By Syed Altefat Hossain

RAJSHAHI, Dec 19, 2021 (BSS) – Aranya Ray, a 10th grader at River View Collectorate School in Rajshahi, is very much excited having a multimedia classroom that offers them the opportunity of acquiring technology-based practical knowledge.

 “When we were taught manually with only books having black and white pictures, we could not fully realize many things shown in the photograph. But now we can acquire practical knowledge by virtually visiting the locations in the pictures,” Aranya told BSS during a field visit by this correspondent recently.
The pictures of historical and heritage sites like Mahasthangarh, Paharpur, Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty were confined to the textbooks just like many other ordinary photos as there was no scope to learn more about the sites going beyond the descriptions given in the books, he added.

“Now our teachers virtually take us to the places or sites using multimedia. We can know in detail about anything through the internet using our digital lab, which is actually flourishing our technology-based knowledge,” Aranya said.
Jarmim Akter Tumpa, another 10th grader of the same school, said the multimedia classrooms help them be attentive in classroom as the teachers teach through power-point presentations.

“The multimedia classroom made the learning process more interesting as we can acquire in-depth knowledge about the textbook lessons,” she said.
 
While visiting the school on the bank of the Padma, it was observed that the institution is well equipped with digital technologies and devices. The students were seen entering respective their classrooms giving digital attendance through fingerprint.

Students of the school said, during the coronavirus pandemic, they attended the classes online through Zoom that helped them continue their studies without any interruption.
 
“It was a great pleasure for us that we could continue our academic activities through digital platforms during the Covid-19 situation, thanks to the government's Digital Bangladesh’ vision,” said Md Faysal Hossain, an eighth grader of the school.
 
Headmaster of the school Manwara Perveen said the teachers are now teaching with power-point presentations that helps instill the students with practical knowledge.

Most of the teachers have been trained up on teaching in multimedia classrooms, she said, adding the teachers have taken classes through online platforms like Zoom when the school was down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pledged to build ‘Digital Bangladesh’ on December 12, 2008, in her party’s election manifesto. The a2i of the Cabinet Division and the ICT Division with the support from the UNDP is mainly materializing the vision.

The a2i designed the multimedia classroom in line with the government’s aim of turning its huge young intelligent populace into valuable resources.

According to the a2i, a total of 58,000 multimedia classrooms have so far been set up at different educational institutions, including schools, colleges, universities and madrasahs, across the country.

State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the government has set a target of creating employment for 30 lakh youths and increasing the export income from ICT sector to US$ 5 billion by 2025.
   
The 39 hi-tech parks, 64 Sheikh Kamal IT Training Incubation Centers, 300 Schools of Future and 13,000 Sheikh Russel Digital Labs will play a vital role to achieve the target, he said, adding, “We will set up 27,000 more Sheikh Russel Digital Labs and 300 Schools of Future across the country by 2025”.