Introduction to ICT

Introduction to ICT

   INTRODUCTION

Prathibha is a trained graduate mathematics teacher working in a village in Chamarajanagara. Recently Prathibha organized a "Mathematics Day" on the eve of Ramanujan's birthday. She organized a video show on Ramanujan's life and his contributions. She had identified this video from YouTube. Based on the learning form the video, students took a quiz in the afternoon.  Since the quiz was online, she could announce the winner immediately. Prathibha used google form for this purpose. Prathibha shared pictures of the event in the subject teachers' group via WhatsApp messenger. One of her friends suggested her to open a blog on her experiences. She has a blog now, in which she regularly posts her teaching experiences and reflections. Prathibha uses web tools and technology in her class regularly. She finds that technology integration in teaching has made the learning experience very engaging. Prathibha is excited about the potentials of technology use in the classroom. 

   OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

• explain the meaning of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
• give an overview of applications of ICT in general and educational context in specific
• Identify possible information tasks that can be done with technology
• identify major landmarks in ICT evolution
• analyze the strengths and concerns associated with ICT use

  WHAT IS ICT?

We are in a digital era. It is difficult to think of any event in our daily life that is not using Information and Communication Technology. Our schools and classrooms are no exceptions. This course is meant for introducing you with these technologies with the intension that you meaningfully integrate technology in your practices related to teaching and learning.

As an ordinary citizen as well as a teacher, you handle enormous data all the time. Data refers to facts, events, activities and transactions which have been recorded. Data is the raw material from which information is produced. Number of boys and girls in your class is a factual description of your classroom. This is an example of data related to the students in the class. In this sense, data is a description of the world. Information is making meaning from the data. Based on the data, you can conclude if girls are more in number in your class. This conclusion is information. In other words, information is processed data. Most of the decisions taken in and around the world by and large are based on the data and information. Information is the key guiding force of the world today.

A graphical representation of what is ICT is represented in more details in the figure below (Graphic courtesy: Dr.M.U.Paily, RIE, Mysore)