Himanshu Gupta, Joint Managing Director of the S Chand group tells Deebashree Mohanty that digital integration into traditional means of teaching is the future of education. With this in mind, S Chand has come up with an app called Action
Tell us more about your mobile application called S Chand ActionIJ
Action is an augmented reality-based application, designed to take education to the next level, using Smartphone as an interactive learning and teaching tool for students and teachers. It makes teaching and learning from the textbook more interactive, easier, faster and fun through live videos on the mobile screen. S Chand Action will be bringing content from text books to life with audio-visual content.
Why did you think of such an integrationIJ
We are India’s largest publisher for educational content with 75 years of excellence and we have been continuously innovating to make reading fun and eventful for the youngsters. Rote learning is becoming a growing menace in this country and we are hoping to make a change in that methodology. We launched the S Chand Action with a vision to make education more interactive using the digital platform.
How does this workIJ
The application can be downloaded on Apple and Android devices from the respective App Store absolutely free. After downloading it, all the user has to do is to run the application and allow the camera of the phone to scan the QR Codes printed in the S Chand books. Then the student can access this material on his phone on the go.
Is this going to be only science-based application onlyIJ
We are doing a soft launch of this application with about 40-45 science experiments which will be graphically explained with visual display on the phone. The aim is to get to 270 experiments and take it from there. We have a research team who has gone through a lot of materials before finalising on the experiment. And we have Snaplion who has given us able technology support.
Is digital technology the future of advanced education in IndiaIJ
Yes. In a world where digital technology is revolutionising the way we live and think, this application will create synergy between traditional and evolved learning process by making it interactive, easier, faster and fun.
With the app, our aim is to take learning to the next level making it more easy and fun to learn from books. Audio-Visual experience and learning has a major impact than reading and learning and that is what Action strives to do.
What about benefits for parents and teachersIJ
The application will not only help students to absorb and connect with what they are reading and learning but also help teachers and parents to make children understand the concept in better way.
When are you introducing it in the marketIJ
The application will be available for the lakhmir Singh and Manjeet Kaur series of 9th class in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and 10th Physics and Chemistry along with 10th Class Biology textbook of by Dr PS Verma and Dr VK Aggarwal for the April’2015-March’2016 academic session.