Companies like Hitachi, Smart Board, HCL and Panasonic are developing the e-whiteboards which has made the life of the Maths teacher particularly easy. Now the Maths teacher just draws a rough triangle or circle and the e-whiteboard converts it into a perfect circle or triangle.

He can also measure the geometric forms with e-rulers and protractors which can pop up on the whiteboard. Hitachi has developed Bluetooth boards via which students can mark their answers sitting at their places on the e-whiteboard.

"Many schools like DPS Ghaziabad and Poddar School in Mumbai have deployed whiteboards for teaching. Even if a student pricks a compass on the electronic board, it works perfectly fine as it's hard material," says Tarun Jain, country head at Hitachi India.

After the group exercise, the teacher makes the class play a snakes-and-ladders game on their PCs. As students start moving from square one to 100, they may encounter ladders. Each ladder is accompanied by a question on a topic just discussed in the class. The students are marked on how much scores they get in the game. Students compete to finish faster and score higher scores which pop on the teacher's whiteboard as they click submit.

After the class, the teacher just uploads the homework assignment on each student's PC via WiFi. "It saves time as we don't have to write on the blackboard or hand out sheets," says Ms Preeti, a science teacher at Chiranjiv Bharti School, Palam Vihar, New Delhi. Some other schools where the classmate PC is changing learning are Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad; Padma Sheshadri Bal Bharati, Bangalore and NVS Mothuka, Faridabad. Companies like Educomp, Intel, Microsoft, Edurite and Linux have partnered in the programme.
shreya.biswas@timesgroup.com

Intel plans to roll out about 100,000 classmate PCs by end of 2008-09.

HCL Infosystems has partnered to distribute classmate PCs across India. "We are excited to meet the educational needs of young India with the Intel-powered classmate PC. Two more schools will see the pilot in the next one month," Intel India president Praveen Vishakantaiah said.

Meanwhile, small IT companies like Ahmedabad-based Designmate have developed 3D animation to transform lectures in Chemistry, Biology or Physics into fun-based learning. 3D sunglasses are handed out to students before each 3G video class.

In ancient India, students in Gurukuls were made to play -- `Moksha Patamu' -- original version of snakes and ladders. The spiritual gurus taught them about the effects of good deeds and bad deeds through the game where snakes were more than ladders. Now, the game seems to be coming back in to schools via e-classrooms and 3D animation.