11. An assignment, An e-mail & A reply

With an intention to get my BEd trainees of the academic year 2010-2011, to become Internet savvy, I gave  them an assignment to be completed and sent  to my email address during the recent Chiristmas vacation. Though nearly 85% of the trainees in my class did submit the assignment on time, a few failed.  In fact  some did not have an  email Id and was not computer literate. But  I was firm and persistent and  refused  an extension of time for submission of  the  ‘vacation’ assignment.

In my New Year address,  I did express my displeasure at the lax attitude shown by a few trainees. This apparently did put off a few. And last Sunday  a news item entitled Laptops, netbooks for teachers in ICT-enabled learning appeared in the Sunday Express dated 9 January, 2011.  To convince my trainees  the need to become computer savvy,  on Monday , 10 January 2011, I displayed  a paper clipping of the news  item mentioned in the class Bulletin Board.

 To my utter surprise a smart  trainee sent me the following email. ( I am publishing it  after intimating the trainee)

sir,

as an aspiring teacher, i look forward to such initiatives. but i 'm doubtful how far it would be successful. we can't be sure even the new generation trs would make best use of it!  some of the problems which hinder this endeavour may be:

~ quality of the system provided [ eventhough they offer warranty ]

~ difference in operating systems ( windows xp/ 2000/ vista/ 7    * edubuntu/ ugandu/ other linux version) creates confusion among trs.

~ cost eventhough reasonable, it would be out of reach for a no. of trs [easy instalments without interest would do better to some extend]

~ reluctance

 for instance, ... in an aided school,  the Headmaster  is illiterate in computer, and also most of the staff -the IT co ordinator [an english tr] does everything.  the class trs are supposed to teach their IT practicals. but they  conveniently make use of the service of an outsider for this purpose and they get a free hour ... pupils have to pay for this.

during the school induction programme, we felt the same except a very few trs.

anyway, i would like to hope for better results.

Thanks and regards,

Chithra jl,

BEd. English, Government College of Teacher Education, Trivandurm

Well, this is the reply I sent her...

Dear Chitra,

Thanks of the email and the concern you have shown.

Perhaps, you will find the  following  observations made by researchers interesting:

The  introduction of ICT in education has created a  new challenge for teachers and students in relation to their technical ability, knowledge and expertise in the use of ICT. According to a research done in Europe, “older teachers considered themselves too old to be learning new tricks and some stuck doggedly to old methods, it was nonetheless also found that older teachers could reveal greater patience and tenacity in the acquisition of new skills.” ( If interested in knowing more, please use the following  link

http://www.elearningeuropa.info/directory/index.php?doc_id=1357&doclng=6&page=docne

According to Fischer & Gillespie, 2003: “The computer is a catalyst for information sharing, language development, and decision making”.

Nir-Gal & Klein, 2004 have found that computers improve children’s  mathematical thinking and play an important role in enhancing the cognitive development . Integrating teacher mediation within computer learning environments for young children facilitates informed use of computer technologies in their learning system, and enhances thinking processes and work habits.

To Huang & Liaw, 2005, among  the  factors  that affect the  successful  use  of  computers  in  the  classroom  are  teachers’  attitudes  towards computers.

Well ...it is an acknowledged fact that the  success  of  any  initiatives  to  implement  technology  in  an  educational  programme depends strongly upon the support and attitudes of teachers involved!