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Audio-visual class aid debuts in college - JB College in Jorhat to be first institute in N-E to introduce such study centres

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WASIM RAHMAN Published 21.03.12, 12:00 AM
Jagannath Barooah College in Jorhat. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, March 20: Dry, uninteresting historical facts, complicated physics theories and colliding molecules will jump out of the textbook and explain themselves on screen in snazzy audio-visual classrooms at Jagannath Barooah College in Jorhat, the first college in the Northeast to build such a facility.

For all the students who longed to see what Darcy (of Pride and Prejudice) could have looked like, or the sundial and chariot of Konark temple, a group of enterprising teachers of JB College said “voila”!

Up came the idea of an Audio-Visual Study Centre, now being built on the first floor of their canteen.

Two studios are being built under the project, which will have facilities for audio recording, editing, videography and sound recording.

Principal of the college, Bimal Barah, told The Telegraph today that the project is aimed at using visual and audio medium as tools in teaching and also to carry out research in the fields.

The centre is being funded from the Rs 15 lakh granted by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The UGC sanctioned the fund after the institute was declared “Colleges with Potential for Excellence” last year.

Altogether the 149 colleges across the country have been given the coveted status.

JB College now plans to run audio-visual diploma courses, but the syllabi has not been decided yet.

Elaborating on the project, the co-ordinator of the audio-visual centre, Salim Ali Ahmed, said all necessary equipment and instruments required for the studios have been ordered and will be installed in the next couple of months once the rooms are ready.

Ahmed, a lecturer in the Assamese department, said use of audio and visual support in the classrooms is a rising trend and would help the students grasp their subject better.

Two special classrooms (digital halls) are also being built for the purpose. The sound-proof halls will have video telecast and audio systems.

Ahmed, who has visited the film studies department in Jadavpur University, said he recently made a half-an-hour film on Assam’s 15th century saint and philosopher Shankardev and used it as a support material while teaching Vaishnavite culture as part of the Assamese literature syllabus.

After watching the xatras in Majuli and the birthplace of the saint in Nagoan district, the students showed more interest in the subject.

The co-ordinator said a group of lecturers in the college, who have shown interest in audio-visual communication, have undergone training in the field.

He said the proposed centre has already bagged two projects from the UGC.

The first project, named Adaptation of Assamese literature into Assamese films, has been awarded to Ahmed while the other project, Representation of Women in Assamese Cinema, has been clinched by lecturer Shamin Nasrin, also from the Assamese literature department.

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