TE year1handbook/Year1 Unit1 Mode of transaction

Program implementation broad guidelines

Institutional ICT Infrastructure

The program requires each TE institution to have an ICT lab, with following equipment:

Hardware

1. To implement this ICT Mediation paper, adequate computing infrastructure needs to be available. These can be desktop computers or laptop computers. The number of computers could be decided based on the student strength in the institution. The course will ideally require a 1:1 computer : student ratio. Each D.El.Ed college will ideally need a minimum of 15 computers in their computer lab available. In case of fewer computers, a ratio of 2 or even 3 students per computer may be required. However, the kind of active learning envisaged requires that ICT lab have sufficient computers, over time, this should reach at least one-third the number of students in the largest section in the institution. The institution should ramp up the computer availability in a phased manner to ensure 1:1 ratio over time. Colleges could also procure a limited number of alternate cheaper devices like tablets, raspberry pi to supplement the computers for specific activities. Other than the structured transaction hours, the lab could also be made available at other times to student teachers to continue practice. To enable hands on experience for all student-teachers, the ICT lab hour and the library hour may be adjusted so that students can come in batches to use the computers.
2. Given the rapidly reducing costs of ICT students and teachers should be provided information about different ICT devices available, features, prices etc. so that student teachers are encouraged to purchase personal devices at reasonable costs.
3. The computers must be networked, preferably through a wireless LAN. Internet connectivity must be made available through broadband.One of the computers should be designated as the ‘server’. This will host the content shared by the DSERT, as well as created by the students and the teachers. This will also allow the faculty to assess the student created resources for review and feedback.
4. A minimum of one LCD project is essential in each institution, over time as the use of ICT increases, more than one LCD projector could be provided so that faculty could use it along with a laptop in their classrooms for ICT integrated teaching, apart from sessions in the lab.
5. Printer (cum scanner cum copier), digital camera, speakers, head phones, web-cameras, pen drives are other items that must be part of the ICT lab hardware.
6. Sufficient power back-up in terms of UPS and batteries is required to make the lab available for use, when needed.
7. The institution must organize regular 'health' check-ups of the infrastructure for preventive maintenance.
8. The teacher education institutions must also make a provision for regular maintenance.

Software

1. Each Lab will have the 'software' - the operating system and other software applications distributed as part of the 'custom distribution' provided by the DSERT, for transacting this course. DSERT will make available such custom distributions to any institution requiring this, at a nominal price.
2. Software should be periodically upgraded as per norms suggested by DSERT
3. Since the GNU/Linux operating system is being used, anti-virus will not be required, however the precautions related to internet safety must be strictly followed.
4. Student teachers and teacher educators will be interested to download additional software applications from the internet, for which the institution should frame clear guidelines. Free and open source software that has educational uses can be downloaded based on need, without any license fee payment or sharing constraints. Teachers should also be able to download new FOSS applications for use in their own learning and in classroom teaching.
5. The ICT lab coordinator will be responsible to ensure that no software or content is being downloaded in violation of license requirements. The simple method of implementing this is to ensure that no proprietary software or content is stored in the computers.
6. The institution can set-up a Wordpress or MediaWiki or Moodle site on its institutional web-site for wider sharing of its activities and resources.
7. Connectivity (Internet connection) - Ideally a minimum speed of 12 MBPS will be needed. In case the bandwidth is lesser, this will need to be managed by limiting downloads of heavy video files. The college can also make available on-line resources through off-line media (pen drives, DVDs) to students to avoid repeated downloads of the same resources. The digital resources required for this course also will be be made available both on-line and off-line media to the institutions, to reduce download requirements.

Content

1. The source book and hand book, user manuals for the software applications covered, along with the digital resources required for transaction, will be made available by DSERT.
2. Student teachers should also be able to create OER, for use in their own learning and in classroom teaching. They should be encouraged to access existing OER for this purpose. Translation of existing OER (in English) into Kannada and other languages used in the state will support OER creation. OER can include images, audio and video resources, apart from text documents.
3. Teacher educators and student teachers must follow the legal and ethical aspects of accessing available content and must avoid downloading content that is not open. Teacher educators must also exercise oversight over the content downloaded by student teachers and ensure that no inappropriate content, or copyrighted content is downloaded.

Online and offline distribution

It is suggested that the content of the ICT Mediation paper be delivered in the one or all of the following formats.

1. On-line: The entire source book and handbook could be made available in mobile accessible ways. This can allow institutions and teachers to access the resources on their devices and also make additional referencing on the internet.
2. Off-line: The entire source book and hand book can be made available in the ICT Lab in an 'off-line' mode. Under this method, the soft copies can be accessed if the computers are working and electrical power to be available. Internet is not required.
3. Non-digital: A print version can also be made available to provide a resource material for course transaction due to disruption in the availability of the ICT infrastructure, due to power, connectivity or maintenance issues. No hands-on activities are possible but the print resources can be used to introduce/ reinforce theoretical concepts.

Institution level program management

1. Each institution must designate an Teacher Educator - ICT co-ordinator (TE-IC). The key responsibilities of the TE-IC include:
   1. custody of the Lab and Lab infrastructure and making it available as required
   2. preventive and breakdown maintenance of the ICT assets
   3. keeping a simple log of the lab usage, including internet use
   4. devising and implementing internet safety and usage protocols for the lab
   5. supporting teacher educators to transact ICT lessons in the lab and scheduling of the ICT classes
   6. keeping the institution informed of any requirements, problems faced and work for their solution
2. The TE-ITC role could be periodically (once in 2-3 years) rotated among the staff of the teacher education institution. However, the ICT lab is institutional infrastructure and the faculty has a shared responsibility in its upkeep.
3. Similarly, 1-5 student teachers could be designated as Student teacher - ICT coordinators (ST-IC), who will help the TE-IC in managing the lab, facilitating repair of the equipment as required.

Academic processes

Based on the student strength in different sections, the institution must prepare its time table and student lab assignment, considering the following possibilities.

1. Up to 3 student teachers could work together on a computer. The selection of these learning groups must be carefully done by the teacher educator to support peer learning possibilities, and not be random
2. If the number of student teachers is more than three times the number of computers, the section could be split into two (or more as required), such that one group works in the lab and the other group(s) are assigned other classes, including discussing topics / exercises from the source book, watching documentary films related to the topics etc.
3. All students must participate in the ICT classes. It is ideal if the transaction is shared among few teacher educators, instead of assigning it to a single teacher educator. Institutions should explore ‘team teaching’ where 2 teacher educators could take the class together in the lab. It is necessary to engage all teacher educators in the transaction of this course, so that they are enabled and encouraged to see how they can integrate the relevant concepts and processes in the teaching of their own courses. More such integration or 'main-streaming' of ICT mediation into the other courses, to meaningfully alter the content and pedagogy processes, more will be the benefit to the institution, the teacher educators and the student teachers. Towards this aim, 'hooks' have also been provided in the source books for the other courses, for adopting ICT in the teaching-learning processes.
4. For each topic in the text book, for the hands-on activities, students will need to become comfortable using the relevant software applications. The teacher educators will need to orient the students on the software application as required for the topic. Student teachers of course can and will explore any software tool for learning additional / advanced features. All software applications can be learnt through the 'Explore an Application' section, which is provided as part of the on-line and off-line distribution of the source book and hand book.
5. Preferably the practical hours should be in slots of 2 hours at a time; this will allow an extended period to get into and complete an activity. Individual colleges may need to come up with time-table adjustments to allow for optimal hands-on time for student teachers.
6. During practice sessions, some student teachers (who may be more proficient in ICT) may also be roped in to support their peers during the hands-on sessions.
7. For each designated activity, each student teacher is required to maintain their digital records / portfolio, in relevant folders. Ideally the resources created / accessed / connected to each activity should be in a separate sub-folder and these can be organized within 'topic' folders.
8. Each student teacher must have her/his login into the school system. (The Ubuntu GNU/Linux system allows multiple user logins to be set-up on a computer). Each student will be able to create folders and store their work on the system, which will be secured through their login. These folders will grow and be enriched over the two years of the transaction.
9. The teacher educator should be able to easily access the student portfolios for assessment, either over the network (using an administrator login), or will need to copy the students files using pen drive/ external hard disk.
10. In addition to these formal assessments, the school should also organize digital competitions for student teachers, illustrative list of areas is provided below:
    1. Poems and essays (all resources shared digitally)
    2. Digital Art
    3. Short film/ documentary
    4. Photo essay (natural events, birds, animals, nature)
    5. Cartoons
    6. Biopics
11. Some of these competitions could be individual and some team-based. School can also organize an exhibition of the digital products created by students.

Teacher Educator capacity building to transact the subject

Every teacher educator will need training on ICT integration in education. During the training, the participants can be made a member of mailing groups, for continued learning and peer support. These virtual forums are meant for teachers to share ideas, experiences and resources and also for seeking help and peer support. It is expected that based on the workshop learning and the continuing self and peer learning through the forums, the teacher educators will build capacities to transact the ICT Mediation paper.

Transactional Strategies

The theory and practice of ICT will not be split into discrete sections in terms of transaction, these will flow into each other; the underlying concepts will be discussed before, or along with, or after the hands-on sessions in the ICT lab. (The practice sessions are indicated by the phrase "Demonstrate and practice ..." in the 'Suggested Activities' column). Many of the elements of ICT mediation course require practical work, however, the theoretical basis for many of these activities will be introduced through class talks, lectures and group discussions. Practical sessions will be conducted in the ICT laboratory, which must be equipped with a laptop connected to a slide projector, white board and students-teachers having access to computers with Internet connectivity.

Lecturing, demonstrating, conducting small group  and whole class discussions, reading, watching films/videos,  arranging guest lectures and organising class talks are modes of transacting this paper. Student-teacher assignments, notes, resources prepared can be uploaded on an institutional Wordpress or MediaWiki or Moodle platform for wider sharing.

A mailing-list of student-teachers and faculty should be created in the beginning of the term and student-teachers must be encouraged to actively participate in virtual discussions on topics covered in the classes and labs. Guest faculty can also be invited to participate in these lists. The mailing-list can also serve to share information and announcements with student-teachers. Students will also access these on their mobile phones as well.

For providing opportunities to students for working in the ICT lab, the teacher will need to create login-ids for each student. A separate login-id for each student will enable to keep the work of the students secure and easily accessible, this is necessary for assessment of the students work over time and at the end of the year. It is likely that the number of students exceeds the number of computers in the ICT Lab, hence more than one login-id will need to be created on a computer. Teams of 2-3 students can be formed, and each team will work on a computer designated for it, on which the login-ids of member students have been created. All the digital materials created by each student will be secure within their own part of the data stored in the computer, and no student will be able to access the data of another student since it will require the login by that student.

Each of the activities will involve the use of one or more software applications. While the basics of the use of the application are provided in the source book, for more detailed and advanced learning on the tool, the student should refer to the manual for the applications, which can be provided in as an off-line copy on the lab server. Since one of the important elements of learning ICT is that of self-learning and discovery through a process of exploring an application by oneself, providing the advanced set of features (all of which are chosen based on their relevance to the role of a teacher), will support student teachers to become more comfortable in using these applications. The references provided to different software applications (Learn <application name>) in the transaction suggestions in the table below, are to this manual. The manual also provides equivalent FOSS applications on Ubuntu as well as other platforms such at the mobile phone, which the student teachers can download on their phones and explore. It is important to explore more than one application for any area, this will build technological proficiency in the particular area. More importantly, it will also disabuse the learner of the general notion of equating learning processes in an area to a specific software application. In this course, the emphasis is on learning the process (text editing), instead of a software (Word or Writer) and the student should explore the many FOSS tools that are usually available on any area.

Each student will identify a topic (or two), related to her subject, on which she will access, create, edit, share and publish digital resources over the course of this unit. The student will use different digital methods for this, as per the topics in the student source book. The resources access, created and modified will form part of the 'digital portfolio' which will be offered for assessment by the student. Students will be encouraged to license their resources as OER and make it available for public use.

Unit 1- ICT for connecting and learning

Suggestions in the curriculum are briefly explained in this section. The activities listed here are by no means exhaustive or meant to be prescriptive. They are meant to provide pointers for teacher educators to build on further.

Unit Topic	Major objectives	Suggested activities for classroom transaction / ICT Lab activity	Suggested Assessment techniques
		Unit 1- ICT for connecting and learning
History of ICT	1.1 Understand the history of ICT, including digital ICT	Class talk - "History of ICT in the context of technological changes in society and what distinguishes digital ICT" Reading - Hilary Wilder & Sharmila Pixy Ferris. Communication Technology and the Evolution of Knowledge Whole class discussions on the class talk and reading	1.  Write an assignment/ present a project on evolution of ICTs across human history, you could pick up any one evolution and write on its implications. This can be presented to the class in teams of 2-4 students. 2.  Reflection on any one change that has had a profound impact on society; compare it with the change ICT have brought
Basic familiarity with ICT devices and applications	1.2 Develop digital literacy, through familiarisation with commonly used ICT devices and ICT infrastructure	Demonstrate and practice typing of the lessons available in the typing software Tux Typing. Demonstrate mouse handling skills using Tux Paint (e.g. Single clicking, Double clicking, Right click, Drag hold and drop etc.) Reference: Explore a computer, Learn Ubuntu	Opening the computer cabinet and identifying the different internal components. Installing a FOSS educational software on the computer relevant to your subject and playing with it. Write a short note on the functionalities of this FOSS educational software
ICT for connecting and learning - Accessing the global digital library	1.3 Learn to use the internet for accessing curricular resources, to support self learning	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab - Use different browsers - Firefox, Google Chrome to explore features of the browser. Demonstrate functions in the browser: Address bar,  History , Bookmarks, Favourites etc. Reference: Learn Firefox	Assessing resources downloaded related to the topic selected by the student teacher, from different sites. Student will prepare a short note on the sites accessed and the resources downloaded, with comments on these resources (quality, relevance etc)
ICT for connecting and learning - Professional learning communities of teachers	1.4 Learn to build collaborative networks for supporting peer-based continuous learning	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab - Creating email ids for each student, who does not have an email id, using Gmail. Either the teacher educator can create the ids for students (taking the help of few students) separately, or can do this in a session with all students, where student teachers create their own email ids. (While in this course, we create ids using the Gmail service from Google, students must be made aware that there are many other free email providers also, such as Yahoo or rediffmail. Creating a student cohort group and sending / receiving emails. Watch video document - Subject Teacher Forum of Karnataka and initiate a whole class discussion. Reference: Learn Gmail	Review of the email discussion threads for quality of contributions and responses by the students. (The mails will be easily accessed from the groups home page itself, by thread, which will allow easy review)
Creating your own personal digital library	1.5 Understand how to create your personal digital library (categorise and organize information resources)	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab - creation of a PDL on a topic. Interested students can be guided to create their own blog (on available free blog sites such as Wordpress, on which they can share their resources, as well as their writings. Reference: Learn Ubuntu	PDL quality, diversity of ideas and comprehensiveness Submissions on the blogs
Equitable access to ICTs	1.6 Understand possibilities for equitable access to ICT	Class talk, Presentation and discussions - "Role of FOSS and OER in supporting free and open creation and sharing of digital resources, for universal access to ICTs"	Accessing information and preparing a note on the Free Software movement and Open Educational Resources movement in India and Karnataka
Ethical use of ICT	1.7 Understand the ethical and inclusive use of ICT	Class talk, Presentation and conducting whole class discussions - "Ethical use of ICT - understanding copyright and avoiding plagiarism" Guest Lecture - Free Software Movement member in your district, on "Why Free and Open ICT is essential to education and society"	Searching for articles on ethical use of ICT from the internet and writing a summary note on the same
Internet Safety	1.8 Understand the safe use of internet	Present and discuss newspaper articles on frauds and crimes committed through Internet / social media. Conduct small group  and whole class discussions to identify challenges/problems and ways of safe practice.	Contribution to presentations and discussions. Connecting to current real life examples
		Unit 2 - ICT for creating (generic resources) and learning
Concept mapping	2.1 Learn the use of digital methods for creating, revising curricular resources in text (concept map) format	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab - creating concept map on identified topic. Reference: Learn Freeplane	Assess the portfolio - Concept map on the topic identified for building personal digital library.
Text editing	2.2 Learn the use of digital methods for creating, revising curricular resources in text format	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab - Guide students on creating the resource and saving in their PDL. This will be part of their digital portfolio. Reference: Learn LibreOffice Writer	Assess the portfolio - Text document on the topic identified for building personal digital library.
Making a slide presentation	2.3 Learn to present a digital lesson / story created, using slides	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab - Guide students on creating the resource and saving in their PDL. This will be part of their digital portfolio. Reference: Learn LibreOffice Impress	Assess the portfolio - Slide presentation on the topic identified for building personal digital library.
Creating an image resource	2.4 Learn the use of digital methods for creating, revising curricular resources in image format	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab - Guide students on creating the resource and saving in their PDL. This will be part of their digital portfolio. Reference: Learn Tux Paint, Learn Screenshot	Assess the portfolio - Image resources on the topic identified for building personal digital library.
Creating an audio-visual resource	2.5 Learn the use of digital methods for creating, revising curricular resources in audio-video format	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab - Guide students on creating the resource and saving in their PDL. This will be part of their digital portfolio. Reference: Learn RecordMyDesktop	Assess the portfolio - audio-visual resource(s) on the topic identified for building personal digital library.
Combining text, images and audio-visuals to tell a story or teach a lesson	2.6 Learn to combine curricular resources in different digital formats to write a lesson or a digital story	Demonstrate and practice the student activity in the ICT lab to combine resources to create a lesson or a story.	Assess the portfolio - a multi-media resource on the topic identified for building personal digital library. The student teacher could create a digital resource for a topic they will transact in their practice teaching. Feedback on the practice teaching should also form part of the assessment