Kanchan Arya, Assistant Professor, Dr. D.Y. Patil College of Education, Pimpri
Bharat Kale, Assistant Professor, Dr. D.Y. Patil College of Education, Pimpri
ABSTRACT
In the era of globalization, people tend to access information quickly and use it to fulfill their needs. Internet and online resources are the easier means where information can be directly accessed and can be used for the advantage of an individual. Nowadays internet has made people aware, alert and knowledge seeker in overall manner. Today, there is a need to seek latest information through internet and take action accordingly. Through the facilities such as mobile internet, people have become closer to the world of knowledge gain.
In schools and colleges the internet facility is provided to all the students with a common goal of information gain in mind. Students in the schools do use internet for their project work and study related work. The idea of internet usage in schools and colleges has been developed to develop individual skills among students and make them independent seeker of information as well as mould their thinking through this knowledge gain.
Although schools and higher education institutes do take strives to build internet and online resources friendly easily accessible for educational purpose, the use of internet in the teacher education colleges is not in the stage of advancement. There is a need to understand the usage of online resources by the students of the teacher training colleges and work upon its skillful practice. In this paper, the researchers have conducted a survey of 47 B.Ed. students to evaluate their usage of online resources.
*Keywords: internet, online resources, teacher education, skills, educational 1. INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century, the schools have adopted technology friendly classrooms for their students to learn things with deeper understanding and total commitment. Now the schools look up to the issues such as total skill development, reading, writing, listening and speaking skills with problem solving, creative, critical and resourceful thinking. This is to ensure that the kids not only should learn from the schools to achieve higher grades but also to become independent individual person in life.
Teachers of such schools are trained for getting oriented with such a paradigm shift in the use of technology in education. It is not easy to deal with such a shift in the phase from books to technology but still teachers have successfully evolved in using such technology and trained themselves to make the teaching-learning process easier for them and the students. But such
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AES, NATIONAL CONFERENCE, 11-12, OCT, 2014 Page 76
computer training facilities are provided to teachers by the schools. Even though trained teachers are learning lot more after completion of their training as a teacher, the teacher training colleges and the teacher training curriculum has been inept in keeping pace with current requirements in technology. It has been observed in the past few years that teachers despise technology especially the online resources for information. This is due to the lack of awareness among them about technology and also the trained teachers haven’t come out of the traditional teaching methods.
The B.Ed. curriculum especially includes use of technology and Intel program for the student- teachers to learn through technology but in practice it is generally seen the student-teachers online references are less than required for any input in such programs. The only way to resolve such an issue is to first understand the status of usage of online resources such as email, social networking sites, YouTube etc. by the teachers for educational and other purposes. This will give a direction to understand and give suggestive measures where the students can be made aware in using online resources for their advantage.
1.1 BASIC ONLINE RESOURCES
There are various basic online resources that can be even used for educational purposes. Below are some examples of online resources-:
a) Social Networking Websites: By social networking implicates use of interactive websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. where a person shares information, photos, videos and other materials publicly or to limited people and has access to other people’s resources who give him permission to do so. The person can even interact with the people through chat media.
b) Websites, blogs, Emails etc.: Websites and blogs are pages that can be accessed and can have interactive Web2.0 technology facility. Email facility is where messages can be sent and received online. Documents can also be sent and received online through email.
c) Videos: A person can share videos through websites like YouTube. Here, a person can also express comments on the videos that are explored by him online.
d) Mobile Applications: Mobile applications such as WhatsApp that can be used for instant sharing photos, videos, voice messages and messages.
e) E-resources: Such as e-library, e-magazines, e-journals etc. that can be used for information gain.
ISSN 2348-3083 SPECIAL ISSUE, VOL. I/I INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN TEACHER EDUCATION
AES, NATIONAL CONFERENCE, 11-12, OCT, 2014 Page 77
2. NEED OF THE STUDY
1. There is a need to see the status of usage of online resources by the student-teachers
2. There is a need to see the awareness about online resources for educational references by the student-teachers
3. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
1. For studying the importance of online resources for the student teachers
2. It is important to see the status and give suggestive measures for increasing the level of use of online resources by the student-teachers
4. OBEJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
a) To study the level of use of online resources by student-teachers by different age groups
b) To study the level of use of online resources by student-teachers by different age groups for educational purposes.
5. OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
a) Use: Informal and educational use of online resources by the student-teachers
b) Online-resources: mobile applications, social-networking, websites, video sharing etc. c) Students: Student-teachers under training in B.Ed. colleges
d) Teacher Education Colleges: Teacher training colleges located in PCMC area
6. METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH, POPULATION & SAMPLING, STATISTICAL TOOLS AND TECHNIQUE
In this study, descriptive survey method was used. 47 B.Ed. students of PCMC area were chosen by random sampling method for this study.
The 47 students were divided into different age groups as follows-:
A B C D 20-25 26-30 31-35 36 above Online resourc es Social Networ king sites Website s, blogs, Emails etc Videos Mobile applicat ions E- resourc es
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The data was analyzed and interpreted by using percentage as the statistical technique. The tool for the data collection was prepared by the researchers i.e. questionnaire.
7. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
Some of the research findings are as follows-:
a) It was observed that only 26% of the students use internet facility everyday for various purposes through mobiles and laptops.
b) It was observed that 17% students use online library and e-library facilities for their educational references among which only 6% of the Group A age group students use such facilities frequently.
c) It was observed only 64% of all the age groups use mobile internet facility, among which Group D students are the least users of the mobile internet facility.
d) It was observed only 36% of students use mobile internet facility for educational purposes. e) It was observed that 57% of the students use online video facility like YouTube for their
educational references among which Group A students use this facility 32% and Group D avails this facility only 9%.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% A B C D Yes No
Use of mobile internet facility by the students
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% A B C D Yes No
Use of Online Videos such as YouTube for educational references
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AES, NATIONAL CONFERENCE, 11-12, OCT, 2014 Page 79
f) Only 32% of the students find the online videos useful for educational references.
g) 94% of the students use other internet facilities such as websites for their educational references, among which 49% belong to Group A, 15% belong to Group B, 19% belong to Group C and 11% belong to Group D.
h) It was observed that 81% of students can use internet facility independently for their educational and other interests.
8. CONCLUSION
a) The everyday use of internet facility among the students is very less. Students should use these facilities for updating their knowledge and other day to day information
b) Use of internet resources such as e-library is used very less, the students who do not use these facilities are either not aware about such a resource or are inept to use the same for their references
c) Young students are more aware and are having more expertise in using mobile internet facilities; these students use these internet facilities mostly for chatting and sharing data
d) Students do use mobile internet facilities but there is less use of mobile internet for educational purposes. Students should avail such a useful resource for knowledge gain purposes also.
e) Moderate number of student use online videos for their educational references. Online videos are helpful for practical learning through observation. Such resources can be useful when students cannot get hands-on experience. The older age group students use such facilities lesser compare to the other groups.
f) Very less number of students find online videos useful for educational purposes. Students are using moderately these online video facilities and hence should avail these facilities more for utilizing such knowledge for educational purposes
g) Most of the students use other internet facilities such as websites for their educational references. h) Most of the students can use internet facility independently.
9. RECOMMENDATIONS
a) Awareness about the use of internet facility in daily life: Students are less aware about the daily
use of internet facility for their educational benefit. Teacher educators should make them aware
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 1 2 3 4 Yes No
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AES, NATIONAL CONFERENCE, 11-12, OCT, 2014 Page 80
about advantages of internet facilities and how it can make their work easy and give quality output if they are able to access wide resource of information.
b) For quality use of the mobile internet facility: Mobile internet facility is mostly used for
chatting, sharing and check social networking status by the students. Instead students can be made aware about the use of mobile applications and social networking websites for educational interaction, which will also act as their knowledge building tool.
c) Awareness about other online resources such as e-library, online videos etc.: Students should
be made aware about use of online resources such as e-library and online videos and their contribution towards their knowledge development.
d) Practical use of internet facilities by elderly students: The matured and elderly groups among
the students are having less exposure to online resources. In such cases, the teacher educators and the younger age group students should assist them in using online resources for their knowledge growth.
e) Seminars and workshops for orientation of students: The teacher education colleges should
encourage seminars and workshops on using online resources for educational benefit of the student-teachers. This will orient the student-teachers towards use of online resources for knowledge building.