Ls. No. 1 Potential of ICT - Information

Potential of ICT Importance

1. Definition of ICT : The term information and communication technologies refers to forms of technology that are used to transmit, process, store, create, display, share or exchange information by electronic means. This broad definition includes such technologies as radio, television, video, DVD, telephone (both fixed line and mobile phones), satellite systems, and computer and network hardware and software, as well as the equipment and services

associated with these technologies, such as video conferencing, email and blogs.

2. ICTs work on the request-response model and hence are being increasingly implemented by all organizations to provide access to resources and services.

3. Concept of ICT: ICTs are diverse technological tools and resources that are used to create, disseminate, store, manage, and communicate information. Computer-based information technology is used for (1) data (2) data collection (3) data processing (4) storage (5) retrieval (6) presentation. All the modern electronic communication media are used in ICT to exchange information and knowledge between sender and receiver.

4. The information superhighway is an ever-growing global information and communication network of fiber optic cables that links computers and other communication networks, such as telephone networks, cable television networks and satellite communication networks. All types of information are digitized and packet ted before transmission over the Internet. The routing and reassembly of the packets are handled by protocols.

5. Knowledge Society generally refers to a society where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labor. A knowledge society creates shares and uses knowledge for socio-economic development, and brings new forms of social interaction and cultural expression.

6. Education is important in a knowledge society as (i) a source of basic skills, (ii) a foundation for development of new knowledge and innovation, and (iii) a mechanism for socio-economic development.

7. ICT enables education and innovation for socio-economic development towards building and sustaining a knowledge society. It is a facilitator for major education and development reforms and is valuable only as a means to create knowledge societies.

8. Knowledge-society attributes include (i) higher order thinking skills, (ii) lifelong learning habits, (iii) ability to communicate and collaborate (iv) ability to access, evaluate and synthesize information.

9. Scope of ICT in education: (1) WWW is a vast repository of knowledge for students, teachers and scientists. (2) ICT enables learning anywhere and anytime through open universities and open education resources. (3) Television is one of the best communication mediums to educate. (4) Educational curricular contents for KG to PG can be delivered on CDs, DVDs, etc. (5) LCD projectors can be used for computer-aided teaching and interactive learning in the classroom. (6) Tests and examinations can be conducted online.

10. In ICT-enabled educational environments where the online world is integrated with the physical campus (school or university), students will face a new set of educational challenges. The changed role of teachers / educators will be to mentor and guide learners in this environment, rather than teaching them how to use ICT in education.

11. Changes which will take place in an ICT-enabled education system: (1) Emphasis more on 'learning' than on 'teaching'. (2) Digital age students, more active and collaborative rather than passive learners. (3) Learner-centered curriculum, with rapidly changing content. (4) Asynchronous (i.e., anywhere, anytime) teaching-learning process through e-learning. (5) Use of ICT (such as, Internet connectivity, CD / DVD/ TV, videoconferencing and multimedia presentation) for synchronous teaching-learning in classroom. (6) Online evaluation and result.

(7) Educational management through ICT.

12. Changing skill requirements due to ICT and globalization: (1) Basic skills of reading, writing and mathematics. (2) Advanced skills of expert thinking and complex communication.

13. Transformative impacts of ICT on education: (1) With ICTs, actual study time need not equal classroom time. A school may adopt a dual-shift system to avoid overcrowded classrooms: students may attend school for half a day and spend the other half involved in educational activities from anywhere using ICTs. (2) ICTs can provide courses that small rural or urban schools cannot offer to their students because it is difficult for those institutions to recruit and retain specialized teachers, particularly to teach mathematics, science and foreign languages. (3) Schools that do not need a full-time teacher can use ICT and share one teacher among several schools. (4) With the help of ICT, experts or retired / part-time teachers in distant cities can teach the online courses.

14. ICTs, used well in classrooms, enhance the learning process by (1) allowing students to practice basic skills on their own time and at their own pace (2) allowing students to access worldwide information resources via the Internet and to use the acquired information to solve problems (3) offering the cheapest means for bringing the world into the classroom (4) motivating and engaging students in the learning process (5) facilitating understanding of abstract concepts (6) allowing students to communicate, discuss or exchange their work with others.

ICT TOPIC VIDEOS

What is a BLOG?

Blog in Plain English

FORUMS

What is VoIP?

What is E-Commerce?

E-Governance

Digital India E-Governance

Understanding E-Govenance and M-Governance

Digital India: Best e-Governance practices from Manipur

Ls. No. 2 Internet Applications - Information on Blog and Forum

BLOGS AND FORUMS

 

 1. The term blog is formed from weblog. It is a personal diary space of a user at a website to chronicle articles, ideas and opinions by posting short and frequently updated text entries. A blog may include news, facts, digital media, links to other web articles and comments by visitors.

2. Types of blogs: Personal blogs and business blogs. The latter can be internal organizational blogs or external corporate blogs.

3. Advantages of blogs: (1) Easy and economical to set up. (2) No threat of spamming. (3) No limits to the number of blogs a blogger creates. (4) Can be searched quickly for any information. (5) Comments can be posted quickly, enabling readers to share their opinions and start discussions. (6) A built-in method to deliver recent posts to various blog search engines helps search engines to list new contents.

4. Disadvantages of blogs: (1) most people are unable to write down their ideas in a compelling and clear manner, and/ or do not have very much to say that is interesting. (2) Blogs are easy to start and hard to maintain. (3) Crude people post crude comments.

5. Uses of edu blogs or educational blogs: (1) they support student and teacher learning, and provide contexts for higher-order thinking. (2) Teachers can share educational information and

teaching tips with other teachers. (3) Teachers can meet the diverse needs of all students in the classroom by posting tips, explanations and ideas. (4) Teachers can post class announcements, home assignments and class expectations which the students and their parents can access from anywhere.

6. Advantages of classroom blogs: (1) Allow students to voice and share their passions, and gives them ownership over their own learning. (2) Give the students an instant audience, potentially worldwide. This motivates them to write better and take on a leadership role during the course of their learning. (3) By reviewing the portfolio of their own writing, the students can focus on and organize their own learning. (4) Help the students to improve upon their

Social skills, tech-savvies, confidence, and awareness of online safety. (5) Allow students to carry out a data collection activity and arrive at their own interpretation.

7. Steps to create blogs using Google's Blogger: (1) Co to the free blogging website, http://www.blogger.com. (2) Sign in with your Google email ID and password, and click the 'Sign In' button. Else, click the 'SIGN UP' button to create a new Google Account. (3) On the next page, choose a profile, add people to your circles whom you want to follow, and add your photograph. (4) On the Blogger Dashboard, click on the 'New blog' button. (5) In the window

That opens, choose a template, a title and URL for your blog, and click the 'Create blog!' button. (6) Click on the 'Start posting' link, or the 'Create new post' button to compose.

8. Good practices (do's) while blogging: (1) Visit popular and intellectually rich blogs. (2) For your own blog, choose a domain name that is short, and easy to spell and remember. Keep your blog focused (i.e., relevant, short and simple) with authentic information. (3) be ethical and positive, and use a decent language with no spelling or grammatical mistakes. (4) Subscribe to your own blog. (5) Include a contact link button or page. (6) Post views to your blog and reply to comments regularly. (7) Comment on others' blogs.

9. Things one should not do (i.e., the don'ts) while blogging:

Do not:

(1) Blog on unproductive and less useful topics

(2) Post views on multiple topics in the same blog

(3) Repeat the same information that is available all over the web

(4) Copy opinions from other blog sites

(5) Put abusive or offensive matter, rurnours and unauthorized information

(6) Forget to put share and social media buttons on your blogs

(7) Put many advertisements on your blog or have music/video on auto play

(8) Write aimlessly, just for posting sake.

10. An Internet forum is a website where people discuss in the form of posted messages. This creates an environment for discussion and encourages the posting of wide range of opinions.

11. Structure of a forum: Discussions are organized into categories, sub-forums and threads. A thread is a collection of posts defined by a title and an opening post which summarizes the intended discussion. A thread can contain any number of posts and are displayed in the chronological order. The popularity of a thread is judged by reply counts, i.e., the number of posts it receives. A post is a message submitted by a member to a thread. Every post contains the user's details (such as name and avatar) and the date and time it was submitted. The post count is a count of how many posts a certain user has made. Users with higher post counts are often considered more reputable.

12. User groups of a forum: Registered members are organized into members, moderators and administrator(s), and given different privileges and rights. Members can only submit posts to one or more threads, and are allowed to edit or delete their own posts. A moderator (or mod) is a privileged member who can access to the posts and threads for moderating and maintaining the quality of the forum. Mods also block spam attacks. An administrator (or admin) manages the technical details required for running the site. An admin changes the ranks of members and moderators, manages the rules, creates sub-forums, makes forum-wide announcements, as well as performs any database operations, and occasionally act as moderators. Only admins can change the skin of a forum. An unregistered user is known as a guest or visitor. Guests are granted limited access-to only view the contents of the forum.

13. Features of a forum: (1) Password generated trip code (2) Avatar (3) Signature (4) Attachment (5) Emoticons (6) Personal/Private message (7) Polls (8) Ignore list.

14. Advantages of a forum: (1) Intellectual topics and high quality discussions create lots of useful information and tips. (2) With useful information and productive discussion, members stick to the forum and strengthen it. (3) Credibility in the community can result in fruitful relationships.

15. Disadvantages of a forum: (1) Establishing a good discussion board can be quite difficult and can take a long time before the webmaster can enjoy the benefits of increasing traffic or profits. (2) Administering and moderating posts to maintain a forum requires a lot of time.