Feedback from Customers

NIIT NGuru Math lab was launched on 14 November 2007 which is marked as the childrens day in India to remember the first prime minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The number of installation across the country is gone up to 37 which are considered as a great success of the product. To understand the success of educational delivery we collected the feedback from 50 teachers across 10 schools who had implemented NGuru math lab solution for 6 months. The feedback was collected in the form of filling the rubrics which is on a four point scale in which 4 mean excellent and 1 indicates least.
Improvement in depth of Activities in understanding of the Improvement the mathematical teachers in problem topics covered guide solving skill

Enhancement Enhancement No. of in in Engagement S.No Name of The school Teachers Attentiveness in activity

Scindia School Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School Zenith High School Chanderbala Modi Academy Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School SBOA School And Junior College Bharath Senior Secondary School The Rajas International School Bgsirs

3.00

3.20

2.60

5.00

2.60

2 3

1 7

4.00 2.85

4.00 3.42

3.00 3.28

4.00 3.71

4.00 3.00

17

2.82

2.86

3.23

3.18

3.15

4.00

4.00

4.00

4.00

4.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

4.00

4.00

3.00

3.00

8 9

4 6

3.75 3.17

3.75 3.50

3.50 3.00

3.75 3.00

3.75 3.00

Ballygunge Shiksha 10 Sadan

7 50

3.57 3.42

3.57 3.53

3.86 3.45

3.00 3.56

3.00 3.25

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My Math Lab Experience

The teachers of Vidya Mandir Sr, Sec. School, Mylapore had an opportunity to attend the workshop held at Residency Towers by NIIT. In association with Key Curriculum Press (KCP), USA (A pioneer in Mathematics Education) on 26 th February 2008. According to NCERTs National Curriculum Framework, Mathematics will be treated as prime focus area in schools till 2020. Hence, the mathematics teachers job is challenging and demanding. For the last four years, we have implemented Math Lab in our school. As a teacher, who handles children from classes 6-9 in Math Lab, I have constant interaction with children. I received many textbooks from different publishers promising to provide with lab kits, but never before have I seen anything like NIITs Math Lab package! At Residency Towers, we experienced the actual lab setup by NIIT. The presentation lasted about an hour or so. My colleagues and I were of the undivided opinion that it was awesome! It was so good that it left a lasting impression on us. The first feeling I had was how lucky present day children are! We never had such opportunities when we were in school. According to Steven Rasmussen, CEO of KCP, Indian students have a strong base in Maths in comparison with USA. Here, it remains a paper pencil work. In the 21st century, the students need to combine their mathematical knowledge with creativity and technological skills to become powerful problem solvers. The Math Lab in CBSE schools will be a major learning tool towards enhancing the mathematics learning capability of the students. The NIIT Math Lab package answers just to that need... In the CBSE evaluation of Class X board examinations, 20% of the marks are allotted to their Math Lab activities. I find a significant improvement in their results over the last two years. I attribute this to the introduction of Math Lab, but in my opinion, the practical difficulties of the teacher in extracting the desired work from the students is laborious and tiresome. Now with the help of geometer sketch pad (GSP), a technological tool, a novel concept, the students will learn and explore mathematical concepts and verify mathematical facts and theorems. With this tool maths is made easier, visually appealing and an enjoyable learning experience for the students. With the GSP, students will be able to construct an object and explore its mathematical possibilities through an exciting visual process. A process that would capture and hold the students attention, helping them build a strong foundation in Euclidian and non Euclidian geometry, algebra, trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus. It can be used effectively as both a teaching tool as well as a learning tool. For example, in GSP, we do not have an option to create a 3-D model, but I was thrilled to read from the newspaper, that in China, a student has created a beautiful 3-D model using it! Here students are not passive listeners. They should be like programmers, not the recipients of somebody elses creativity. For instance, when a teacher taught the concept of circumcentre in a triangle using the GSP, students made several observations other than the ones provided in the textbooks. Though the syllabus covered in GSP is from classes VI X, it is left to the imagination of the teachers to either use it below class VI or above class X. There are a total of more than 200 activities complete with manipulative, attractive charts, historic references, fascinating facts and brain-teasers. What impressed me was that one could drag points and lines with the mouse. As shapes and positions change, all mathematical references are preserved, allowing students to examine an entire set of similar cases in a matter of seconds. Launched in 1991, GSP is used in more than 25% of secondary schools in the USA, localized and published in Japanese, Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Danish, Slovenian, Czech, Swedish, Hebrew and Hungarian. My fellow teachers were amazed at the wonderful presentation and its versatility. I wish to conclude that we should have NIITs Math Lab in every school. It is cost effective too, as we need to invest only once and it is definitely an asset worth having. In addition to all the above fantastic facts, NIIT also offers attractive gifts and prizes to be won by the students. I had a wholesome experience the other day! Mrs. Uma Nagarajan, Teaching Faculty, Vidya Mandir Sr. Sec. School, Chennai 600004.

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