KEY CHALLENGES IN INTEGRATING ICTS IN EDUCATION IN ANDHRA

PRADESH.

ABSTRACT

A countrys educational technology infrastructure sits on top of the national

telecommunications and information infrastructure. Before any ICT-based programme is
launched, policymakers and planners must carefully consider various aspects. Among them
important are rooms and buildings with appropriate electrical wiring, telephony, affordable
internet services. Various competencies must be developed throughout the educational system
for ICT integration to be successful. Teacher professional development should have five foci: 1)
skills with particular applications; 2) integration into existing curricula; 3) curricular changes
related to the use of IT (including changes in instructional design); 4) changes in teacher role (5)
underpinning educational theories. Ideally, these should be addressed in pre-service teacher
training and built on and enhanced in service. Research on the use of ICTs in different
educational settings over the years invariably identify as a barrier to success the inability of
teachers to understand why they should use ICTs and how exactly they can use ICTs to help
them teach better. Unfortunately, most teacher professional development in ICTs is heavy on
teaching the tools and light on using the tools to teach. Teacher anxiety over being replaced
by technology or losing their authority in the classroom as the learning process becomes more
learner-centeredan acknowledged barrier to ICT adoptioncan be alleviated only if teachers
have a keen understanding and appreciation of their changing role. In the present study an
attempt is to identify key challenges in newly developing Andhra Pradesh state.

Key words. Andhra Pradesh; ICT; key challenges, Competencies

Introduction

Digital literacy, the effective and creative use of ICT, is key to developing the skills for learning,
life and work needed by young people in the modern world( Buckingham 2008, Frissen 2008,
Heddon and Silverstone1992, Heddon 2006).Schools must find new ways of thinking about how
to use ICT so that it is at the heart of teaching and learning - not using computers to do the same
things more efficiently, but changing the process of learning through digital media( Hollway
2001, Jenson et al 2008, Lim et al 2008).

The Government of Andhra Pradesh had announced the first (Information &
Communications Technology) ICT policy in May 1999 followed by the second policy in June
2002 and third policy in March 2005 for promoting the growth of Information Technology (IT)

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sector, generation of employment, augmenting the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and for
overall socioeconomic development of the State (Rathna Prabha 2010). Andhra Pradesh has
witnessed high growth in IT sector in the past one decade, due to the proactive initiatives taken
by the Government in terms of creation of state-of-the-art physical infrastructure, provision of
basic amenities such as roads, water, sewerage and power to the doorsteps of IT Layouts,
availability of large English speaking and technical talent pool lower cost of operation and
innovative e-Governance programmes. However the use of ICT is very in schools and colleges
and universities In Andhra Pradesh. Hence in the present study an attempt is made to discuss the
different challenges that are faced by the educational institutions in A.P in the optimal utilization
of ICT

Methodology

Literature survey was made. Case studies were conducted in the schools and colleges of
SPSR Nellore dot and data was collected and presented in the discussion.

Discussion

It was found that there are schools after receiving technical equipment also not used
equipment properly due to negligence and irresponsibility equipment was not fitted and not
given to reach target fixed by the government.

It was found that lack of training and lack of technical knowledge making users difficult
to make use of the given equipment and thereby causing drastic down fall in the quality
education.

In various government schools it was observed that no period was allotted for teaching
computer education. Some head masters of the schools giving least priority to the computer
education and keeping ICT in the last in comparison of other subjects.

The basic problem was found that head of institution does not know how to make use of
computer technology for making understanding the other subjects. They dont know making use
of the tools for teaching different

It is clear in different visits that head masters of the schools still showing passion towards
traditional education methods thereby not showing any interest to ICT utilization.

There is no observation from the government officials how the computer education was
implemented in schools. No verification was made on syllabus framed for teaching.

District education authorities showing negligence in visiting schools to get the draw backs and
collecting feedback about ICT utilization.

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For observation of ICT utilization, government has decided to recruite additional staff
specifically observing infrastructure and syllabus and results. But the decision is still not
solidified.

It was found that lack of internet facility bringing huge communication gap and becoming barrier
for ICT implementation.

Reputed agencies which undertaken the responsibilities of creating infrastructure in schools have
to train at least five teachers including head master every year. But this was not implemented by
the agencies and no control and no punishment from the government authorities.

Keeping salaries in mind government is coming up with new policies that will minimize
computer staff. If it happens it gives big problem to implementation of ICT policy.

Recommendations

In view of the findings derived from this study and the conclusions arrive from them, the
following recommendations for policy and practice are presented. They are mainly related to
strategies that can be implemented by policy makers to ensure the success of ICT usage in
education ( Mishra and Joseph 2012, Stephen et al 2008, Zaman 2016)

The Government of Andhra Pradesh combine its efforts and resources to achieve
maximum results by appointing one governmental agency to be responsible for ICT policy
formulation, implementation, and evaluation, instead of scattering resources and efforts as is
currently happening between several agencies. The government may use a range of methods to
encourage teachers to use ICT in their teaching to ensure equal learning opportunities for all
students.

The government should give schools more authority and freedom to manage and run themselves
and that includes financial matters.

This study identified a need for more training opportunities. Hence, the Government of
Andhra Pradesh should ensure that all teachers receive adequate training. Training should not
merely focus on basic of ICT skills but should also present methods for integrating ICT in
teaching and learning. In addition, training should be in the form of continuous professional
development courses with flexible training hours as well as in school training.

The government should make use of ICT teachers in schools and assign teacher training
responsibilities to them. ICT teachers should therefore be offered school training courses that are
especially tailored to meet the needs of the school and its teachers. Teachers should also receive
ongoing training as they master previously learned skills and will therefore feel more confident.
Through school training ICT teachers can ensure that teachers are practicing what they have
learned during training courses and can offer advice to teachers on how to implement and
integrate ICT in their teaching.

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 In this study, time constraints were considered a major hindrance to ICT use, therefore,
policy makers in the Government of Andhra Pradesh provide additional planning time for
teachers to experiment with their new ICT skills, design methods to integrate ICT in their
teaching, and prepare materials for use during lessons. The additional time can be generated from
decreasing the managerial workload of teachers to release more time for learning, training, and
planning ICT use in teaching.

The availability of reliable maintenance and technical support was considered an

important supporting factor and its absence was regarded as a hindrance to ICT use. To promote
more ICT usage, the government should provide locally based and in school maintenance and
technical support to assure teachers during their lessons that their flow will not be interrupted
when a technical problem arises.

Training and technical support issues can be resolved by decentralizing the process of
teacher training. By preparing ICT teachers in each school with suitable and required skills to
train and support their colleagues it is likely that more teachers will be committed to that sort of
training as a result of its convenience and long run. Moreover, school management will be more
cooperative in terms of releasing time for ICT teachers to attend training courses run by the
government during school days, since it is easier to reallocate a few ICT lessons than
rescheduling the whole timetable due to the number of subject teachers attending these training
courses.

Teachers expressed their need for professionally developed software and programs in the
Telugu language. Government policy makers should spare no effort or time to address this issue
by allocating adequate funding for the creation and development of software that is suitable for
the Telugu culture and most importantly, fulfills the aims and objectives of the curriculum.

School ICT resources should be enriched with specifically designed software that suits
the local culture and identity. The software should be in standard Telugu language and based on
the government national curriculum. It is important to ensure that is based on the curriculum and
shares its general guidelines but is not a replicate of it. It should also take into consideration
cultural issues, and such as dressing characters in traditional clothes.

English is the dominant language of the Internet. An estimated 80% of online content is
in English. A large proportion of the educational software produced in the world market is in
English. For developing countries in the Asia-Pacific where English language proficiency is not
high, especially outside metropolitan areas, this represents a serious barrier to maximizing the
educational benefits of the World Wide Web.

Even in countries where English is a second language (such as Singapore, Malaysia, the
Philippines, and India) it is imperative that teaching and learning materials that match national
curriculum requirements and have locally meaningful content, preferably in the local languages,
be developed. This would ensure that the Web is a genuinely multicultural space and that peoples

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of different cultures have an equal stake and voice in the global communities of learning and
practice online. Particularly vulnerable to exclusion of this sort are isolated, rural populations,
cultural minorities, and women in general. Thus attention must be paid to their special needs.

One encouraging trend has been the emergence of national and regional school networks, or
School Nets, that facilitate the sharing of content and informationcurriculum guides, teaching
and learning resources, tele collaborative project registries, school and teacher directories,
training curricula and materials, research and policy papers, technology management guides, and
start-up toolkits, among others. Countries like Australia, France, Finland, Japan, Canada,
Thailand, Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe; to name a few, all have national School Nets.
The Enlaces programme in Latin America has linked schools from Spanish-speaking countries
like Chile, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Peru. In Southeast Asia, efforts are currently
underway to pilot School Nets in the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and
Vietnam, and to link these to existing national School Nets to create a region-wide ASEAN
School Net.

In Web-based learning, technical standardization of content has also become a pressing

issue. Standardization allows different applications to share content and learning systems.
Specifications in content, structure, and test formats are proposed so that interoperability may
exist between different management systems, resulting in some cost-efficiencies. Standards must
be general enough to support all kinds of learning systems and content. Worth mentioning are
initiatives conducted by the Instructional Management System (IMS), the Advanced Distributed
Learning /Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model (ADL/SCORM) initiative, the
Aviation Industry Computer Based Training Committee (AICC), and the European ARIADNE
project, since some of the standards they have proposed are already being widely applied.

The ease by which Web-based educational content can be stored, transmitted, duplicated,
and modified has also raised concerns about the protection of intellectual property rights. For
instance, is intellectual, property rights violated when lectures broadcast over the television or on
the Web incorporate pre-existing materials, or when students record educational broadcast on
tape for later viewing?

While schools and universities may already have agreements that expressly authorize the
use of certain materials for classroom purposes, these agreements may not be broad enough to
accommodate telecommunications transmission, videotape recording, or the distribution of
course-related materials beyond the classroom setting.

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