INTERNET TECHNOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION, TEACHER EDUCATION AND RECENT RESEARCH TRENDS

Abstract:

This article looks into the prospectus and trends of internet usage in higher education in general and teacher education in particular. It is the teachers who are the links between school education and higher education, who teach at the former level and learn to teach at the latter level. Their products are also the building blocks of higher education. This link between school education and higher education can be strengthened by strengthening teachers. Teachers who lack knowledge are dead. It is the knowledge which keeps the human being alive in the knowledge based society, which is more true in case of teachers. Internet is a source and carrier of knowledge and information for knowledge seekers. There are many Government and Private agencies at the global and national level, which are working for propagation of internet technology at the apex level. Present article looks into role played and guidelines suggested for government by the agencies like UNESCO, SAARC, NKC, UGC, NCERT, NCTE etc for bringing internet education closer to the knowledge seekers in academic world. The onslaught of internet has opened new vistas of its usage in academics that is, teaching, learning, evaluation, communication and commercial areas. Different modes of learning through use of internet are also indicated in this article. Despite the availability of such a powerful media, it is not being exploited to the optimum level for various reasons. While discussing these aspects the authors have also highlighted areas of research for internet use in education, trend in research and some challenges of internet usage.

Keywords: Internet Technology, Higher Education, Teacher Education, Research Trends, UNESCO, SAARC, NKC, UGC, NCERT, NCTE

Introduction

Computer is an important creation of mankind in the field of innovations and internet is add on creation which has revolutionized the sharing of knowledge and information in the global society. By 1969 itself, it is assumed that the internet had grown from four host computers to millions of computers. The Internet is without doubt the fastest growing communication technology today (Dlodlo & Sithole, 2001). It took only four years for the Internet to achieve the same mark as the television revolution, which took 13 years to reach 50 million viewers (Molosi, 2001). There is hardly any part of the society which has remained unaffected by such a rapid invasion of a new media. The onslaught of internet technology has also left its imprints on the education society. Indeed, the permeation of the Internet technology into classroom has created the opportunities for students to be active learners and allowed instructors to be facilitators (Anderson & Reed, 1998). If internet is growing with such a rapid speed having its impact then,

(i) what are the efforts being put by global and Indian institutions for its prosperity? and

(ii) what is the prospectus of media in teacher education?

These questions can be answered, only when we look into the socio-political situations in the ever dynamic scenario vis-à-vis the advantages and limitation of the internet technology in the field of education.

Global and Regional Perspectives

At the global level UNESCO is a leading organization which is working to enhance quality in education by promoting use of effective technological innovations. The UNESCO encourages the design of effective science and technology education programmes by promoting gender-sensitive, socio-culturally and environmentally relevant policies and curricula. The UNSECO intends to provide a comprehensive range of useful ICT in Education information for teachers and educators, particularly those in the Asia-Pacific region, including: teaching guidelines, lesson plans, and links to online ICT teacher training courses. A gateway to internet resources and website has been developed to help teachers utilize ICT to enhance their teaching.

The South Asian countries have formed an association for co-operation in education and the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) entered a collaboration early with the establishment of Technical Committee of Education in 1989. This committee works for increasing co-operation at all levels of education right from primary to higher level. Different streams of learning like Science, Social Science are being attended and use of technology is also being made. The thirteenth SAARC Summit held in Dhaka in November, 2005 ………………….. stressed that to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century member states must make important strides in the area of science, technology and higher education. (SAARC 2007).

This indicates that in addition to the global efforts being made, the regional co-operations are also striving to improve the higher education system. The improvement has to be brought in quality of delivery of programmes especially making use of Science and Technology. The internet is one such common technology which is being made use for bringing qualitative improvement.

Indian National Perspective

India had a glorious past of having Universities of the level of Taxila, Vikramshila and Nalanda, when the western countries did not have a single University too. The scholars of the repute of Bhaskaracharyya, and Arya Bhatta were produced in past and no-Indian can match to their caliber in the present era. This shows the gloomy picture of Higher Education in India. India is working for improvement of the higher education system to bring back the glory of past. This is known from its institutions viz., the IITs, IIMs, IISc, IIITs, which make the ordinary Indian proud.. But, this quality has to be brought down to masses and should not be restricted to classes. India has network of central, state, deemed, Open Universities and Colleges which are to be interlined through internet for academic sharing of the content. This is possible only through internet technology. Various Commissions, Committees, Governement and Non-Government agencies suggest use of technology. The article looks these suggestion from the point of view of National Knowledge Commission, University Grants Commission, National Curriculum Framework of Teacher Education etc.

Vision of National Knowledge Commission (NKC) on Teacher Education

The government of India has set up a national knowledge commission with following terms of references and objectives.

Terms of Reference

As per Government Notification of 13th June 2005, the following are the Terms of Reference of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC).

· Build excellence in the educational system to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century and increase India's competitive advantage in fields of knowledge.

· Promote creation of knowledge in S&T laboratories.

· Improve the management of institutions engaged in intellectual property rights.

· Promote knowledge applications in agriculture and industry.

· Promote the use of knowledge capabilities in making government an effective, transparent and accountable service provider to the citizen and promote widespread sharing of knowledge to maximize public benefit.

Objectives

The overarching aim of the National Knowledge Commission is to enable the development of a vibrant knowledge based society. This entails both a radical improvement in existing systems of knowledge, and creating avenues for generating new forms of knowledge.

Greater participation and more equitable access to knowledge across all sections of society are of vital importance in achieving these goals.

In view of the above, the NKC seeks to develop appropriate institutional frameworks to:

· Strengthen the education system, promote domestic research and innovation, facilitate knowledge application in sectors like health, agriculture, and industry.

· Leverage information and communication technologies to enhance governance and improve connectivity.

· Devise mechanisms for exchange and interaction between knowledge systems in the global arena.

The authors have restricted themselves to look into the various aspects suggested by the NKC from the view point of the teacher education only.

The quality of teachers in public and private schools is on decline as most of the graduates prefer to go for private multinational companies due to higher perks and other profession related benefits. Furthermore, the non-teaching official duties such as electoral activities interfere in the teaching. The national Knowledge Commission, set up by the Government of India identified that the training of teachers is a major area of concern at present as the quality is poorly managed at many states. Pre-service training needs to be improved and differently regulated in both public and private institutions, while systems for in-service training require expansion and major reform that allows for greater flexibility.

National Knowledge Commission emphasizes use of new technologies, especially but not only the Information Communication Technology (ICT). It says that "The use of ICT as a teaching and learning device needs to be more firmly incorporated into the classroom. Both teachers and students need to be far more familiar with ICT, and get practical experience of web based research. Therefore, ICT should be made more accessible to teachers, students and administration for learning, training, research, administration, management, monitoring, etc. This requires the provision of more facilities such as computers as well as connectivity and broadband facilities. Computer-aided learning also requires training of teachers and other staff in order to make the best use of the technology."

It is evident that an apex body set up by the government has suggested that the facilities such as internet should be made available to all those who are working in the field of education and especially the teachers. The teachers should be informed and trained in the use of media in the classroom and government has to plan for training teachers accordingly. As the education is the investment, no private firm (which has profit motto) will come forward for laying infrastructure solely for educational purpose. The government has to plan in such a way that public and private stakeholders come forward for co-operating in extending the computer and broadband facilities.

Mere initial laying of infrastructure and training by government and apex agencies will become waste, if the facilities are not utilized by the stakeholders at grassroot implementation level. Hence, a permanent set up has to be created for peer group interaction. This is why the National Knowledge Commission has also emphasized, that "A forum for teachers need is to be developed where they may interact, share experiences and ideas. This needs to be incorporated into teacher training programmes, and also provided generally for in-service teachers. A web-based teachers’ portal can play an important role as such a networking forum." This also strengthen the UNESCO's idea at the global level which is mentioned earlier. Further, this forum can be used by teachers to share data about school, students. Innovative practices such as teaching and evaluation practices can also be shared. The research finding or case studies can be published in the portal. The teachers can be encouraged to publish their articles and demonstrate their teaching models. Discussions can be held with authorities in the form of audio or video conferencing. Content clarifications can be had from concerned subject experts. A weekly schedule can be prepared and placed on website for the benefit of participants.

The Government of India has laid down emphases on use of internet also as an aid to ICT. It is assumed by the teaching community that internet is authentic, systematic and instant source of information available to all.

Now, more than ever, moving vast amounts of information quickly and efficiently across great distances is one of the most pressing needs. ……………………… With the Internet, faster communication medium is available to reach large number of people at a very low cost (NKC). At a click of a button the information disseminated by source can be distributed to several concerned.

By the application of information and communication technology, institutions will acquire the ability to diminish the impact of space, time and distance and spread across the country to any remote areas (NKC). Earlier, the information written elsewhere by writers were made available to readers after laps of time as it had to travel the geographical space to reach far and wide of the country. The process which consumed lot of time earlier is now reduced due to the availability of internet technology.

The Internet has wider range of content available for vast variety of knowledge seekers. The primary, secondary or tertiary level educators or related personnel can access information based on their interest, requirements and inclinations. Advanced technologies like computers and information technology can be used to educate large number of students at all levels of education who are useful to themselves and to the society globally. This requires the development of advanced information and communication infrastructure development envisaged and supported by EDUSAT (NKC).

UGC's role in ICT Integration in Higher Education in India

The University Grants Commission (UGC) is a nodal agency which is working to facilitate higher education in India. In addition to its other duties and responsibilities, it is also working for bringing quality education through innovative technologies like internet. The UGC has provided funds for establishing computer centres at colleges and Universities. In addition to this a project was launched to provide Internet to these institutions along with digital repository consisting of about 4000 journals.

UGC has done commendable work during the Xth plan period (i.e. 2007-2012). Now, it is working to capitalize the benefits of Xth plan and empower universities and colleges through network, e-resources, on-line learning, archiving of contents in XIth national plan period (2007-12). Hence, following programmes are launched in the XIth five year plan.

1. Digital Repository at the university and college level will be developed. The vast e – resources will enhance quality of teaching and learning experience through integration of information technology pathways.

2. A vast network of colleges and universities need to be developed through internet connectivity. Colleges and universities will be able to built network through internet connectivity during XI Plan.

3. The benefits of Xth plan in terms of information pathways, e-journals consortium will be continued through ICT for universities and colleges.

4. Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) will be supported to coordinate the activities of Education Multi Media Research Centres and Audio-Video Centres to develop video programmes and disseminate the programmes through media centres.

5. Course wise e- content development will be taken up.

6. Digitalisation of Doctoral thesis will be continued. (UGC)

Place of Internet technology in Curriculum frame work on teacher education in India

The UGC has taken strong initiative for bringing and strengthening of technologies into the higher education. The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) are also working in the direction of bringing quality education by use of new technologies closer to the colleges of education and schools. These new technologies include the facilities provided by satellite technology and internet, which have great bearing on use of increased internet for enhancing the possibilities of E-learning options.

One of the major objectives of teacher education management is to provide and use Information Communication Technologies (ICT) facilities. ICT use has been made compulsory component of practicum of all levels of teacher training programmes. This has increased the scope of reach of internet to the training of institutions.

The framework has suggested that research should be carried under ICT and its impact on teaching and learning. This will help the teacher educators in planning proper ICT for effective use.

To impart more knowledge within a shorter period entails proper structuring of knowledge and use of new transactional strategies including ICT resources. If ICT is not utilized as an aid to the teacher, it may create alienation between the teacher and the taught and the gaps between the schools managed by the rich for affluent children and the state school where children from poor families and rural areas study can widen. A situation like this may create a national divide. Hence, the necessity to devise need-based, affordable and 'alternative' but ‘appropriate’ ICT and plan its programmes which are rich in cultural and educational values. Teacher educators involved in the preparation of educational packages through ICT may have to exercise constant vigil about its intelligent and expedient use. In a knowledge society, students need to be empowered to reconstruct knowledge and utilise it when the situation demands. (Draft Curriculum framework for teacher education)

General Uses of Internet in the field of education

The internet can become major tool for enhancing quality education in teacher education and school system. The use of internet in education is of varied nature. The major usage of internet technology is in acquisition and dissemination of information. Information from any part of the globe can be accessed at other part, simply sitting at the computer. Teacher use this media for obtaining new information or acquiring existing knowledge from the authority or experts. The experts at this instance are reached through websites. The teachers also gather information from the website regarding latest books available in their respective areas of specialization along with the new teaching tools. It is not that the quality books, magazine, teaching tools can be seen, but also can be purchased online by the users. The internet is also being used as a tool for e-commerce in education. Internet is quite complacent with the written, oral, graphical media. It is easy for an expert to prepare a multimedia programme and place on respective website. Internet is multi-media programme tool. It is generally thought that the Internet is an inanimate, which is disproved by its human touch in the form of enhancing person to person contact in the form of communication. Teachers interact via email, on-line conferencing to communicate to each other for their various academic, administrative concerns, so that the same can be clarified.

New Horizons in using internet in teaching learning

Unlike face to face teaching taking place in the classroom the teachers have to adopt new strategies of teaching with the use of internet and also while employing internet as a teaching tool.

· The internet can be employed as a communication tool, so that the teacher-taught can communicate in synchronous or asynchronous mode. The interviews, discussion/conferences are examples of synchronous modes of communication, which takes place in real time. The email is a form of asynchronous communication which does not require both the communicattee and communicator to be on-line in real time.

· Internet enables a Science, Social Studies or Mathematics teacher to organize virtual field trips through the internet. A virtual image/video can be presented about a historical monument depicting the process of construction and persons involved in it. Similarly, a Science teacher can take the class to a thermal power plant and Mathematics teacher can present functioning of a bank. At higher level a virtual laboratory such as functioning of atomic plant experiment can be conducted just sitting in front of the computers, thereby reducing the hazards involved in the actual experiments (if any).

· The students of different level can access any form of content as part of on-line journaling. They can also write for their interested on-line journal. Here, the methodology adopted for referring particular material sequencing etc. will be of specific type. Specific skills need to be developed by the authors.

· There are many resources such as census which were not easily available to a lay learner or researchers earlier. Now, the government is making every effort to make available web-based or digitized primary resources to all the public especially to the investigators through the internet.

· Now, it has become easy for learners to learn based on problem-based inquiry (E.g. Web Quest). Based on his requirement, it is the learner who tries to construct a windmill by knowing all the details pertaining to the project like the location to be identified, direction to be placed, height of the wheels and instruments to be arranged etc. Thus, solving of problems based on problem based inquiry method is possible.

· Internet provides opportunities for learners to learn through on-line simulations. This is used in learning of skills in games like car race, subjects like National Budget Simulations.

· The internet helps a learner to conduct performance assessment. The online testing is a technique which helps the learner to know his performance.

Teaching is becoming one of the most challenging profession in our society, where knowledge is expanding rapidly and modern technologies are demanding teachers to learn how to use these technologies in their teaching. The new technologies increase teachers' training needs and they also offer part of the solution. Internet can provide more flexible and effective ways for professional development for teachers, improve pre- and in- service teachers training, and connect teachers to the global teaching community.

To use these tools effectively and efficiently, teachers need visions of the technologies' potential opportunities to apply them, training and just-in-time support and time to experiment.

Reasons for non-utilisation of internet as teaching learning tool

It is a known fact that internet is new technology for Indian masses. Being a new concept itself creates a sense of foreignness among the public in general and teaching community in particular. The lack of requisite instruments (computers, connectivity, broadband facilities in this case), itself keep many dark about the potentials of technology. This creates an emotion of fear and frustration for use of internet technology. In case if the user community has the facilities for internet use, they lack the curriculum development experience. Hence, teachers are unaware of making use of appropriate content at appropriate level. E.g. Depth of content for topic like Magnetism for high school and college level is different than that of primary level. It becomes difficult for a lay teacher to design his teaching according to curriculum requirement, when he/she lacks curriculum development experience. Moreover, the teacher does not have time and resources for taking up trial and error mode of learning for himself before he takes up actual teaching. This is why the term "internet" appears phrase "Enter not" for most of the teaching communities who are working in the gross root level.

Areas of research in Internet as a teaching learning tool

The Indian Society is largely divided into haves and have nots. This difference is quite significant. Research has to be carried out to know the data of society having computers and computers with internet at home and office. Similar studies have to be conducted pertaining to student teachers, teacher educators and institutions who have computer facilities with / without internet and the frequency of accessibility of these groups at home or institutions. There is an urgent need to study what sort of overview or introduction is being provided about the internet to the teacher. The study on orientation should also include practical aspect and help extended to teacher to learn new teaching strategies for developing lesson plans incorporating internet usage. It is a great skill to locate need based web sites and portals. Mere accession of the material is not sufficient, they must also be taught web publishing skills. There is a great deal of work which is to be carried out in this regard so as to design new theories. Teachers must also be equipped with skills of taking action research on the use of internet by their students, colleagues.

There is a need to study internet facilities available for teachers during at training, post training and teaching venues/setting. This has to be followed by knowing use or non-use of internet in the classroom teaching. If at all the teachers are using it then we need to study strategies adopted in the classroom. Simultaneously, there is also effort for integrating internet technology into the training programme. In case of training the share of theory and practical aspects has to be studied. The internet technology level of expertise used whether technical faculty or teacher educator or professional institutes themselves are effective has also to be studied. Internet is being used only to gather information. It is here where we can study what objectives are being covered through internet learners. Does this cover only knowledge objectives (1.0) of Bloom's taxonomy or helps the learner to compare and contrast (i.e. 4.0 Analysis, 5.0 Syntheses), which is a higher order learning.

There are many areas of research for studying use of internet in pre-service, in-service teacher training programme. There is scope for study of use of internet in Curriculum translation, Evaluation, Information Processing etc. When we intend to study the use of internet in Education, it opens Pandora's Box and gives vast scope for research opportunities. Following are the broad research trends identified in the use of internet technology in the field of education.

Learner

1. Characteristics of learner
2. Learning theories
3. Number of hours of usage (day, week, month)
4. Changing roles of learners (peer guidance, discovery)
5. Trends among boys and girls
6. Learning strategies (trial and error, discovery etc.)
7. Modes used (email, paper, website etc)
8. Strategies adopted for Search of Need based websites

Teacher

1. Changing role of teacher (guide, friend)
2. Lesson planning (including teaching objectives, activities, styles)
3. Teaching Methods (e.g. simulations)
4. Evaluation Strategies (objective, subjective)
5. Achievement of objectives (Knowledge, Analyses, Synthesis etc.)
6. Teacher Training (pre/post, theory/practice)
7. Web publishing skills
8. Rate of use of internet in education
9. Pre-service/In-service training usage
10. Academic Association (like web portals)

Internet Media

1. Availability (Home or Institution) both for teacher and students
2. Accessibility (of Internet, Subjects and Topics)
3. Evaluation, Online examination
4. New Online Courses

Design of the website

1. Design of website (e.g. Multimedia)
2. Ease of Navigation
3. Accuracy and Authenticity
4. Goal Directedness
5. Copyright issues
6. Ethical issues
7. Interactivity
8. Connectivity

Other factors

1. family
2. Socio Economic Status (SES)
3. Impact on co-curricular activities
4. Reference of books, reading habits
5. Research
6. Training
7. Management
8. Administration
9. Monitoring
10. Sharing of data, innovative practices
11. Research publications
12. On-line discussion
13. Influence on Social Networks of uses

It is opined here that the research in the use of internet may concentrate on the above mentioned areas viz., learner, teacher, internet media, design of the website and other factors which influence teaching and learning through use of internet. Few examples are also indicated in the above mentioned points. The investigators are suggested to study the available research books and articles to precisely identify some more specific areas of research.

Some Challenges of internet use as teaching learning tool

It is found that the initial cost of setting instruments, at disseminating and receiving end and creation of content is costly. The cost can be minimized with increased number of beneficiaries. However, at the initial stage also this cost is less compared to the cost incurred on face to face teaching and training. This will help teachers in professional development. The internet helps in overcoming teachers' isolation, connecting individual teachers to a larger teaching community on a continuous basis and promoting teacher to teacher collaboration. The major challenge of use of the innovative media is exploiting its strength to the maximum extent with proper planning.

To conclude

The internet has invaded the global society and education society alike. The technology has not remained technology perse, but used for educational purposes. The public and private agencies are putting efforts to exploit the benefits of internet in education. The teacher education institutes have dual role to play i.e. learn to learn from internet at high level of education and learn to teach through internet at primary, secondary level of education. Therefore, various areas of research appear in the horizon of internet technology in education. Efforts should be made to develop new theories of learning in the context of evolving technologies at the global level.

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