From blackboard to Blackbaud

Woodstock School in Mussoorie, which aims at providing "a world-class international education," is arguably the nation's most wired school.

At the century-old Woodstock School, sitting on a spur between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers at around 2,000 metres above sea level, what you're likely to first notice is the snow-covered ranges, whose peaks rise to more than 6,500 metres. But it's not just a pretty school. It's very wired. And those wires enable a very different way of life for the students as well as the teachers.

It's true that many of our schools have come some way from the days of question papers with "fill in the blanks" and "expand acronyms" being the only measure of a student's competence. There are labs where kids can actually work on a PC, and some students even get to learn the rudiments of programming.

And then there's Woodstock, where kindergarten students experiment with typing on a key- board, learn to read using WiggleWorks, weave their own stories using Storybook Weaver Deluxe, and learn the rudiments of counting with Treasure MathStorm. As they move into middle school, Rosetta Stone equips them with Hindi vocabulary; a custom-designed Focus on Grammar program helps to bring on par those learning English as a second language; and a MathLab Toolkit replaces MathStorm. .

Founded in 1854, Woodstock is an international, kindergarten to grade 12 school that prepares students for entry into colleges throughout the world. Its core subjects-English, Mathematics, and the Physical and Social Sciences -are supplemented by particular strengths in music, art, drama, journalism, environmental studies and outdoor education. Here, IT is "a medium in which students can work out and express their thoughts." .

Philip Malayil, Digit Magazine

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