Managing Director, Wacom India Pvt Ltd
Manu Nanda, Managing Director, Wacom India Pvt Ltd tells Elets News Network how a revolution is slowly brewing in India’s learning landscape – thanks to a Japanese pen tablet
What attracts learners to Smartclass?
It is said that it is easy to remember things that are taught visually rather than turning pages. In today’s time, when education has gone beyond the conventional way of teaching, smart class or the digital way of teaching has come into existence. Smart class symbolises breaking the age-old tradition of text-book teaching and adapting to new technology using all interactive modules like videos and presentations that attract students towards learning and is also eye-catching. Smart class empowers teachers with technology right inside the classroom and helps them teach their curriculum topics more effectively.
But has it touched every class and school in India?
With the changing trends and developments in technology, Wacom, a Japanese pen tablet and pen display manufacturer, has designed a device keeping in mind the necessity of smart class in Indian institutions. The advantage of having a Wacom pen display uniting your classroom is that the teacher can write directly on the tablet having a natural Pen Paper feel with up to 1024 pen pressure levels, keeping constant eye contact with the students. The USP of this tablet is that it works on PowerPoint; this means that no special soft- ware is required to use pen tablet, lectures and notes are Power Point based and can be recorded for future reference. The schools in India are slowly and gradually adapting the new technology of learning and using it to the maximum. The conventional black board has made way for digital equipment, making the learning process more colourful and interesting. This is being elaborately practiced by a majority of education institutions in the country.
How flexible are education institutions across the country in adopting such learning solutions?
Who wants laborious way of learning and teaching? Wacom-powered smart class has given institutions a platform of interactive learning. Wacom’s pen dis- play tablet with high precision and high resolution together makes it possible to detect even small handwritten letters that is easily understood by students. The electronic pen can be equipped not just with coordination detection functions but also with a wide range of other functions such as writing pressure, sensing, inclination, angle detection etc. The Wacom pen can work on any of the Microsoft office applications such as Word, One note, PowerPoint etc. It is the natural pen and paper feel that it gives to the teacher while writing, that makes it largely acceptable in institutions like IIT’s and IIM’s in India and various colleges abroad.
Has there been any quality assessment on the outcome?
The Wacom pen tablet is beneficial for teachers and students – the teacher can directly annotate on the pen display having a pen-paper feel and at the end of each class, the teacher displays the set of questions on the large screen and the students have to answer them with their personal answering device. The teachers are able to score each student instantly. This brings faster and better understanding of the concepts and constant improvement in the overall academic performance of the student.
What is the size of business of smart classes in India and how do you see its growth?
From the start of smart class in India, about 2 years ago and Wacom being a 30-year-old technology major in pen technology, the acceptance of the system has been remarkable. A majority of the schools have embraced the concept and are implementing it. It has come as a revolution and transformed the classrooms turning boring lectures into fun, creative and interactive ones. The growth of smart class will be jetspeeding in the years to come as it becomes more user-friendly, versatile and resourceful.
