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Thakur, G. R. “Integrating ICT into Teacher Education.

”, International Recognition
Research Journal-Indian streams Research Journal (Vol:2, Issue- 6 July 2012. ISSN no.
2230-7850). Impactfactor 0.1870 Pp 11-13.

INTEGRATING ICT INTO TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMME

ABSTRACT

Teacher educators are faced with the challenges of preparing a new generation of teachers to
effectively use the new learning tool in their teaching practices. ICT is an ocean. This paper
focuses the possible usage of ICT in teacher education. ICT teacher training can take many
forms. We can organize various ICT use as: Main content focus of teacher training, Part of
teaching methods, Core technology for delivering teacher training, and Facilitate professional
development & networking.

ICT can be used to enhance richness and quality of teacher education in the classroom through
web-based instruction, which can be implemented by Web-assisted classroom instruction and
Individual learning.
For effective learning, close and conducive learning environment in the college can be created
through strategies like Development of instructional material, Use of web conferencing and
blogs, Formation of discussion forum and newsgroup. ICT can be useful in handing practice
teaching by making use of digital demonstrations, Creation of photo gallery, Instructions on
blog, Feedback. ICT can facilitate extension activities either by integrating ICT in it or through
distance mode.This paper explains the practical use of ICT in the field of teacher education.

Keywords: ICT, Teacher education programme, Educational technology

In recent years when Information and Communication Technology has advanced on all fronts, its

use as an instrument of education has assumed added significant in all levels and types of

education. A variety of educational technology media and methods are being developed and

utilized to improve teaching, training and learning process.

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Education system all round the world is under increasing pressure to use the ICTs to teach

students the knowledge and skills they need in the 21st century. The 1998 UNESCO World

Education Report, states, “To effectively harness the power of the new ICTs to improve learning,

the following essential conditions must be met:

 Students and teachers must have sufficient access to digital technologies and the Internet

in their classrooms, schools and teacher education institution.

 High-quality, meaningful and culturally responsive digital content must be available for

teachers and learners.

 Teachers must have the knowledge and skills to use the new digital tools and resources to

help all students achieve high academic standards.

So teacher educators are faced with the challenges of preparing a new generation of teachers to

effectively use the new learning tool in their teaching practices.

Information and Communication Technology is an ocean. This paper focuses the possible usage

of Information and Communication Technology in the teacher education considering the varied

background of B.Ed. student teachers, their computer/ICT literacy level and possible availability

of Information and Communication Technology resources.

ICT teacher training can take many forms. Teachers can be trained to learn how to use ICT or

teachers can be trained via ICT. We can organize various ICT teacher-training efforts into four

categories using the following framework:

Fig 1 : Various forms of ICT teacher training

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I. ICT use as main content focus of teacher training:

This approach has an emphasis on teacher training in how to use ICT in the classroom. It

addresses issues such as selecting appropriate ICT tools and supporting students in the use of

these tools, using ICT to promote learning activities, developing new methods of facilitating

learning and evaluating students‟ performance, and so on.

Three types of courses can be arranged for teachers:

1. Basic ICT skill workshop: This may cover word processing, PowerPoint presentation,

Internet literacy, and other required technical skills.

2. ICT foundation course of instructional technology: It will cover learning, thinking and

the effective use of instructional technologies in the classroom; instructional planning

models; selecting, creating, evaluating, and integrating instructional technologies and

resource materials; promoting creativity and complex thinking through ICT project work

activities; organizing and managing instructional activities with appropriate ICT

resources in the classroom.


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3. ICT elective course: This course covers the design and production of computer-based

instruction.

II. ICT use as part of teaching methods:

This approach integrates ICT into teacher training to facilitate some aspects of training.

Captured Wisdom is a resource developed by the North Central Technology in the Education

Consortium for K-12 teachers and school administrators. It uses videotape and CD-ROM to

help US teachers to see how technology can be integrated into their work. The Captured

Wisdom CD-ROM Library is made up of stories about teachers who are making meaningful

and creative uses of technology in their instruction. These CD-ROMs contain video

descriptions and demonstrations of how technology is used in teachers‟ classrooms. They

provide “examples of real educators and learners using successful practices of technology to

support instruction and learning in their classrooms.”

III. ICT as core technology for delivering teacher training:

In this approach, ICT is used as the major way of providing the learning experience of

teacher training. The content of this approach covers a variety of ICT applications. It is

especially useful for the extension activities through distance mode.

IV. ICT used to facilitate professional development and networking:

The content of this approach includes the professional development programmes of teacher

education as well as the extension activities provided for the teachers from the institutions

around.

B.Ed. curriculum has mainly two aspects i.e. theory and practical.

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I: ICT and teaching of ‘Theory of Teacher Training’

Information and Communication Technology can be used firstly to enhance richness and

quality of teacher education in the classroom

A) Web-based instruction:

Tools such as Internet, Gopher and WWW have been developed largely to facilitate sharing

of information. WWW has more appeal because of its hypermedia foundation. Its use is

growing very rapidly due to its access to the latest version of a document. The educationally

attractive WWW features are:

i) The ability to have multimedia documents

ii) Hypertext/hypertext capability

iii) WWW networked basis allowing for distance learning

For the maximum utilization of information and communication technology, some basic

information literacy and skills are essential. To achieve the minimum required abilities to

harness the benefits of information and communication technology, the following measures

are to be achieved in college of teacher education.

i) Orientation about information and communication technology resources.

ii) Each student will create his/her e-mail account.

iii) Each teacher educator will have her/his own blog.

Web-based instruction can be implemented in two ways.

 Web-assisted classroom instruction

 Individual learning

a) Web-assisted classroom instruction

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In this method, the teacher will contact the suitable website and collect information required to

teach topics. Teacher from the same subject background can have networking through Internet.

They can exchange the information and resources; can have orientations, discussions, sharing of

knowledge through e-mail, chat and conferencing. After having collected the required materials,

the teacher proceeds toward preparing the instructional material.

Fig. 2: web-assisted classroom instruction

The teaching can be interactive by integrating supporting literature, images and video, sound

clips, readymade templates that are available on WWW. It will be presented by harnessing the

application software like word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoint and moviemaker, etc. The

teacher can combine pre-recorded images made during a lecture. Pre-recorded video fragments

can be included accompanied by sounds if needed. Images of real objects obtained via cameras

can be downloaded to a computer or connected directly to the projector. This technology allows

for clearer visualization and saves time. Teaching follows follow-up activities which may

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include projects, assignments and tutorials based on the theory. Here interaction can be done

through chat room, e-mail facilities through websites or blog. For this purpose, every teacher

should have his own blog or website. Remedial teaching, if necessary, can be given trough web

conferencing, mobile conferences, etc.

b) Individual learning

fig. 3: Individual learning in web based instruction

In this approach, the teacher will be given orientation and guidance to the learner regarding

availability of e-resources. The learning objectives will be cleared to the students. They will

contact the web sites, collect the information and learn the topics. After learning the text

available in the web sites, they can carry out the teacher-prepared follow-up activities. The

learner can interact with the teacher in the classroom in the form of seminar followed by group

discussion.

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The above-mentioned usage of WWW helps to enrich the content for teaching. But what is more

important in education is learning. For effective learning, it is very essential to create close and

conducive learning environment in the college, which caters to the need of individuals. For this

purpose, one can follow the following strategies:

Development of instructional material:

Teacher educators can prepare computer-assisted instructions for the students. Topic like

statistics can be handled by using drill and practice mode. In this mode, the programme is

designed to provide the learner with a number of graded examples. The computer keeps the track

of the learner‟s performance and provides quick feedback and reinforcement. Incorrect answers

are diagnosed and corrected. Each sub point will be attached to the new document where it is

explained with reasons. Psychological experiments can be prepared in V-cal mode. Multimedia

can be used for preparing PowerPoint presentations. One can make use of You-Tube option,

Windows Moviemaker software, hyperlinks, interlinks, etc., to make PowerPoint presentations

effective and attractive. For developing the instructional material authoring tools are used. The

authoring tools are software products to create content. Authoring tools helps to convert

documents, image and charts created on word processors, spreadsheets and presentation software

into online content.

1) Use of web conferencing:

Teacher educators can hold web conferencing by forming groups of students. Proper schedule is

to be prepared for this purpose. Experts in the field can be approached and involved web

conferencing.

2) Formation of Discussion forum and Newsgroup:

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The burning topics can be discussed through threaded discussions by creating discussion forum

for the group of students. One newsgroup can be formed on the teacher‟s blog or college website

on which Local, National and Global educational news can be made available.

3) Use of Blogs:

Teacher can avail of lecture digital notes, PowerPoint presentations, references, extra reference

material and important instructions on the blog.

II: ICT in practice teaching

The second aspect of B.Ed. curriculum is practicum, which include different activities. One of

the crucial activities of any training is the practicum, variously termed „teaching practice‟. ICT

can be useful in handing practice teaching by following strategies:

A. Digital demonstrations:

The method-instructors of colleges of teacher education present the demonstration lessons. Video

recordings of these should be available for the students. In the video library, recording of

previous years‟ students and some expert teachers demonstration classes can be added. Students

may learn many skills through observation. Videos can also be used to analyse teaching styles

and idiosyncrasies and help educational systems to change their approaches.

The demonstration lesson should be classified based on micro skills, simulated lessons, various

methods and models along with Herbert‟s method. It will be added benefit if lesson planning,

pre- and post-discussion session, explanation about the methods and educational implications of

the model used will follow these demonstrations.

The Internet has myriad websites to help teachers develop or improve lesson plans. One of the

key academic resources available on the Internet is lesson plan. Some lesson plan sites offer

subject-specific plan, others offer lesson plan submitted by colleagues across the nation. In

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addition to sites dedicated to lesson plan, links on many educational sites offer lesson plan

related to the content of that site. There are a number of websites which provide information

about the preparation of lesson plan effectively. Exchange ideas, obtain information and find free

animations and simulations to enliven their lesson. Most Internet-based collaborative learning

projects include teacher support and training, and conference proceedings are published regularly

on the web. Chat rooms or discussion forums may become laboratory for new ideas.

B. Creation of photo gallery:

The selective teaching aids can be preserved in the form of photographs, which can be a

teaching-aid bank for the students. Along with the photographs, the explanation of making these

teaching aids can also be added.

C. Instructions on Blog:

In the B.Ed curriculum, Examinations and Practice teaching lessons are the two major activities

that come under internal assessment. With the help of blog, it is easy to inform the instructions

available for the students and teachers.

D. Feedback:

Criticism lesson can be observed on the screen and self-evaluated by the student teachers. Along

with that peer feedback and supervisors‟ feedback should be given with the help of video

recording. If possible, implementation of feedback can be checked again through video recording

of next lesson. This helps the student teacher to learn and improve.

III: ICT and in-service programme

B.Ed. Colleges should be source of knowledge and resources for the in-service training of

teachers by proving extension activities.

ICT can facilitate extension activities in two ways:

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1. By integrating Information and Communication Technology in extension activities

2. Through distance mode.

1. By integrating information and communication technology in extension activities:

ICT can be integrated in extension programme through the following steps

Fig. 4: integration of ICT in extension programme

Sessions ICT resources

Instructional session Offline resources (recordings), Application

software, Web-based instruction &

Multimedia aids

Self-learning session Online learning, CBI/CAI & Simulation

Group session Develop presentations, Simulations of course

content, Developed corpus documents,

Embedded hypertext links including

multimedia

Interactive session Discussion forum, Blog, Newsgroup,

Web/audio conferencing, Facebook & Ning

Evaluation E-mail, Chat room, Blog, Facebook & Ning

2. Through distance mode:

Traditionally, in-service programmes include attending educational activities in the

colleges of teacher education. But many times, geographical distance and time constraints

put limitations on the professional development of teachers. With the usage of

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information and communication technology, colleges of teacher education can adopt the

following model of in-service training. College website can be linked to another web

page, which is related to in-service training program. Through this option, training is

flexible because it can be conducted synchronously or asynchronously, contact is

dynamic and can be as variable as the trainee or trainers‟ desires. Communication can

take place through a variety of modes such as e-mail, list serve, chat room, bulletin

boards, desktop conferencing, all of which the computer facilitate.

The in-service training homepage provides users with an opening screen containing four

links to different kinds of information:

i) General information about the in-service programme

ii) Classification of the activities

iii) Mode of contact

iv) Guidelines to follow the programme

Once the teacher has chosen one topic, they will be “taken to” another web page where

the following set of instructional tools is visualized:

A. Digital lectures

B. Lecture notes

C. Digital libraries

D. Seminars and conferences

A. Digital lectures

The major advantage of a digitized lecture is the breadth of the audience it can reach. First of all,

the lecture can be transmitted online synchronously to many places at once. Feedback is possible

in the form of text sent by students. The second option is to distribute a recorded lecture on DVD

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or videotapes via the Internet. The advantage of this media is mass distribution, multiplied

audience, better quality text accompanied by pictures, additional readings and availability

anytime, anywhere. Sometimes Computer-Aided Instruction, Computer-Aided Presentations are

kept in this option. Colleges of teacher education conduct teaching aid workshops, workshop for

framing objectives and specifications, unit plan workshop, etc. These can be recorded and made

available for the teachers.

B. Lecture notes

Lecture notes options include PowerPoint presentations used for the lectures, detailed notes,

reference material, etc.

C. Digital libraries

Digital libraries option is a set of information and resources about the topic. It includes

bibliography WWW sites. The CD-ROM, DVDs related to school teaching or teaching learning

strategies also can be added.

D. Seminars and conferences

The last option is for the seminars and conferences. Video/web conferencing can be arranged in

this option. Experts will be contacted and involved in video/web conferences. Trainers are given

the opportunity to present online papers though seminar option. The discussion will be held

based on paper. Communicating and collaborating with counterparts at home or around the world

to share information, ideas, insight, and resources can be a powerful source of inspiration and

education for teachers, especially those in isolated or remote areas. Computer-mediated

communication can be structured through moderated discussion forum or list serves or free

flowing through e-mail and chat rooms. Unlike conventional group of networks, electronic

networking and the “virtual communities” that grow out of them are not limited by geography. In

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asynchronous communication, time is not a factor because individuals can participate wherever it

is convenient for them.

IV. ICT in Administration

ICT is useful in administration of the college. It is possible to provide students and teachers with

detailed administrtion information about the module, its aims, objectives, structure and mode of

assessment. Additionally, this area provides important dates in advance so that students can plan

their professional, family and social lives accordingly. Important dates are not only the dates of

submission of works but also dates of examination, periods of self-study, etc.

CONCLUSION

With the already available positive experience in involving ICT in teacher education as well

institutions, we should utilize the technological advancement to cope with the knowledge

explosion and expansion. The true challenge is to freeze a model that captures quality and

computer technology into an integrated communication system. Such a blend will zoom

educational goals to dizzy heights of sublimity. Technology is no doubt the revitalizing antidote

for a stagnating educational system, but the idea situation would be a judicious blend that

optimizes the advantages of both the traditional and technological educational systems.

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“We must act now. We cannot wait for everything to be right, for bandwidth to increase and

technology penetration to increase in school. Many things in life can wait. But the child

cannot. Now is the time when his bones are being formed, his blood is being made and his

mind is being shaped. His name is not tomorrow. It is today.” -Argentinean writer Gabriella

Marcall



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