TE year1sourcebook/Topics of Study in the Unit

The topics of study in Unit 1 are

A brief history of ICT

Through the course of history, there have been discoveries and inventions that have changed social processes and structures greatly. The agricultural revolution and industrial revolution created the agrarian and industrial societies respectively. We are now in another such age, brought on by Information Communication Technologies (ICT). With information creation, access, processing and sharing becoming quicker and simpler, society is now being shaped these processes, so much so that, the term Information Society is used to describe society today. Participating in this society requires an understanding of how these processes are affecting society as well as the development of new skills to navigate this society. It is the responsibility of the education system to respond to this by helping students develop an understanding of ICT, its impact on society and the possibilities for learning through ICT (we will use ICT both in the singular and plural). The term 'ICT' refers to those set of technologies that help us create information, access information, analyse information and communicate with one another.

Most of you must be using a cell phone to communicate, which even fifteen years ago would not have been the case with most students. A cell phone is a digital information and communication device, a part of the recent ICT revolution. Yet ICTs are perhaps nearly as old as humanity itself, as human beings needed to communicate with one another, beginning with symbolic (non verbal) ways, before language was invented. Language can be seen as first 'ICT', it   enabled (oral) communication amongst human beings.

Script was the next ICT, invented around 5,000 years ago, which enabled information to be held distinct from the communicator and be made available  beyond   the  limitation  of   space and time that oral communication imposed.  (You   would   be   learning   more   about   the   processes   of   speaking   and   listening (comprising   oral   communication)   and   reading   and   writing   (comprising   written   communication) in   your courses on language learning. Writing also enabled easier recording of human history and thus the invention of script was a landmark in the history of ICTs. Invention of printing technologies scaled up the 'writing' process and enabled mass production of books. The invention of radio and television created the 'mass media' in which simultaneously the same message could be transmitted to thousands of people. Each ICT invention enabled the processes of information creation, sharing, storing and communicating to be easier, quicker, more efficient, enabling greater reach. Each ICT invention was a significant event in the evolution of human communication processes and caused an explosion in the availability of information. While human beings have always accessed information and communicated, what makes the present ICT special, is their digital nature, hence we can even refer to ICT as 'digital technologies'.

A brief history of ICT is provided in the table below

Knowledge model / Basis	Method	Storage	Sharing	Publishing (mass sharing)	Features
Oral / Language	Oral	Human memory	Speaking - Hearing	Not possible	Requires synchronicity of space and time. Most authentic
Written / Script	Text	Books	Physical	Not possible	Share knowledge across space and time, but in limited manner
Print / Printing	Text	Books	Physical	Books	Explosion of information, due to large volume of books being available
Mass Media/ Radio, TV	Analogue -Audio, video	Cassettes and similar analog devices	Physical	Over broadcast media	Mass reach across wide geographies
Digital (ICT)	Digital methods (text / audio / video editors)	Digital storage like hard disks	Email	Websites, blogs, Wikis – 'desktop publishing'	Information spreads fast and wide. Much easier construction and much wider possibilities – text, audio, video

Digital ICT

We are now perhaps in the middle of the next epochal movement in the history of ICTs - the use of digital methods of accessing, creating, modifying sharing, storing information as well as for communication. Most of you would have been born after the beginning of the mass use of cell phones (the second generation or 2G cell phone technology was available for mass use from 1991), towards the end of the first millennium, while many teacher educators would have been born before this period! This phenomenon creates an interesting inversion in the school environment, in almost all other areas, the teacher (teacher­ educator) is more familiar than the learner (student­ teacher), while in case of ICTs (more specifically in the skill of using ICT devices and methods), it can often be the opposite! Younger people may often pick up a technology quicker than older people. Hence this course may require the student­ teacher to help the teacher educators to acquire some of the skills covered and support 'collaborative learning amongst student­ teachers and teacher educators!  On the other hand, the   experience and insights of teacher educators can help student teachers develop a critical perspective towards digital ICTs, which is essential, since digital ICTs have huge potential for doing harm as well as good.

You will learn to use digital ICT for two purposes in the first year - 'connecting and learning' and 'creating (generic resources) and learning', in the two units respectively. Before 'connecting and learning' you need to have a basic familiarity with the ICT devices and tools.

Basic familiarity with ICT devices and applications

Computers, tablets, mobile phones are ICT devices that allow you to process and share information digitally. Each of these devices must have an operating system (also called system software) to run other applications or programmes. Operating system starts automatically when you turn on the computer, this process is termed booting. All the other software to paint, type, listen to music, learn maths etc., are called application software or 'Apps' which work with the system software.

We will use the Ubuntu ‘Free and Open Source Software’ (called FOSS in short) operating system for our paper. Operating systems use a program called the Graphical User Interface (GUI, which is pronounced as goo-ee), to access other computer with a mouse. The popular operating systems are Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and Mac OSx. You will learn about the functions of an operating system, using an example of Ubuntu GNU/Linux operating system. With this learning, you can also operate a computer with Windows of Mac operating systems. Since Ubuntu is a FOSS operating system, FOSS applications like Office suite, web browser, educational software can be bundled with Ubuntu GNU/Linux operating system. All these applications will be installed on the computer along with the operating system.

Installing operating system on the computer

Ubuntu installation is quite simple, and can be done by an average computer user. The minimum hardware required to install Ubuntu in a computer is:

1. Minimum 40GB or above free space / separate partition in hard disk.
2. Minimum 2GB RAM (4GB and above preferred)
3. DVD reader or USB port

Electric power should be available during the installation process. You will need the Ubuntu software in a DVD or in a pen drive (as a boot-able USB device).

In the computers in your lab, a custom distribution of Ubuntu GNU/Linux operating system which contains all the educational software applications and utilities required to transact this paper, would have been installed. A copy of the Ubuntu custom distribution could be obtained from DSERT, if required. In case you need to install the system on the institution computers, or you would like to install in your own computer, you can do so. Being able to install the operating system itself on your computer is an empowering process. In many cases, if you face problems while using your computer, including serious issues such as hard disk crash, you can re-install the operating system to start using your computer again. The installation process for the custom Ubuntu GNU/Linux system is available in this document and you can become more familiar with your computer by exploring it.

Accessing and adding various FOSS applications, basic troubleshooting

Ubuntu performs other basic functions expected of an operating system, including the following:

1. You can login and logout, and your user data will be secure within your own login
   1. Logging in: When you switch on your computer, you will see a login screen. Login with the user id (name) and password created by the system administrator. Ubuntu allows you to have a user interface in your own language, by specifying your language as the user language, during your user id creation. Once you have logged in, the home screen will appear.
   2. Shutting down the computer- After you have finished your work, you have to turn off the computer. You must turn it off by clicking on the last button on the right hand top corner and select shut down. Never turn off the power button without shutting the computer properly, as it can cause files to corrupt.
2. Users can browse (and search for) the folders and files on the computer using Nautilus file browser
3. Users can use different applications on their computer for creating and accessing files. This includes accessing, creating, editing text, image, audio, video, animation files. You will learn some of these applications in unit 2 (generic resource creation)
4. Users can connect to other ICT devices - printers and scanners, mobile phones, pen drives, external hard disks and storage devices, external DVD writers etc.
5. Users can connect to their local area network and the internet.

While Ubuntu will come bundled with many applications, you can also add more FOSS applications to your computer. Go to Applications > System Tools -> Software. You will need to type the required application name in the search bar. It will show all applications with the words you have entered and you will get an option for "Install". Click on "Install" if you want to install the application. If your search does not get the application(s) you want, try with fewer letters / words to search . It may ask your Ubuntu log in password for authentication, just type your Ubuntu password press enter.

As explained in the overview, practice activities will be provided at relevant points in the source book, to integrate theory and practice. These practice activities will need to be done in your ICT Lab.

Student activity time - Login to the computer in your ICT lab. Open a few applications and explore what you can do with them. Identify a topic on which you will create a resource, for this course. Over the two units, you will be accessing and creating learning resources connected to this topic, hence identify a topic of interest to you. Create a folder with this topic name, this could be a sub-folder within 'Documents' folder. You should identify a topic (or two), in which you are interested to create resources. Your own work as a student teacher may require you to source / make materials for classroom teaching-learning processes, or you may want to share your ideas and thoughts, as a resource, with your classmates for mutual learning, or you may simply want to create a resource for your self-development. The topic could be from the subject(s) you teach (a science topic like ‘Light’ or a mathematics topic such as ‘number system’ or a geography topic as ‘forests’), or a larger issue in education ('Challenges of teaching in inner-city public schools'), or larger social issue ('global warming'). It will be much more meaningful learning, if as a part of this course, you could access, create and publish a learning resource on a topic which you want to learn/ know more about or need teaching resources. You could create this resource in English or in Kannada or your own language. Try searching for 'Mathematics' or 'Science' or 'Geography' applications, Ubuntu Software Centre. and install a software you think will be useful for your learning.

ICT for connecting

The internet, a product of digital ICT, has changed the way we think of communicating. Talking to a friend through Whatsapp or telegram chats, emailing or making a video call are just some of the ways in which the internet has changed the way we communicate with others. With the internet, you can connect to any computer in the world and access information. You can join other friends, form groups to learn about many things.

The internet is a physical network of millions of computers across the world, each of which has a unique identifier. Some of these computers act as 'servers', they store data which can be accessed by other computers. The Internet is thus like a huge library with information on almost any issue. The 'web-sites' we visit are nothing but folders of computers connected to the internet. Apart from information, many of these computers also have applications or web tools, such as search engine, maps, translation, which have different purposes.

World wide web (www) is an application on the Internet, which allows computers to access the Internet in the form of a web page, using an application called the web browser. There are millions of pages of shared information on the computers in the network, created by many people and organizations, in the form of 'web pages' accessed using a software application called a 'web browser'.

Internet is also allowing new methods of learning through on-line courses and resource repositories. Unit 1 will help you learn how you can use ICT to connect and learn.

Navigating the Internet using a web browser

You will access and navigate the internet using a free and open source web browser such as Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla Firefox will appear under Applications > Internet >Firefox Web Browser.

If you know the web address of the site you want to visit, you can type it in the address bar. Ex; http://kn.wikipedia.org. If you don’t know the particular web address, you can type a key word(s) relating to the topic e.g. Wikipedia, using a search engine, such as Google search engine or DuckDuckGo search engine. You can search not only for text, but also for images and videos You can download the file (video, text file, image file) to your computer.

You can save web pages off-line to read later, without having an internet connection. To save the page, right click on the page and click on "Save Page As". In the save tab, you can give specific file name and in the file format you need to select "Web Page Complete" and then click SAVE. Now it will save html file with a thumbnail folder. By clicking on html file you can view web page off-line.

You will find that much more resources are available for your topic in English compared to Kannada or other languages.

Student activity time - Your teacher demonstrated different kinds of websites above. In groups, look for websites in the different categories. In each group, use a search engine to access different websites on the internet. search and make a list of 3-5 websites. Enter these addresses in your note book and download information, consisting of web pages, image, videos, etc relevant to your topic. Search for resources connected to the topic you have identified. Open Wikipedia and search within Wikipedia for topics of your interest and the topic you have identified.

Professional learning communities of teachers for collaboration and peer learning

Many professions have their own professional associations. These associations provide a forum for continuous interactions with fellow practitioners (peers) and allow methods of learning beyond the college or university. You would have learnt about social constructivism and peer learning. Teachers, as professionals too need to connect regularly to their peers, for sharing their experiences, practices as well as insights. They also need to be able to contact peers as well as mentors for seeking support.

While professional communities and associations have been there for a long time, ICT have made possible ways of connecting and communicating with one another simpler and more accessible. On-line communities are often a good way of continuing interactions beyond the restrictions of meetings of physical time and space, and can provide for learning beyond workshops. On-line communities can be mailing forums or discussion groups and can be accessed either through your phone or computer.

The National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCF-TE, 2010) talks envisions teacher education with the following key components: (i) collaborative networks for learning and sharing, (ii) continuous learning (iii) different paths and spaces for learning. It regards peer learning as an important component of Teacher Professional Development.

Professional Learning Communities is a recent method for continuing professional development and by providing teachers with peer support, it can be a sustainable method of development. You will form a ICT based learning community of all your classmates, and use this network over the course to share your ideas, experiences and learnings, seek support and feedback of classmates for collaborative learning.

Participation in online, email and mobile-based forums

Since the internet is a network of computers, you can send messages (called 'emails' or simply 'mails') from your computer to others, who can access it on any computer connected to the internet.

You may be using a 'free' (as in free of cost) email such as gmail. You should know that your mails can be 'read' by the email provider Google. Your mails are 'machine read' by Google to show you advertisements based on the content of your mails. Your mails may also be 'tapped' by authorised and unauthorised entities as it passes over the internet. Hence you need to take the maximum care of your digital information and be careful of what you share digitally.

Student activity time - You will need to create an email-id for yourself, this is like a digital post-box or digital address. You can create an email id using a Gmail on http://gmail.com. Login by providing your 'user id' and then 'your password'. Compose an email and send to another student whose id you know. You can send it to your classmate. Compose an email discussing some of the resources you saw on your topic and ask for your classmate to give suggestions and feedback on your resource. Copy your teacher's email id in the 'cc'. Receive emails in your 'inbox' from your classmates. Open and read them. 'Reply-to' the sender of the mail and give your comments on the mails from your classmates. Your teacher would have created a 'class group' mailing list. You can send a mail to this list id, which will go to all students, who are members of the list.

Equitable access to ICTs

As you use the computers and Internet, the easy sharing of digital documents will seem quite powerful – instead of physically photo copying documents or re­creating models of a device, making digital copies of the document or photos of the device is simpler and also almost free. Hence it should seem obvious that digital modes of information production and sharing would make resources easy to access, covering all kinds of digital items including content and software. However, there have been very strong forces that have worked against such easy sharing.

Paradoxically such sharing has been made difficult using technological methods as well as legal methods. Legal methods have been through releasing software or content using restrictive licenses, that forbid sharing or modifying. Technological methods have been to not release the source code (in case of software), which is required   for   making   modifications   and   by   using   techniques   that   prevent   'copy   paste'   processes.     Thus 'proprietary' software which forbids sharing and customising is used by most ICT users.

One argument for restricting free sharing is that the creator needs to be compensated for producing the resource and instead of having the first buyer pay the entire amount of creation, seeking license fees from many users can reduce the costs to the first buyer and also increase the profitability for the creator. While this argument can have relevance in commercial transactions, in the case of education, where the free access to and sharing of learning resources is essential, using digital resources that do not have restrictive licensing would be required. Fortunately, in the case of software, there are free software communities that have developed software and released it on liberal conditions, that allow free sharing and modifying. Dr Richard Stallman, who was a professor at the Massachusets Institute of Technology, established the Free Software Foundation, whichworked to develop software applications and released them under a 'General Public License' (GPL), which allows the user four freedoms – to use, study, modify and share. The GPL also insists that any changes made to a free software should also be released on same terms.

Similarly in the case of content or learning materials, the 'open educational resources' (OER) movement aims to support creation of digital materials that allow the four rights – right to re­use, re­vise, remix and re­distribute (called the 4 Rs). As teachers, you too can release materials you create as OER, so that other teachers can give feedback as well as revise/refine the same to make it better quality. (Karnataka teachers are already doing this in the Karnataka Open Educational Resources (KOER) programme of DSERT, which you too can join.

Ethical use of ICT

You will be learning to use ICT for many purposes. However, you should know that ICT use can be beneficial or harmful, and you need to use your judgement in the use of ICTs. Ethical challenges in the use of ICTs can arise in the following situations:

1. Plagiarism - showing resources created by others as created by oneself
2. Using others resources without their permission, or as per the 'license' associated with the resource.
3. Participating in a virtual forum in an offensive manner, violating the etiquette of virtual forum behaviours

You need to be aware of these dangers and learn to avoid these, and help your classmates also avoid these.

Plagiarising - copying resources created by others and representing it as yours

While it is easy to copy a resource from the internet and include in your own work without giving credit to the creator, it is an unethical practice. This is called 'plagiarism', the more familiar word is 'copying'. Referring to other resources, 'citing' them in your work, or adapting them to meet the needs of your work are ethical activities. This is called 'fair use' of materials created by another person. What is 'minor' copying or 'large' depends on the situation, and you need to use your judgement. In case of doubt, always discuss with your teachers, classmates and friends. One simple rule - use materials from existing OER sources, and give credit to the source, in your own document.

Violating the 'license' associated with the resource

Digital resources, including software and content always have an associated 'license' of use. In case the software or content is licensed as 'proprietary', where the creator has all the rights, and has not given any rights to others, then using the digital resource is illegal, without paying the required license fee, as well as unethical. Such use is called 'piracy'. You may find it technically very easy to just 'copy-paste' an article from the Internet or copy a proprietary software program from another computer, or download a movie from the internet which is not licensed to be copied. All these would be unethical practices and must be avoided. For the same reason, your school computer lab must not have any pirated software. If you find any pirated software or content in the school computers, please do bring it to the notice of your teacher.

One way of avoiding this unethical practice, is to use and promote Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Open Educational Resources (OER). FOSS and OER movements aim at providing digital resources that are licensed to allow you to make copies. In addition, you can modify the software / content resource and share again. It is ethical to use FOSS and OER. It is unethical to pirate proprietary software or content.

Remember that if a digital resource has no explicit copyright clause mentioned, it means it is owned by the creator with no rights for others. Hence when you create a digital resource, please take care to explicitly mention that it is an OER. You can do this by providing the copyright clause such as - "Copyright - Creative Commons CC BY SA 4.0", you can mention this in the first page itself, below the title of the article.

Ethical use of internet

The Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility has prepared the 'ten commandments' or ten rules for use of computers, some of which are listed below:

1. You should not use a computer to harm other people.
2. You should not interfere with other people's computer work.
3. You should not snoop around in other people's computer files.
4. You should not use a computer to steal.
5. You should not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid
6. You should not use other people's computer resources without authorization
7. You should always use a computer in ways that ensure consideration and respect for others

This can be pasted on your computer lab as 'Do's and Dont's of using the lab.

Internet Safety

The virtual world also can be as or more dangerous than the real world. Cyber bullying (including by students of other students), abusive communication, on-line fraud including transfer of funds from your bank accounts etc are common. A June 2011 Consumer Reports "State of the Net" survey "unearthed several disturbing findings about children and Facebook": One million children were harassed, threatened, or subjected to other forms of cyber bullying during 2010.

1. Of the 20 million minors who actively used Facebook in the past year, 7.5 million - or more than one-third - were younger than 13 and not supposed to be able to use the site.
2. Among young users, more than 5 million were 10 and under, and their accounts were largely unsupervised by their parents.

Read these news articles and discuss among your friends. Think of the steps you should take to avoid getting into trouble. 'Ditched' by Facebook lover, 14-year-old girl hangs self, news article shows that the use of Facebook by children which is not supervised by parents/teachers can be quite dangerous. A 20-year-old girl student was arrested by the Cyber Crime Police on Thursday on the charge of creating a fake Facebook id. on the name of another girl and posting her photographs, phone numbers and some abusive messages and causing mental agony to her, from The Hindu Hyderabad student stalked girls through Facebook. This article shows how dangerous it can be to befriend strangers. As a simple but necessary rule, never make any friend on-line, unless you already are their friend off-line Using social networking sites presents children and their friends and families with safety, security, and privacy risks. read the article from Truthout Mobile Internet abetting cyber crimes, say police, Hindu September 2014 Phishing: 3 victims lose Rs. 20 lakh, Hindu September 2014. (Banking fraud) Internet - a double-edged sword. Hindu April 4, 2015

Apart from harm that may be inflicted by others through the internet, there is harm from excessive use of the internet. See Man treated for Internet addiction. South Korea, the country which has the highest density of internet use has internet deaddiction centres in more than 100 hospitals. Like any other resource, the internet needs to be used wisely, there is a danger of misuse, abuse and over-use. Please visit the following sites to learn about safe internet use

1. https://www.getsafeonline.org/protecting-your-computer/safe-internet-use/
2. http://blog.searchlock.com/internet-safety-tips-kids-teens/

Apart from harm to yourself, the use of the internet can cause problems for your computer, through malware (software viruses), or spam (unwanted mails). Do not download any software or content to your computer from the internet, unless you have clear instruction from your teacher.

Student Portfolio

You would have many emails in your inbox, you can save an email which has useful comments in your folder