Role of ICT in education Arti Kumari Sangeeta Joshi

artichaudhary01@gmail.com sangeeta.joshi0@gmail.com Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Lingayas Lalita Devi Institute of Mgmt Institute of Mgmt & Sciences, Mandi & Sciences, Mandi New Delhi New Delhi

Lingayas Lalita Devi

AbstractImportance of education in almost all walks of life has increased with the support of information and communication technologies (ICT). During the past 20 years, the use of ICT has fundamentally changed the working of education. In the current environment-conscious world, the importance of education and acceptability of ICT as a social necessity has been increasing. Social acceptability of information and communication tools is necessary to improve the mobility in the society and increase the pitch for equity and social justice. Education as a qualitative development is not confined within the classroom structure. The modern tools of ICT such as eLearning and online practice of learning and getting information are much sought after by the students as well as by the institutions. The government is spending a lot of money on ICT. In the higher education sector, the National Mission on Education is emphasising on the role of ICT in increasing the enrolment ratio in higher education. School education in India has a problem of high dropout rate and we need to work on how to decrease this rate. Similarly, in the field of higher education, we need to increase the number of students. Therefore, if we make our learning more engaging with the use of ICT, it can completely change how our education system works. We should examine the challenges of cost-factor and availability of trained teachers in the process of dissemination of education with the help of ICT. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be utilized for the education sector. Education includes online, distance and part time education. There are unlimited applications of ICT in the real world. In his paper emphasis is on the education field. Traditional Non-formal education system process includes activities like admission, Personal Contact Programmes, Exam for any course in a University or Institution. In this process ICT can play a great role in all the activities by providing a lot of benefits to students, teachers, parents and Universities itself. ICT can be used for providing education to the people who are not able to come to school due to various constraints. ICT can play great role in formal and non formal forms of education. The paper examines certain important issues related with the effective implementation of ICTs in all levels of education

Keywords: ICT, Indian Education, Information, communication technology Introduction

Developing countries and countries with transition economies risk being further marginalised in a competitive global knowledge economy because their education and training systems are not equipping learners with the skills they need. To respond to the problem, policymakers need to make fundamental changes. They need to replace the information-based, teacher-directed learning provided within a formal education system governed by directives with a new type of interactive learning that emphasizes creating, applying, analyzing,
and synthesizing knowledge and engaging in collaborative learning throughout the lifespan.

Usage of ICT is one of the way by which Indias large population base can be effectively

reached. Moreover in enhancing the quality and delivery of services through ICT-especially in case of developing relations with citizen- Government will be better positioned . In the past few years there has been a paradigm shift in curriculum where teacher acts as a facilitator in a student centered learning. In Student centered learning focus is on the student's needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles with the teacher as a facilitator of learning. Here students have to be active responsible participants in learning process. Teacher has key role in the whole process whereas in case of ICT based education, various ICT tools are supplemented to make the teaching-learning process effective. ICT has the potential to remove the barriers that are causing the problems of low rate of education in any country.
The Indian government has launched major initiatives to promote education through information and communications technology. The major problems in using ICT to promote education are: difficulties in scaling up, inability to provide real-time feedback to the teacher, the cost of access devices at the user-end, and more. To overcome the challenges, the government has been steadily increasing the allocation of public resources to education. Moreover, with the enactment of the Right to Education Bill, there is a strong need to increase the number of teachers in schools. It is also necessary to improve the effectiveness of teachers by making available the right tools and technology. There is a need to offer students opportunities to learn by themselves for example, by watching television, using computer, studying online content. Unfortunately, these facilities are not yet available to majority of students.

ICT In FORMAL EDUCATION

ICT applications are becoming indispensable parts of contemporary culture, spreading across the globe through traditional and vocational education. In Indian scenario, mainly education system has three tiers primary (including nursery and preprimary), High school or secondary level (High and senior secondary levels) and the college or higher level (including college, university levels). In all these levels of education ICT can be utilized for better teaching learning process and improving quality of education. Using multimedia in education results in the increasing productivity and retention rates, because people remember 20% of what they see, 40% of what they see and hear, but about 75% of what they see and hear and do simultaneously. Nursery students can be taught by showing pictures, animals, fruits etc. With the help of ICT tools students at this level are able to grasp a lot by hearing voices or sounds and animated motion of various animals. Language learning is also taught at this level. To know a new language at this age is easier as compared to other levels. Multimedia projector & computer can be used to teach phonetics and pronunciation. Lessons, poems & lectures by eminent scholars stored in computers or other ICT tools can easily be shown to the students time and again anywhere. At high school level subjects like History, Geography, Political science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Physical education etc are taught. Lessons in these subjects can easily be taught by showing small movie related with the subject to create interest among the students. Such type of movies and related multimedia material is easily available at academic repositories and from various related sites with the help of Internet. Internet is basic tool which can be utilized by teachers and students to find any type of information. At college level various facilities like computers, Electronic Board, Edusat facility initiated by various state Governments, MM projector and other peripheral devices related with teaching learning process are easily available.

ICT In Non- Formal Education

In Non-formal learning, learners can access information and learning materials from anywhere and at any time. It includes distance education and other open learning systems. There are various functions to be performed with the enrolment of students in any course of distance education in any University or institute. Functions include

allotment of unique number (called reference number/roll number), providing books, providing information related with installment of fees and details thereof to name a few. Out of all these activities some of these may be performed well with the help of ICT Tools. All instructional material may be uploaded at the University portal and CDs of those lectures may be provided to the students instead of printed or hard copy material, Online fees payment system and online exams can also be conducted on the portal. This would help to sort out the problem of the delay in declaration of results of various exams by various universities. Advantages of utilizing such tools include saving of lot of paper work and help the environment making it pollution free. This will also bring transparency in the whole system of functioning. 4. ICT for Content development and administration: Only presence of ICT in education sector is not sufficient there is also great need for development of good and relevant quality content. ICT can be utilized for the major areas which are content and administration. In this area certain initiatives have been taken at state and Centre levels. For content development in India certain initiatives have been taken for creating digital repositories and learning objects. Such initiatives include Sakshat portal of Govt. of India (GOI). National Programme of Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) and Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) which create quality digital content for different levels of Education . Certain states have also taken a step forward to bring transparency in the education system through ICT. Delhi Government has been a pioneer in using ICTs for better administration of the education system. The Department of Education, Government of Delhi, having a lot schools, teachers and students under its administrative jurisdiction has developed a comprehensive and functionally effective Web-based and GIS-based Management Information System (MIS) .With the help of such a transparent system everyone including citizens, schools, zonal offices, district offices, regional offices, and various branches at the headquarters can share information using the Web-enabled software. Information for all stakeholdersstudents, teachers, and administratorsis available online through the Directorates Web site (edudel.gov.in) this includes information on admissions, mark sheets, teacher attendance, transfers, and pay slips etc.

ICT In Teacher Training

ICT is applied in teaching practices as well as for delivery for these trainings. In order to implement ICT-driven distance education programmes, the teachers must first understand and be comfortable with the technologies. They must be given opportunities for acquisition of a new knowledge. This can begin by promoting computer-training programmes for teachers. Use of ICTs for teacher training has been recognized by the governments of most South Asian countries and teacher training programmes like Intel Teach across India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka; Microsoft Shiksha in India; and several other initiatives in Nepal and Bhutan are focused on using ICTs for training teachers .The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has created the most comprehensive set of ICT standards for teachers, students, and administrators . The SSA and RMSA has taken initiatives to strengthen Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) in collaboration with a number of private organizations after having a look at the advantages of ICT in Education for achieving the goals of SSA. In teacher training colleges, computers and the Internet can be used to increase teachers basic skills of teaching and subject related knowledge by accessing the resources that can later be used in classrooms teaching.

Challenges Of ICT In Education

Certain challenges also exist for the ICT based teaching learning. One of the great challenge for quality control in education is lack of standards for parameters to measure the quality of education. For the solution of this all the accreditation bodies like NAAC,NBA,AICTE,CBSE and other authorities must sit together and circulate a standard list of parameters to decide the quality of education. Development of ICT has changed the epic centre of knowledge and hence in many of the cases student is more informed than the teacher. Teachers lack adequate qualification and training and their lesson plans are most often outdated or irrelevant. Setting up the ICT devices can be very troublesome. It is expensive to afford it is hard for teachers to use with a lack of experience using ICT tools. These reasons destroy the available quality of education. Many schools have limited resources for buying books, stationery, furniture and other classroom materials. Role of private sector providing services in such sectors may be taken into account. Rural population may not be able to pay hefty amount to utilize such ICT resources for education. One of the major challenges in the implementation of ICT in education is the initial thinking that is based on the technology. ICT hardware and software are not designed as per educational purposes rather they are designed for general purpose. One of the challenges to be met is also of digital divide in private and Government schools and moreover in rural and urban schools also.

 Major challenge for educators and trainers is how to develop learning materials for delivery on available ICT tools including mobile devices. The learning materials should be in manageable learning chunks and should make use of multimedia. There are many advantages of using learning objects in mobile delivery including: they can be re-used and changed without affecting other learning objects, and they can be stored in an electronic repository for remote access at any time. Barriers include costly supportive infrastructure, developing online material can be expensive and time consuming, quality, validity of online material, lack of flexibility in already prepared study material. A lot of information available online may dissuade student learning. Students can feel isolated in absence of classroom like environment. Computer Programmes at various levels of quality parameters can be used to control, manage and put strict discipline in the campuses through use of computer application for Curriculum development, Teaching and learning, Research and extension, Governance and leadership, infrastructural facilities and use of expert system in suggesting intelligent decisions to top management in policy making and other important areas in higher education.

Major Policy Statements and Initiatives

In the late 1990s, deregulation of the telecommunication industry began a dramatic improvement in access to basic telephony and Internet services for the general population. Key government initiatives are discussed below: 2002 - 2007: The Tenth Plan The Tenth Plan outlined goals of improving access and reducing disparities with the Common School System, as well as: renewal of curricula with emphasis on vocationalisation and employment-oriented courses; expansion and diversification of the Open Learning System; reorganization of teacher training and greater use of ICT (GOI, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education and Literacy Website ) 2002: Vidya Vahini In 2002, the Indian government launched a project called Vidya Vahini to provide for IT and IT-enabled education in 60,000 schools in India over three years (India has about 1.1 million schools), as part of a Rs 6,000 crore (USD 1.2 billion) project. Beginning with a pilot covering 150 schools the government proposes to equip each school with a computer lab equipped with Internet, Intranet and television to facilitate videoconferencing, Web-broadcasting and elearning. (Kumar, A., October 9, 2002) 2004: Edusat Launched in September 2004 at a cost of USD 20 million, Edusat is Indias first dedicated education satellite. India will require 10,000 new schools each year and meeting the teaching needs on such a scale [by conventional methods] will be impossible Madhavan Nair, chairman of ISRO, quoted in New Scientist, (Tata, September 20, 2004) 2006: Broadband connectivity in all secondary schools On May 20, 2006, The Government of India, Ministry of HRD, Department of Secondary and Higher Education issued an order for the Constitution of an Integration Action Plan to implement Broadband connectivity in all secondary schools. (Order dated May 20, 2006, GOI, HRD, Dept. of Secondary and Higher Education Website (e)) 2007: Digital Library and Information Network Based on recommendations made by different state open universities and distance education institutions (DEIs), the Indira Gandhi National Open University's (IGNOU) board of management has approved the National Open and Distance Learners Library and Information Network (NODLINET) initiative. The expert committee set up by the ministry for human resource development (MHRD) has endorsed the initiative, which will now be implemented in a phased manner within a period of five years. (Times News Network, April 22, 2007) UNESCO: Gesci At the international level, the United Nations has generated the Global school and Communities Initiative (Gesci), a

special campaign to promote the use of technology in education (UNESCO Website (d)). From their Bangalore base, Gesci will work with the Indian ministries of Information Technology and Education facilitating policy support, technical assistance and global resources for the initiative.

Internet and continuing education programme The availability of computers in the society in future will certainly create a demand for continuing education programmes through Internet. According to Adrain Soar, Chairman, Pan Macmillan Ltd., by 2002, 85 per cent schools globally will have Internet access. Having understood the importance of Internet education programme, it is appropriate to discuss the nature of continuing education through Internet. The components of Internet based continuing education programme i) Online learning material ii) Online academic counseling iii) Online assignments/projects /dissertation guidance iv) Online collaborative learning
2004: Bridges to the Future Initiative This is a partnership between the International Literacy Institute (ILI) at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), Byrraju Foundation, IIIT, and other agencies in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The program aimed at providing literacy programs in the local language to out-of-school youth and primary school students, using computer infrastructure in schools after hours. Results of a two-year long impact study show dramatic results in putting drop-out youth back into school, and raising learning achievement of in-school children aged 8-10 years in poor rural settings (Wagner, Sridharan & Daswani, January 9, 2007). 2005: Indo-US Collaboration Indo-U.S. Interuniversity Network for Higher Education and Research was launched in 2005, a collaboration between over 20 American universities and Amrita University, The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to enhance higher education and research in India through the Edusat e-learning network. Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre Mission 2007 seeks to establish 600,000 Village Resource Centres by August 15, 2007, coinciding with Indias celebration of 60 years of independence. (Swaminathan, M.S., November 25, 2006). Establishing connectivity and covering the last mile are imperative to this ambitious plan. To that end, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is planning to connect 80,000 villages of India through wireless broadband. Other Public-Private Partnerships for ICT in Education There is a plethora of Public - Private Partnerships (PPP) and Initiatives in which state governments have partnered with large private sector organizations and multinational corporations to help bring computer enabled education to the masses. Some of these PPP include:

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comprise:

HEADSTART in Madhya Pradesh

(2003) with provider of Linux technologies, Red Hat India. (Sharma, November 19, 2002; Government of MP Website) Project Shiksha (2004) with Microsoft in West Bengal, Karnataka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshwadeep, and Tamil Nadu. (Microsoft India Website) The IntelTeach Program (February 2000) to train classroom teachers in over 35 cities nationwide to use technology to improve teaching and learning. Shiksha India (December 2001), a non-profit organization set up by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), has created a teachers portal using open source tools and technologies. (Shiksha India Website) Community Learning Centres (2003) were set up by the Azim Premji Foundation in rural Karnataka.A CLC has about 68 computers in a Government Higher Primary School, used by children of that school during school hours for learning curriculum through interactive games and exercises. They are used by the community before or after school hours and during holidays. So far, about 90 CLCs have been set up. (Jain, R., March 25, 2003) Brief details of these and other initiatives are available at the UNESCO and individual project websites, however, details of evaluations conducted and current status of these projects could not be tracked. Initiatives for ICT use in Non-Formal Education

Some initiatives toward the use of ICT in non-formal education include: Computer Based Functional Literacy Program (2004) with Tata Consultancy Services in in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal (Tata Literacy Programme Website). Hole-In-The-Wall Training Systems (2002 - 2003) developed by NIIT, for which the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank subsidiary invested $1.6 million for computer kiosks in more than 60 locations to enable underprivileged children in India to learn from a web-based curriculum (UNESCO Website (b)). India IT Freedom Project (2002) was launched in Andhra Pradesh in partnership with Freedom Scientific Inc., USA. The project seeks to make ICT accessible to visually challenged learners by the use of screen reading software.(The Hindu, August 6,2002, and UNESCO Website) The UNESCO Website provides details of various other programs for ICT use in the non-formal sector; however, current status details are not available.

ICT for Special Needs There are some Government as well as private initiatives (Agarwal, 2003) exploring the use of ICT for persons with disabilities (PWD), for example, IIT Chennai has developed a local language editor with speech recogntion capabilities available in 15 Indian languages along with English. IIIT Hyderabad recently developed a software to read web pages written in Hindi or Telugu. The National Association for the Blind, Delhi is developing a library of electronic educational material for PWDs. Some 1500 titles will be stored using a format accessible with a screen reader or for direct embossing of the text in Braille. In 2003, work began on Screen Access For All (SAFA), an open source initiative to develop a screen reading software for vision impaired persons to read and write in their language of choice. (SAFA Homepage) Information about the current status of all these initiatives is however difficult to find. In 2002, The Spastic Society of Karnataka undertook a study for the Azim Premji Foundation, to assess the impact of computer aided learning on children with learning disabilities in rural Karnataka. The study concludes that computer aided instruction offers significant improvements in visual motor coordination, social intelligence and reading skills. (Azim Premjee Foundation Website (d)). There is however, no information available about any initiatives for children with disabilities launched thereafter. CONCLUSION

Today in India, ICT education has become a lottery to success.Quality and sustainability of random government initiatives, implemented differently by different states has led to a de-facto privatization of ICT education in India with private institutions flourishing. Quality in education through ICT and its awareness among stakeholders will have positive impact on the society. ICT can be helpful in quality and standards of education by implementing it in various phases of education. ICT can be employed in formal and Non-formal types of education and would eventually make the learners employable and socially useful part of the society. By employing ICT in teacher training can save a lot of money of the Government. Moreover a lot of qualitative improvement can be seen as resource persons for the training can be best of the world. By employing ICT in administration can help in solving the problem of Absenteeism of students and teachers. Good quality content is one of the major issue and directly affects the standards of education and quality. By overcoming the certain challenges involved in the process of education can help a lot in this side. Conclusively a lot of quality improvement is possible after careful and planned implementation of ICT in education by various stakeholders.
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Molnar Gyongyver, New ICT Tools in Education Classroom of the Future Project