ICT teacher handbook/Preface
Information Communication Technologies are as old as humanity itself; yet, the rise of digital technologies has brought in major changes in the way ICT can be used and processes that allow the creating, processing, organizing and presentation of information, as well as communication. All ICT bring significant changes not only to education and knowledge processes, but also to larger socio-cultural, political and economic structures and processes. The ease of creating and sharing information using digital technologies has caused an explosion of information in society, creating what is termed as an “information society”.
Development of digital literacy skills is required for all to navigate this ‘information society’. Teachers, student teachers and teacher educators need to be able to use ICTs for their professional development, through self learning, peer learning, in digital resources creation and in teaching-learning. They must develop a critical understanding of the larger positive and negative implications of the design and adoption of ICTs in society. Recent curricular (NCFTE, National ICT Curriculum) and policy (ICT Policy in School Education) documents on education in India have recognized the importance of integrating ICT in school education.
Recognising the transformatory nature of ICT in education, the state education department is aiming to integrate technology into teaching and learning in sustained and meaningful ways. The ICT implementation in school education is based on the four pillars of infrastructure, training, content and connectivity. The focus is on having a digital lab and a digital classroom. It is envisaged that technology is not to be seen as an end by itself, but rather as a process for creating a rich learning environment. The digital classroom would be a regular classroom enriched with digital content; the teacher will be strengthened to transact in this classroom. In line with National ICT Policy, the state intends to use open licensed content and free and open source software to allow rich possibilities for creating, communicating and learning. The department has also undertaken the training of teachers in technology integration to build in house capabilities in the education system, the schools and teachers to manage an effective ICT program integrated with school processes.
In this context, it is proposed:
- to evolve a meaningful curriculum for students and develop student and teacher materials
- to develop a process map and design for digital content creation in the state in the form of OER
SCERT has decided to develop ICT text books which will be used by the school teachers for transacting the ICT curriculum in classes 8 to 10. The text book that is currently available has very limited focus on a few proprietary software applications, not directly connected to school subjects. SCERT has decided to adopt the ICT curriculum developed by NCERT, as the basis for the text book, which leverages the possibilities of ICTs for connecting and learning and creating and learning.
In consultation with NCERT-CIET, HBSCE, SIET, ITfC and a core group of SCERT members, it was decided to take up the creation of student textbook and teacher handbook, based on the NCERT ICT curriculum. The Telangana Education Department has also entered into a MOU with Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) for collaborating on the creation of the textbook.
The student textbook has been developed that introduces ICT skills and applications in a project based way, integrated with the different school subjects. The core competencies and skills to be covered in the text book will be determined based on the National ICT curriculum and the Telangana state subject text books and academic standards. The text book will take a project based approach to the attainment of these learning competencies.
This teacher handbook is meant as an accompanying resource for teachers to help in the facilitation of the student ICT syllabus and provide meaningful linkages to curricular and co-curricular areas. The handbook also has a component of using ICT for Teacher Professional Development which will introduce the pedagogical framework for technology learning as well as support their own knowledge and learning of the ICT applications based on the NCERT ICT curriculum.
It is hoped that the textbook and handbook will help support the teachers in meaningful technology integration in the direction of achieving digital classrooms.
The teacher handbook is available as an Open Educational Resource, with a Creative Commons License, CC-BY-SA-NC.