The role of Information Technology (IT) in education, training and human resource development has been well recognized in the IT Action Plan of the Government of India. The Task Force on IT perceives information technology as a tool that has the power to transform the country into a prosperous and self-confident nation.

For the field of education, a promotional campaign, aptly named Operation Knowledge, proposes to universalize IT and IT-enabled education as a tool for processing and assimilating knowledge. This is a comprehensive approach for integration of technology into the classroom and further into the entire educational process.

The Smart School initiative is a significant component in the IT Action Plan (1998) for making the school system relevant to the changing nature of tomorrow's workplace, which will increasingly use information and communication technologies.

In the wake of recent developments in IT and communication technologies, Smart Schools have been established in a number of countries (Maheshwari, 1998). These schools operate on the premise that all students have the ability to learn and progress, which can be enhanced by using appropriate learning technologies. Computers, the Internet and other high band communication technology such as video-conferencing have been effectively used by Smart Schools for enhancing the learning of students.

In sharp contrast to traditional schools, Smart Schools offer an open environment for learning. Students function as autonomous learners. In a Smart School, the emphasis of learning shifts from acquiring discrete pieces of information to acquiring abilities by students such as constructing their own knowledge from information.

Why is this shift in the schooling process required? Because with advancements in science and technology, the world of work is changing and so are occupations. New skills are required to cope with these changes in the workplace. Each person, therefore, should have the ability to continuously update his or her skills and knowledge. To survive professionally in this fast changing world, one has to be a lifelong learner. Learning how to learn, therefore, is basic to all other skills that should be acquired at the school. Schools which support students' learning and thinking skills with programs, infrastructure, tools, teachers and management by using information and communication technologies will be the Smart Schools.

Different countries have different visions of Smart Schools but their mission goals are similar. This paper presents a blueprint for Smart Schools in India.

Information technology embodies processes, applications and equipment by which information can be accessed, created, communicated, organized, analyzed or presented.

IT-enriched schooling ensures that children are IT-literate and that learning technologies are integrated into the schooling process. Children benefit from this integration as they develop skills of (a) performing specific functions using information technology and (b) using the global network for communicating and for collecting and organizing information obtained from the world wide sources and using it in the curricular context.

The concept of Smart Schools is to be seen from the above perspective. With access to the state-of-the-art information and communication technologies, Smart Schools will provide a learning environment where the pupils will develop the ability to construct their own knowledge. All pupils have this ability. It can be enhanced by the use of computers, the Internet and other learning technologies.

Smart Schools shall function on the premise that learning how to learn is the ultimate skill (Learning : The Treasure Within, UNESCO, 1996). Pupils in Smart Schools will be autonomous learners and learn how to learn. This skill will be crucial to a learning society. Learning in Smart Schools will redefine the content, process and outcome of schooling. Students, teachers and the school management in each Smart School will be totally committed to the above concept.

The teacher's role in a Smart School shall be that of a navigator who will provide pupils with learning maps to chart out their learning paths. Learning will take place as pupils think, solve problems and make decisions through collaborative efforts.

The aims of the Smart Schools will be to promote balanced development, help integrate knowledge, skills and values, enable multidisciplinary, thematic and continuous learning and help acquire competencies to cope with the Information Age.

Some basic skills will be common among all children in a Smart School. Beyond those, learning experiences in these schools shall be graded. A set of suggested grade wise activities and the resulting experiences and abilities are presented.

With access to the state-of-the-art IT facilities, children at the primary stage will be involved in a range of interactive activities and will

• learn at their own pace,
• participate in collaborative work,
• discriminate between objects, letters, figures,
• associate objects with words, words with sound and
• match figures, picking odd ones out.

Students will acquire at this stage the ability to

• operate a computer system to the extent necessary for performing the above tasks and
• use special input devices meant for young children, such as concept keyboard, illuminated keyboard (in addition to the regular keyboard) and the mouse and earphones/headphones that would confine the audio output to the user of a computer terminal.

For primary school children, computer laboratories should have specially made furniture suitable for small children working on computers.

Learning will continue to be around traditional school subjects, but relevant innovative practices will be introduced for children to

• work together on projects like creative writing, making posters, etc. using word processor, graphics programs, etc.
• create web pages and disseminate their own ideas
• acquire skills and attitudes of autonomous learners.

Pupils will acquire skills to

• boot the system, run a program, use help menu and tutorials,
• handle the operating system to create, modify, save, copy, print files while using a word processor, database and graphics programs,
• generate tables and charts,
• plan layout of documents and utilize features of desk top publishing by inserting images, tables, charts and graphic objects along with text,
• scan images using scanner,
• log on to the Internet,
• send and receive electronic mail,
• attach files with email,
• send and receive fax using the computer and a modem,
• create html files incorporating text, graphics and scanned images so the files can be read on a browser program.

In addition to being assessed by their teachers, secondary school children also write public examinations. Therefore, they will use for their learning both on-line and off-line resources for learning concepts relevant to the curriculum. The ability to access and process information will be the desirable skill that students will acquire. They will be able to

• make the best use of available IT facilities that support their learning,
• show leadership and innovation in the use of these technologies,
• use digitized off-line supplementary learning materials in support of their curriculum,
• surf the Internet and locate learning resources,
• access learning resources, download materials from the world wide web, analyze and classify them,
• organize information for their own benefit,
• write critiques of materials obtained on the Net,
• assist teachers in computer aided assessment,
• put up bulletin boards on the Internet and
• communicate with teachers and the school.

The role of the teacher in the Smart School has to be necessarily different from the traditional role. All Smart School teachers will

• use a variety of teaching strategies using learning technologies,
• create environment for different learning experiences,
• access a wide range of learning materials for students and colleagues,
• encourage and guide students' projects,
• practice innovative curriculum that accommodates IT-enabled learning and
• assess performance of students.

The school

The school as a whole will undergo changes in order to support the new practices. It will

• equip itself with the necessary technology, furniture appropriate for computers and accessories and special furniture for small children using IT facilities,
• create a stimulating environment for students and teachers,
• develop an alternative set of learning activities using learning technologies,
• work as a team with students, parents, teachers, technical staff, managers, etc. for making the Smart School concept functional and
• implement the technology to bring about short-term and long-term changes in the schooling process.

The schooling process in the Smart School will

• enhance linkages between the school and the wider world so as to expand and enrich the learning environment,
• encourage creative thinking, lifelong learning and social responsibility,
• generate innovative ideas and
• promote excellence in administration and management of the education system.

Smart Schools will support and nurture the individuality of each learner. Each student will develop his/her own learning style. It is imperative, therefore, that the learning outcome of all students in a class cannot be assessed by a common tool or a testing instrument. The mechanism of assessment has to be such that

• the individual learner's performance is assessed,
• the entire process accommodates the use of IT and
• parents get feed back on the students' performance from the teacher.

This scheme of assessment, because of its in-built flexibility, will reduce stress on students and help them in using the outcome of assessment in improving their learning.

Smart Schools are 'wired' schools where classrooms, laboratories and offices are equipped with IT facilities. For each school stage, i.e. primary, middle and secondary stage, IT facilities should have the following basic components

• a server,
• individual intelligent client terminal/individual PC for 30 users connected in LAN with the possibility of expansion for more users,
• link with wide area network,
• Internet connection : ISDN connection for the Internet (64 kbps to start with, expandable to 128 kbps),
• audio-visual facilities,
• a collection of a wide variety of tool software for supporting open-ended projects and of multimedia courseware on different school subjects,
• library and media center,
• multimedia equipment,
• video-conferencing facilities,
• digital library of learning materials,
• two flatbed scanners,
• four inkjet color printers, one connected to the server (this can even be a laser printer) and each of the other three connected to multiple machines through a printer sharer.

Establishment of three laboratories with the above equipment is an expensive proposition. The more recent development in the hardware technology in the form of thin client intelligent terminals will reduce expenditure considerably.

Apart from the laboratory facilities for students, there will be a local area network connecting the students' laboratory, the teachers and the Principal's office. Ideally, there should be one terminal for each teacher. But to start with, there can be one terminal for two teachers. The Principal's office will be connected to the administrative offices.

The skills and abilities that IT-rich environment promotes can bring about change in the teaching-learning process. Research says those learning technologies in general

• have positive effects on student achievements in all subject areas,
• improve achievement of high aptitude learners,
• assist the teaching and learning of students with special needs,
• produce positive effects on attitudes toward learning,
• help teachers in the use of technology more effectively to enhance learning of their students,
• improve students' attitudes and motivation,
• improve students' team work and
• help develop higher order thinking skills.

In the environment of Smart Schools, these skills and abilities will lead to a perceptible shift from

• didactic classroom teaching to participatory, decentralized, interactive group learning,
• traditional learning environment to a climate that encourages exploration, problem-solving and decision-making,
• traditional instructional methodology to strategies that unify knowledge,
• mastery of a fixed body of knowledge to understanding of a web of relations between parts of a whole,
• linear, sequential reasoning to search for patterns and connections and
• collection of information to processing of information.

The most crucial factor in implementing and maintaining any innovation in the school is the teacher. Smart School teachers will require training so that they are

• able to link activities done on the computer to the general education of children and
• act as facilitators in the process of learning.

The range of exemplar student activities listed above indicates the expertise required of teachers for making those activities realizable in the classroom. Teachers teaching at different stages of schooling should acquire specific IT skills that are relevant to their students' learning at that stage.

If some of the existing schools are to be converted into Smart Schools, it will be crucial to train their teachers in the IT skills relevant to the learning activities in the concerned stage that they handle in the school. Appropriate in-service courses will be designed for the induction training and periodic recurrent training.

In the pre-service courses, a core course on IT literacy and methodology courses for using IT as a tool relevant to the learning of the students in each stage will have to be designed immediately and teacher educators will have to be supported for teaching the IT course.

Each Smart School will need a full time Technical Manager. Procurement and management of resources and providing continuous technical support to teachers will be the responsibility of the Technical Manager. The Manager will also assist the Principal in planning, deploying and enhancement of IT and media resources.

The management policy for Smart Schools will be consistent with the Smart School concept. IT will be used in carrying out the administrative as well as academic functions of the school. Teachers will use computers for assessment, maintenance of performance records of students and interaction with parents. The entire administrative staff will use IT for storage, management and retrieval of information.

Considerable amount of preparatory work is to be done by several agencies, together, before Smart Schools make a start. There are a number of recognizable tasks ahead. Standardization of hardware and software for these schools is one. Pre-service courses may have to be attuned to the skills required of a Smart School teacher. Therefore, IT skills have to be suitably integrated into the teacher education curriculum. Appropriate training modules for in-service teacher and induction level training are to be developed. Implementation of the Smart School program as per the blueprint will require development of learning activities using learning technologies and appropriate pedagogy for autonomous learning. Processes of computer-assisted assessment, digitized maintenance of performance records and their accessibility to parents are to be adopted. The responsibility for development of navigational maps on the World Wide Web and multimedia learning materials on school subjects will also have to be taken up.

There is a perceptible readiness amongst various sectors to support and take part in the Smart Schools initiative. The process can rely upon support from individuals and private enterprises that have shown remarkable willingness to participate. There is an existing base of trained manpower among educators. A number of schools have already adopted IT-based learning materials and methods and are making use of the global network for accessing learning resources. Time is now to start our own Smart Schools.

• Government of India. 1998. Information Technology Action Plan.
• Maheshwari, A.N. 1998. It's time for Smart Schools. Computers Today.
• UNESCO. 1996. Learning: The Treasure Within. Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century.

Index page of articles written by A. N. Maheshwari