Information and Communication Technology has permeated in every walk of life affecting the technology fields such as launching satellites, managing businesses across the globe and also enabling social networking. The convergence of computer, communication and content technologies, being known as ICT, have attracted attention of academia, business, government and communities to use it for innovative profitable propositions. Year by year it is becoming simpler to use devices such as desktop palm top, iPod etc.

21st century is characterized with the emergence of knowledge based society wherein ICT plays a pivotal role. In its vision, the National Policy on ICT in School Education by MHRD, Govt. of India, states “The ICT policy in School Education aims at preparing youth to participate creatively in the establishment, sustenance and growth of a knowledge society leading to all around socio economic development of the nation and global competitiveness”. The policy envisages three stages of ICT implementations at school level – ICT literacy and Competency Enhancement, ICT enabled teaching – learning and introduction of ICT related elective subjects at Senior Secondary level. The National curriculum framework 2005 (NCF 2005) has also highlighted the importance of ICT in school education. With this backdrop, major paradigm shift is imperative in education characterised by imparting instructions, collaborative learning, multidisciplinary problem-solving and promoting critical thinking skills.

Government of India has announced 2010-2020 as the decade of innovation. Reasoning and Critical thinking skills are necessary for innovation. Foundation of these skills is laid at school level. It is desirable that affordable ICT tools and techniques should be integrated into classroom instructions right form primary stage so as to enable students develop their requisite skills. Most of the tools, techniques and tutorials are available in Open domain and accessible on web. Further to circular number 7 dated 22 Feb 2010 wherein the NCERT had invited responses from teachers involved in the teaching and learning of Mathematics at the senior secondary stage to acquire the skills for using the World Wide Web,the CBSE would like to extend it to all subjects and all classes.

At Primary and Upper Primary level, focus may be on simple access to information and trying to compile different views and analyse them to conclude in one’s own way. At the Secondary level, gathering and structuring of data and computing to arrive at some reports may be taken up in any subject not necessarily Science and Mathematics. At the Senior Secondary level, when students are so exposed, they will get highly motivated to use ICT tools for taking up complex, multidisciplinary problems such as biochemistry, bioinformatics, environmental science, forensic science, nanotechnology, business intelligence etc. This may necessitate computing tools and techniques of generic nature as well as domain-specific. This is the time when the students and the teachers together will work in global competitive environment.

The schools affiliated to the CBSE have been at the forefront of adopting the most modern innovations and practices to ensure there is a continuous enhancement in the overall quality of teaching and learning. The CBSE believes that it must bring the immense benefits of ICT and computing technology to every classroom across its fraternity of affiliated schools to improve academic outcomes of learners and to enhance the productivity of teachers in classrooms. This can be done by encouraging the use of technology in classroom teaching - learning and instant assessments which shall also go a long way in supporting its CCE initiative as well. CCE in the right spirit entails periodic assessments which are integrated effectively in the classroom teaching and learning. Infact all assessments must inform teaching and using technology helps to create interest among learners as for example a quiz may be done online as part of formative assessment. Technology can greatly assist teachers in classrooms to teach difficult and abstract subject matter concepts effectively if the right digital instruction materials, supporting technology infrastructure and intensive training is provided to the teachers to support instruction..

This may require setting up a classroom equipped with LCD projector and facility for computer mediated instructions. Specifically such classroom must have:

• A projection or display device

• An interactive system

• Computer with UPS System

Education content mapped to the CBSE curriculum topics covering all major subjects across all grades may be created gradually by teachers teaching the content. As a first step in this direction, all CBSE affiliated schools are advised to setup atleast one classroom in their schools equipped with technology to enable usage of digital instruction materials in the classroom. Teachers wishing to teach a topic with multimedia resources can take the class to this classroom. Proper advance scheduling may help teachers in their venture.

Students may be encouraged to form Creative Computing Club to try out innovative applications without any stress and compulsion. For future, schools can plan to setup every year more such classrooms by building capacity among their own teachers to create enriched electronic resources for each discipline as well as cutting across curricular areas. Prompt action by schools in this direction will be highly appreciated by CBSE.

See also:

• Technology blues in classrooms (The Hindu)

Courtesy: www.cbse.nic.in