Hyderabad: A group of professors of IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras, and IIT Bombay are jointly developing a special software so that 45,000 digital lessons can be made available in 22 vernacular languages. The beneficiaries will be degree and post graduate-level students.
The digital lessons are currently available in the mother tongue. Subjects like mathematics and science will be extended to engineering subjects in the future. '' Digital lessons will play a vital role in the future of education. That is why we are making translation available in 22 languages. Some of the degree and PG level students may not understand the lessons given by the professors in English. Studying the mother tongue is easier than understanding it. That is why we have created the 'speech translation' software. If students study in their mother tongue, they will easily understand.so it helps in learning fast," professor Rajeev Sangal of IIIT Hyderabad said.
Step forward with 'Swayam' initiative
The Union Human Resources Department is maintaining a website 'Swayam' to make digital lessons available. Two years ago, it was decided that experienced teachers will impart digital lessons to students in all languages. Professors of three institutes came forward to make the software. A special team was formed and translations were done in eight language within a year. Forty-five thousand video lessons have been made available in the 'Swayam' website.
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The software has many unique features. An automatic speech recognition (ASR) in the software carefully examines the teacher's words and the way he or she delivers them. In the second stage, whatever language the professor speaks, the material will be written in the same language. Later it will be translated into eight languages. Translation corrects errors in the regional language. Technical words are given equivalent words in regional languages for English words. For example, law and order is written as 'Shanti Badratalu' in Telugu.
