QUESTIONNAIRE

1.Do you avails Internet?
A. Daily B. Weekly C. Monthly D. Rarely
2.Do you use Internet in teaching learning process in your classrooms?
A. Daily B. Weekly C. Monthly D. Rarely
3.Have you created your own website?
A. Yes B. No
4.Is there is any difference between the classroom learning and online learning?
A. Yes B. No
5. Do you feel online learning motivates the students in learning?
A. Yes B. No
6. Have you ever created a blog?
A. Yes B. No
7.Information super highway is another name for
A.Universe B. Internet C. Mars D. All the above
8.The expansion of ISP is
A.Internet Service Provider b. Indian Satellite Provider
C. Information Security Policy D. Internet Survey Provider
9.WWW is the brain of
A. Charles Babbage B. Bill gates C. Tim Berner’s Lee D. Richard Stalman
10.Expansion of Virus
A. Vital Image Resource Under Siege B. Vital Information Resource Under Siege C. Virtual Information Resource Under Siege. D. Virtual Image Resource Under Siege
11.Website is a ________
A. Collection of webpage B. Home page C. Article D. None of the above
12.Web page viewers, also known as ________
A. Browser B. Web document C. URL D. None of the above
13.Blog is a ________ posted on the internet
a. Journal B. Article C. Device D. None of the above
14.A blog is a type of
A. Website B. Web page C. Home page D. All of the above
15.The activity of updating a blog is
A. Blogging B.Blog C.Weblog D.None of the above
16.Blog is short form of
A. Weblog B. Wesite C.Webpage D. All of the above
17.Tools used for blog is
A. Vim B. COBOL C. Java D. None of the above
18. Blogs is a _____ environment
A. Internet B. Intranet C.WWW D. All of the above
19.Blog software is also known as ___________
A. Blogware B. Software C. OS D. None of the above
20.Blogs are___
A. Centralized B. Decentelized C. Dynamic D. None of the above
21. _________ is a type of blog
A. Smart phones B. Mobile blog C. Cellular telephone D. All of the above
22.____________ Software does not need to be hosted by users on their own websites.
A. Hosted bogging B. Mobile blogging C. Industrial blogging D. All of the above
23._________ is a framework for blogging to promote higher order thinking
A. Hot blogging B. software blogging C. Smart phone blogging D. None of the above.
24. A document on the web is called _________
a. Web document B. Web page C. Web text D. None of the above
25. Web pages are based on the internet______
A. HTTP B. Connection C. HTML Viewer D. None of the above

Balancing ICT Integration in Teacher Education

Integration of ICT into Education Courses
The available literature suggests that separate ICT units with a focus on the development of computing skills do not necessarily lead to their transfer to the classroom (Albion, 2000; Watson, Proctor, Finger and Lang, 2004; and Steketee, 2005). Steketee (2005) in her review of the literature classified the ICT integration into four approaches:
1. ICT skills development approach - inclusion of a core computer education unit to the teacher education programs
2. ICT pedagogy approach – inclusion of pedagogical units to show students how to integrate ICT in the classroom
3. Subject-specific approach – integration of ICT into specific subject areas (curriculum units such as Mathematics, English, Science, and Human
Environment)

4. Practice-driven approach – where students design ICT resources for their practicum experiences

Regardless of the approach adopted in NSW graduate teachers are expected to demonstrate the following sets of ICT skills:
• Basic operational skills
• Information technology skills
• Software evaluation skills
• Effective use of the internet
• Pedagogical skills for classroom management.

Use of computers to meet professional, academic and personal needs
All the respondents in the study have indicated that they had used the computer professionally. The most common uses of the computers by the group were:
- Preparation to teach;
- Lecturing
- Organisation and time management
- Communication and correspondence
- Uploading resources to the net and downloading students’ assignments
- Library searches and
- Writing academic and professional papers.

Most of the educators indicated that they used the computers between 30 and 40 hours
per week.
Meaning of ICT integration
Although the educators have expressed their understanding of “ICT integration” in their own ways, there were common elements in their understanding. Most of them saw integration as using the computer as a tool for teaching and leaning.
ICT integration means using ICT as a tool in teaching wherever it
does the job better than the corresponding traditional tool. (Michael)

Commonly used software
According to the reflections, the lecturers/tutors have used many types of software in their teaching. For example Word, Excel and PowerPoint were commonly used by staff and students. In addition to these common applications some staff members use programs that help students develop their thinking skills such as Inspiration and Webquest. Others have used Dreamweaver and Frontpage. The diversity of the software and programs might have reflected the targets of the Module 1 of the integration programs that appear below:

- Understanding the scope of ICT for learning: processes, application and
equipment
- Introducing ICT as a medium for evidence of professional practice
- Managing personal and shared ICT spaces
- Developing ICT skills for learning
- Developing information skills for effective learning
- Considering a pedagogy for learning with ICT

Impact on student learning
The teacher educators have been in agreement in their views on the positive impact of the integration on student learning and in some cases, where the students have a weekly school visit built in and scheduled with their programs, the integration helped them develop resources to be used in the classroom. The following series of quotations shows the appreciation of these educators to the impact of the integration, regardless of their concerns:
The students appeared to like completing the basic ICT skill acquisition activities in class, especially since most of them achieved success. They all have learned from their experience in this unit. Students have come up with some very creative ICT applications for classroom learning in their KLA, based on the skill acquisition activities. I feel that we have sewn the seeds for students to implement ICT into their classrooms in the future. This is evidenced by their
portfolios. (Michael)
The ICT workshops introduced students to the wide range of software applications that they as teachers need to be familiar with. After each ICT workshop students developed an awareness of the capabilities of each software application and how to apply the skills monstrated in creating a relevant teaching and learning resource for students.

The following list is a summary of the benefits of the integration program that have been put forward by the participating teacher educators:

- Students used on line support to help them solve the problems they faced in completing their learning and assessment tasks.
- Students engaged actively in the discussion boards and in posting their contributions and positions.
- Students developed their reflective skills through their use of journals and portfolio activities.
- Students developed their computing skills particularly in the use of programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Film Makers.
- Students developed teaching resources that would help them during their
practice teaching rounds.

Issues and challenges
The participating teacher educators felt challenged by the implementation of the ICT
integration program though they benefited themselves in gaining skills and improving their teaching resources. They also perceived that the integration was a challenge to many of their students in terms of lack of prior computing skills and the increased workload.

The following points are the various challenges and issues that have been put forward in the journals or during the interviews:

1. The teacher educators differed in their ICT skills. Some were highly skilled in ICT and very experienced. While the experiences of some of the learning and development educators were limited to the use of Word or email (professionally or at a personal level). They also differed in their enthusiasm to implement the integration. These differences in expertise, self-efficacy and
enthusiasm have hindered the cooperation within the one team and resulted in some “lack of ownership”.
2. Increased workload and uneven distributions of the responsibility within the unit. It seems that the ICT skilled tutors and some of the learning and development tutors who were enthusiastic to the integration had to shoulder a great deal of responsibility in supporting students and in assessment.
3. Difficulty with assessing students’ assignments by the educators with limited backgrounds in ICT.
4. Technical difficulties that relate to the use of certain platforms such as WebCT
5. Student challenges. These relate to differences of student backgrounds as
indicated earlier and the increased workload.

In conclusion, it describes the ICT integration from the point of view of the educators. It shows that the experiences of these educators are not uniform. They have, on the whole, supported the integration but they differed in their perceptions of its meaning and perhaps its goals as well as their sense of efficacy in using ICT for teaching and learning. The paper indicates that the success of this innovation depended to a great extent on the support and the effort of the educators. However, it shows that their roles will become more effective and more consistent if they receive the appropriate training themselves.

ICT-Pedagogy Integration in Teacher Training

Today, a variety of ICT can facilitate not only delivery of instruction, but also learning process itself. Moreover, ICT can promote international collaboration and networking in education and professional development. There's a range of ICT options – from videoconferencing through multimedia delivery to web sites - which can be used to meet the challenges teachers face today. In fact, there has been increasing evidence that ICT may be able to provide more flexible and effective ways for lifelong professional development for today’s teachers. Because of rapid development in ICT, especially the Internet, traditional initial teacher training as well as in- service continued training institutions worldwide are undergoing a rapid change in the structure and content of their training and delivery methods of their courses. However, combining new technologies with effective pedagogy has become a daunting task for both initial teacher training and in-service training institutions.

Teacher Training Approaches

Research indicates that ICT can change the way teachers teach and that it is especially useful in supporting more student-centered approaches to instruction and in developing the higher order skills and promoting collaborative activities (Haddad, 2003). Recognizing the importance of ICT in teaching and learning, a majority of the
countries in the world have provided ICT teacher training in a variety of forms and degrees. Even though many teachers report that they have not had adequate training to prepare themselves to use technology effectively in teaching and learning, there seem to be several efforts around the world in which countries are effectively using
technology to train teachers, and/or are training teachers to use technology as tools for enhancing teaching and learning.

ICT teacher training can take many forms. Teachers can be trained to learn HOW to use ICT or teachers can be trained VIA ICT. ICT can be used as a core or a complementary means to the teacher training process (Collis & Jung, 2003). It has organizes various ICT teacher training efforts found in different countries into four
categories using the framework of Figure 1.

The Education Podcast Network

The Education Podcast Network is an effort to bring together into one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers looking for content to teach with and about, and to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century.
Recently Added
• Last Chance For Justice- The History Of The Supreme Court
• Suzhou,China--A Paradise on the Earth
• Dose of Motivation
• The History Faculty
• Pritzker Podcast
Most of the producers of these programs are educators, who have found an avenue through which they can share their knowledge, insights, and passions for teaching and learning and for the stories that they relish and teach. The directory will grow as more people come forward with their stories and ideas, and we hope that you will start to share your ideas with the larger education community by producing your own program.

A podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication.
The mode of delivery differentiates podcasts from other ways of accessing media files over the Internet, such as simple download or streamed webcasts: a centrally-maintained web feed on the distributor's server lists all files associated with a given series, and special client software applications known as podcatchers (e.g., iTunes, Zune, Juice, and Winamp) are used that can automatically identify and download new files in the series when they are released, by checking the feed for updates. New files are thus downloaded automatically and stored locally on the user's computer or other device ready for offline use, giving simpler access to episodic content. The most common audio file format used is MP3

The global digital divide

The global digital divide is a term used to describe “great disparities in opportunity to access the Internet and the information and educational/business opportunities tied to this access … between developed and developing countries”. Unlike the traditional notion of the "digital divide" between social classes, the "global digital divide" is essentially a geographical division.

The promise and potential of the Internet
The Internet has been hailed as a “great equalizer” (Brynjolfsson and Smith 2000),” allowing the smallest of businesses to access markets and have a presence that allows them to compete against the giants of their industry (Borland, 1998). It is also a revolutionary technological tool that enables efficient transfer of information on a global scale. This global information could be used for international trade, online digital libraries, online education, telemedicine, e-government and many other applications that would solve vital problems in the developing world. Norris states that, “in poorer villages and isolated communities, a well-placed computer, like a communal well or an irrigation pump, may become another development tool, providing essential information about storm warnings and crop prices for farmers, or medical services and legal land records for villagers”.

The fundamental commonality of this class of problems is the realization that the developed nations have in abundance many of the resources that the developing ones could use to solve some of their problems, but geographical, political, philosophical, ideological, and cultural barriers exist that make it difficult or impossible for these solutions to be transferred effectively.

Sources of widespread public information such as broadcast television, telephone services, educational institutions and public libraries are considered a norm in developed countries. In developing countries, however, these modes of communication and information sources are not easily accessible. This limits citizens’ ability to gather information and coordinate with each other to solve their problems. The Internet’s ability to promote the efficient dissemination of information promises huge improvements to internal communications in and among developing countries.

Obstacles to overcoming the global digital divide
Many argue that basic necessities need to be considered before achieving digital inclusion, such as an ample food supply and quality healthcare. Minimizing the global digital divide requires considering and addressing the following types of access:

Physical Access
Involves, “the distribution of ICT devices per capita…and land lines per thousands” (Wilson, III. E.J., 2004, p. 306). Individuals need to obtain access to computers, landlines, and networks in order to access the Internet.

Financial Access
The cost of ICT applications, technician and educator training, software, maintenance and infrastructures require ongoing financial support.

Cognitive Access
In order to use computer technology, a certain level of information literacy is needed. Further challenges include information overload and the ability to find and use reliable information.

Design Access
Computers need to be accessible to individuals with different learning and physical abilities including complying with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Institutional Access
In illustrating institutional access, Wilson (2004) states “the numbers of users are greatly affected by whether access is offered only through individual homes or whether it is offered through schools, community centers, religious institutions, cybercafés, or post offices, especially in poor countries where computer access at work or home is highly limited” (p. 303).

Political Access