The NOIDA-based school Global Indian International School (GIIS), a leading international school from Asia, has commenced GIIS virtual classroom for its students from today, offering school lessons through online video conferencing technologies.
GIIS schools in Bengaluru, Pune, Surat & Ahmedabad will follow suit in a day, and with these, over 11,000 students at these & overseas located GIIS schools would be able to enjoy virtual classes from the comfort of their homes. GIIS is the first school in the world to deploy virtual classrooms on such a large enterprise scale.
"By introducing virtual classrooms for all its students in India, GIIS is doing a great service to the student community. In aligning its education delivery during challenging times of COVID-19, GIIS will bring big relief to the parent community. We encourage all CBSE schools, as far as possible, to introduce similar innovative ways for their students to give them an uninterrupted learning experience", said Anurag Tripathi, CBSE Secretary on the launch of virtual classrooms in India by GIIS.
"At GIIS we have incorporated educational technologies that deliver maximum learning impact for every child, and the virtual classrooms are a great example of that. Virtual classrooms facilitate innovation through dynamic exchange of ideas with real-life bidirectional interactivity and this makes learning and teaching at GIIS an uninterrupted experience of innovative learning thoughts", said Arjun Temurnikar, Asst Director of Technology at Global Schools Foundation.
In view of COVID-19 and to ensure GIIS India students continue to receive education on a seamless basis, the school has put in place several innovative teaching techniques that the students can now take advantage of to keep themselves safe and secure at all times. GIIS has implemented a Continuity Plan (CP) for its students & teachers to minimize the impact of the virus and minimize disruptions to students in their learning journey.
GIIS schools have taken a number of measures to ensure the safety of students and some of these include temperature screening of all staff, students and visitors to the school, daily temperature checking by parents, and implementing special sanitizing of entire schools as per WHO guidelines, on all days.
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Earlier, in light of the COVID-19 situation worldwide, GIIS virtual classrooms were rolled out at the GIIS schools in Japan & Singapore, where Japan government had asked all its schools to remain closed for four weeks and Singapore health officials had allowed schools to continue to operate, under strict health guidelines, that include total prohibition of large gatherings of students at all times.
The virtual classrooms are very easily operated by students of age groups from 5 years to 18 years, by simply clicking a secure virtual classroom link within MyGIIS, a proprietary EduERP system developed by GIIS R & D at its SEZ operations in Mihan Nagpur.
GIIS has always been at the forefront of incorporating leading-edge educational technology to offer a fully digital learning experience for its students and this virtual classroom was activated in view of coronavirus within just three days.
"Today due to a cold, I could not go to school, so just like my friends, I too joined the GIIS virtual classroom, and the entire experience was just like a real classroom as if I was inside the class. I could see the whiteboards very clearly, I could see the teacher, I could ask questions in real-time and our teacher was able to answer my questions while she was teaching", said Arnav Varshney, GIIS student.
"The classrooms are very interactive with fully equipped digital smart board displays, easy to use video conferencing, mics for clearer sound, etc. which enables us to give greater flexibility to our students in case they are unable to attend the class due to any reason. This makes the teaching continuous and this keeps all the students abreast of how the class is progressing. GIIS is unmatched by any international school in ways the educational technology is implemented in the entire school which is both student and teacher-friendly", said Dr Shivalik K Pathania, Head of Dept of English, GIIS teacher.
As part of the virtual classrooms, the students have the flexibility to log-in and participate in an on-going class in the school through their mobile phones or any other personal device. Students who are logged-in remotely are able to share their screens to the teacher as well as get the full view of the concepts shared on the digital smartboard.
This helps the students to stay connected with the progress of the curriculum in school and manage their time better, especially closer to the exams. From a teacher's point of view, virtual classrooms allow the entire cohort to progress at the same pace even if some students cannot make it to the school.
"I love when my entire class is there to attend the lecture, the motivation level is higher when maximum students are attending the class", said one teacher.
Furthermore, the virtual classroom initiative takes smart learning to the next level by fostering an attitude of collaboration across different countries and different time zones. GIIS students can interact, collaborate, share content and brainstorm with their peers sitting in another GIIS Campus through the virtual classroom facility.
Guest lectures by subject matter experts from any part of the world can connect for a talk or seminar with GIIS students, thus enabling knowledge-sharing and exchange of ideas at a higher level.
The high-level of interactivity and exchange of ideas heightens the learning outcomes and translation of these learning experiences into innovative ideas. As students are not restricted to ideas within the classroom, they build upon ideas shared by experts from around the world, thus enhancing their capacity to innovate.
The GIIS virtual classrooms are spinning new benefits never heard of before. Students and teachers across classrooms can collaborate in project discussions from anywhere. The teachers can teach the entire class from the comfort of their staff rooms or home.
The virtual classroom sessions can also be recorded and viewable by students and teachers for future references, thus allowing them to recap and grasp the content they have learned with better efficiency. This feature will immensely benefit students in preparation for their examinations.
This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.