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Awareness and Utilization of Web 2. 0 in Education among Teacher Educators in Delhi Ahrar Husain* and Hafiz Shakiluz Zaman F/o Education, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi – 110025, India *E-mail: ahrar_husain@yahoo. com Abstract The internet is a huge information base. It can be used as an effective tool for acquiring knowledge. There are several informative websites and web directories that offer information on a wide variety of subjects. Students can use the internet to gain all additional information they need to enhance their knowledge base.
But this one is older version of web technology where a user can only read the website and get information, this is called web 1. 0. The newer version of web technology is called Web 2. 0 can also be used in teacher education and can reduce the workload of teachers. In this paper we tried to explore the awareness of Teacher Educators of Delhi about Web 2. 0 and its utilization in education. Key words: IntetnetInternet, Web 1. 0, Web 2. 0, E-learning, Teacher Education Technology plays a vital role in every sphere of life and therefore there is no exception in education.
The advent of technology has deeply impacted the educational scenario of the world. Technology has certainly changed the way we live. It has impacted the different aspects of life and redefining living. Undoubtedly, technology plays an important role in every sphere of life. In the past century the tools for education were limited. That time radio, television, OHP, slide projectors etc. were the best examples of technology for use in teaching learning process. But at the end of the century a new technology – internet – came and started to take the place of the old tools of education.
After the invention of internet web technology became popular and gain acceptance in education also. Now web technology is being used all over the world for the purpose of education. There are several informative websites and web directories that offer information on a wide variety of subjects. Students can use the internet to gain all additional information they need to enhance their knowledge base. But this one is older version of web technology where a user can only read the site and get information, this is called web 1. 0. Web 2. 0 plays a vital role in teaching-learning process by opening the doors of collaboration and participation.
It encourages and facilitates the natural desire to share what one knows and to learn from his/her colleagues. 2. Web 2. 0 According to Wikipedia “Web 2. 0 is commonly associated with web development and web design that facilitates interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaborate on on the World Wide Web. ” To better understand web 2. 0, the both older and newer version should be compared. So, Web 1. 0, or the web that most of us have been fairly used to using for some years now, has largely been a one-way medium: this is when we look for information on the web.
Web 2. 0 is a two-way medium, in Web 2. 0 almost anyone can become a publisher, or a “content producer”. In Web 2. 0 the creation of material or information on the web is as much a part of our experience as the finding or reading of data has been in Web 1. 0 and in Web 2. 0 the content created by regular users can be much, and sometimes almost all, of the value from a website. Web 2. 0 is a social phenomenon that gives users freedom to share and re-use, that uses technologies such as Wikis, Social Bookmarking, Blogs, Podcasts, Video Sharing, RSS Feeds etc. sers make the Web every day. They publish pieces of their lives, day after day. The new thing about Web 2. 0 is that all this sharing of personal information is so much easier and more effective that it used to be. 3. Web 2. 0 in Education Web 2. 0 has created new ways of working, including opening up new opportunities in learning and teaching that have not been possible on a large scale before. Online education has given a new dimension to the field of education. Today, students do not necessarily need to be physically present in classrooms.
Many educational institutions offer online courses to their students. Most of the schools and colleges offer online assignment submission and evaluation facilities. Webfacilities. Web 2. 0 can also be used in teacher education and can reduce the workload of teachers. ICT technology has created the term paperless environment. This term means information can be stored and retrieved through the digital medium instead of paper. Through Web 2. 0 tools, a teacher can give assignments to his/her students and check it online, this will reduce paperwork and it will be very helpful for our environment.
There will be no need to keep the assignments in rooms and to carry them. Pupil teacher also benefited from it, as it help in reducing the duplication of effort when preparing lesson plans, worksheets and reports etc. It is also useful for researchers, as they can discuss their topic and the supervisors can make corrections collaboratively through Blog and Wikis. Web 2. 0 tools can also make communication faster than other medium of communication. A student can get feedback and suggestions in real-time. In other ways of communication a lot of problems faced by both sides.
Through these tools teacher can better explain and demonstrate the concepts than other mediums like telephone etc. It can also make borderless communication. 4. Use of Web 2. 0 in education in India As the Web 2. 0 technology opened up new opportunities in teaching and learning, several Universities/Colleges started using this technology in the field of education. Some of them are as bellow: SAKSHAT The SAKSHAT isSAKSHAT is Indian government’s initiative, acts as a one-stop education gateway for learners and provides an enabled quality framework for lifelong learning for everyone.
The portal also promotes flexibility for new learning methodologies, and helps in standardizing the accreditation process & training methods. It is a part of National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology. National Mission on Education is an ambitious project undertaken by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India with a view to seamlessly providing quality educational content based on UGC’s Model Curricula absolutely free to all the eligible and willing learners in India.
The portal is using Virtual Class, e-books, e-journals, Bharat Wiki, RSS feed, e-quiz, Discussion forum etc. IGNOU IGNOU is using a lot of portals for its distance education progrmme like, e-gyankosh, Ignouonline, Flexilearn, Education Broadcast etc. IGNOU has uploaded thousand of educational videos on www. youtube. com. 902 people subscribed it and the channel was viewed by 182,471 people. The videos can be accessed from across the world free of cost. ILL, University of Delhi The main focus of ILLL (Institute of Life Long Learning) is to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) with education.
ILLL sees its role in pushing the pedal of content development. The contents of portal are: e-lessons for self-learning, e-lectures for learning from the best teachers around, e-quizzes for internal assessment, e-labs for understanding science experiments. This portal will also use wiki system, video recording, podcasting etc. 5. Method and Procedure In accordance with the nature of the study, survey method has been used for the collection of data. As the relevant readymade standard tool was not available, a questionnaire was developed to know the awareness and utilization of Web 2. in Education among teacher educators in Delhi. 6. Result and Discussion Almost in all the cases Science teacher educators have more awareness and they more utilize it for education than Humanities teacher educators. But in the case of male and female teacher educators, in some tools they are equal, in some tools female teacher educators are more aware and in some tools Science teacher educators are more aware and they more utilize it than female teacher educators. So it is very tough to decide that which group is better. As a whole regarding the awareness and utilization of Web 2. in Education among teacher educators it can be said that their awareness is moderate and most of them use Web 2. 0 tools, but for their personal purposes, very few of them are using it for educational purpose. The reason behind it, as teacher educators clarified, might be the problems of internet. Because it is totally based on internet and in using the internet some teacher educators face problems, like slow speed, advertisement, spam, lack of knowledge in using internet. Other problems are related to use of internet by students. Because it is a two-way method, so the involvement of students is also very necessary.
Another problem is that Web 2. 0 is a new technology; therefore it needs training for both teachers and students. With out training it can not be used in a good way for teaching and learning. REFERENCES 1. ICT Changing the Face of Higher Education. ” United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 09 Sept. 2009. Web. http://portal. unesco. org/ci/enlev. php 1. Web 2. 0. ” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. December. 2006. . 2. ILLL: National Mission on Education through ICT. “Institute of Life Long Learning” http://www. illldu. edu. n/mod/resource/view. php? id=2720. 3. www. youtube. com/ignou 4. Jereb, Eva & Branislav Srnitek. 2006. Applying multimedia instruction in e-learning. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 43 (1), 15-27 5. Pulist, Suresh Kumar. “Pedagogical Use Of Web-Based Technology In Teaching At Secondary And Senior Secondary Level Schools Of Delhi: an Exploratory Study. ” Thesis. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, 2005. 6. Crook, Charles, and Colin Harrison. Web 2. 0 Technologies for Learning at Key Stages 3 and 4: Summary Report. London: Becta Publication, 2008.