History Of ICT In Education

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is being developed as one of the pillars of modern society (UNESCO, 2002). Many countries believe that critical understanding of ICT along with mastering the skills and concepts of ICT as part of the core of education is as much important as reading, writing and arithmetic (UNESCO, 2002). It is widely believed that information and communication technology is changing the education system leading to the modernization of teaching and learning (Sindhu, 2013). Therefore, it is necessary to examine ICT in education as a socially organized knowledge and critically reflect upon the various processes of education enabled by ICT leading to social change and national development.

The 21st century is characterized

Now ICT in Schools is a component of the RMSA. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Schools was launched in December, 2004 and revised in 2010 to provide opportunities to secondary stage students to mainly build their capacity on ICT skills and make them learn through computer aided learning process. The Scheme is a major catalyst to bridge the digital divide amongst students of various socio economic and other geographical barriers. The objective of the Scheme is to cover all Government and government aided secondary and higher secondary schools by giving priority for early coverage of schools in educationally backward blocks and in areas having concentration of SC/ST/minority/weaker section. Under the revised scheme, there is a provision of a suitably qualified full time computer teacher in each secondary and higher secondary school. In case of higher secondary school having computer related subjects as elective, there would be need for a post graduate in computers teacher. There are provisions for in-service (induction and refresher) training for all teachers in secondary and higher secondary schools to enable them to impart ICT enabled

But at the same time it has become more of a fashion statement to have computers or multimedia in schools, the result being that in spite of its potential to make learning meaningful and liberating, its implementation is often not more than cosmetic. Now it is also often touted as a panacea for shortage of teachers. These are detrimental to the learning of the child. Education needs to orient and sensitize the teacher to distinguish between critically useful and the detrimental use of ICT(NCFTE, 2009). In a way, ICT can be imaginatively drawn upon for professional development and academic support of teachers. The critical question is to provide opportunity to teachers for reflection and independent study without packing the training schedule with teacher-directed activities alone? Can there be Programmes which must build on the principle of creating ‘spaces’ for sharing of experiences of communities of teachers among themselves, to build stronger shared professional basis of individual experiences and ideas? Giving teachers a space to develop and hear their own voices is of utmost