In the present trend of education the educator must aware of soft skills usage of education

technology and its integration in classroom teaching and learning process to cope with the

present Lerner condition.

The rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has made

information ubiquitous and more powerful. Much evidence indicates that technology has great

potential to increase learners’ motivation, link learners to various information sources, support

collaborative learning, and allow teachers more time for facilitation in classrooms. Integrating

TAL into teaching and learning has therefore become a great concern for many educators.

Depending on the scope of content covered,

TAL integration can happen in three areas:

curriculum (macro), topic (meso), and lesson

(micro). In the topic area, TAL can be used to

cover certain topics within a course. A topic

usually involves a series of smaller pockets of

knowledge, such as DNA or cell division,

which are usually interrelated to elaborate concepts. At the micro level, TAL is used to help

explain specific knowledge units, such as DNA within a single lesson.

Planning LESSON

Innovative Teaching Practice contains 5 steps

1. Lesson Plan with the teaching learning methodology as appropriate to the defined

objectives and learning outcomes of the students

2. Implementation Plan with the timelines, content support, hardware support and all

other activities detailed

3. Evaluation / Assessment (Online and Offline) Strategies and tools

4. Actual implementation

5. Feedback

A successful teacher is the one who can create involvement and hunger in the students for

learning. The children of today are actually hungry for more information which is of interest and

is relevant to their lives and goals.

The students at JNV are encouraged to access/collect information from the print and electronic

media. They are not dependent only on the information provided in the text book or by the

teachers.

Academic:

Digitalization of lesson plans, lessons, teaching Diary, Marks Analysis, CCE, Minutes of

Meetings of all heads, Games and Sports etc.,

Classroom transactions in special smart rooms – with less infrastructure reaching

maximum goals.

Podcasting for visually and Physically challenged students

Teaching learning extended beyond the class room by virtual class and online learning

by www.biology24x7.in

Collaborative and Project based learning by using ePals

Creation and maintenance of Blogs and Wikis

NVS ICT policies and Frameworks

The National Policy on Education 1986, as modified in 1992, stressed upon employing educational

technology to improve the quality of education. The policy statement led to two major centrally

sponsored schemes, namely, Educational Technology (ET) and Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools

(CLASS) paving the way for a more comprehensive centrally sponsored scheme – Information and

Communication Technology @ Schools in 2004. Educational technology also found a significant place in

another scheme on upgradation of science education. The significant role of ICT in school education

been highlighted in the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF) 2005.

With the convergence of technologies it has become imperative to take a comprehensive look at all

possible information and communication technologies for improving school education in the country.

The comprehensive choice of ICT for holistic development of education can be built only on a sound

policy. The initiative of ICT Policy in School Education is inspired by the tremendous potential of ICT for

enhancing outreach and improving quality of education. This policy endeavors to provide guidelines to

assist the States in optimizing the use of ICT in school education within a national policy framework.

The vision of ICT Policy in School Education aims at preparing youth to participate creatively in the

establishment, sustenance and growth of a knowledge society leading to all round socio- economic

development of the nation and global competitiveness. The mission of the policy is to devise, catalyse,

support and sustain ICT and ICT enabled activities and processes in order to improve access, quality and

efficiency in the school system.

To achieve the above, the ICT Policy in School Education will endeavour to Create

an environment in the states to develop ICT knowledgeable community

an ICT literate community who can deploy, utilize, benefit from ICT and contribute to nation

building

an environment of collaboration, cooperation and sharing, conducive to the creation of a

demand for optimal utilization of and optimum returns on the potentials of ICT in education

Some of the specific goals of the policy are to;

Promote universal, equitable, open and free access to state of the art ICT and ICT enabled tools

and resources to all students and teachers

Development of local and localised quality content and enable students and teachers to partner

in the development and critical use of shared digital resources

Development of professional networks of teachers, resource persons and schools to catalyse

and support resource sharing, up gradation, and continuing education of teachers; guidance,

counseling and academic support to students; and resource sharing, management and

networking of school managers and administrators, resulting in improved efficiencies in the

schooling process

Research, evaluation and experimentation in ICT tools and ICT enabled practices in order to

inform, guide and critically utilise the potentials of ICT in school education

Motivate and enable wider participation of all sections of society in strengthening the school

education process through appropriate utilization of ICT

The technology context

Being a residential School students are available throughout the day. V Room is a tool where learning

can be done beyond the class room, it not only helps students of our Vidyalaya especially it is

worthwhile for those schools where subject teacher is vacant or inexperience contract teacher is posted.

Our Teachers have done Vroom with neighboring school where the post is vacant. We also conduct V

room classes for in-service training and professional development. For our students we have high-speed

broadband connection with webcams. So this tool can be used anytime anywhere.

Innovative Assessment Methodology

An example of online assessment tool to assess students on Life processes

Example Rubric used to assess students performance on a Science Project. Such rubric help students to

perform and gain confidence.

Area Criteria Ratting

Use of Scientific Language Consistent, accurate usage of terms 4

Adequate usage of scientific terms 3

Occasional use with few error 2

No terms or frequent errors in usage 1

Concept of Understanding shows understanding of key concepts 4

usually demonstrates understanding 3

inadequately demonstrates understanding 2

poor understanding of concepts 1

Application of Scientific concept

able to apply learning 4 usually finds practical application 3

occasionally relates to real life skills 2

no practical application 1

Clarity of Presentation Well presented 4 Adequate Presented 3

Limited Presentation 2

Poor Presentation 1

Ability to Answer HOTs

Critically reviewed and analyzed the problem 4 Apply the theory into practical 3

Explained the problem into one’s own words 2

Projects shows facts and figures 1

Experiment conducted at school to find out best assessment practice

The topic was taught using lecture method without Integration ICT and conducted formative assessment

with paper and pen test. Same topic Life Processes taught integrating web based learning, e-learning,

podcasting and Virtual Class. After that Students were sampled within a limited number. Forty students

are participated, and they are of 14 to 15 ages an average of ten students from each class. Table 1 gives

an overview of the number of participating students in the class from K-6 to K-12. A separate

assessment conducted for 3 students by only computer based assessment among three 02 of visually

challenged and 01 physically challenged. A total number of 43 students participated.

Table 1: the number of participating students in JNV Vizianagaram

Number of students Class Boys Girls

15 K-12 07 08

15 K-11 05 10

10 X 05 05

02(VHP)* VII 02 -

01(PHP)* VI 01 -

*VHP-Visually challenged student *PHP-Physically Challenged student

Teacher was asked to develop questions by using eXe and Googledocs. To maintain simplicity, all items

in the PC test were automatically coded and no manual coding was required the automatic coding

mechanism accommodated multiple choice, complex multiple choice, Closed activity, image based

questions and “True or False response types. Most of the PC items contained multimedia elements.

The paper test consisted of items that were also used for the regular NCERT & CBSE questions in the test book. Among these items are both multiple-choice items and items that require the students to formulate the answer themselves with determined pre-guide of experts. After completing the two tests, the students responded to a student questionnaire containing questions about self-concept, motivation, attention sills, home background, attitudes and relationship to ICT. The study was implemented by the use of fifteen student PCs and one test server PC. As a consequence, 4 days conducted the assessment in four different classes. The study was implemented in the period from Oct 21 to Oct, 25, 2009. In the test session, the students were divided into two groups. One group started by doing the PC test, while the other group did the paper test first. All the students sat in the same room. Finally, all the students responded to the student questionnaire on paper. Each test had a maximum time limit of one hour, while the students were given 20 minutes to answer the questionnaire.

This principle was also applied in the CBAS study, both in the paper-based and the PC-based tests. The PC test consisted of 30 items. However, each of the test versions consisted of 25 items. Two types of data were recorded from the PC test. Firstly, the students’ answers to all the cognitive items were recorded (“response data”). Secondly, the student behavior throughout the test was registered (“behavioral data”).

Gender differences in achievement Table 2 compares the gender differences in a Computer based assessment

Results; PC test Results; paper test

Girls N=23 8.21 10.26

Boys N=20 10.47 10.15

Difference in favour of boys 0.76 0.12

Results; PC test Results; paper test

VHP N=2 8.21 10.26

PHP N=1 10.47 10.38

Difference in favour of boys 0.76 0.12

Table 3: Distribution of items according to science Learning Outcomes (percentages)

PC test Paper test

Knowledge 39 % 28 %

Understanding 30 % 48 %

Application 16 % 9 %

Creative 15 % 15 %

The results are standardized by applying 10 as the mean and 2 as the standard deviation for each of the tests. Both tests have a gender difference in favour of boys, but the gender gap is far larger for the PC

test. The error terms for the results in Table 2 are rather large, as a consequence of the relatively low number of students. However, we can conclude that the girls score significantly higher on the PC test than on the paper test. Furthermore, the boys score significantly higher than the girls on the PC test. The difference between the genders on the paper test is not statistically significant. Time usage

• Boys and girls took approximately the same time, on average (40 minutes). • 30 % of the students took 55 minutes or more.

Media play • Boys do significantly more “media plays” than girls (averages of events 79 and 70, respectively). • The correlation between the number of media plays and score on the PC test is positive for the

Graph.1- Performances of students in paper and Computer based test

Graph-2- Performances of visually and physically challenged students paper and computer based test

ICT skills/ICT use The student questionnaires contained several questions regarding student self-evaluation of ICT skills and their experiences using ICT. These questions were included in all four versions of the student questionnaire. The students were asked if they had ever used a PC, and how often they use a PC at school and at home. Table 4 gives an overview of the questions related to ICT skills.

Table 4: Overview of questions about ICT skills

Make homepage Send e-mail attachments

Write and send e-mail Download files from the Internet

Make multimedia presentation Search the Internet

Download music from the Internet Move files

Make presentation in Power Point etc. Copy data from CD

Use spread sheet Make database

Use world processor Edit digital photos

Remove data virus Chat

Conclusion

A computer-based assessment of scientific literacy was implemented using desktop PCs. All students

took a one hour paper-based test and a one-hour computer-based test. No statistically significant

gender difference is found for the paper-based test, while a substantial gender difference in favor of

boys is established for the computer-based test. The PC test seems to favor boys because of the lower

reading load. Boys express higher

motivation and greater preference for

carrying out the test on a PC than on

paper, and they make more active use of

multimedia elements in the PC test

compared to the girls. In respect to

visually and physically challenged

students it clearly shows the increased

performance during computer based test

rather than paper and pen test. May be

the multimedia and podcasting has

increased their attention towards the

concept which is lacking during normal teaching process.