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The proliferation of tablets and smart devices made today's generation tech-savvy. The concept of App Store has made everyone to look for handy apps to do just about everything. When Apple launched an app for digital textbooks called iBooks, it saw a whopping 3.5 lac downloads globally in the first couple of days. Google (which has a repository of 20 million scanned books along with its huge pool of indexed data) taught everyone to search for anything and everything online. US e-commerce giant Amazon recently launched its Kindle Store in India, claiming to have over one million e-books, priced in Indian rupees.
While the concept of e-books have set off years back, digitizing textbooks started only recently. The Govt of India has encouraged the use of tablet devices across educational institutes by introducing Aakash tablet. And recently, many other players who came up with tablets loaded with rich educational contents including HCL and Micromax.
While Aakash and other similar tablet PCs tried to break the digital divide by making courseware accessible to students and teachers in affordable tablets, it created lots of enthusiasm amongst India's youth. Truly, this created the appetite for students to lay their hands on tablets.
Smart class solutions from the likes of Edocomp have been well received by students and teachers with thousands of schools leveraging its power. These solutions have transformed the way teachers teach and students learn in schools.
It's time to take this to next level —digitizing textbooks. Digital interactive contents available anywhere anytime has several edges over conventional modes of teaching. This includes animations and illustrations, that are not possible in regular textbooks. Plus, you can carry entire syllabus in your palm.
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It may not be long before textbooks are replaced by rich digital contents including educational games, free courseware, videos, etc on the web. However, to get the benefits of e-textbooks in India, Internet access for every student, which is not the case in rural India today, has to be ensured.
Digital marketplace for students
Recently, a company called Attano Media and Education launched an educational digital marketplace for students, parents and teachers. The Attano market is loaded with educational textbooks for students, parents and teachers. This seems to be the first platform for the Indian market where students and teachers can buy electronic content --from kindergarten students to students pursuing higher education.
Publishers of education books like Cartoon Network, Pearson Higher Ed, Tata McGraw Hill, Turner, Allied Publishers and more sell their content on Attano. They also have an app for Windows, iPad or an Android device, called Attano eReader, which offers purchase of educational eBooks.
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Do you think time is ripe for India to digitize textbooks, where Internet access is still a concern?
We see this as an evolving landscape. While the current opportunity offers a decent user base (70-75 million installed PC/Laptop base, 125 million smartphone base), we envisage a future where affordable tablets, broadband wireless and growing disposable incomes result in demand for quality affordable education for a large population (200Mn+ users). However, we believe that students should have access to the best content from around the world that is relevant to their learning needs.
How has it been so far? Are students learning to cope with this?
The response we've received from students, parents and teachers has been encouraging. We have over 100,000 registered users on our site and over 22000 of them are fans on Facebook. In the coming app releases, we will include even more tools to enable students to study smarter and score more marks. ----Soumya Banerjee, CEO, Attano
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We tried the app on our desktop. It works. Content is priced 20% cheaper than the market price. However the value is way more —easy access to content from anywhere and anytime. It is the same experience as you get on a hard book.
So, your load on palm may get reduced in coming days. It's a great idea pushing textbooks to students and teachers in their smartphones, accessible anytime anywhere. After all, it's fun learning the e-way.
Road ahead!
Digitization of the education curriculum is still in a nascent stage though, private schools have already started taping into the potential of multimedia classroom teaching. Schools in tier two and tier three cities are increasingly adopting the latest technology to engage with nextgen of learners adapted with the likes of iPads and PlayStations.
ICT solutions are making life easier for both students and educators. E-textbooks offer a host of functions that can transform teaching —including images, slideshows, links, and multiple-choice tests. It has lots of potential to rehash our education landscape with interactive e-books for students and teachers. Having said, connectivity issue has to be dealt with before the trend gets all-pervasive.