CBSE asks to train teachers for OLabs (online laboratories)

July 30, 2013, 12:00 am


CBSE is planning its teachers to train for online laboratories, known officially as ’OLabs’. access. The date and venue of training sessions will be declared at a later date after schools confirm their participation.

Students can log on to www.olabs.co.in and conduct almost any experiment online without worrying about accidents happening. ERNET, an autonomous scientific body, is helping CBSE train teachers. ERNET is under the administrative control of department of information

technology, Government of India having one of the largest nationwide terrestrial and satellite network with 15 points of presence located at the premier academic and research institutions in major cities of the country. According to ERNET’s website it is serving more than 1,300 institutions in various sectors viz. health, agriculture, higher education, schools and science & technology.

Director (academics, research, training and innovation) Sadhana Parashar wrote to affiliated schools announcing a training programme for teachers in the OLabs initiative. Parashar wrote that to understand these OLabs (Online Labs-Virtual Experiments) a third party "will provide one day training free of cost to teachers of all the CBSE affiliated schools (region wise) in two phases. In the first phase, ERNET will train master trainers (around 1,250) who will give training to other teachers in second phase. Two teachers per school will be trained and a total of 30,000 teachers will be trained".

This entire OLabs initiative was started in Kerala-based Amrita University and CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi was given a final presentation last year during educational conference. The International Conference of Technology Enhanced Education (ICTEE) was held from January 3-5 at Amritapuri, Kerala and the event showcased a futuristic vision for classrooms. Speaking to TOI during that event, the programme’s coordinator Prof Raghu Raman said that the workshop will be almost like looking into the future. "A few months ago we were discussing with the CBSE chairman on how workshops are currently focusing only on problems. We need to take a peek into the future and see what is out there, say 10 years from now. And it is from this that the idea for ICTEE came about," he had said.