‘Startups should develop teaching aids for blended learning’

Startups should develop aesthetically appealing teaching aids for teachers to enable blended learning in the post-Covid scenario. There should be more apps to make the job of teachers and administrators' easier while reducing the dependence of students on gadgets and devices, according to educational experts at the 63rd Rajagiri Round Table conference held via Zoom Meet on the topic “ How Edu-startups can help schools with blended learning”.

Suma Paul, Principal of Assisi Vidyaniketan and CBSE ICT award-winning teacher, said that edu-startups can develop a variety of solutions to enable teachers to correct pronunciations and grammatical errors in vodcasts . What is required is customised solutions not to readymade software. Startups can focus on providing support to teach coding, develop virtual labs and augmented reality solutions. “Each teacher has a different pedagogy, and they need to impart individual learning experience for students,” she added.

Loyola Antony, Principal of St Christopher School, Nagaland, said that startups should focus on ‘activity technology’ that enables children to use their mind and physique and reduce dependence on devices or gadgets.

According to Hillary Hinchliff, Principal of Gems Modern Academy, educational apps should have cybersecurity features that keep the student, schools and parents safe.

Vinish Scaria of Brightbee Technologies, Kottayam said that the present online learning system is one-sided whether it is provided through victors' channel or online platforms and there was no mechanism to understand the time spent by children to learn and the learning outcome. A learning management system can overcome these issues to make online learning more effective. Gamification is ideal for interactive learning, he added.

Christy Fernandez, Chairman of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, said that startups could think of a small device for ₹2,500 that will enable children to access all the learning materials online and work on it. The social entrepreneurship should be promoted in the edu-tech sector, and KSIDC had seed money left for edu-startups. Still, demand for products or services should be developed to a critical mass to make projects viable.

The meeting was moderated by Sreekumar Raghavan, Editor of Pallikkutam Magazine in which educational experts, startup representatives from across the country participated.