Power point presentations are ubiquitous these days and it was interesting to be present at the Techonbyte2008, an Inter-School Power Point Competition of schools in Chandigarh, SAS Nagar and Panchkula.

The competition was held at the Ajit Karam Singh International Public School (AKSIPS) Sector 41, Chandigarh on January 29, 2008. The topics discussed by students of classes VIII and IX were “Hazards of Smoking” and “Importance of Trees”.

It was a tough task for Mr. J. D. Ghai, Chairman-cum-CEO of SantaBanta.com and Mr. Baljit Singh, CEO of VIA, the two judges since many of the presentations were very well made, indeed.

I particularly liked the confidence with which the students made their presentations, thought I was not too enamoured of the kind of free-for-all borrowing that I saw of material picked up from the Net.

As the Chief Guest, I spoke on the importance of attribution and how it is imperative that copyright laws be kept in mind, a point stressed by Mr J D Ghai who also spoke of the need for learning to make better Power Point presentations.

This was also an occasion for us to meet Mr. Jasdeep Kalra, Executive Director of AKSIP group of schools, the well-known educationist Mrs Karam Singh and Mrs. Jagjit Sekhon, the Principal.

Later I gave away the prizes to the students of the following schools:

1st Prize: Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Sector 27, Chandigarh

2nd Prize: Lawrence Public School, Mohali

3rd Prize: Shishu Niketan Model Sr. Sec. School, Chandigarh

Consolation Prize: Shemrock Sr. Sec. School, Mohali

I can really never get enough of interaction with students—I learn so much from them.