Report NCTE-ICT for TE-DE

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Terms of Reference

Contents 1 i. To review the existing system of distance education and use of ICT in programmes for teacher preparation and in-service teacher training 2 ii. Recommend measures for improving the present system of delivery of teacher education programmes through Distance mode and use of ICT in such programmes 3 iii. To recommend measures for integration of ICT in the curriculum of the teacher education programmes 4 iv. To recommend measures for effective use of ICT by teacher educators; 5 v. To recommend measures for complementing ICT with other modes of distance education for effective delivery of programmes; 6 vi. To suggest norms for development of ICT labs in teacher education institutions 7 vii. Recommend measures and systems for development of e-forums and e-platforms for interaction amongst teachers, teacher educators, and other stakeholders in the field of teacher education for enabling improved sharing and understanding, both within India and internationally. 8 Annexure 1 - Illustration for integrating ICTs into curriculum of select subjects 9 Annexure 2 Underlying principles guiding ICT mediation in teaching-learning 10 Annexure 3 Proprietary Software and Proprietary Content vs Public Software and Content 11 Annexure 4 - Norms and Standards for Diploma in Early Childhood Education Programme through Open and Distance Learning System leading to Diploma in Early Childhood Education (D.E.C.Ed)

i. To review the existing system of distance education and use of ICT in programmes for teacher preparation and in-service teacher training

Teacher education programmes at the pre-school, elementary and secondary levels have evolved into well defined structured programmes of one to two years durations. Exceptions to this structure is seen in the integrated four year BSc.Ed., or B.El.Ed programmes. Large scale expansion of this system have been regulated by norms evolved by NCTE. The norms define intake, infrastructure and curriculum. The curricula evolved by different University or State bodies are in general conformity with the NCFTE. However, in actual practice, dilution of the teaching learning process and obsolescence of the syllabi have been documented and commented upon. The teacher educators also work under a severe professional isolation and have not been able to network in order to create forums for introspection and debate on issues affecting teacher education. The professional qualifications and expertise of teacher educators have largely remained untapped by the State School system. Such interactions would not only enrich the discourse in the states but also provide valuable ground insights about the school system enriching the pre-service teacher education programme.

Scaling of the teacher education programme was perceived in the recent past, more as a part of the privatisation of educational institutions. With the Right to Education Act, however scaling has acquired a new dimension, which will necessitate addressing the issue as a challenge. The Act sets forth classroom sizes, which has necessitated very large scale expansion of the school system and additional requirement of teachers at all levels. The Act further stipulated the successful completion of a Teacher Eligibility Test for appointments of teachers. The dismal performance at this examination, organised by CBSE over the past years (just around 7% of the 7.85 lakh in 2012, and 9% in 2011 managing to clear the competency test conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education), the challenge of providing qualified teachers becomes even more acute. At the same time, this underscores the issue of quality of pre-service teacher education, which begs for a strong monitoring and evaluation support along with a professional development interface, proposed later. Distance Education has not been looked upon as a viable alternative for pre-service teacher education despite the fact that the NCTE and the Distance Education Council have formally recognised courses in various Universities. The NCTE guidelines for distance courses lays the condition that “admissions should be given only to regular teachers serving in recognised schools (primary, secondary, and higher secondary level) within the jurisdiction of the university and possessing a minimum two years of teaching experience,” essentially considering distance education as an option for inservice teachers only. Some States, particularly in the North-East have resorted to this mode to fulfill immediate demands for teachers. Conventional Distance Education programmes have relied on dissemination of self learning materials, supported by a practice teaching and a contact programme. This model has not been able to scale without adequate safeguards against quality losses. There exists enormous potential for ICT enabled support systems. ICT can address a range of issues – scaling without the corresponding increase in cost; use of different media enhancing the range of communication; interactivity in both self learning and mentor supported modes; comprehensive evaluation, etc. ICT can be versatile and cater to both the theoretical and practical components of the teacher education programme. Together they can address the issue of numbers as well as the quality of the teaching-learning environment. A mix of media, communication strategies, interactivity and mentor support can form a blended learning environment which can be as good as a face to face interaction. In many ways, it can surpass it. In the light of the requirements of the RTE compliant school systems, and the urgent need to achieve such a compliance before March 2013, a fresh approach factoring in the urgency of the situation, the scale of the operation and institutional capacities becomes a necessity. An ICT enabled blended learning approach is proposed. Supported by other initiatives described in other sections of these recommendations, an efficient and productive system of pre-service education can be established. The system can also be leveraged to cater to the continuous in-service needs of teachers.

Recommendations: • Existing and proposed initiatives like the broadcast and non-broadcast channels for audio and video communication, video conferencing networks, National repository of open education resources, which includes an online learning management and course delivery platform, the wide spread access to computing facilities and expanding internet access, together constitute a potent platform for the proposed blended delivery of teacher education. • Leveraging existing technological possibilities and separating out the theoretical and practical aspects of the teacher education programme, allows the consideration of a blended approach, delivered online or through a mixed set of technology and media. The same platform can also be used for supporting inservice teacher training systems as well as building of capacities among other personnel in various areas of management, research and evaluation. • Not only is this blended approach cost effective and more productive, but also provides timely and need based support to teacher preparation and ongoing teacher development activities. • The platform is conceptualised as a multi-layer resource. The core content will be modular,in multiple media, and in a self learning form. Drawn from various sources, it will emerge as a large resource pool in multiple languages. The second layer will consist of course curricula meeting the needs of different courses and students. The third layer is the course layer offered as short, medium and long term. The offering could be modelled along the lines of the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework.

While the primary mode of learning is visualised as a self-learning one, appropriate activities for group learning and structured course offerings can also be accommodated. Appropriate external devices for evaluation and certification will have to be developed.

ii. Recommend measures for improving the present system of delivery of teacher education programmes through Distance mode and use of ICT in such programmes

1. Some measures are recommended below to use ICT and Distance Education (DE) to train and deploy a large number of teachers needed in India over the coming decade, while maintaining a high level of quality.

2. The DE and non-DE modes will gradually blend – we see this as a positive that will enhance the richness of both modes of learning. - ICT will become the key Distance Education strategy for Teacher Education – gradually, like in every other walk of life, most Distance Education modes will be ICT-powered (rather than for example content sent by post, for example). - At the same time, even non-DE candidates will use ICT intensively both to access course content and learning resources as well as to stay connected with the teaching community.

3. To allow this, a redesign of the Teacher Education Curriculum will be needed. This would also increase focus on the practical, teaching competency aspects, and allow for specialisations, for example, in reading, ICT-based methods, etc. Some progressive curriculums possibly like the B.El Ed and the IGNOU Primary Maths curriculum could be used as models.

4. A review of norms and standards for implementing teacher education programmes through the distance mode shows that NCTE does not have norms and standards for teacher education programmes in the field of early childhood education (ECE) through the open and distance learning mode. Teacher preparation for ECE assumes critical importance in the context of children's right to an environment which fosters their all round development and is a pre-condition for achieving universalization of elementary education. Given the paucity of teacher education institutions in the face-to-face mode, distance education mode needs to be used for both pre-service and in-service teacher education. The norms for distance education institutions have now been developed as part of terms of reference of this committee and are placed at Annexure 4.

5. Various measures are recommended below.

6. Multiple Routes to Teacher Certification:

- A variety of models of teacher training will need to be adopted to meet the requirements of training the large number of teachers required, without sacrificing quality. The ideas of Distance Education, use of ICT and adopting learn-work-learn cycles (referred to by Delor’s Commission as a better alternative than one-shot training for 12 or 18 or 24 months) will need to be integrated for the purpose. - Some countries – notably the US and the UK – started alternative or multiple certification paths – essentially apart from the regular full-time teacher education course – that allows graduates to become teachers. These were started to solve the same problem India is facing – teacher shortage. - These routes (as in the UK for applying Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)) are listed below – many would be relevant to India too. - Post graduate certificate in Education: This is a training and certification after graduation which is the traditional route. - Graduation-cum-Teacher Training: BA or BSc with QTS is an honours degree that also incorporates teacher training. This is similar to the 4 year BSc-Bed / BA BEd available in India - School Centred Initial Teacher Training: Graduates who want to train in a school environment can use this method to attain certification. - Teach First trains its participants to be effective teachers and leaders in challenging schools. (This is similar to the Teach for India programme.) - Overseas Trained Teacher Programme: This programme is designed for teachers who qualified abroad and allows them to be certified on that basis. - Graduate Teacher Programme allows teachers to be certified while training and working in a paid teaching role. - School Direct is for candidates who want to choose the school in which they train with an expectation of employment. The Registered Teacher route is similar. - Assessment-based Training / Assessment Only route: Some candidates with substantial school experience can qualify with minimal teacher training. Similar is the Assessment Only route to QTS.

7. Creation of Video-Based courses for B.Ed, D.Ed, PTC, etc. certifications

Online and offline video modules of the B. Ed (and also D. Ed / PTC) curriculums should be made available. The NCTE could take the lead or designate specific institutes to prepare some of these, but should also certify other video material which may be developed by teacher education colleges, experts, agencies, DIETs, etc. A candidate may use any certified courseware in video or classroom form to complete the courses. NCTE may also prescribe texts for this purpose, and basic norms for distance institutes.

8. Certifying institutes and individuals to enable the Distance Education Model to be implemented

NCTE would also certify a number of institutes/individuals. Certifications would be for the following roles: • Trainers for specific modules • Observers who can certify classroom lessons

The process of certification may be finalised by an NCTE committee identified for the purpose. It may include interviews and written tests. Candidates would either need to complete practice lessons in schools under the observation of a certified observer or submit videos of their lessons to a certified observer.

The focus of this model would be to allow infrastructure like classrooms and video to be used while strongly controlling the quality of the instructors, etc. through a certification process. At the end of the course, candidates must take a test which is organised / certified by the NCTE.

Every year 25% of the distance institutes will be checked covering 100% of the institutes over every 4 years. Institutes will not know in advance that they are to be inspected. Any candidate who clears tests and classroom observation is made a provisional teacher and is given final certification after completion of 1 year of teaching and certification by the head of the school.

The success of this method depends on an efficient monitoring and certifying mechanism.

9. Creation of an ICT based on-demand Teacher Support System

An ICT based on-demand Teacher Support System should be created. It would include modular self-learning modules. There will be online, CD and paper-based versions of the same. This will thus be a resource to be built on and improved, but one that will provide a strong level of base support to each teacher. To our knowledge a comprehensive system like this does not exist anywhere in the world partly because of the complexity involved. The system will provide all these for any topic:

• Allow a teacher to identify his/her strengths and weaknesses in that topic • provide a teacher information of common mistakes and misconceptions students have on that topic (ideally with percentages of which misconceptions are more widespread) • videos where students explain their reasoning for their views (including correct reasoning, alternative conceptions and misconceptions) • concrete tips on teaching specific concepts and topics [often linked to specific misconceptions] • videos of teachers teaching that topic, as well as lesson plans • access to researches on these topics

10. Creation of Teaching Video Banks

A national mission should be initiated to create a large collection of videos. There would be 2 types of videos – videos of teachers teaching different topics and videos of student interviews to highlight student thinking and misconceptions. There could be multiple videos on any topic (for example, teaching of forces or World War 1). Videos will be dubbed and subtitled to be available in multiple languages.

Videos should be created in 2 ways – a) teachers would be encouraged to upload or send videos of their own teaching and b) created by agencies who would bid for the same (this may include private players, but could also include colleges of education or DIETs for example) and a part of the payment would be related to the quality of videos created judged either by independent experts anonymously or based on actual usage, downloads or sale of the videos. The videos may be provides free of cost, or at cost or sold at a margin, the specific modalities are left to be decided in the future.

In order to encourage teachers to create quality learning materials and also create a pool of such materials and share them with other teachers, competition will be organized at the national level. The competition will allow teachers to create different kinds of educational material (eg. questions, teaching aids, ICT-based teaching ideas, etc.) Specialised workshops will be held for teachers who clear round 1. Agencies having ICT creation skills (eg. for creating animations) will be linked to teachers to allow teachers to describe what they need and the ICT-based teaching aid to be created. Teachers who submit winning entries will be sent on a tour to select countries, with the tour being focused on learning about innovative ICT use in education. Other winners will win trips within the country itself.

11. Providing laptops to teachers and internet facilities to teacher training institutes

Laptops should be provided teachers, however, since this is an expensive proposition (60 lac teachers @ Rs 20,000 = about Rs. 1200 crores), the scheme will provide a laptop to each teacher who demonstrates interest and application in the field. No teacher can win more than 1 laptop. The teacher will actually win a voucher that can be exchanged for a laptop from any standard laptop provider. Teachers can also top up by paying extra for a better laptop. Teachers become eligible for laptops based on specific achievements related to the field of ICT: • Creating of a specified number of presentations / lesson plans • Completion of specific workshops (including successful completion of a task at the end of the workshop) • Winning of specific competitions

High speed internet connections should be provided to DIETs. Again the goal is to provide this to every DIET, however, the scheme should require the DIET to show keenness and application and earn the privilege.

Based on the above, create a virtual Education Network by linking DIETs, Teacher Education Colleges (private and government) as well as Universities and schools to allow easy interaction among teachers, teacher educators and university departments.

All teacher education colleges must have defined Internet and ICT requirements and internet access costs will be borne by the government

12. Miscellaneous Measures

A detailed database of teacher education, including government institutions like DIETs, BRCs, etc, government colleges, private colleges and details of their personnel will be created so that accurate information on these is available on demand.

An annual conference on ICT in Teacher Education with a focus on participation by teachers and schools will be organized. The forum will be organized by an agency having expertise in organizing seminars and conferences. Selection of projects will be made by a jury consisting of international experts to ensure that standards are not diluted, even if the number of selected presentations is low. (It will increase in subsequent years)

iii. To recommend measures for integration of ICT in the curriculum of the teacher education programmes

Underlying principles guiding ICT integration in the curriculum of the teacher education programmes 1 Educational Policy needs to be the basis for conceptualisation and design of ICT mediation 2 See ICTs as a curricular resource, adopt curricular framework principles for digital resources, ensure public nature of all digital curricular resources, provide an active role for the teacher etc. These principles are elaborated in Annexure 2

ICT is not treated merely as another subject, but rather as a process and method that could mediate new models of TE. Such new models of teaching-learning, using ICTs, could support TE goals as well as address critical challenges and limitations in current TE models. The TE programs will not have a separate paper on ICTs, this is because, ICT needs to be seen as a methodology of teaching-learning, applicable to all subjects, and not as a stand-alone subject. This means, every teacher-educator will need to use ICTs in their teaching-learning, rather than one 'ICT' teacher-educator. In Annexure A, we briefly discuss the possibilities for teacher-educators in mathematics, science, social sciences and language papers in a PSTE course. Similar possibilities for other papers can also be explored /extrapolated and it is hoped that the revised syllabi and text books will explicitly require the teacher-educators to use ICTs in relevant and meaningful ways in their teaching-learning.

ICT integration into curriculum needs to be driven by educational aims, designed by those working in education, with quality frameworks and rigorous academic processes. ICT needs to be seen as a pedagogical tool and not as a technology device or as a sophisticated typing tool. The ICT curriculum and pedagogy need to be seen like any other curricular area. Curriculum design structures need to have educationists, teachers, teacher educators. Technology experts may need to be consulted but should not have prime role in design. The challenges are primarily pedagogical in nature – how can ICTs impact teaching-learning processes. Technological challenges exist – fragility and rapid obsolescence of infrastructure, power, sheer variety of options available etc. however these challenges are relatively less formidable and our thinking needs to move towards seeing ICTs as another (powerful) pedagogical resource than a technological black box.

Curricular resources need to be publicly owned, so that they are freely available to teacher educators, teachers and students, for free sharing and also to customize to local requirements without propiretorial restrictions This approach can enable the system to develop and provide a rich and diverse public digital environment rather than a scare minimalist one.See Annexure 3, for a discussion on the imperatives to use and promote publicly owned digital curricular resources.

In all subjects, at the end of each unit, references need to be provided, which would provide extended learning possibilities for student-teachers on that topic. Such resources could be published texts, as well as web resources, films/documentaries etc. It is important to develop in the student-teacher, the ability to access a variety of learning resources on any topic/unit. It is also important to develop in student-teacher, the abilities to critically reflect on a text accessed, to assess its educational value, which would require assessing its authenticity, relevance, currency etc. It would also be useful to refer to resources that provide diverse perspectives on a given topic/issue.

Curriculum needs to include critical perspectives on ICTs Some of the other major concepts of constructivism are that learners are unique, bring prior understandings to any learning situation, hence learning is situated and contextual; learning is an adaptive activity; learners may resist, accommodate or assimilate new learning; and learners interact through interaction with materials, resources, experiences and other learners. ICTs can be used to provide curricular experiences that are aligned to these concepts. It is essential to understand the limitations of ICTs including inducing superficiality (due to over-abundance of information easily available), issues of authenticity (the Internet provides information from all kinds of sources, without any meta information about its reliability). The dangers from ICTs – lack of adequate cyber security can lead to cyber bullying etc. Safe behaviors need to be encouraged (and risky behaviors discouraged). Children also are vulnerable to peer pressures for practices. Teacher educators need to learn how to set-up and use firewalls and browser filters and also how they could explain to teachers and student teachers the reasons for being careful on-line. An understanding of the mechanisms of the Internet – technological, political (including its governance), socio-cultural is also an essential knowledge.

Currently, in PSTE, very little time is alloted for ICTs, and the focus is only on basic computer literacy. Since we are suggesting expanding the scope of literacy to cover ICT literacy (and much higher level of competence) and ICT integration into teaching-learning, the number of contact hours (periods) allotted need to increase. There need to be more periods for computer literacy itself, but along with this, we also need to earmark periods in other subjects – specially mathematics, science, social sciences, language, practice teaching, in which we have 'ICT lab/work' time in which student-teachers can use educational tools, access and create resources and also build their networks of 'learning communities'.

TE institutions capacities to use ICTs to create demand based pre-service and in-service teacher professional development models, need to be developed. This includes creating the required ICT infrastructure, including for support and maintenance, building faculty capabilities to use variety of digital tools and methods for designing and offering programs to teachers (elaborated in the section on labs).

iv. To recommend measures for effective use of ICT by teacher educators;

The NCF TE says “... it is necessary to conceive ways in which teachers can opt for different kinds of trainings, based on their interest and requirement, and along with the recommendation of school supervisors. “For this, it would be necessary for training schedules to be announced well in advance (at the end of each academic year, for the next year) and for processes to be in place to enable teachers to register for the trainings they wish to undergo. Processes for field support for training would need to be worked out by these agencies providing training, and this need not fall as a mass responsibility of the concerned CRP, or co-ordinator in-service programmes as, is currently happening. Allocation of funds, training dates, duration and other logistics would need to be made more decentralized and based on individual teacher’s preferences, thus, doing away with the current model of mass trainings, based on the one-size-fits-all design. Further training dates allocation could also include time spent in other professional activities such as seminars, conferences and other activities suggested in this chapter. Systems that would enable teachers to avail of long-term courses, sabbaticals and fellowships would also need to be evolved. A follow-up mechanism for keeping track of trainings and professional activities of teachers would need to be evolved and put in place.”

Some examples of new models which have been able to look at new models for teacher education are discussed in the NCF TE; the Delhi University School resource network (USRN)1 which aims to build professional networks of learning amongst teachers in government and private schools, teacher educators in Govt. and private institutions, university departments of education. Program participants have created digital educational resources in Hindi and resources that link practice with theory. The MA Education program of TISS explores new 'blended' learning models for teacher education, using contact and distance modes of learning. A third program, the Kerala IT@Schools program provides opportunities to teachers to become resource creators in their own subjects - mathematics, science, social science, languages and enhance their subject matter mastery, using digital tools. All three programs have a strong 'ICT' component. However the use of ICTs is driven by strong pedagogic principles / approaches and is not technology centered. Their program designs emphasize elements such as independent, need based, self directed and self paced learning with continuous mentoring; pioneering new models of teacher professional development (TPD), which are essential to enable the priorities and principles discussed in the RTE, NCF, NCFTE a reality in the Indian school system.

Making ICT ubiquitous For a new technology to be widely beneficial, it needs to become freely available and widespread. All teacher educators, teachers and student teachers need to have access to and learn to use ICT, in a large variety of ways. Viewing ICTs as public learning resources can create this culture of widespread appropriation. Training is basic hard ware and soft ware of various equipments can enable all users to become more confident and empowered in their relationship to ICT. ICT is usually treated as “another subject”, however, it needs to be seen as a process and method that could mediate new models of TE, aplicable to all domains of learning. Such new models of teaching-learning, using ICTs, could support TE goals as well as address critical challenges and limitations in current TE models, that tend to be centralized, relying on point in time workshops and didactic methods.

Layered approach for teacher educator preparation The field of ICTs is vast and hence a 'layered framework' comprising of 'literacy-access-review-creation-connection' layers is proposed, which could be considered for integrating ICTs into the PSTE and ISTE processes.

(a) ICT Literacy: It is essential to learn to use ICT tools like radio, video tools, computers etc. as well as methods such as information access, review, classification, communication and networking. This needs to cover both hardware (parts of computers, radio and A-V educational devices and assembling them) and software (to integrate ICT tools for effective teaching-learning and in education administration) skills.

(b) ICT to access resources It is important to develop in the TE faculty, the ability to access a variety of learning resources on any topic/unit. It is also important to develop in teacher, the abilities to critically reflect on a text accessed, to assess its educational value, which would require assessing its authenticity, relevance, currency etc. It would also be useful to refer to resources that provide diverse perspectives on a given topic/issue. Accessing digital resources for self learning needs to be emphasized as a TE method in itself.

(c) Curate digital resources Along with accessing available resources, the review of existing resources, resources created by peers etc. is also an important learning process. This would include annotating / commenting on the document etc. Text editor features like recording and accepting/rejecting changes on a document from multiple reviewers, making available documents over mailing-lists/websites for wider review by peers, need to be made default peer review methods. Strengthening peer review would also strengthen the capabilities for collaboration itself as a larger method of TE. This process would also help to develop capacities to reflect, reason and make judgements. DIETs can also peer review resources created by other DIETs, which can also strengthen linkages amongst them.

(d) To create and share digital resources Curricular resource creation is accepted as an important teacher development and empowerment process. In the digital space, it is easier to create, learn, share and publish resources. If the teachers develop the capability to create resources , they can share it with their peers and teacher-educators, and seek feedback. This facilitate them for self-learning and collaboration digitally. Activities, assessment questions, audio-video resources and blogs (e-journal) present collaborative resource creation and learning possibilities for teachers.Collaborative capabilities enable teachers to form learning communities which is acknowledged as perhaps the a powerful method for continuing teacher education and empowerment. This process can also help to develop capacities to reflect, reason and make judgments. It would support decentralization in curricular resource design and development, which in itself is a powerful TE process. In the pre-digital era, text had a prime place in teaching-learning. However, with suitable and powerful digital tools, learning resources that are audio or audio-visual in nature can be prepared easily as well, by both teacher-educators and student-teachers. Such resources can have high teaching-learning potential. Discussions on such resources created, covering aspects as underlying assumptions, inferences, interaction learnings during the making etc can provide rich learning possibilities. Peer review, curating by teachers as well as by teacher-educators can make teaching-learning a powerful and enjoyable process.

Thus creation of digital resources needs to be considered as an important PSTE method in itself and needs to become the responsibility of a larger set of teachers and student-teachers. This is essential for ensuring a continuous creation of local / contextual learning resources in different learning environments

TE institutions capacities to use ICTs to create demand based pre-service and in-service teacher professional development models, need to be developed. This includes creating the required ICT infrastructure, including for support and maintenance, building faculty capabilities to use variety of digital tools and methods for designing and offering programs to teachers.

(e) To publish digital resources Resources created in a collaborative manner, peer reviewed as well as expert reviewed can be easily published on websites of the institution or of the network of teachers. Such digital publishing using text/audio/video editors/web publishing tools should become a default.

The process of creation-collaboration-review-sharing-publishing can greatly support the creation of a resource rich environment of a reasonable quality, which can be a support to student-teachers in their learning as well as in their vocation as teachers. For a country like India, it would also be a powerful process for creating local/contextual resource material, including material in the local language(s). There is a great relative paucity of good learning resources in Indian languages in the Internet and this process, carefully designed and widely implemented, can go a long way to address this lacunae.

(f) To connect teachers, student teachers and teacher educators and educationists The aim is to enable student-teachers connect and communicate effectively with teachers, teacher-educators, community, schools and other institutions by digital mode - email, mass sms, audio-video meetings, blogs etc. Emails for all communication, mass sms, video conference meetings are simple ways of connecting teachers on an a regular basis. Webinars (seminars over Internet using audio/video conferencing tools) are becoming a good complement to physical meetings, these can be organised much more often and can bring people together across space and time. TE Institutions should connect to one another to share resources, faculty members virtually. Students in one institution should be able to access other institutions for this purpose. It is possible to visualise that different institutions would specialise in identified areas and acquire greater depth which could be made available to other institutions as well – for both teachers and student-teachers. This way the physical access to an institution would not be the only way to access the resources available in that institution.

ICTs for planning 1 Individual learning needs It is necessary that TE be based on individual learning needs and not on a supply driven model. Assessing learner needs is indeed complex – it cannot simply be based on what a teacher articulates as a learning need, since the teacher may not have a full perspective of what TE could constitute and hence the need has to be seen within the overall framework of TE, as articulated in documents like the NCF TE. Nevertheless, learning needs need to be be derived from a dialectic between teachers and teacher educators and recorded in simple digital registers, which can eventually develop in to full fledge teacher databases in each institution. Such registers can provide inputs to design training programs. Over time, different 'learning strands' are likely to emerge from analysing such digital registers, which can showcase different learning trajectories. Such a record will also support greater student-teacher involvement in their own learning.

2 Career planning There is a need to look at career possibilities of individual teachers. This means different career paths need to be identified, based on teachers development needs, career possibilities etc.

3 Work management Calendar management using office suite can support tour diary management, meeting coordination and Work planning/scheduling. Simple calendar management tools can help teacher educators to track their own appointments/meetings, schedule meetings with others, check for conflict and publish their calendar on an automatic mode.

v. To recommend measures for complementing ICT with other modes of distance education for effective delivery of programmes;

Blended learning in PSTE Complementing physical workshops/meetings with virtual interactions over a mailing-list or an e-learning forum such as moodle1 needs to become the future of teaching-learning. Such programs need to be offered by DIETs to student-teachers which can allow learners to learn at their own pace (relatively) and also reach a larger number of teachers than is possible through purely physical interactions. The benefits of such an approach (blended learning) include learning extended beyond contact period, wider sharing of resources/ideas, sharing of issues/doubts as well as responses to doubts. The outcome of these would be to use digital methods to support and strengthen self-learning, continuous learning, peer-learning, mentoring methods of TE. While the methodology of ICT mediation in a layered manner discussed here, covers the actual learning processes, a similar framework for assessing learning will also need to be developed. Such assessment will need to cover – assessing/understanding the current learning level and styles of the student-teacher, whether the student-teacher has acquired the capabilities at the specified level, what additional experiences are needed to help the teacher acquire these capabilities. Possibilities of certification of teachers at different levels will also need to be thought of over time. For example, certain teachers may acquire deep skills in reviewing material and suggesting changes/revisions etc. Their expertise as 'curators' could be acknowledged through appropriate certification as well.

So far self-learning print material occupies the main place in teacher education through ODL. Learning resources are also available with institutions offerning teacher education through ODL as well as with other educational institutions. UGC has taken a initative in this direction in the form of CEC in the area of Higher Education Similar effort is needed in the area of TE.

At present e-resources in TE are available but they are not available at one source with having linkage with either topic or theme wise as well as instituion wise. There is an urgent need to develop a CEC like body with a mandate to have data base of all available e-resources and/or open educational resources in TE that could be used for TE through DE.

There is also a great need of chalking out short-term inservice programmes in TE at all levels (i.e. pre-primary to higher education) and even sensitization programmes for prospective teachers to the teaching profession. An initiative like TED-Ed could be started in India in making open educational resources available in Hindi and other regional languages as majority of teacher’s upto elementary education levels are not able to make use of the resources in Engligh. ICT need not be confined to using interaactive blackboards or high technology intensive gadgets in teaching/training situations but to using available and easy to access one for providing enrichment experiences to teachers to reflect on their teaching skills and competencies and work for its betterment. There is a need for calling out short-term training programmes for working as well as prospective teachers in teacher education through ODL. Like Ganghigram Rural Institute, a deemed University is offering pre B.Ed. courses to its UG students to sensitive them in this profession. Besides offering short-term courses there is a need of accreditation like prevalent on skill development under vocational education area. E-resources include all technologies i.e.blackboard to internet based high-tech oriented training packages that are also made available in training kits in the form of printed , video & audio CDs.

vi. To suggest norms for development of ICT labs in teacher education institutions

The pre-service teacher education programme equips the teacher with those skills that she would need to be a learn for herself and those that she would use in the classrooms she would teach in. As has been argued in various other sections of these recomendations, the skills set has to go well beyond computer literacy. Most significantly, ICT is seen as a pedagogical tool, which would help the teacher overcome conventional barriers to knowledge and professional isolation and transform her into an independent and life long learner. In this context, therefore, ICT has to be intrinsically linked with all other subject areas and activities of the teacher education curriculum and not seen as a distinct subject of study. The computer or the internet is to be seen as a means to learning. The ICT Lab as an enabling environment

A laboratory positions itself as a specialised area, equipped with appropriate devices to enable experimentation and exploration. The nature of activities in an ICT lab, the equipment and software applications will have to reflect the concept of ICT in teacher education itself. Central to the use of ICT is its redefinition as an extended library of educational resources, as an exploration of methods and techniques of delivery of teaching-learning, as a means to the creation and trying out of educational resources and as a forum for exchange of ideas and innovations. Conventionally the physical infrastructure is centralised and consists of desktop computers and accessories and a shared internet access. While this was a convenient set up, from the point of view of resources management (electrical distribution, maintenance of computers, safety of equipment, etc.) it also led to conceiving it as a separate resource, provision made for its use in the timetable, provisioning of a specialist teacher and defining a very limited software collection. It is recommended that a distributed ICT facility be visualised. Every classroom (in a phased manner) becomes a connected classroom, with access to appropriate resources relevant to the subjects being transacted. The resources flow in from the library, the web and those developed by teacher educators or students. The total ICT infrastructure is networked and simultaneously used for pedagogical, administrative and communication purposes. Each teacher educator (and in a phased manner each student) has access to these resources all the time. Based on the range of subjects in a pre-service teacher education programme, defined in the NCFTE, the library resources (e-journals, e-print resources, multimedia, audio and video resources) and the web sites / forums of choice have to span a wide range of interests and needs. The software applications too have to serve varied areas of content creation. Student activities will involve preparation of e-content for hosting on various web forums or to use them as part of assignments, project reports and other such submissions. Teacher educators will require to experiment with and create e-content as teaching-learning resources (audio visual presentations, simulations, interactive content, and other computer aided learning).

The face of technology and the range of applications are changing so rapidly, that it is no longer practical to teach particular technological tools and their interfaces. ICT curricula should therefore focus on generic knowledge and skills - accessing the web, searching, retrieving, storing and repurposing information for instance. The course should aim at making the student an informed and critical consumer of information and products. The course should also enable the student to become an active member of the education and teacher education community, sharing her knowledge and resources and participating in the forums of debate on professional issues.

The focus of the ICT curriculum should be to integrate the above applications, offer a wide exposure to students, equip them to handle a range of teaching-learning and self development activities in the near future and to make them confident of adapting to changing technologies and ICT applications through their career.

Recommendations: • All teacher educators and students must have adequate access to ICT facilities, especially the internet; • The ICT facilities should be distributed across all learning areas – classrooms, library and laboratories; • The ICT lab is visualised as an extension of the library; • A wide range of educational resources (e-content, audio-visuals, software applications) and web-based activities is to be prescribed, integrating it with the various subject areas; • Student submissions, activities, assignments etc. should use or be based on ICT applications; appropriate weightage being given to ICT usage; • Hardware choices should move towards energy efficient, cost effective, low maintenance and untethered forms; • Typical activities attempting to teach students how to use ICT, where necessary, should be organised outside the teacher education curriculum.

TE institutions need to use ICTs effectively to ensure retention of institutional memory for supporting institutional learning and institutional development. They also need to network with other institutions for sharing and building communities of practice

vii. Recommend measures and systems for development of e-forums and e-platforms for interaction amongst teachers, teacher educators, and other stakeholders in the field of teacher education for enabling improved sharing and understanding, both within India and internationally.

It is well recognised that pre-service teacher education is inadequate to sustain teachers through their careers and keep them up to date and in tune with the times. Establishment of a professional interface which engages teachers in continuous self development and exposes them to the developments in the field is essential to catalyse quality of education. Similar arguments can also be made with reference to teacher educators. Conventional forums for sharing and exchange – research, publications and sharing in professional forums play a significant role in keeping the community professionally active and networked. However the economics of the situation do not permit expansion of these activities to a scale where it could become an integral part of the activities of teacher education and school education. ICT enables a cost effective alternative with better reach and convenience. Web based interactions have the potential to host the forums as well as facilitate continuous teacher development activities. Such an interface would involve participation of all stakeholders - teachers, teacher educators and professionals in a variety of related disciplines and professions, in a range of activities – research, publications, peer sharing and networking. The proposed ICT enabled networks will also facilitate the utilisation of the large intellectual potential of the large community of the teacher educators, from DIET, CTE and University Departments of Education, which largely remains untapped in the larger cause of continuous teacher development and quality improvement initiatives in education. It must be recognised that the teacher education community represents a large group of professionals oriented to pedagogy and allied disciplines like psychology, sociology, measurement, research, educational technology, etc. Therefore a concerted effort to involve their professional attention and nurture the development of interest groups at different levels is being proposed. Recommendations: • The existing capacities of national level agencies like the NCERT and IGNOU be harnessed to develop the teachers and teacher educators network which will evolve into a blended learning platform for teacher education and continuous teacher development, visualised as a extension service of the teacher education institutions. An appropriate high level group to design and establish the network may be set up. • The proposed network would host a range of professional activities like online journals, webinars and virtual conferences, online libraries and journal access (INFLIBNET for instance), clearing house for teaching learning resources, forums for sharing and exchange of ideas in curriculum, pedagogy and allied concerns, and a blended learning platform to facilitate professional development and acquisition of new skills and knowledge. • The participation in and the utilisation of the network is expected to catalyse a range of activities in the teacher education institutions, involvement of teacher educators in research and analysis, development of curricular resources, and ICT enriched teaching learning. • The activity will bring together a wide variety of academics, teacher educators, curriculum developers, researchers and evaluators. An appropriate mechanism to coordinate their efforts should be established. Multiple agencies across many States will have to provide the services of faculty and personnel from multiple institutions to develop the blended learning platform and use it to support the network. Integrating participation in the activities of the network into the expectations of teachers and teacher educators and recognising their efforts should be institutionalised. • Standards ensuring technological as well as pedagogical quality, procedures and processes to enable participation should be defined and established. The identified national level institutions will also coordinate the clearing house functions of the network as well as the blended learning platform. • The platform will be Open, with all content and resources released under an appropriate creative commons licensing, enabling wide spread adaptations, translations and community participation in populating, validating and using the resources. The emphasis will be on community ownership of the network, ensuring its sustenanance and quality. • With States adopting or adapting the National Curriculum Framework, a more or less uniform curriculum has been rolled out across the country. This opportunity can be leveraged to support teacher networks, clustered around specific subject domains, pedagogical concerns, issues of school education, etc. The platform can function as an effective inservice support simultaneously encouraging a wide variety of teacher development and school development activities.

Annexure 1 - Illustration for integrating ICTs into curriculum of select subjects

Suggested inclusion of ICT mediation in different subjects in PSTE syllabi

Specific suggestions for including ICT mediation possibilities in following subjects are made here for: 1. Structuring Learning 2. Science 3. Mathematics 4. Social Sciences 5. Languages

Similar ideas will need to be extended to all other subjects as well. It would cover the use of web-resources, web tools, digital audio-video resources as well as educational software applications. All resources used should be freely shareable, which is both an educational imperative as well as to make it economically viable. Whether practice-teaching, or physical education or history or educational philosophy, these digital methods would be very useful in broadening and deepening understanding of the teacher-educator as well as the student-teacher

Structuring Learning The key focus of the NCF 2005 document is to restructure the teaching-learning processes to allow for constructivist possibilities. This is possible when one looks at the context of the learner and design contextually and cognitively appropriate learning experiences. The classroom processes and learning resources must be structured in such a way so as to allow for these learning experiences.

1 Framework for creation of learning resources 1.1 Concept Mapping Vertical thinking (hierarchical) was considered to be the way for developing an understanding of a subject. Increasingly research is showing that lateral thinking is effective for problem solving through a non-hierarchical and creative approach, using reasoning that does not follow any particular hierarchy or sequence and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic. This also enables the teacher to make new connections within the subject and across subjects.

In the current digital society with vast amounts of information being available, the skills of connecting these various elements of information and making meaning out of them would need to be one of the primary focus areas of the teaching learning processes. Mind maps which allow for an idea to be explored in a non-hierarchical manner will be a very useful tool to structure the learning in a topic or idea. By using a public educational tool Freemind to build concept maps we open up possibilities to think beyond a specific hierarchy or in any particular sequence.

Teachers can use mind maps to initially design their own lesson plans, bringing out the linkages between the topic and other topics and sub topics. This can help them broaden their own understanding as well as communicate their thinking easily to fellow teachers and students.

1.2 Developing a topic for the classroom Once the concept map establishes the contours of the scope of the topic, the classroom experiences can be structured keeping in mind the cognitive development stages. It needs to be recognized that the learning outcomes are not just factual. Several works of research have shown that learners continually construct knowledge using the various inputs available to them; the social environment of the school and the community is also a major contributor to the learning. It is therefore, important to structure the learning experiences in terms of the cognitive development and ability of the child. One of the basic ideas here is that the content is only a vehicle for achieving learning outcomes. We want to look at why we are teaching a topic and how to teach it. These questions have to be asked and answered in all subject areas.

1.3 Learning Outcomes Learning outcomes are not only content based (factual; can be learned by rote). They can be broken into conceptual learning, skill learning and the content/knowledge learning. The content/knowledge learning part pertains to the factual components, various definitions, procedural knowledge, theories, etc.

Concept Learning/Idea to be Conveyed: Concept learning outcomes look at what are the key discipline ideas in a topic or theme. These allow the children to make a structure for their learning and help them become continuous, life-long learners. They learn to abstract, get to the core meaning and build upon that core understanding. These concepts will be built according to the age of the student (NCF calls this cognitive validity). For the teacher, a good way to define a conceptual outcome is to ask this question : “ 20 years from now; the student will forget all these definitions, formulae – what is the key idea (s) that I want them to remember .”

Skill Learning Skills are cognitive, psycho-motor, linguistic and social abilities that are built over a learning period. The skills can be directly related to the topic. In this case, these will be called the applications of the concept/ idea/ content. For example, building a dynamo or fixing a bulb or recording an experiment are directly connected to the lesson being taught. But every lesson also has higher order skills which are important to develop. For example, learning to observe carefully and accurately or safety precautions around electricity are also skills that can be developed. Multiple skills can be developed through one topic/ theme. More than one topic can also be for addressing one skill.

Knowledge Learning The content/knowledge learning part pertains to the factual components, various definitions, procedural knowledge, theories, etc. These form the basis for further study in a particular area. It is interesting to recognise that while the key knowledge idea may be the same, the building of the conceptual layers of understanding will allow a topic to move from simple levels of understanding to more and more comprehensive levels.

1.4 Activity based learning Activities can be designed carefully to achieve all these learning outcomes above. The effectiveness of an activity is in terms of the linkages the teacher is able to provide to the topic being discussed and in relating to the learners' context and methods to evaluate if an activity has achieved its objectives. These activities can be in the form of group work, individual hands-on work, computer aided tools and simulations, audio-visual equipments, reading and classroom discussions and questions. Now that we have explored the general framework for developing curriculum, we will look at specific subject areas.

Science Science learning is about building experiences that will allow for observation, experimentation, recording, analysis and understanding of the various phenomena around us. As outlined in the NCF 2005 position paper on science, there are various factors to be kept in mind for effective teaching-learning practices for science. These include the social context of the students, the prior knowledge and the conceptions they have about phenomena around them (these could be accurate or inaccurate), the felicity in the use of language, availability of lab and learning resources. A good pedagogy must allow for a judicious mix of several teaching learning methods including direct observation, inferences, instructions, reading and recording. The science curriculum should satisfy criteria of cognitive validity, content validity and contextual validity.

Experimenting and activity based learning has been recognized as one of the important methods of science learning and teaching. It is important that the activities be planned and designed in such a way as to build conceptual understanding besides the learning of facts. Activities must be designed so as to allow for constructivist learning possibilities. While open ended inquiry and observation have a role to play, there are several situations where direct observation is not possible, or physical experiments may be difficult to perform. Educational tools, including simulations can be used to supplement the learning experiences in these situations.

1.1 PhET PhET is a tool that has several science simulations already built-in. There are simulations in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The power of this tool is that it is possible to simulate experiments that are difficult to perform. It is also very effective for analysing phenomena that occur. For instance, it is possible to simulate the nuclear reactions, the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction and other advanced topics. PhET simulations can also be used to reinforce understanding of many primary and upper primary school concepts in science. After a class or during a classroom discussion, the teacher can use the simulation and lead the discussion. A simulation allows for many variables to be manipulated and the effects can be discussed. 1.2 Kalzium Kalzium is a desktop computer application that can be used as a teaching aid for introducing various ideas in Chemistry – like the periodic table, molecular structure of elements, compounds, determination of formulae, the timeline of discovery of elements, structure of isotopes and determining equations. 1.3 KStars KStars is a Desktop Planetarium for KDE. It provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. The display includes upto 100 million stars, 13,000 deep­sky objects,all 8 planets, the Sun and Moon, and thousands of comets and asteroids.

A similar application is Stellarium. Using both of these, the motion of planets and stars can be simulated and observed for any given location. Most astronomical observations are possible only at night time (except a solar eclipse) and this tool allows the teacher to explain the various phenomena that the student can observe at home. It is possible to create contextually relevant teaching-learning resources using these tools.

1.4 KTechLab K Tech Lab is a free software which helps to make different types of circuits (electronic & electrical) and conduct experiments. Various electronic components like resistor, diode, switch, transistor, micro controllers etc. can be run using this software.

Since it works in GUI mode, it is very easy to handle. The components required for electric circuits can be easily dragged into the work area using a mouse. When we join the pins using mouse, the circuit is formed. The properties of each component is displayed when bring the pointer above it. Students are not able to do some experiments which involve real devices and consumables, even in groups. But these experiments can be done in KTech Lab environment. Thus loss due to the damages and lack of consumables can be avoided. Using this software students can easily form the circuits and can repeat the experiments a number of times.

2 Videos There are a large number of videos available on natural phenomena which can be downloaded from the Internet and shared with the students. Discussions can precede or follow the viewing based on the lesson plan of the teacher. In order to dub videos in foreign accented english or foreign languages, the software 'recordMydesktop' can be used by teachers. This software can also be used to create simple videos using other software applications. For eg. A video on lunar eclipse was created by a science teacher (GMPS Yediyur) using 'recordMydesktop' and stellarium application.

3 Alternate text books Analysing text books used in elementary education is a useful learning activity for student teachers. Along with the state text books, alternative text books such as those produced by NCERT, SCERT of Kerala, Delhi, as well as organisations like Ekalavya can be downloaded/ referred from the Internet. Comparing the way a topic is analysed in different text books would broaden the understanding and perspectives of the student teachers. Similar text resources include the NCF 2005 position paper in social science1.

Mathematics One of the key areas of focus of the NCF position paper of mathematics is the focus on higher order learning outcomes, involving conceptual understanding, using mathematics for problem solving as well as in estimation, mathematisation and mathematical communication. Many computer aided tools as well as web resources are available for use as resources that can be used towards these above learning outcomes.

1.1 Geogebra Geogebra is a good example of a computer aided tool, which helps us in learning Geometry, Algebra and Calculus. Geogebra is a highly versatile and advanced learning tool available for use by mathematics teachers. This is a tool that can be used for clarifying concepts and also for linking aspects of mathematics – like algebra and geometry – which have always been taught as different topics. Using a graphics view, Geogebra can be used to stimulate a visual understanding of various concepts. Using this tool, several topics can also be explained in high school mathematics as well as physics. It is a free software, which functions in GNU Linux Operating System.

Geogebra cannot replace children using the compass box to draw. The student-teachers in classes must use the compass box and pencils to draw and construct. This tool must be used by teachers to animate some concepts and theorems to enable them to use it as a teaching aid to further their own teaching methodologies.

In addition to Geogebra, simulations are available in PhET for arithmetic concepts.

1.2 Kturtle Kturtle is another tool that is available for teaching logic. It can be used to visually represent the flow of logic in a programming sequence. Kturtle can also be used to visualize directions, angles in a pre-geometry way without getting into formal definitions of geometric terms. Can make the concept of computer programming less intimidating for both teacher and student. In today's digital world, mathematics education may be seen as may areas of learning coming together. These parts are conceptual understanding of the mathematics , using the algorithms to internalize and apply the conceptual understanding pattern recognition and logical reasoning especially to understand theorems and proofs. K Turtle helps teachers build logical reasoning and pattern recognition with children. As it is visual, many geometric properties can also be understood through the use of K Turtle, like making the turtle draw a square requires the child to understand the properties of a square. Thus it is very useful to teach logical reasoning side by side with mathematics. This tool provides a interactive and easy method to do the same with children starting in the upper primary classes.

1.3 Videos and other internet resources – for Science and Math Many good quality videos are available that can be used in the classrooms. There are several audio and video editing tools that are available using which the teachers can create videos in Kannada or provide contextually appropriate explanations for the videos. Many such videos can be found at Eureka. Many videos are also availabe on youtube.

In addition to these tools and specific videos, accessing the Internet and identifying good quality learning resources is very important. It is important that these resources need to be contextually relevant, accurate and easy to understand. Some examples of good quality educational websites are the following: www.physicsclassroom.com, www.ceeindia.org, www.nsta.org, www.arvindguptatoys.com, http://plus.maths.org/content/, www.nsdl.org, www.khanacademy.org, www.coreknowledge.org, www.nctm.org

Social Sciences There are several issues in the teaching – learning of social sciences that impact the learning outcomes. Social sciences is largely perceived as a body of facts with very little relevance to the life of the student. In a pluralistic society like India, local context and content is vital in the classroom transactions in social sciences. Social sciences also carry the unique position of being able to look at normative issues of the society. The imperative for creation of local content is very high – whether through photo stories or audio-visual recordings of the community. Through easily available desktop video and audio editing tools, such as Audacity and Desktop Recorder, teachers can create content that would be most appropriate for their classroom setting. Digital technology also allows teachers to prepare contextual resources keeping in mind their student's background. It also offers possibilities of addressing the normative responsibility of the discipline towards social justice and equity.

The social science curriculum is vast and by its nature must involve transactions with and understanding of the outside world. The curriculum covers different issues of society through the disciplines of geography, history, political science etc. The world wide web is a useful space to gather information and methods for understanding and teaching these various issues.

1 Kgeography and Marble Public software educational tools such as KGeography and Marble allow children to explore different kinds of maps and help them form a visual representation of different places. KGeography is a Geography educational tool to explore maps by continents, countries etc. Children can also explore states, their capitals, flags of each country and test themselves in it. Marble is like a desktop Atlas that can be used to learn more about the Earth. You can zoom in and out looking at different places in the world. This is a useful tool to explain longitude, latitude and seasonal differences. We can also use Marble to look at the earth at different points of time – thus integrating history with geography. These two tools are available on the Ubuntu desktop and do not require an Internet connection. Google Earth is another application that can be downloaded and used to explore different geography phenomenon. Other interesting online map tools include Google maps http://maps.google.com/ and Open Street maps http://www.openstreetmap.org/. Both these maps can be edited; local spaces can be added and shared with everyone.

2 Videos There are a large number of videos available on social phenomena which can be downloaded from the Internet and shared with the students. Discussions can precede or follow the viewing based on the lesson plan of the teacher. In order to dub videos in foreign accented english or foreign languages, the software 'recordMydesktop' can be used by teachers. This software can also be useha d to create simple videos using other software applications. For eg. A video on lunar eclipse was created by a science teacher (GMPS Yediyur) using 'recordMydesktop' and stellarium application2. In social sciences, there should be plenty of projects that require the student-teachers to prepare small video clips on relevant topics – this has great potential to capture historic sites, geographic features as well as interactions of citizens and communities in civic activities. Cultural aspects too are valuable to capture – dance forms in Karnataka, different languages/dialects being spoken all are worthy of being captured on videos. Interested student-teachers can also learn simple video editing tools like KDENLIVE to create meaningful clips

3 Alternate text books Analysing text books used in elementary education is a useful learning activity for student teachers. Along with the state text books, alternative text books such as those produced by NCERT, SCERT of Kerala, Delhi, as well as organisations like Ekalavya can be downloaded/ referred from the Internet. Comparing the way a topic is analysed in different text books would broaden the understanding and perspectives of the student teachers. Similar text resources include the NCF 2005 position paper in social science.

4 Project work Project work is an important method of learning in social sciences, student teachers can be encouraged to work in small groups on a variety of topics in history, geography, political science, economics, for which they could download existing information from the Internet, form connections and linkages with the local and create interpretations and analyses of the topic. Such projects can also be used to discuss current issues of interest (such as global warming, or corruption or elections) and importance and make social sciences much more live and interesting.

Languages Language is the medium through which we communicate with the world. English is now considered a global language and hence must be learnt by all. research shows that young children learn best thorough a language that is most familiar to them – their mother tongue. It is hence important for the teacher to remember the differences between English and Indian languages during teaching-learning processes and be able to connect the local language while teaching English. The internet provides a variety of language learning resources, including worksheets, audio-visual material etc. for this.

1 English learning Since English is considered a global language, it becomes crucial for students to learn the language and build their vocabulary in it. Public software educational tools such as Gcompris and Childsplay help children learn basic alphabets and simple English words. KHangman and KAnagram are more advanced public software educational tools which are useful to further build children's vocabulary. Along with the existing list of words, teachers can also add new ones, provide hints in Kannada, depending on the capabilities of their students. These tools are available on the Ubuntu desktop.

2 Internet as a learning resource – Social Sciences and English There are plenty of websites with information on various social science issues. Some good websites include http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/forkids/ etc. Online encyclopedias such as www.wikipedia.org and www.kn.wikipedia.org help teachers get information on almost any topic that they are looking for. They can also add information to this, collaborate with others and edit information on these sites. Similarly http://wikieducator.org/Main_Page is a website for open educational resources which can be commented on and shared by all. Online magazines such as http://www.teacherplus.org/ provide interesting articles written by teachers on different issues. Online book web sites such as http://books.google.com/ offer free books on many issues. NCERT textbooks are also available online at http://ncertbooks.prashanthellina.com/.

Websites such as http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm_index.html and http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/ showcase photography from different places and time periods, which can be used by the teacher to initial classroom discussion. Digital cameras can also be used by the students to click relevant pictures to discuss in the classroom. In addition to photos, videos are available on website such as www.youtube.com and http://vimeo.com/. Teachers can also prepare their own slide-shows and videos using a simple digital camera. This can even be explored as project work for students. Tools such as recordmydesktop help teachers modify videos that are available on the Internet. It also allows them to make their own videos using their computer. As a social science class should involve learning about the world, online news website need to be an integral part of the classroom proceedings. Global news can be watched through websites like http://www.bbc.co.uk/ while Indian news can be accessed at http://ibnlive.in.com/agency/CNN-IBN.html, and http://www.ndtv.com/.

There are also available, on the internet, useful sites for learning Englishh: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/, http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ and http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/. Organisations likehttp://www.clrindia.net/ , http://smilefoundationindia.org/ and http://prathambooks.org/ also offer good English resources for non-native speakers. In addition, there are plenty of online dictionaries which can be used to improve vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. Some good ones include the Cambridge (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/) and Oxford (http://oxforddictionaries.com/) dictionaries.

Annexure 2 Underlying principles guiding ICT mediation in teaching-learning

1 Educational Policy as basis for conceptualisation and design of ICT mediation The professional preparation of teachers has been recognized to be very crucial for the qualitative improvement of education since the 1960s (Dr. Kothari Commission, 1964-66), NPE 1986 and so on. With the latest developments in the field of science and technology, the key role played by the teacher in the education system has only become more critical. Hence Teacher Professional Development (TPD), both PSTE and in-service play a crucial role in the larger improvement of the system. But very few concrete steps have been taken in the last three decades to operationalize this. The Yashpal Committee Report (1993) on Learning without Burden noted”...inadequate programmes of teacher preparation lead to unsatisfactory quality of learning in schools. ... The content of the programme should be restructured to ensure its relevance to the changing needs of school education. The emphasis in these programmes should be on enabling the trainees to acquire the ability of self-learning and independent thinking.”1 In the NCF 2005, the section on Education Technology lays emphasis on the role of ICT’s in meeting the challenges to realize the goals of quality education. To quote from the document, “ ...the key to meeting this challenge is an appreciation of ET as an agent of change in the classroom, which includes not only the teacher and the teaching-learning process but also systemic issues like reach, equity and quality.” The NCF also highlights the role of ICT in PSTE and in school education. It envisages the role of Educational technology as an agent of change in the class room. RTE emphasizes that every child of age group 6-14 need to get quality education. Quality education includes: Access, enrollment, retention and Achievement. In this context the the use of ICT’s right from tracking the children and to ensure that every child as achieved the minimum levels could be tracked by ICT. The NCF TE 2010 document suggests “Teachers need to be creators of knowledge and thinking professionals. They need to be empowered to recognize and value what children learn from their home, social and cultural environment and to create opportunities for children to discover, learn and develop. Educationists are also of the view that the burden arises from treating knowledge as a ‘given’, as an external reality existing outside the learner and embedded in textbooks. This view of education points to the need to take a fresh look at teacher preparation. Education is not a mechanical activity of information transmission and teachers are not information dispensers. Teachers need to be looked at as crucial mediating agents through whom curriculum is transacted and knowledge is co-constructed along with learners. Textbooks by themselves do not help in developing knowledge and understanding. Learning is not confined to the four walls of the classroom. For this to happen, there is a need to connect knowledge to life outside the school and enrich the curriculum by making it less textbook-centered.

The NCF TE further adds “In this situation, it is necessary to conceive ways in which teachers can opt for different kinds of trainings, based on their interest and requirement, and along with the recommendation of school supervisors. “For this, it would be necessary for training schedules to be announced well in advance (at the end of each academic year, for the next year) and for processes to be in place to enable teachers to register for the trainings they wish to undergo. Processes for field support for training would need to be worked out by these agencies providing training, and this need not fall as a mass responsibility of the concerned CRP, or co-ordinator in-service programmes as is currently happening. Allocation of funds, training dates, duration and other logistics would need to be made more decentralized and based on individual teacher’s preferences, thus, doing away with the current model of mass trainings, based on the one-size-fits-all design. Further training dates allocation could also include time spent in other professional activities such as seminars, conferences and other activities suggested in this chapter. Systems that would enable teachers to avail of long-term courses, sabbaticals and fellowships would also need to be evolved. A follow-up mechanism for keeping track of trainings and professional activities of teachers would need to be evolved and put in place.”

Some examples of new models which have been able to look at new models for teacher education are discussed in the NCF TE; the Delhi University School resource network (USRN)2 which aims to build professional networks of learning amongst teachers in government and private schools, teacher educators in Govt. and private institutions, university departments of education. This program is also revising the D.Ed curriculum of Delhi and participants have created digital educational resources in Hindi and resources that link practice with theory. The MA Education program of TISS explores new 'blended' learning models for teacher education, using contact and distance modes of learning. A third program, the Kerala IT@Schools program provides opportunities to teachers to become resource creators in their own subjects - mathematics, science, social science, languages and enhance their subject matter mastery, using digital tools. These programs have been able to establish new models for knowledge access, construction, storing, sharing and publishing, using 'techno-pedagogical' principles and methods. All three programs have a strong 'ICT' component. However the use of ICTs is driven by strong pedagogic principles / approaches and is not technology centered. Educationists and practitioners have designed these programs, not technology professionals. Their program designs emphasize elements such as independent, need based, self directed and self paced learning with continuous mentoring; pioneering new models of teacher professional development (TPD), which are essential to enable the priorities and principles discussed in the RTE, NCF, NCFTE a reality in the Indian school system.

2 ICTs as a curricular resource 2.1 Curricular framework principles for digital resources ICT mediation needs to be driven by educational aims, designed by those working in education, with quality frameworks and rigorous academic processes. ICT needs to be seen as a pedagogical tool and not as a technology device or as a sophisticated typing tool. This means ICT curriculum and pedagogy need to be seen like any other curricular area. Clear educational aims, principles and priorities need to drive program design. This means program design structures need to have educationists, teachers, teacher educators. Technology experts may need to be consulted but should not have prime role in design. The challenges are primarily pedagogical in nature – how can ICTs impact teaching-learning processes. Technological challenges exist – fragility and rapid obsolescence of infrastructure, power, sheer variety of options available etc. however these challenges are relatively less formidable and our thinking needs to move towards seeing ICTs as another (powerful) pedagogical resource than a technological black box. This warning is worded strongly, since the bane of ICTs in education has been the adoption of technology-centric thinking and designs which have not consulted educators, leading to program isolation and failure3.

2.2 Nature of resources The adoption of ICTs in education is essentially an educational issue, rather than a technology issue, hence our policy and program need to be anchored in sound educational perspectives. Since curriculum is the primary process of directing teaching towards fulfilling educational aims, digital learning resources (content) and digital learning tools/ processes (software applications), which together constitute curricular resources, need to comply with established curricular principles. An important principle of public education systems is that curricular resources need to be publicly owned, so that they are freely available to teacher educators, teachers and students without restrictions. In the case of traditional print media (books), the public education system does not use proprietary curricular resources, since that prevents the schools, teachers and students from freely sharing the resources and from customising them for their local needs. In the same manner, proprietary (meaning privately owned, which is prohibited by the owner, from being shared or modified) software and proprietary content should not be used in education. Use of a large variety of free digital tools/resources helps move from a 'scarce (minimalist) proprietary digital environment' to a 'rich/diverse public digital environment'. Digital resources are non-rivalrous (sharing does not reduce availability) and hence promoting public creation/sharing of digital resources is perhaps the most important step to ensure systemic benefit from ICT mediation.

2.3 Use of ICTs as a culture For a new technology to be widely beneficial, it needs to become ubiquitous. This means all need to learn and use ICT, and use it in a large variety of ways. Viewing ICTs as public learning resources can create this culture of widespread appropriation. Student teachers need to be trained in basic hard ware skills like assembling and removing the computer parts. This would give them confidence to handle hardware as well. Along with it they were to be trained in handling peripherals including printers, scanners, cameras, mobile phones, CDs. Both hardware and software skills are very essential for student-teachers. Student-teachers are 'digital natives4' and would take to this learning quite easily. However, the older PSTE faculty would be 'digital immigrants' for who a process of capacity building would be essential, so that they can learn, understand and guide student-teachers

3 Active role for teachers As creators of resources, teachers need to customise /localize available resources, as users of resources, sharing and publishing resources. “Computer teachers” do not have a big role in this process, since what they teach currently - operating system and office can be easily learnt by student-teachers. Successful ICT program depends more on capacity building and capability building which are techno-pedagogical processes, maintenance and support infrastructure and mechanisms. Integrating ICTs into regular subject teaching-learning creates ownership and commitment amongst teachers which also creates desire to learn computers/ Internet. Computer literacy should not be standalone but an initial part of a computer-aided learning program. For instance, instead of having a session on how to browse the Internet, this can simply be a part of a science class, to explore science resources on the Internet. Such 'applied learning' would be much more useful and hence learning would be deeper.

4 Constructivist possibilities for student-teachers When we think of ICT’s, we normally have a tendency to equate this with computer education. The past experiments in India have shown that no program that is only equipment driven works well. ICT’s can only be meaningful and effective if they constitute an integral part of teaching-learning processes. The NCF 2005 has its foundation on the constructivist approach. The constructivist environment in teaching-learning process also means that teachers need to be active practitioners, collaboratively creating resources and building a community of learning. The central idea of constructivism is that knowledge is not fixed / pre-determined, but rather constructed by the learner in the process of learning. Some of the other major concepts of constructivism are that learners are unique, bring prior understandings to any learning situation, hence learning is situated and contextual; learning is an adaptive activity; learners may resist, accommodate or assimilate new learning; and learners interact through interaction with materials, resources, experiences and other learners.5 ICTs can be used to provide curricular experiences that are aligned to these concepts.

Annexure 3 Proprietary Software and Proprietary Content vs Public Software and Content

Since the adoption of ICTs in education is essentially an educational issue, rather than a technological one, PSTE policy and program need to be anchored in sound educational perspectives. Curriculum is the primary process of directing teaching towards fulfilling educational aims and digital learning resources (content) and digital learning tools/ processes (software applications) which constitute curricular resources, need to comply with curricular principles. An important principle of education is that curricular resources need to be publicly owned, so that they are freely available to teacher educators, teachers and students without restrictions. In the case of traditional print media (books), the public education system does not use proprietary curricular resources, since that prevents the schools, teachers and students from freely sharing the resources and from customizing and using them as per their local needs. Proprietary software and content forces the teacher to be a 'mere user'; treating these tools as a 'given'. Teachers, schools and the entire public education system become completely dependent on the vendor for any changes, modifications, enhancements / customizations to these tools and have no right to freely share these resources with one another. Thus allowing for use of privatized digital learning processes (in the form of proprietary software or content) would be detrimental to education and the public education system should use only publicly owned curricular resources.

There are free software applications for all the areas where proprietary software applications have been used in schools. At a systemic level, public software has been used in a successful “ICT@schools” program in India – the Kerala IT@SchoolsIT@Schools, which is being emulated in Gujarat. The 'Subject Teacher Forum' program of RMSA, Karnataka uses public educational software for mathematics, science and social science teachers.

Proprietary software and content forces the teacher and the student to be a 'mere user'; treating these resources as a 'given'. Teachers, schools and the entire public education system become completely dependent on the vendor for any modifications, enhancements, customizations or localizations (creating local language versions) to these tools, and have no right to modify or freely share these resources with one another. Proprietary resources thus do not allow the needed experimentation, collaborative construction, and local/ contextual enhancement of learning processes, important new opportunities offered by digital technologies, required to meet the constructivist ideals aspired for by numerous policy documents including the National Curriculum Framework 2005. Thus using privatized digital learning processes (in the form of proprietary software or content) is detrimental to educational aims, and there is a strong case for the education system to use only public software (popularly known as free and open source software) and public digital curricular resources.

In addition, use of publicly owned software has other important advantages: 1. Since publicly owned software can be freely shared, the costs of using freely shareable software applications would be much lower specially for implementing at a large scale, where support systems are feasible to build. An IIM-Bangalore study estimate that on a conservative basis, Kerala IT@SchoolsIT@Schools program has saved 50 crores on software license fees and India would save 20,000 crores each year by adopting the same. 2. The GNU/Linux publicly owned operating system is virus-resistant and this can hugely reduce maintenance and support efforts and resources. A large number of computers in educational institutions tend to be unused due to virus issues and using GNU/Linux would increase infrastructure availability. 3. A large number of educational software applications can be bundled with the GNU/Linux operating system which means they can be available to teachers and schools in a simple single installation process. The Kerala, Karnataka and Gujarat programs all use the Ubuntu GNU/Linux operating system which is simple and easy to us, bundled with the educational tools. Thus education system should encourages the use of digital tools and resources that are freely shareable and modifiable, in line with other curricular resources and discourages the use of software or content which is privately owned and which teachers and education system is legally and technologically prevented from sharing/customizing

Annexure 4 - Norms and Standards for Diploma in Early Childhood Education Programme through Open and Distance Learning System leading to Diploma in Early Childhood Education (D.E.C.Ed)

1. Preamble

The aim of the Diploma in Early Childhood Education programme through open and distance learning system is to provide an opportunity to teachers desiring to work or already working in early childhood education centres (in preschools and nursery schools) and /or in early primary grades (grades 1 and 2) to acquire/ upgrade their professional competence. It also envisages to bring into its fold those teachers who have entered the profession without formal teacher training.

The Diploma is also aimed at early childhood development professionals other than teachers, such as curriculum and material developers and those seeking to gain competencies for self-employment through setting up early childhood education centres. 2. Condition of offering the course

The institutions or academic units specially established for offering ODL programmes will be eligible for offering teacher education programmes through ODL system. Thus, the National Open University and State Open Universities and the Directorates / School of Open and Distance Learning in the Central, State, Deemed or Agricultural universities or any other category of universities that can demonstrate necessary competence and facilites for offering ODL programmes as per these norms shall be eligible to offer teacher education programmes.

3. Territorial Jurisdiction

The territorial jurisdiction of the university/institution will be determined as per its Act. The Study Centres of the University shall also be located in the territorial jurisdiction of the University. A University in the North Eastern states would be eligible to admit students from all other NE states, even though this may not have been specifically mentioned in its Act.

4. Duration

The duration of the programme shall be of two academic sessions / years (four semesters). The commencement and completion of the programme shall be so regulated that two long spells of vacation (summer / winter / staggered) are available to the learners for guided / supervised instruction and face to face contact sessions.

5. Intake, Eligibility and Admission Procedure (I) Intake

The basic unit of intake for the D.E. C. Ed programme shall be determined by extent of availbility of appropriate Programme Study Centres* subject to the condition that one Programme Study Centre shall enrol not more than 40 students per batch in a given session.

   A programme study centre is one which dedicatedly provides all academic, infrastructural and administrative facilities for implementation of the programme as a single window. For details refer to section 8 below. 

(II) Eligibility

(a) Candidates with at least fifty percent marks in the senior secondary (+2) or its equivalent examination are eligible for admission.

(b) A University will admit only those candidates as per its territorial jurisdiction assigned to it by the University Act.

i) The Institution/ University shall develop a suitable procedure for the selection of the candidates.

ii) The reservation for SC/ST categories shall be as per rules of the Central Government / State Government whichever is applicable. There shall be a relaxation of 5 % marks in favour of SC/ST /OBC and other categories of candidates.

6. Facilities in the Headquarters – Faculty, Staff, Physical and Instructional Infrastructure

(I) Responsibilities of Faculty

The D.E.C.Ed. programme through Distance Education mode includes a number of activities like course designing; course development; monitoring organization of face-to-face inputs at programme study centres through counselling sessions, workshops, practical, practice teaching-cum-internship; monitoring of assessment of students’ assignments at programme study centres; orientation of the staff and faculty at programme study centres; monitoring and supervision of the programme study centres; maintenance / renewal of the courses and other activities; preparation of audio-video programmes etc.

The faculty at the Headquarters/Nodal centres will ensure proper implementation in respect of all these. It is essential that facilities and expertise be made available both at the university head-quarters as well as programme study centre. The Headquarters/Nodal centre would not only act as an administrative body but also act as active resource centre. It is essential to appoint full-time well qualified staff at Headquarters/nodal centre. Additional part-time faculty should also be made available as per the needs of the students.

The self-learning material, both print and non print must be based on the pedagogy of self learning. A blended learning approach (integration of methods and media) should be applied to the development of SLM.

The content of the SLM must reflect the objective of ECE and education in the lower primary grades as aiming at total child development in a learning environment that is joyful, child centered, play and activity based. The content must reflect that at this stage the 3 R’s are not forced upon the children and that there are no textbooks, tests, interviews, homework, competitive sports and such other activities. Instead the SLM should emphasize approaches and methods like art, music and movement, story telling, role playing, games, quiz, material preparation, project work, bal mela etc., by which prospective teachers can be trained to create joyful environment so that children may feel attracted towards school education

II) Details of Faculty at the Headquarters

The Institution / University offering this teacher education programme through ODL system shall have an exclusive core full time faculty. The core faculty will comprise three academics involved with various aspects of the programme.

The combinations could be as follows:-

• one Professor, three Assistant Professors

                                  or

• one professor, one Associate Professor and one Assistant Professor or • two Professors.

(i) The faculty shall be responsible for all the activities mentioned at 6(I) above.

(ii) One faculty member, at least, shall be designated as ‘Programme Co-ordinator’ for the programme. The faculty may work as ‘Joint Programme Coordinators’ as well.

(III) Qualifications of Faculty / Staff at the Headquarters

(i) Professor • Post graduation in Child Development/ Home Science with specialization in Child Development with at least fifty five percent marks • Ph.D in Child Development or Early Childhood Education or equivalent published work /professional papers • 10 years of teaching experience in early childhood education with at least 5 years in the distance mode.

(ii) Associate Professor

• Post graduation in Child Development / Home Science with specialization in Child Development with at least fifty five percent marks • Ph. D in Child Development or Early Childhood Education or equivalent published work professional papers • 5 years of teaching experience in early childhood education of which 3 years in the distance mode.

(iii) Assistant Professor

Essential

Post graduation in Child Development/ Home Science with specialization in Child Development with at least fifty five percent marks. OR (i) Post-graduation in Education with at least fifty five percent marks and (ii) Diploma/Degree in Early Childhood/ Nursery Education, with at least fifty five percent marks

Desirable Proficiency in the use of ICT for educational purposes.

(IV ) Details of Non –Teaching/Support Staff/Administrative Staff for H.Q.

The administrative and other support staff may be provided as per the norms outlined below: • Software Specialist/Professional - two • In-charge Assessment and Evaluation – two • Computer Operator for Maintaining Database – two • Office Assistant - One • Helper for the dispatch of study material - One

(V) Terms and conditions of service

i. The appointment shall be made on the basis of recommendations of the Selection Committee constituted as per the policy of the Central/concerned State Government/Board whichever is applicable. ii. All appointments are to be made on full-time and regular basis excepting those specified as part-time. iii. Appointment of part-time instructors and other supporting staff shall be made as per norms of the concerned Government. iv. The academic and other staff of the institutions shall be paid such salary as may be prescribed by the concerned Government by account payee cheque or as per advice into the bank account of the employee, specially opened for the purpose. v. The management of the institution shall discharge the statutory duties relating to pension, gratuity, provident fund, etc. for its employees. vi. The age of superannuation of staff shall be determined by the policy of concerned Government. vii. The reservation for SC/ST/OBC and other categories shall be as per the rules of the Central Government / State Government.

(VI) Physical and Instructional Infrastructure at headquarter level

i. Rooms/cabins for faculty members ii. Adequate number of classrooms iii. A large room for computer operators for maintaining database of students, developing self learning material iv. An office room with photocopiers v. Store for the storing and dispatch of learning materials vi. Office rooms vii. Conference room for conducting meetings viii. Hardware and software and facilities such as audio-video studio for courseware development recording of lessons and production of CDs, ix. Video conferencing /internet/ skype /facebook and other social networking sites facilities for online consultation, orientation and monitoring so as to maintain regular contact between faculty at headquarters, Regional/ Zonal/Cluster Coordinators and program study centres for the purpose of both monitoring and providing support x. Teleconferencing xi. Library - with text and reference books early childhood education, child development, distance education, educational encyclopaedias, year-books, electronic publications, CD ROMs and research journals on Child development, ECE and teacher education etc.

7. Facilities at the Regional/ Zonal /Cluster level

For monitoring purposes, Regional/ Zonal/Cluster Coordinators shall be appointed on full-time basis at the Regional / Zonal centres in consultation with the headquarters. One Regional/ Zonal/cluster Coordinator would be responsible for monitoring 10 programme study centres offering the Diploma programme in the respective zone. Additional Regional/ Zonal/cluster Coordinators will be appointed depending upon the additional number of programme study centres activated.

The minimum qualification of the Regional/ Zonal/Cluster Coordinators will be Post graduation in Child Development / Home Science with specialization in Child Development with at least fifty five percent marks and with 5 years of working experience in early childhood education. He or she may be a retired person.

Part time staff, as required, may be appointed to support the monitoring activities of the Regional/ Zonal/Cluster Coordinator.

The Regional/ Zonal/Cluster Coordinators will work in close coordination with faculty at headquarters providing reports of their monitoring activities and implementing changes in monitoring as suggested. They will be the organic link between the head quarters and the programme study centres.

All administrative facilities will be provided to the Regional/ Zonal/Cluster Coordinators by the Regional / Zonal centres in order to enable them to carry out the tasks. It should have video conferencing /internet/ skype /facebook and other social networking sites facilities for online consultation, orientation and monitoring so as to maintain regular contact with headquarters and programme study centres for the purpose of both monitoring and providing support

8. Eligibility and Conditions for a Programme Study Centre

(I) Eligibility

(i) Only following category of institutions shall qualify to become the Programme Study Centre for the Diploma :

a. Existing Teacher Training institutions recognized by NCTE for offering the same programme in face to face mode and having all the requisite infrastructure and staff as per NCTE norms. The institution should have been offering the relevant teacher education course for at least five years durations.

b. Child development departments of Home Science colleges/ agricultural universities/other higher learning institutions

c. Education departments of Universities that have been offering the Early Childhood Education as a course or paper for the past five years.

(ii) Institutions declared as Programme Study Centre for the Diploma for one University / institution shall not be the Programme Study Centre for any other.

(iii) The number of students allotted to a Programme Study Centre shall not exceed 40.

(iv) The Programme Study Centre shall provide to the distance learners allocated to it access to its library and other physical facilities.

(v) The Headquarters of the ODL institution may also function as a Programme Study Centre for at least two batches (80 students).

(vi) Academic counsellors, Supervisors and Guides engaged for various academic activities by the Programme Study Centre shall be fully qualified as per the norms detailed below.

(vii) All the functionaries associated with the activities of the Programme Study Centres must be oriented by the open university / institution in the practice of the ODL system from time to time.

(viii) The request for additional unit in any programme shall be examined by the NCTE on the basis of availability of required facilities in respect of Programme Study Centres and related support in the territorial jurisdiction of the university.

(II) Details of staff/ Faculty required at Programme Study Centre

(i) Coordinator - One (ii) Assistant Coordinator - One (iii) Part time Academic Counsellors – To be engaged as per requirements of each course of the programme. Ratio of academic counsellors to students should preferably be 1:40. (iv) Supervisors and Guides – During the period of practice teaching-cum-internship, each student will be attached to one Supervisor at the Programme study centre and one Guide at the practice teaching-cum- internship site. (v) Resource persons for conducting the workshop (vi) Office assistant – one (vii) Computer professional and software specialist – one (viii) Helper – one (ix)

(III) Qualifications of Academic Counsellors, Supervisors and Guides

(a) For the academic counsellors for the courses in Child Development, ECE and Communication, as well as for Supervisors of Practice teaching-cum-internship at the Programme study Centre level, the qualifications will be the following:

Post graduation in Child Development/ Home Science with specialization in Child Development with at least fifty five percent marks.

If Counsellors or Supervisors with the above qualifications are not available, then those with following qualifications may be identified in decreasing order of priority:

• Post graduation in Home Science (general) with Diploma/Degree in Early Childhood/ Nursery Education, with at least fifty five percent marks

• Graduation in Home Science with Diploma/Degree in Early Childhood/ Nursery Education, with at least fifty five percent marks and at least five years of work experience in ECE

(b) For course on Health and Nutrition the qualifications for academic counsellors will be:

Post graduation in Health and Nutrition/ Home Science with specialization in Health and Nutrition with at least fifty five percent marks.

If counsellors with above qualifications are not available, then counsellors with following qualifications may be identified in decreasing order of priority.

• Post graduation in Home Science (general) with Diploma/Degree in Health and Nutrition , with at least fifty five percent marks

• Graduation in Home Science with Diploma/Degree in Health and Nutrition, with at least fifty five percent marks plus five years of work experience in this field.

(c) For Course on Curriculum and Pedagogy in Grades 1 and 2, the qualifications of counsellors in decreasing order of priority are as follows:

• Post-graduation in Child Development with at least fifty five percent marks and (ii) Diploma/Degree in Elementary Education

• Post-graduation in Education with at least fifty five percent marks and (ii) Diploma/Degree in Elementary Education

• Post-graduation in Child Development with a paper in Teaching in grades 1and 2 with at least fifty five percent marks

• Post-graduation in Child Development with exppereince of teaching at primary level

(d) For Course on Inclusive Education/ Special Education/ Children with Special Needs, the qualifications of counsellors in decreasing order of priority are as follows:

• Post-graduation in Child Development with a paper in Children with special needs/ inclusive education with at least fifty five percent marks

• Post graduation in Special education / Inclusive Education/ Disability studies

• Graduation with Diploma in Special Education / Inclusive Education/ Disability studies with work experience of five years in this field

• Class XII with Diploma in Special Education and seven years of work experience in this field.

(e). Guide for Practice Teaching-cum-Internship - This will be the ECE or primary school teacher responsible for supervising the student at the site.

(III) Infrastructure at Programme Study Centre

(i) Physical Infrastructure

• Two classrooms, each to comfortably accommodate forty students. • Multipurpose Hall with seating capacity of two hundred • Library-cum-Reading Room • Reasonable outdoor space • The institutional campus, building, furniture etc. should be barrier free. • Hostel facilities for men and women girls separately are desirable.

(ii) Instructional Infrastructure

(a) The programme study centre shall have access to a cluster of nearby pre-school/ECE centres, primary schools and other organizations working in the field of early childhood development for conduct of practical work, workshop, practice teaching-cum- internship related activities of student teachers. It is desirable that the programme study centre has its own attached Nursery school. The programme study centre shall furnish undertaking from the nursery schools, primary schools and early childhood development organizations willing to provide facilities for practical work, workshop, practice teaching-cum-internship.

(b) The programme study centre shall establish Learning Resource Centres wherein teachers and students have access to a variety of Equipment and Teaching-Learning materials aids, and resources to support and enhance the teaching-learning process. The equipment and materials should be suitable and sufficient in quality and quantity for the variety of activities planned during the various face-to-face contact activities. These should include:

• Developmental assessments check lists and measurement tools, pictorial representations of developmental characteristics of children.

• Educational kits, models, play materials, simple books on different topics (songs, games, activities, work pages), blow-ups, charts. • Equipment, Tools, Raw material for story telling, arts and crafts activities. such as flash cards, handbooks, pictures, puppets, picture books, photographs. • Simple Musical Instruments such as Harmonium, Tabla, Flute, Manjira and other indigenous instruments. • Books, Journals and Magazines A minimum of one thousand books including those prescribed as reference books in the printed self learning material, books about and for children, children’s encyclopaedias, story books, picture books/albums, poems, dictionaries, reference books, books on professional education, teachers’ handbooks. The institution should subscribe to the journals published by NCTE and at least three other journals in the field of child development and early childhood education. Fifty new books should be added every year. • Games equipment - for common indoor and outdoor games such as blocks, puzzles, nesting frames.

(c) Resource Centre for ET/ICT having the following

• Hardware for projection and duplication and educational software facilities including TV, DVD player, VCR, Audio Cassette Recorder, slide projector, blank audio video cassettes, video-audio tapes, slides, interactive multi media, films, charts, pictures. • Edusat receive only (ROT) Satellite, or interactive terminal (SIT), LCD etc. • Video conferencing /internet/ skype /facebook and other social networking sites facilities for online consultation, orientation and monitoring so as to maintain regular contact between faculty at headquarters, Regional/ Zonal/Cluster Coordinators and program study centres for the purpose of both monitoring and providing support. • Photocopying machine, FAX • Five PCs along with UPS and Printer with internet connectivity

9. Academic Inputs to be provided at Programme study Centre

The programme shall be conducted with full professional expertise. This will require the following academic inputs

(i) Self-learning materials: The study materials shall be made available to the learners by the headquarters or the programme study centre at the beginning of the session itself either in one go or in a phased manner as per the requirement of the programme.

(ii) Face to face contact – This will be provided through the following ways: academic counselling, practice teaching-cum-internship, workshops, practical and seminar.

(a) Academic counselling: Academic counselling sessions shall be spread over the entire duration of the programme and be conducted on a regular basis depending on the needs and convenience of the learners. The academic and personal problems related to the course shall be discussed in the counselling sessions. The counselling sessions shall be organized in the form of tutorials and mentoring not as teaching sessions as the learning materials provided to the learners shall perform the teaching function.

Counselling sessions for Courses (both theory and practical component for each course) A minimum of five counselling sessions will be organized for four credit of course in the ODL mode (1 ODL credit = 30 hours of study) and a minimum of 10 sessions for eight credit course. Each counselling session will be of 2 ½ hours each.

The counselling sessions shall be utilized for providing personalized guidance to the learners regarding practical work (such as preparing of case study or project report or observation or interview based activities) and assignments related to the course.

Counselling sessions for Practice teaching-cum-internship Italic text Ten Counselling sessions each year will also be provided for Practice Teaching-cum- internship. During these sessions the learners will discuss their activity plans, reports, teaching learning material developed with the Supervisor allotted to them. These will also be discussed with the Guide at the placement site where the practice teaching-cum-internship is being carried out. During these counselling sessions, the learners will carry out simulated practice teaching sessions (for details refer to (b) below). These counselling sessions can also be utilized for Training the learners to develop TLM and the use of ICT.

(b) Practice Teaching-cum-Internship: The learners enrolled in Diploma programme shall carry out practice teaching for a duration of 40 days (240 hrs @ 6hrs per day) each year. The first year will be in a nursery school or preschool and the second year in grades 1 and 2.

During this period of practice teaching the learner will be assigned a Supervisor at the Programme Study Centre level and a Guide who will be an experienced teacher at the site of practice teaching under whose guidance the learner will carry out the various activities. The role of the Guide and the Supervisor will be to discuss with the student her activity plans and reports, the TLM prepared; they will observe the conduct of the lesson by the student and will also evaluate the students work during the practice teaching period.

The Headquarter staff shall develop the self-learning materials detailing the guidelines for practice teaching, the activities to be carried out by the learner during practice teaching, model activity plans and activity session reports. A.V. materials that support the practice teaching component will be developed at the headquarters for use at the Programme Study Centres.

During practice teaching-cum-internship the learner will carry out the following activities – • Observing classroom and the teaching-learning interaction • Conducting planned activities initially in a simulated situation and then in a real classroom. During the 40 days the learner should carry out at least 10 activities in simulated situation and 20 in the classroom situation. The activities in the preschool should be balanced over the various domains of development – physical-motor, language, cognitive, socio-emotional, creativity. The activities in grades 1 and 2 should be balanced over the teaching of language, Mathematics, EVS, Art Education, Health and Physical Education.

After each activity session with the children, the learner shall be provided constructive feedback on his/her performance (strengths and weakness) by the Guide assigned to her at the nursery school. Thus each learner shall receive personal supervision at the site of practice teaching-cum-internship for a minimum of one hour per day for the duration of placement.

As stated above the learner will also receive guidance and supervision for practice teaching at counselling sessions through Supervisor. For this purpose the learner will video record the practice teaching sessions which will not only provide evidence but also be used as a formative assessment tool by the Supervisor and to provide inputs for improvement.

(c) Workshop: A Workshop, of about 12 -15 days duration, (six study hours a day excluding the time for interval, lunch, etc.) in the face-to-face mode will be organized in the 1st year, preferably during the summer vacations. In the workshops the learners shall acquire competencies and skill required by a teacher.

An important component of the workshop will be exploration of different areas of self growth of the teacher with the support of resource persons who would engage with the trainees in participatory modes towards this end.

The learners shall be engaged in certain activities as individuals or in groups. The learners shall be given sufficient opportunities to practice what they have learnt from the theory courses and what they are supposed to do in the classrooms.

The workshop will enable the student to

• Develop a professional identity • Develop self awareness as a teacher of young children and as an individual • Acquire practical skills related to organizing art, craft and the performing arts experiences with children • Develop the skills of carrying out activities with children through demonstration sessions, simulation sessions and role play • Learn strategies, techniques and methods for classroom challenges. • Develop communication skills to interact with children and adults, including those related to organizing PTA meetings Develop familiarity with participatory classroom interactions • Develop critical thinking

(d) Seminar – Each learner will be expected to present two seminars (one seminar each year; each of 20 minute duration) on any aspect related to ECE based on review of literature, research and contemporary scenario from among the various topics suggested in the syllabus prescribed by the distance education institution.

10. Evaluation and feedback

(i) A two-tier evaluation shall be used by the institution: continuous evaluation and evaluation through term-end examinations. The primary function of continuous evaluation should be to provide timely feedback to the learners to sustain their motivation.

(ii) The two tiered evaluation will be operationalized for various components as follows:

(a) For theory papers (i.e. all papers other than practice teaching-cum-internship, seminar and workshop):

• continuous evaluation through assignments and practical work. The assignments may include the related practical work of that theory course. Alternatively/ additionally, the practical activities may also be complied in the form of case study reports or project reports.

• Term end examination for each theory paper. The term end evaluation shall encompass questions on all the Units of syllabus and shall be assessed through Objective Type/Short Answer Type/Long Answer Type question. These questions will be decided/finalized by a Board of Examiners appointed by the examining body.

The weightage for internal (continuous) and external (term end ) evaluation shall be in the ration of 30.:70.

(b) For practice teaching-cum-internship - All activities related to practice teaching-cum-internship will be evaluated on a continuous basis by the Supervisor and the Guide. The Supervisor will base his/her evaluation on the activity plans and reports shred by the learner as well as the video recording of actual conduct of activity sessions at the site.

Apart from this, the various activity plans, reports and teaching learning materials developed by the student will be compiled in the form of a File which will be sent for evaluation to the headquarters. Thus continuous evaluation at the site of practice teaching-cum-internship by the Supervisor and the Guide will have 70% weighatge and final evaluation at the headquarters through the file will have 30 % weighatge.

(c) For workshop – There will be continuous evaluation of the student’s participation in the workshop which be carried out on the basis of the participation of the student in the various activities organized during the workshop. The continuous evaluation will carry 100% weightage.

(d) For seminar – Each student’s seminar will be evaluated by a panel of two academic counsellors at the programme study centre. This will carry 100% weightage.

11. Monitoring and Supervision

A systematic monitoring mechanism must be in place in the distance education institution. Various strategies for monitoring, such as periodic field visits by the faculty, collection of regular feedback from both the learners and the Progarmme Study Centre coordinators, interaction with learners, Supervisors, Academic counsellors through ICT as specified above, and maintaining specified record by the institutions should be applied.

Monitoring will be carried out each semester and the detailed records of the same shall be available at the headquarters.

The Programme Study Centres shall be monitored on each aspect of the face-to-face component provided by it as well as the continuous evaluation activities that it engages in with respect to the programme.

12. Fee Structure

The fee shall be charged as prescribed by the University.

13. Pre Requisite For Applying For Grant Of Recognition Of The Programme

Before applying to the NCTE for recognition of a teacher education programme, an ODL institution shall ensure the following tasks: .

i. Preparation of the project document with details about the scope of the programme, fee structure, enrolment, estimated expenditure and norms of payment for implementation of the programme to resources persons, Programme Study Centres; the resources to be provided to Study Centres; roles and responsibilities at headquarter, regional and programme study centre level.

ii. Approval of the appropriate university/ institutional bodies for launching the programme.

iii. Preparation of curriculum (course–wise and unit-wise structure) including scheme of evaluation/examination and support services, duly approved by the University.

iv. Preparation of the self-learning material in print and non-print, duly certified by the DEC.

v. Undertaking from the identified Programme Study Centres in a prescribed format ensuring strict observation of norms for the Programme study centres .

vi. Requisite faculty and staff in position