Few points from the circular

By geting Broadband Internet connection main services like web site, wikipedia, E-mail, blog, chat etc are to be used under studies by teachers and students.

All students from high schools must use an own Email ID.

By creating Email IDs to students they have to use it better and the decipline of Email should be aware to them.

How to search required matter, collection of details, examination results, notices are to be able to check and way of filling and submitting online application are to be compulsorily learned by them.

For each school they are permitted to use 3 GB every month.

Smt K.G Ajila (Jila Panchayath Member), Sri G. Sajinakumar (PTA President), Sri. C.S. Sreenivasan (Vilavoorkal Panchayath President), Sri Balachandran (Best teacher of HSS), Sri K. Sarathchandran (Headmaster)
Jila panchayath member K.G. Ajila laid foundation stone for a new building for higher secondary school at vilavoorkal on 13-11-08. By lighting lamp on stage speaks of respected people and carried out inauguration of keralaschools social network. In the absence of IT Secretary Dr. Ajaykumar IAS Vilavoorkal panchayath president inaugurated the social net work. At that time the IT Secretary called keralafarmer on phone personally and told about his exigency of his duties and gave his blessings to the function.  Keralafarmer (Chandrasekharan Nair) was honoured for settingup a social network for the schools named keralaschools. Sri Balachandran was also honoured for getting the  award for the best teacher of higher secondary schools in kerala. This award was first one in this respect granded by Govt of kerala. Both of them belonged to the Vilavoorkal Panchayath.

Social network of schools launched

A SOCIAL network community for teachers and students of Government Schools, Vilavoorkal, on Thursday.

Named www.keralaschools.ning.com, the schools’ social network is an effort to create a space for student community with the support of open softwre system. On the request of teachers of Vilavoorkal school, Chandrasekharan Nair, known as keralafarmer in the blogosphere, created the social community network. According to the school authorities, the articles or creative pieces or even accademic notes of one school in Thiruvananthapuram can be read and used by another school in Kasargod through the community.

“But the students and teachers must be member of the network, there cannot be any kind of anonymity. The works of the students will be moderated by teachers before publishing it,” said Udaykumar, principal-in-charge of Vilavoorkal HSS.

The community will also help teachers and students to exchange the method of teaching and learning employed in their schools. Each school is given a specific email id. Students can write in English, Malayalam and Hindi and it will be moderated by teachers handling those language in schools.

Uzhamalakkal Sree Narayana Higher Secondary School and Government HSS, Kavalayur, had already joined the community apart from Vilavoorkal HSS and students from various other schools making it a total of 26 members on the launching day itself. The schools, social network was launched by Vilavoorkal Grama Panchayat president C.S.Sreenivasan.

The school’s new building for the higher secondary students was also opened on Thursday.

Courtesy : The new Indian Express on 14-11-08

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Net users in the city and in Kerala are discovering and exploring the potential of free software

Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

Freedom Free software is economically viable and gives the user the freedom to adapt the code to his needs

Chandrasekharan Nair, a Peyad-based planter, turned to cyber space to express his angst against what he perceived as farmer-unfriendly policies. Gradually, he also began to include tips on farming in general and rubber cultivation in particular. keralafarmer.wordpress.com is the blog published by Chadrasekharan, affectionately called ‘Chandrettan.’ And his posts are all in Malayalam.

Local cyber content

Chandrettan is not alone. There are more net users like him in Kerala who are gravitating towards locally generated cyber content and Malayalam language computing.

kannur.web4all.in. is another example of such a portal. It is a web portal of Kannur district that gives voice to the panchayats and various projects in the district. “Locally generated content in Malayalam is fast catching up in Kerala where there is the right atmosphere and potential for dissemination of information and employment of technology,” says Ashiq of the Swatantra Malayalam Computing Community, which is developing and refining the technology to make Malayalam a user-friendly language in day-to-day computing. Visit http://gghssmalappuram.in/ and all doubts will be cleared. It is a website in Malayalam and English of a school by the same name.

This increase in accessibility has been made possible by the booming viability of free software. Not for long can Kerala remain insular to the revolution of free software ignited by Richard Stallman with his ‘right to read.’

GNU Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and free and open source software such as OpenOffice have started posing a serious challenge to proprietary giants. The ideology of free software can be explored more easily by encountering the people using and popularising it.

Yet another organisation that is at the forefront of using cyber space for local content is the non-profit organisation Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE). For four years, SPACE has been promoting free software and encouraging local participation in using new technology. SPACE works to popularise Linux and is the workhorse behind many Goverment projects such as IT @ School.

Vimal Joseph of SPACE says: “In Kerala’s context the economic viability of using proprietary software is beyond question. The dollar-to-Rupee conversion rate makes proprietary software a financial question. Such software also seriously curtails flexibility and freedom of the user. Free software, on the other hand, is economically viable and gives the user the freedom to adapt the code to his needs.”

Adds Dineshan M, a teacher associated with IT @ School: “A teacher should impart value to his students. Discouraging the use of pirated copies of expensive software and promoting GNU/Linux comes naturally to me as a teacher.”

The Kerala Government syllabus for IT is modelled on the use of free software.

Many students in the city are also rallying around the Linux bandwagon. Rajiv Nair, a final-year student of engineering, has scripted a code that detects his bluetooth phone and when he (his phone) is away, instructs the computer to standby automatically. Rajiv has mastered the operating system and is confident of tweaking it to his needs.

The Linux user group in the city has many more innovative users like him who are ready to help out new users.

Anoop John, who runs a computer sales and services shop in the city remarks: “The barrier that remains is the mindset barrier. People traditionally grow up with a kind of software on their desktops. People have now started discovering and exploring the possibilities of Linux.”

Anoop worked abroad for three years as a software developer before returning to India to set up his own business.

The time is ripe for computer enthusiasts to try such alternative computing environments. A google search of ilug-tvm (Indian Linux Users Group – Trivandrum) leads us to www.ilug-tvm.org and any help needed is at hand.

VISHNU MENON M

Courtesy & Copy right @ thehindu.com