The IT@School Project of  Kerala state, has developed a resource DVD for free distribution to 60,000 high school teachers in the state --  the first initiative of its kind in the country. To be released on July 15 by the state’s Chief Minister .V.S.Achuthanandan, the 8 GB DVD entitled e-Vidhya contains e-versions of all class 8 and 9 texts of the Kerala state school system, as well as a host of office packages, painting software, special features on presentation software, tools for science, mathematics, social science etc.

The DVD also includes resource materials which would help in  using free software applications such as Kalzium, KStars, Xrmap, Marble, K-Tech lab, Geogebra, GPeriodic, Ghemical, Sunclock, Exarmap etc.

The Resource DVD is part of IT@School Project’s various initiatives to ensure a complete ICT enabled educational system in the state. It also includes the PDF versions of various textbooks, latest versions of free application softwares, including theIT@School  version of  GNU/Linux and  the IT@School Edu Ubuntu Operating System, selected articles from Malayalam Wikipedia etc.

The teachers have complete freedom to copy, edit and re-distribute the contents in the Resource DVD, which is prepared entirely on Free and Open  Software.   Over 12,000 teachers have already completed specific tranining which will help them optimally exploit this resource.

“Through the release of the Resource DVD to all High School teachers, and by empowering them with specific ICT skills, it is aimed to implement a complete ICT enabled learning process at all classrooms in the state”, says K.Anvar Sadath, Executive Director, IT@School Project.

July 14 2010