Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a specific. technology and an engineering discipline. It is a management technique used in handling information. Its application and association are related with social, economical and cultural matters.
Introduction
Educational
technology is the application of scientific methods. The advent of ICT has supplemented and
enriched the educational methods of teaching and learning. It has a tremendous
potential to contribute to the learning and teaching at all levels in the educational
system.
The
technology is of great importance in all countries because of the possibilities
of its three main contributions:-
A-
Increasing the effectiveness of teaching
learning process
B-
Maximizing the out put
C-
Enable the optimum use of resources.
The knowledge
and awareness among teachers about the equipments, instruments or apparatus
which can be used for making the teaching learning process more interesting and
effective are generally found minimal.
The ICT
based work is central and students are involved in high level thinking,
decision making and problem solving. The ICT not only convert passive,
monotonous and mechanical environment in the classroom into a lively one but
also make students more active and attentive. The modern ICTs tools are computers,
wireless communication technologies along with powerful software which can
process and integrate audio, text, video and data into electronic media.
Advantages of ICTs based Teaching
1-
With the help of ICT educators/ teachers
can access with colleagues, institutions and universities, centers of
excellence/expertise, with resources at cyber space.
2-
With the help of ICT the teacher is freed
of the administration burden. They thus would be able to devote more time to
the task of helping students for which they are trained; etc.
3-
The use of ICT leads to more positive
attitude towards computer. Thus, when computer is taught to the students they
feel more involved in the studies, which help them significantly in raising
their achievement.
4-
The ICTs enable to access online libraries,
journals and research for individual learning.
future view of ICTs in Teaching
1.
Apply technology to increase productivity
2.
Use technology resources to collect and
analyze data, interpret results and communicate findings to improve instructional
practice and maximize student learning.
3.
Teacher’s resources can be shared with
other teachers across the globe.
4.
Use technology resources to engage in on
going professional practice/development and life long learning.
In the
modern era of technological revolution, there is a substantial improvement in
classroom instruction and the internet determines many elements of the teaching
learning process. In the classroom the teacher may provide students additional
information and references with the help of internet. Further with the help of
internet and a multimedia system, the teacher may utilize the technique of
teleconferencing when he can interact not only with the students sitting in the
classroom but also with many more students sitting at a distance. This
technique is being largely utilized by the I G N O U.
Transformational Value of ICTs
There is
a large gap between the ICT culture expected and practiced. Sensing the
deficiency of the lack of ICT educated human resources, NCTE as a capacity
building exercise in the first phase has started ICT literacy camp for teacher
educators throughout India. The targeted TEI’s in the first phase were covered
in the 100 country wide camps and hands on interactive experience was provided
through a series of self learning CDs developed by the NCTE. In this mode NCTE
covered a large number of TEI’s and could motivate the teacher educators to use
computers in various activities.
Teacher
education students have a significant role to play in the sustained application
of ICT in schools. It is imperative therefore, that they are exposed to
effective use of ICT in their training. However ‘effective use’ is subjective
and existing characterisations of this construct appear to drive different ICT
implementation plans adopted by teacher education institutions. While most of
these plans have achieved varying degree of success, the ‘integration approach’
has been the most promising. By integrating ICT as a learning source during
regular classes, lecturers are exposing students to innovative ways of
learning. The ICT infused instructional design provides this support as it
gives lecturer insight into what their classroom context should look and feel
like, if they are to encourage students to access technology as powerful
learning tools.
Discussion of the Study
The
present study shows that the ICTs are now dominating
our private sphere as well as our social and working environments. All the B.Ed.
students are having sound knowledge on all components of ICTs such as
internet, multimedia, CDROM and EDUSAT. This
shows that ICTs are
having potentiality to enhance richness and quality of teacher education in the
classroom and distribute own developed multimedia resources to others through
distributed learning as well as flexible learning.
References
1.
T.
Pradeep Kumar – Teacher Education, Page 194
2.
N.
Venkataiah – Teacher Education, Page 187
3.
S. K.
Panneer Selvam – Teacher Education, Page 233
4.
Journal
of Education and Pedagogy Vol-I, June 2009
5.
Journal
of Teacher Education, Vol-59, No.-I, Jan/Feb- 2008
