Educational Technology

Traditional and ICT media

Traditional media covers the medium that was the means of communication and expression before the digital era – advent of the Internet. Traditional media include Print Media, Broadcast Media, and Out of Home (OOH) media. A single producer generates the content. This “one to many” model generates one message to many recipients

Printed materials: Books ,News papers, Journals
Broadcast media: Radio, Television
Out of home media: Hoardings, billboards, posters, Banner displays on ATMs etc.

Traditional media as a teaching learning strategy

Media resources can be used within lectures to stimulate interest in and develop knowledge of the material being taught. This traditional approach is teacher-centric, and information is pushed to the learner. Instructors can also create their own media to effectively and efficiently convey knowledge. Media resources can also be used to engage students and facilitate active learning strategies which promote deeper learning.

Radio in education

The goal of enriching classroom has been related with new educational media ever since radio was introduced on an experimental basis within British classrooms in 1924. Extensive radio support to school children in India is more than three decades old. Radio in higher education has been used since the 70’s decade.

AIR and the state governments organise workshops to train teachers in the skills of writing for radio. The programmes mostly employ varied formats of dramatized and musical features, quiz and interview. While all programmes are produced entirely in-house and there are instances when some are commissioned from agencies which special in specific disciplines.

The programmes are designed to be interactive and produce response from students. Radio broadcasts are not designed to replace the teacher. They are really anticipated as a teaching aid, to support the overburdened and under skilled teacher. Programmes are devised around the curriculum and are enrichment oriented to provide information not readily accessible to these classrooms. Each programme corresponding to the length of a class period is aimed to allow the teacher some respite and the students, variety. The objective is to excite the imagination and animate the content in a way that the students are transported beyond the dull environments of the classroom.

Another segment of educational programmes are broadcasts for teachers mainly in rural/remote locations which help them to update with current issues in their profession and improve their teaching strategies. The radio also provides a forum for dialogue among teachers.

Television in education

In the early 1970’s the eminent space scientist Dr. Vikram Sarabhai proposed that modern communications technology could contribute to the war against underdevelopment and poverty in India. Mass knowledge could remove the constraints on development and serve as force for social transformation. In mid-70’s with the use of a US satellite a yearlong project SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment) was launched to beam instructional programmes in agriculture, health, family welfare, science and education. Based on the evaluation of this experiment, which was a notable success, India embarked on expanding the TV network using its own satellites.

Television in higher education began in 1984 with UGC’s countrywide classroom. The programme primarily targeted rural and suburban undergraduate students and it seeks to provide new insights, bring new findings and take students to various institutions and labs they would rarely see. Interdisciplinary programmes are also highlighted and thus motivation, innovation and creativity were seen.

At school level, programmes were produced for TV by The Central and State Institutes of Educational Technology. These cater to the age groups of 4-8 and 9-11 years children. The thrust of the programmes is to emphasize direct teaching, move away from curriculum-oriented approach and reduce the workload of the teacher in the classroom.

TV is also being used at some centres for adult education and literacy. The community TV sets are provided in the villages by the state. The programmes stress on functional literacy, vocational skills and social awareness.

Print media in education

The role of print media in the process of education is of special importance. Print media like newspapers, journals and magazines are the basic oldest channels of communication between one source to other. Print media are being printed in every regional language to facilitate, the readers to get information and knowledge in one’s own mother tongue.

Newspapers

Though newspapers, we can get news, information and we can learn our national language, and English newspapers are very helpful to learn the English language. Newspapers are the best way of learning as they provide lot of information on all the happenings in the world.

Journals

They are magazines which publish on the daily bases. They provide a lot of information on researches, projects done in different fields and whole lot of such information which is useful for students, research scholars and other information seekers.

Magazines

Through magazines, we can learn by articles, features, interviews, short stories and we can get a very nice literature on various fields and aspects related to them. Different types of magazines are available and have different and versatile knowledge of all over the world.

Books

Books are the best sources of education. A lot of material on formal and informal education is available in the books. Mostly students depend upon this medium to learn the education. In spite, of modern technology, still this medium is popular for the learning.

Advantages of traditional Media in Teaching and Learning

  • Media resources can be used within lectures to stimulate interest in and develop knowledge of the material being taught. This traditional approach is teacher-centric, and information is pushed to the learner.
  • Media allows the instructor to facilitate the transfer of expert knowledge to beginner learners. Given the tremendous rate of technological change, instructors face an on-going challenge in choosing the most effective media platform to reach their students. Instructors can also create their own media to effectively and efficiently convey knowledge.
  • Media resources can also be used to engage students and facilitate active learning strategies which promote deeper learning. For example, media provides a useful platform for teaching with cases, cooperative learning, problem solving, and for giving more interactive lecture demonstrations.
  • Student oriented media involves a high degree of engagement; promotes individual learning, social interaction and immersion; and is highly customizable and co-operative (Yowell and Rhoten, 2009).

Telecommunications in education

Within the last decade, synergetic fusion of the progress in telecommunications technologies with the progress in computing technologies, plus accompanying developments in the cognitive sciences has accelerated the rate of change of many services and functions that are basic to the operation of a modern society. Among these services and functions, education is beginning to undergo a dramatic transformation in terms of its delivery and design. Not only is the distance education, online tutorials becoming more common, many new and unconventional teaching learning strategies are being developed by the manipulation of possibilities offered by new technologies.
A combination of telecommunications and informatics (known as telematics) is used in education as a modern strategy in education. Developments in computer sciences, telecommunications and technologies are being done rapidly in recent years. As these improved technologies are offering many benefits, these are also being used in education in order to enhance the quality of education.

Categories of telecommunications applications in education

  1. Audio conferencing by means of several telephones in different localities, often amplified for group listening, linked together into a network that allows all the stations to both transmit and receive spoken messages. 
  2. Video conferencing systems, which may allow full audio visual message transmission between all the linked stations, or may be limited to one-way video transmission from the first station supported by multi-way audio transmission between all the satellite stations.
  3. Audio graphic conferencing systemssupport basic audio conferencing systems by some means of transmission and sharing of visual material like printed material, fax transmission etc. from one station to another across the normal telephone system. 
  4. Computer conferencing systemsutilise existing networks of computers as means of collaborative decision making and discussion on the basis of   shared messages (usually text-based) and files.

Modes of tele-instruction in education

Teleconference
A teleconference or teleseminar is the live exchange and mass delivery of information among several persons and machines remote from one another but linked by a telecommunications system. Terms such as audio conferencing, telephone conferencing and phone conferencing are also sometimes used to refer to teleconferencing.
The telecommunications system may support the teleconference by providing one or more of the following: audio, video, and/or data services by one or more means, such as telephone, computer, telegraph, teletypewriter, radio, and television.

Internet teleconferencing
Internet teleconferencing includes internet telephone conferencing, videoconferencing, web conferencing, and Augmented Reality conferencing. Internet telephony involves conducting a teleconference over the Internet or a Wide Area Network. One key technology in this area is Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Popular software for personal use includes Skype, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.

Telelecture/ Teletutorial
A lecture delivered using audio visual telecommunications.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

The hardware, software, the methods and know how required or used in acquiring, storing, processing displaying data and ensuring that information message are transmitted correctly, efficiently and cost effectively is collectively known as Information Communication technology Technology (ICT). There are various ICT tools available which can be utilized for the knowledge creation and dissemination in the modern world. Tools include Radio, T.V, Internet, Mobile phone, Computer, laptop, tablets and many other hardware and software applications. Certain ICT tools like laptops, PCs, mobile phones, and PDAs have their own implication in Education.

There are two main reasons, for using ICT in education

1. Children of present generation need to develop the skills which will enable them to benefit from new opportunities offered by ICT.
2. ICT enhances the quality of teaching and learning in schools, and thus contributes to the raising of standards of achievement in education.

Contribution of ICT to learning

Shared learning resources: Students and teachers enjoy the facility to share information wherever they are in the school. Television monitors provide details of timetables, projects and assessment, mealtime menus and a host of other useful up-to-the-minute information. There are also regular play-outs of short films and videos created by children, and some schools can use several channels for broadcast purposes.

Shared learning spaces: Networked computing facilities create a distributed environment where learners can share work spaces, communicate with each other and their teachers in text form, and access a wide variety of resources from internal and external databases via web based systems through the Internet. Children are quickly mastering the ability to communicate effectively using these new technologies because the experience has been made enjoyable in an unthreatening environment, and there are immediate perceived and actual benefits.

The promotion of co-operative learning: Reil (2000) argues that much of what we now see as individual learning will change to become collaborative in nature. Reasoning and intellectual development is embedded in the familiar social situations of everyday life (Donaldson, 1978) so the social context of learning has a great deal of importance. Collaborative learning is therefore taking an increasing profile in the curricula of many schools, with ICT playing a central role.

The move towards autonomous learning: At the same time, computers – and the power they bring to the student to access, manipulate, modify, store and retrieve information – will promote greater autonomy in learning. Inevitably, the use of ICT in the classroom will change the role of the learner, enabling children to exert more choice over how they approach study, requiring less direction from teachers. Students will be able to direct their own studies to a greater extent, with the teacher acting as a guide or moderator rather than as a director (Forsyth, 1996: 31). This facilitation will take on many facets and will also radically change the nature of the role of the teacher as we currently understand it.

Categories of ICT tools

Worldwide research has shown that ICT can lead to improved student learning and better teaching methods. A report made by the National Institute of Multimedia Education in Japan, proved that an increase in student exposure to educational ICT through curriculum integration has a significant and positive impact on student achievement, especially in terms of “Knowledge・Comprehension” • “Practical skill” and “Presentation skill” in subject areas such as mathematics, science, and social study. Because of the following tools, the students experience interactivity.
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The process should be as illustrated below.
Step one: What are the problems in schools, classrooms, exclusively related to teaching-learning? Identify them. Large numbers? Lack of interest? Many drop outs? Learning disability?
Step two: What is being done about these problems? Can use of ICT help? Try making lectures, classes more technology laden to bring a difference. Observe the difference in the classes.
Step three: What are the requirements of the teacher to do a better job? Do the teachers feel that use of ICT to help them improve their teaching?
Step four: Are the teachers and students equipped with ICT skills?

Although ICT offers the opportunity to construct powerful learning experiences, it is pedagogically neutral. That is, ICT can be used in support of traditional teaching methodologies like the large group lecture, student note taking, and examinations. Teachers can use a computer and projector to show slides to illustrate a lecture, students can use laptops to take notes during the lecture, and multiple choice quizzes about the content of the lecture can be put on a website. How these new ICT tools and resources will be used is a human decision, not inherent in the technologies themselves.

ICT has the potential to be used as a supportive educational tool enabling students’ learning by doing. ICT can make it possible for teachers to engage students in self-paced, self-directed problem-based or constructivist learning experiences; and also test student learning in new, interactive, and engaging ways that may better assess their understanding of the content.

A second way to assess the merit of ICT use in education is to consider what

its use enables students and teachers to do that they would not otherwise be able to do.

To explore this question, we consider five aspects of the educational use of ICT –

  • supporting new pedagogical methods
  • accessing remote resources
  • enabling collaboration
  • extending educational programs and
  • developing skills for the workplace

Modern constructivist educational theory emphasizes critical thinking, problem solving, “authentic” learning experiences, social negotiation of knowledge, and collaboration –pedagogical methods that change the role of the teacher from disseminator of information to learning facilitator, helping students as they actively engage with information and materials to construct their own understandings. That is, students learn how to learn, not just what to learn

Advantages of ICT

  • Flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access
  • Gains in ICT literacy skills, confidence and enthusiasm
  • Easier planning and preparation of lessons and designing materials
  • Computer use during lessons motivated students to continue using learning outside school hours.
  • Students learn in a technology-enhanced setting than in a traditional classroom
  • Encouragement of independent and active learning, and self-responsibility for learning
  • Development of higher level learning styles
  • Learning computer skills
  • Getting lot of information and ideas.
  • Produce higher quality work
  • Do things they can not do using traditional methods and resources
  • Do more work and quickly.

Limitations of ICT

  • Reduced personal interaction and physical activity
  • People prefer already prepared material than hand written
  • Learners can be learnt a lot of bad things like unuseful chatting , download silly songs, picture etc.
  •  Eye sights become weak of  the learners
  • Foreign technology and culture is going heavy on our culture

Distinguishing between traditional media and ICT

  • Digitality of data uploading and downloading
  • Interactivity makes the learner active engagement.
  • Hypertextuality enables the learner to link with other websites
  • Dispersal of media devices and tools to produce content and to use content.

An over view of media application in education:

 

Era Media Characteristics Outcome
1900s Visual media School museum as supplementary material (First school museum opened in St. Louis in 1905) Materials are viewed as supplementary curriculum materials. District-wide media center is the modern equivalent.
1914-1923 Visual media films, Slides, Photographer Visual Instruction Movement The impact of visual instruction was limited because of teacher resistance to change, quality of the file and cost etc.
Mid 1920s to 1930s Radio broadcasting, Sound recordings, Sound motion pictures

 

 Radio Audiovisual Instruction movement Education in large was not impacted.
World War II Training films, Overhead projector, Slide projector, Audio equipment, Simulators and training devices Military and industry at this time had strong demand for training. Growth of audio-visual instruction movement in school was slow, but audiovisual device were used extensively in military services and industry.
Post World War II Communication medium Suggested to consider all aspects of a communication process (influenced by communication theories). This view point was first ignored, but eventually helped to expand the focus of the audiovisual movement.
1950s to mid-1960s Television Growth of Instructional television Instructional television was not adopted to a greater extent.
1950s-1990s Computer Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) research started in the 1950s, became popular in the 1980s a few years after computer s became available to general public. The impact of CAI was rather small and the use of computer was far from innovative.
1990s-2000s Internet, Simulation The internet offered opportunities to train many people long distances. Desktop simulation gave advent to levels of Interactive Multimedia Instruction (IMI). Online training increased rapidly to the point where entire curriculums were given through web-based training. Simulations are valuable but expensive, with the highest level being used primarily by the military and medical community.
2000s-2010s Mobile Devices, Social Media On-demand training moved to people’s personal devices; social media allowed for collaborative learning. The impact from both are too new to be measured.

References 

Assignment

1. Write a term paper on “Use of ICT in Indian school education- Current scenario”
2. Does ICT materials replace traditional methods- Contemplate and discuss.