IT
Scan
October
31, 2002
President Kalam turns tutor at BangaloreIT.com
BANGALORE -- Over 1,200 rural students, who have only
seen teachers with blackboards and chalk pieces, experienced
a high-profile tutor, none other than Dr APJ Abdul
Kalam, the President of India, himself teaching them
the basics of the Internet using computer and mouse
at the Internet World, part of the BangaloreIT.com
2002 show.
"Good morning, friends are you ready? Have any
one of you seen a computer around? How many of you
have used it? Now, you see a 'welcome' on your screen.
You have to click there." These were the first
instructions given to those awestruck children glued
to the monitor and hypnotised by the voice of the
'missile man.'
This patient session with the 12-14 year-olds, where
an excited President even got down to the floor to
personally meet many students and explained the various
use of the Internet to them, went on for over an hour.
The interactive session covered basics such as what
is the Internet, a browser, an elementary explanation
of HTML and URL, what are search engines and how to
use google or howstuffworks.com, and how to search
for information.
Interestingly, the whole exercise was meant to educate
students and bridge the digital divide. However, the
teacher probably was not aware of the fathom of the
divide that existed among his young audience.
Sidappa, sitting at a spanking new Samsung computer,
was explaining to his friend, Siddarth, about the
advantages of Pentium III and
XML-based programming. Just on the other side were
Srinivas and Shyam, blankly looking at the screen
which had links to most of Abdul Kalam's sites.
The knowledge and the Internet exposure level of a
rural student was no match for his urban counterpart.
Questions like: what is the
difference between the Internet and 3D interactive
television or will IT and missile technology help
India to become a developed country were flying thick
and fast. On the other hand, there were students from
regions like Anekkal, Bilekahally and Ramnagara areas
who looked as though all the Internet stuff had gone
over their head.
