Now, education goes mobile
Thursday July 13 2006 10:12 IST
CHENNAI: Mobile phones that are often considered a distraction, can now be used as a powerful study-aid. A Chennai-based company, floated by IIT alumni, has created a technology which claims students can learn and practise GRE by just logging in through their mobile phone.
“We have been working towards creating this software, Wizdom.in, for the last one year as we were keen on making one that can utilise a mobile phone in a positive and constructive manner. This software is created in such a way that it is interactive and flexible and provides a stress-free way of learning,” said one of the two creators, Anand Kannan who is an alumni of IIT, Madras, IISc and Purdue. His partner in the effort was Yogish Lavanis.
Explaining the features of the software, he said, “All the modules for GRE, including vocabulary, reading comprehension and quantitative skills, have been prepared by experts. The students can log in any time and work on sessions. All the student needs is a GPRS or Java-enabled phone,” said Anand.
The software also monitors, records and transfers every student interaction with the content to the server. This helps the student facilitators at the other end to understand the learning pattern of students and provide quick feedback through SMS or e-mail.
“This is technology-based but an intelligent human being handles everything at the other end. This helps students to also understand where they stand and improve on scores,” added Anand.
The students can also choose from three programs that include quick verbal that is a refresher course and covers 30 sessions, verbal master that has 60 sessions and a complete GRE package that runs through 150 sessions.
“We had tested this with more than 200 students for nearly six months. The response was good as it was flexible and interactive,” claimed Anand.
The company is also thinking of creating other software for educational purposes. “The big challenge now is creating awareness among the people that a mobile phone can be used in a positive manner. The mobile phone era is gathering steam and we want to create more applications to provide educational services and remote learning through mobile infrastructure,” he said. |
