. The school also controls the access time. So, Bharat cannot check his mails till lunch-time as the facility is available only after 2 p.m. Similarly, Sudhanshu cannot burn the midnight oil as the computer goes blink at 12 p.m. for his grade. For Bharat's grade, the plug would be yanked two hours earlier.

Most of the students, whose parents are forking out up to Rs 4 lakh annually as fees, buy their machines through the school. Pathways has worked out a bulk deal with IBM, which provides all hardware and has provided the entire software and networking package to the school. Pathways spent nearly Rs 2 crore for putting in place the IT infrastructure in the campus.

Jain claims that Pathways is the only school in the country where the entire campus is Wi-Fi-enabled. That means Sudhanshu could be sitting in the amphitheatre and communicating with his teachers. The software also enables students to share each other's work. While working on a project on aerated drinks, if Gaurav Arora discovers something that could interest the entire class, the teacher can pass it on to other students. Working on a laptop helps 10-year-old Gaurav "perform better" and enjoy at the same time as he is able to "save time".

"Earlier, we had to go to the (computer) lab if we wanted to locate some information for a project. The result was that we simply did not take the pains and the job was done with whatever we could manage from here and there," he says.

Jain says the philosophy of the school is to let students work on something that they want to chase the moment they get the idea. "If they wait, the idea may be lost or the enthusiasm may wane. We tell our students that if they get a brainwave, they should implement it just then," he says.

Sudhanshu says he has no problems about working in a secure network that is continuously monitored. There is time for everything, including games and personal e-mails - except that it is regulated. Staying with the laptop virtually for 24 hours in a centrally air-conditioned environment would be expected to make the students nerds. Sudhanshu takes strong exception to being described as a nerd. "Of course not. We have to spend time in the field and we play games. We go to the gym, we go swimming, so it is not as if we are continuously glued on to computers," he says.

Bharat plays games on his computer as well. But they are not the simple car racing or enemy shooting games most of us are familiar with. "I play strategy games that force me to plan and think. The effort always is to prove that I am the best." Pathways may be a little ahead in time compared with other schools, but the use of IT is fast catching up among educational institutions. While most good schools already encourage their students to spend more time learning on computers, the laptop may soon replace books and notebooks in our children's satchels in the coming years.

gaurav@thehindu.co.in

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Set off with your laptop