Multimedia Class room

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What is Multimedia Class room?

The education initiatives by Access to Information Project aim to make teaching and learning more effective and enjoyable for both students and teachers using ICT. a2i has followed a 3-pronged approach in its efforts to remodel education: establishing Multimedia Classrooms in secondary schools, training teachers on making ICT aided educational content on hard-to-grasp topics and make electronic versions of text books available in primary and secondary levels including technical, vocational and Madrasa institutions. As part of the education reform driven by the Ministry of Education, a2i through public private partnership has so far established 500 multimedia classrooms in secondary schools and trained about 4500 teachers through 400 trainers of public training institutes.

                       Why Multimedia Class room was necessary?

 Bangladesh is endowed with a large pool of intelligent young citizens who, with proper education, can be turned into a valuable human resource befitting the needs of the 21st century. Refashioning classroom environment and redesigning the tools of learning is an important part of the envisioned education reform. Simple ICTs facilitated reform has been given the utmost importance, owing to its versatility and cost …Effectiveness. a2i, being GOB’s flagship ICT for Development program, has thus been chosen to lead the reform through ICT based education initiatives.  Implemented through pilots in partnership with government and private organizations, these initiatives have largely been successful and now being scaled up through various GOB projects and partnerships.

               Why Multimedia Class room came about?

a2i started its interventions by testing the widespread myth about ICT in education, which consists of setting up expensive computer labs to provide basic computer literacy and technical know-how. Given the cost of setting up and operating labs and relatively low student involvement, concerns surface regarding effectiveness, scalability, and overall feasibility of such ventures. In contrast, innovative use of ICTs as a conduit for learning has looked more promising in some informal experiments. Drawing from these experiences, a2i introduced Multimedia Classrooms in 500 secondary schools, using one laptop with internet connection and a multimedia projector per classroom. This approach proved to be much cheaper than a full-fledged computer lab and thus economically more feasible. These classrooms have also succeeded in enhancing quality of classroom learning, drawing deeper attention from students and making teachers more effective in communicating difficult ideas. Taking this success one step further, a2i has trained 4500 teachers from the same schools through its ‘Teacher-led Digital Content Development’ program. Under this program teachers learn to develop and present digital contents for their classrooms, using materials found on the internet and simple presentation software. Teachers also share the contents they have developed on an education blog (http://ictinedubd.ning.com/) developed by a2i. To increase availability of school textbooks, development of e-books or electronic version of textbooks for primary and secondary levels including technical, vocational and madrasah is underway. Visually appealing and with options like search and text enlargement, 300+ e-books for primary and secondary levels have been created so far and uploaded on the website (www.ebook.gov.bd). Anyone is able to download them or read online free-of-cost from anywhere. For executing these initiatives, a2i has worked in partnership with Ministry of Education (MoE), Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME), Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), Directorate of Primary Education (DPE), National Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB), Ministry of Education’s Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project (TQI-SEP), ICT for Education in Secondary and Higher Secondary Level Project (ICT Project), Teachers’ Training Colleges (TTC), Higher Secondary Teachers’ Training Institutes (HSTTI), Bangladesh Madrasha Teachers’ Training Institute (BMTTI); Banglalink, Intel, Hosaf Group and other private partners.

What will be the impact of Multimedia Classroom?

Multimedia classrooms, digital contents and teacher training together will improve overall quality of learning in primary and secondary education by promoting effective and participatory learning and eliminating unnecessary memorizing tendencies.

Source: a2i