Colleges using cellphone as learning tool

DHNS

• The ubiquitous gadget is now set to challenge the good old computer

Bangalore, 20 September 2010: Cashing in on the high tele density among students, six colleges in the State including three in the City are using mobile learning to improve their academic performance and bring about discipline. 

 
Seshadripuram First Grade College, Seshadripuram PU College (both in Yelahanka), and Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College for Women, Malleswaram have tied up with IPOMO Communications, a City-based firm that has launched various mobile-learning applications.

Enabled with a unique learning, assessment, and administration platform, IPOMO (Interactive Platform On Mobile) Campus, the m-learning application developed by the firm, is being used for handling internal assessment, marking attendance, profiling students and announcing results. 

IPOMO Campus is being used on three fronts - attendance and internal marks, continuous internal assessment, and career guidance and counselling.  Dr Prakash, Principal, Seshadripuram First Grade College, is relieved that the teachers in his college need no longer grapple with time constraints. “It’s a boon for us. Now, our teachers have enough time to concentrate on their lectures,” he told Deccan Herald.

Dr L Uma Devi, Principal, Seshadripuram PU College, agrees.  “Students have become more serious. Now they think twice before bunking classes as an SMS about their absenteeism is sent to their parents,” she said. For this application, the company charges Rs 400 per student/per year. The cost is transferred to the students, she adds.

Delving on the experience at the Maharani Lakshmi Ammani College, Principal Anuradha says: “We launched the application in July. We have given our lecturers cellphones loaded with the relevant database. The new system is down-to-earth and has reduced our anxieties. Now, we don’t have to compile students’ records every month. Moreover, it has considerably improved their attendance in the class.” 

Students, too, seem content. All they have to do is install the “IPOMO Teachmate” software on their mobile phones and they can take mock tests.  Payal, PUC I student, Maharani Lakshmi Ammani College, says she is no longer scared of facing the CET after taking the mock test on her mobile phone.

“Now I can guess the format of questions to be asked in the exam,” she said.  Payal, however, feels that the system has put a bit of stress on the students. “Obviously, we can’t bunk classes at will anymore,” she laughs.

Highlights

* IPOMO Campus used on three fronts -  attendance, internal assessment and career guidance.

* The mobile learning application developed by Bangalore-based IPOMO Communications.