Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Education

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International Journal of Recent Advances in Engineering & Technology (IJRAET)

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ISSN (Online): 2347 - 2812, Volume-3, Issue -12, 2015 41

Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Education: A Government of India (GoI) Initiative

Geeta Hota

M. Phil. Student, C. V. Raman University, Bilaspur (C.G.),India, Bilaspur University, Bilaspur Email: [email protected]

Abstract: Information communication technology (ICT) is a new weapon of Teaching-Learning. ICT provides effective Teaching-Learning means and provides huge amount of contents available in the world wide web (WWW). The world is moving around utilization of ICT in every sphere of life and our education system is untouched with this. Modern ICT is a combination of computer and Internet to exchange the information from one place to another place in a rapid way. This paper describes about initiative taken by the government of India (GoI) to promote and encourage ICT in Teaching-Learning process with limited ICT infrastructure as compare to developed country like USA.

Keywords: Information communication technology (ICT), Teaching-learning, ICT infrastructure.

I. INTRODUCTION

Modern ICT is basically use of computers and computer related devices and equipment to present and communicate information. The term, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), refers to forms of technology that are used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information. ICT is interchangeably used with Information Technology (IT) and may combine other communication equipments like telecommunication, Internet and others. It helps peoples to access educational classes regardless of geographical distance or obstacles [1]. In education especially in higher education ICT may play crucial role as online education, distance education as well as to the students and teachers involved in class room teaching by providing them teaching and learning related resources.

Many studies reflect that this type of information in context of a country is necessary for making policy.

Table 1 shows the work done in the field of utilization of ICT in education. Authors [1] proposed a model for application of ICT in Teaching-Learning. Other authors [2, 5] investigated about barrier on utilization of ICT.

Author [7] found that ICT is necessary for economical growth of a country. Utilization of ICT in education is growing very fast rate in developed countries due to strong ICT related backbone. Developing countries and undeveloped countries are racing behind them and facing many problems due to economical crises, lack of knowledge, lack of ICT infrastructure etc.

This paper try to investigate the major initiative taken by the government of India (GoI) in this direction as well as current status of ICT infrastructure to access the resources available for teaching and learning.

Table 1: Detail of related research work already done.

Author and Year Contribution and Findings Bidarian,S.

andDavoudi, A.M.

[1]

Presented a model for application of ICT in Teaching-Learning process Kiasari, S. M. [2] Finds barrier on utilization

of ICT in Teaching-Learning process, study is done for payamnoor university of mazandaran.

Aduwa-Ogiegbaen,

S. E. and

IyamuE.O.S.[5]

Reported about hurdles on utilization of ICT in Nigerian secondary schools and found that Nigerian schools are facing problems due to lack of trained human resources, lack of ICT based infrastructure and funding from government.

Elena C.

papanastasiou and Angeli, C.[6]

Studied about use of ICT in Teaching-Learning process.

Sari, A. and Mahmutoglu, H.

[3]

Studied about impact of ICT application in learning process in higher education.

The study is carried for one of the American university.

Tas E.M.[7] Study is done in next of Turkey, Concluded that ICT education is must forever growing and ever changing economy.

II. OVERVIEW OF ICT BACKBONE IN INDIA

In order to utilize ICT, infrastructure and computing devices must be available to the citizen of the country.

We can analyze the situation of ICT infrastructure and related parameters through the data available. As shown

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in the Figures 1 to 4, India is lacking of ICT related infrastructure, if we see Figure 1, Asia is far behind other region of the world. Telecommunication play important role in ICT to provide services which includes fixed telephone subscription, internet users as well as mobile subscription. If we compare data related to all above, with that of USA we are far behind. Although Internet users are increasing year by year (See Figure 4) but a lot is to be done in this direction. On the other hand Government of India (GoI) under the department

of Electronics and Telecommunication, Ministry of communication and Information Technology is looking forward towards this and launched many programs like :National Knowledge Network (NKN) an initiative of MHRD, State Wide Area Network (SWAN), National Informatics Centre Network (NICNET) and National Fiber Optical Network (NFON) to provide high bandwidth internet connection to all the parts of the country.

Figure 1: Percentage of internet users in various parts of the world by region (2014), Source ITU (International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication/ ICT indicator database

Figure 2: Fixed telephone subscription India Vs USA (Source ITU world telecommunication /ICT indicator database).

Figure 3: Mobile cellular Telephone subscriptions India Vs USA (Source ITU world telecommunication /ICT indicator database)

Africa Asia Pacific5%

8%

Devloping World 8%

11%

Arab states 11%

Americas 17%

Europe 20%

Devloped 20%

0 20,000,000 40,000,000 60,000,000 80,000,000 100,000,000 120,000,000 140,000,000 160,000,000 180,000,000 200,000,000

India USA

0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 90.00

India USA

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Figure 4: Percentage of individual using the Internet in India (Source ITU world telecommunication /ICT indicator database)

III. GoI INITIATIVE IN EDUCATION THROUGH ICT

Education should be highest priority for the development of any country. Government of India (GoI) has taken many imitative towards better utilization of ICT in education both in schools as well as in higher education institutions. Following are the major program of ICT in Teaching-Learning.

A. National Mission on Education through Information communication Technology (NMEICT):

NMEICT has been envisaged as a centrally sponsored scheme to leverage the potential of ICT, in teaching and learning process for the benefit of all the learners in higher education institutions in any time any where mode. This was expected to be a major intervention in enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education by 5 percentage points during the XI Five Year Plan period [15].

The mission has two major components:

i. Providing connectivity along with provision for access device and

ii. Content generation.

It also seeks to bridge the digital gap in the skill to use computing devices for the purpose of teaching and learning in higher education.

Following are the programs under NMEICT

(a) NPTEL: NPTEL[9] is acronym of National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning is an initiative of IITs and IISc Bangalore through MHRD [15] to provides E-learning through online web and video courses in engineering, science and humanities streams. The mission of NPTEL is to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by providing free online courseware. The courses are based

on model curriculum prescribed by AICTE for the engineering graduates. Corse materials both web and video are freely accessible to all.

(b) Virtual Labs: Objectives of the Virtual Labs [10] to provide remote-access to labs in various disciplines of science and engineering. These Virtual Labs would cater to students at the undergraduate level, post graduate level as well as to research scholars [10].

(c) A-VIEW:A-VIEW is an award winning indigenously built multi-modal, multimedia e-learning platform that provides an immersive e-learning experience that is almost as good as a real classroom experience developed by Amrita e-Learning research lab [11].

(d) Spoken Tutorial: This project is the initiative of the ‘Talk to a Teacher’ activity of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT), launched by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India. Objective is to train students and others online and provides certificate [12].

B. Digital Library INFLIBNET: The UGC- INFONET Digital Library Consortium was formally launched in December, 2003 by Honorable Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, the President of India soon after providing the Internet connectivity to the universities in the year 2003 under the UGC-INFONET program.

Provides online books and journals to the college and universities at very low cast [13].

Other than these many other programs like Quantom Nano centre, OSCARR++, E-Kalpa, SOS tool etc. are the program of MHRD for improving skill for the teachers as well as for the students.

C. Digital India: Digital India campaign launched by prime minister of India with objective to transform 0.00

2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00

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India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy, may increase the telecommunication infrastructure in the country and hence Internet users will increase and we will be bridge digital gap in between rural area and urban area. It is an umbrella program covering many departments, the program pulls many existing schemes. Vision on digital India centered on three key areas: Digital Infrastructure to every citizen of India, Governance and services on Demand, Digital Empowerment of citizens [14].

IV. CONCLUSION

ICT can play crucial role in almost all the parts of life including education system. ICT provides platform for distance learning, online learning and certification as well as to enhance knowledge and accessing Teaching- Learning contents available online. This paper provides an informative knowledge about the infrastructure required to utilize ICT in education as well as various initiative taken by GoI in this directions. It has been observed that we are poor by infrastructure as compare to other developed as well as developing countries, which need to be improved for better and effective utilization of ICT in higher education.

REFRENCES

[1] Bidarian, S. and Davoudi, A.M., A model for application of ICT in the process of teaching and learning ,Elsevier procedia of International conference on education and educational psychology (ICEEPSSY2011),social and behavioral sciences, 29, pp. 1032-1041, 2011.

[2] Kiasari, S. M. (2012). To review the barriers of ICT application in payamnoor university of mazandaran from professors and student point of view, Elsevier procedia of CYICER 2012 ,social and behavioral sciences,47, pp. 180-184,2012.

[3] Sari, A. and Mahmutoglu, H., Potential issues and Impact of ICT applications through learning process in higher education, Elsevier procedia of social behavior sciences,89, pp. 585-593, 2013.

[4] Cunska A. and Savicka, I., Use of ICT teaching- learning methods make school math blossom.

Elsevier Procedia social and behavioral science,69, pp. 1481-1488, 2012.

[5] Aduwa-Ogiegbaen, S. E. and Iyamu E. O.S., Using Information and Communication Technology in secondary schools in Nigeria:

problems and Prospects, Education technology &

society, 8(1), pp. 104-112, 2005.

[6] Elena C. papanastasiou and Angeli, C., Evaluating the use of ICT in education:

Psychometric properties of the survey of factors affecting teachers teaching with technology (SFA-^T3), Educational society and technology,11 (1), pp 69-86, 2008.

[7] Tas E.M, ICT education for development: A case study, Elsevier procedia computer science, 3, pp 507-512, 2011.

[8] Web source http://www.itu.int/en/ITU- D/Statistics/Pages.

[9] Web source http://www.nptel.ac.in.

[10] Web source http://virtual-labs.ac.in/

[11] Web source http://aview.in/

[12] Web source http://www.spoken-tutorial.org/

[13] Web source http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/econ/

[14] Web source http://digitalindia.org/

[15] Web source http://mhrd.ac.in

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