Excellent Thesis For Computer Science: Blogs For Educational Excellence

WEB LOGS (BLOGS) FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING AS AN INTERFACE TOWARDS QUALITY EDUCATION

BY

DHEERAJ MEHROTRA MS (ED. MGMT), MPHIL(ED.) PRESIDENT AWARDEE, AUTHOR AND FREELANCE JOURNALIST

WWW.COMPUTERSCIENCEEXPERTISE.COM WWW.SIXSIGMAINEDUCATION.COM

EMAIL: [email protected]

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1.0 INTRODUCTION – AN OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION TO A BLOG: It is defined as a social software and a tool which has to meet at least two of the following conditions: It allows people to communicate, collaborate and build a community online. It can be syndicated, shared, reused or remixed It allows people to easily learn from and capitalize on the behaviour or knowledge of others

Weblogs are defined as “ frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence” (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus et al., 2004, p. 1). A weblog typically consists of posts that are usually time-stamped, vary in length and frequency of updates, and are organised in reverse chronology so that readers always see the most recent post first (Bausch et al., 2002; Blood, 2002; Mortensen & Walker, 2002; Trammel & Gasser, 2004). Since 1999, weblogs have proliferated following the development of user-friendly weblog publishing services such as Live Journal, Blogger.com and Pitas. Weblogs are still growing, and growing even larger. A study conducted in June 2002 found 2% of Internet users in the United States had created a weblog (Pew, 2005). Since then, the percentage soared to 7% in late 2004, corresponding to approximately 8 million weblogs. In the same year, the number of weblog readers rocketed by 58% to 32 million Americans or 27% of Internet users in the country. And all these had not taken into account weblogs from other parts of the world. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The approach of learning through Blogs has been categorised as the module of learning and sharing knowledge. With the march of time and tide, this has mounted to excell with perfection and modulation. Blogging has become an influential phenomenon that is gaining recognition and acknowledgement by the media, scholars, and government officials throughout the world. Recent events that have highlighted the importance of weblogs include the Asian tsunami disaster, the Iraq war, and

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September 11 attack. It is the outcome of the large workforce involved in the research of the programming modules which has led to the manipulation of the software qualitative analysis in a big way. The strength of these web links and the proforma ultimately laminates success to master and dwell in the policies framed towards the user friendly modules. The blogs not only remain the remarkable feature of any website as a requisite likewise that of the contact me module and at the same time helps in the manifestation of the urgency of this feature towards the definition and the practical applications further. Various research studies have been done on weblogs, from the classification of weblogs (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright, 2004; Trammel & Gasser, 2004) to the purpose of blogging (Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, and Swartz, 2004). Yet few studies have touched on the attitudinal and behavioural aspects of ethics behind this activity. This is an important area for us to understand as how bloggers think and act may have tremendous impacts on others and themselves.

IDENTIFICATION OF BLOGGERS: From the literature on blogging, we identified two distinct groups of bloggers: personal and nonpersonal. Personal weblogs are those that resemble an online diary or personal journal. Nonpersonal weblogs are those that focus on specific topics and content, usually intended for larger audiences. In addition to different types of content and intended audiences, these two types of bloggers are likely to have different perspectives on the functions and impact their blogs have which may in turn influence their ethics in blogging.

1.2 Research Questions: a. What is the need of BLOG in Education? b. How does Educational BLOG bring Quality in Education? c. Does the usage of BLOGS serve as an effective educational tool ? d. Does there lie a need of BLOGS for Education?

Like Podcast, wiki and other types of new technology, blogs can be use in classroom environment

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for diary entry; it also can be a useful tool to link communication between study groups within a class or other classes or even schools. If use effectively, blogs can create a learning environment that extend beyond the schoolyard. Why should we use blogs in the classroom? There are numerous educational benefits of blogs. They may wary from time to time and environment to environment but certainly encapsulates the importance in a big way to inherit the quality learning properties of the learners and the teachers.

RESEARCH APPROACH:

Survey Report of Meaning of Blogs in Education: Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilise with students whenever there is a curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom. Definition: Blog/WebLog: a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what’s new page, or links to other web sites. Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001 From an education perspective the availability and ease of use of blogging software makes creating blogs a viable classroom activity and a means for teachers to communicate with other teachers.

Blogs are: • Highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms. • Excellent opportunities for students to read and write.

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• Effective forums for collaboration and discussion. • Powerful tools to enable scaffolding learning or mentoring to occur.

How do we use blogs in education? Blogs can serve at least four basic functions. 1. Classroom Management Class blogs can serve as a portal to foster a community of learners. As they are easy to create and update efficiently, they can be used to inform students of class requirements, post handouts, notices, and homework assignments, or act as a question and answer board. 2. Collaboration Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work to further develop writing or other skills with the advantage of an instant audience. Teachers can offer instructional tips, and students can practice and benefit from peer review. They also make online mentoring possible. For example, a class of older students can help a class of younger students develop more confidence in their writing skills. Students can also participate in cooperative learning activities that require them to relay research findings, ideas, or suggestions. 3. Discussions A class blog opens the opportunity for students to discuss topics outside of the classroom. With a blog, every person has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions. Students have time to be reactive to one another and reflective. Teachers can also bring together a group of knowledgeable individuals for a given unit of study for students to network and conference with on a blog. 4. Student Portfolios Blogs present, organize, and protect student work as digital portfolios. As older entries are archived, developing skills and progress may be analyzed more conveniently. Additionally, as students realize their efforts will be published, they are typically more motivated to produce

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better writing. Teachers and peers may conference with a student individually on a developing work, and expert or peer mentoring advice can be easily kept for future reference. Henry Farrell identifies five major uses for blogs in education: 1. Teachers use blogs to replace the standard class Web page. Instructors post class times and rules, assignment notifications, suggested readings, and exercises. Aside from the ordering of material by date, students would find nothing unusual in this use of the blog. The instructor, however, finds that the use of blogging software makes this previously odious chore much simpler. 2. Instructors begin to link to Internet items that relate to their course. Mesa Community College’s Rick Effland, for example, maintains a blog to pass along links and comments about topics in archaeology.15 Though Mesa’s archaeology Web pages have been around since 1995, blogging allows Effland to write what are in essence short essays directed specifically toward his students. Effland’s entries are not mere annotations of interesting links. They effectively model his approach and interest in archaeology for his students. 3. Blogs are used to organize in-class discussions. At the State University of New York at Buffalo, for example, Alexander Halavais added a blog to his media law class of about 180 students. Course credit was awarded for online discussion, with topics ranging from the First Amendment to libel to Irish law reform. As the course wound down with a discussion of nude bikers, Halavais questioned whether he would continue the blog the following year because of the workload, but students were enthusiastic in their comments Mireille Guay, an instructor at St-Joseph, notes: “The conversation possible on the weblog is also an amazing tool to develop our community of learners. The students get to know each other better by visiting and reading blogs from other students. They discover, in a non-threatening way, their similarities and differences. The student who usually talks very loud in the classroom and the student who is very timid have the same writing space to voice their opinion. It puts students in a situation of equity.” 4. Some instructors are using blogs to organize class seminars and to provide summaries of readings. Used in this way, the blogs become “group blogs”—that is, individual blogs authored by a group of people. Farrell notes: “It becomes much easier for the professor and students to access the readings for a particular week—and if you make sure that people are organized about how they do it, the summaries will effectively file themselves.” 5. Students may be asked to write their own blogs as part of their course grade. Educational

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Technologist Lane Dunlop wrote about one class at Cornell College: “Each day the students read a chunk of a book and post two paragraphs of their thoughts on the reading.” In another class, French 304, students were given a similar exercise. Using a French-language blogging service called Monblogue, Molly, a business student, posted a few paragraphs every day.”

e. When and Why Not to Use Blogs in Education? Never never approach blogs as discussion boards, listservs or learning management systems: Almost invariably the first thing people do when encountering new technologies is to try and get it to do what the technologies they are used to do and this is no exception when it comes to blogs. Group blogs are a bad idea and don’t work: Sure there’s a place for collaborative/ group blogs but that place is not in education. Blogs work well for individuals… they are tools of centred communication and pretty far removed from community management systems like Drupal. Just don’t go there! Don’t try and force blogging into something else: Blogging suits highly customisable, individual, owned and fiercely flexible tools like WordPress. You can try and fit blogs into other systems such as Moodle, Drupal or Tiki but you’re not going to do well because the entire centralised philosophy of these systems is utterly opposed to that of successful blogging platforms Ignore RSS at your peril: Probably the biggest mistake that adopters tend to make is to ignore RSS or just through it a casting glance. The problem is that these people aren’t bloggers and just don’t understand. Without RSS blogs would pretty much just be extensions of geocities pages. Your learners are NEVER going to surf each others sites everyday and the majority of them won’t even go to that funky web-based aggregator you set-up.

TRUSTWORTHINESS OF THE DATA The approach pertains to the success in regard to the teachers community. It is widely observed that the literacy among the masses particularly the teachers have come up with fast and steady progress. No more IT, the Information Technology has been categorised as the so called Science subject of study. It is regarded and graded as the skill rather than being referred to as a subject of study. This type of skill and particularly Blogs now have become a tool to make study and learning easy, fun and interesting. The analysis shows that every class of 40 children:

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Data Analysis: No. of Children in the class:

40

No. of Children having access to Computers at Home:

30

No. of Children having access to Computers at Cyber Cafe: 10 No. of Children having access to Computer Working:

Teachers’ Knowledge of Computers:

Yes.

Access to Internet:

40

Owning a Website:

02

Owning an Email ID:

38

Owning/ sharing a BLOG:

10

40

(Survey done with class XII-A at Spring Dale College, Lucknow)

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2.0 The Scenario Today – Background

Learning Today The weB LOGs today is the in thing with the advancement of knowledge and expertise at times of need and transformation of meaning information in times to make communication a better. The scenario deals in making information of exposure nature with nearly every website offering a tool for the depiction of ideas and comments for the readers also as a matter of fact to dwell into the number of hits to a site with an identity to the browser. The dealing relates to the perfection of the modules being considered, the sites offer various tools and topics of interest in related to the composition of the order in particular. For example, the site responsible for Global Education may deal in topics friendly to the following:

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This may count to the following options viz.

This facilitates learning making it interesting and of repute with ideas and inputs from the readers in particular. The dealing is done in a fine stroke with perfection to the the debates and the points discussed with overviews on a global scenario in particular. The definition to this regards is categorised in action of framework and attitude of the young readers in perfection and experience. My experiment suggests that the BLOGS are an attribute to the junction of knowledge and gives the opportunity to discuss and channelise the perfection in order of the latest to the knowledge and action by the society. These are the inputs generated in action and of taste by the related members of the society. Not only this generates interest of the particular subject but this also accelerates learning in inception to the category of choice and target. The study shows that the need and intelligence of this content is required as a requisite to perform to the best of the knowledge and the reputation of the organisation giving the information to public. The normal procedures which adopt to the ways and means come up to the ultimate with perfection of interface in nature and ultimate.

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The research of the analysis show in further that An aspiring blogger can be overwhelmed with the vast amount of resources, tools, and advice for bloggers available on the net. While in no way definitive - there’s simply too much going on in this space to cover it all - we did our best to bring you a comprehensive list of blogging resources, which should be equally useful to beginners as well as veteran bloggers.

CYBER LITERACY TODAY : Here I would like to repeat my survey mentioned in the last chapter of analysis done at one of my class rooms: Data Analysis: No. of Children in the class:

40

No. of Children having access to Computers at Home:

30

No. of Children having access to Computers at Cyber Cafe: 10 No. of Children having access to Computer Working:

Teachers’ Knowledge of Computers:

Yes.

Access to Internet:

40

Owning a Website:

02

Owning an Email ID:

38

Owning/ sharing a BLOG:

10

40

(Survey done with class XII-A at Spring Dale College, Lucknow)

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WORKING/ LEARNING HABITS TODAY The working and learning scenario has been of use and the module in the best possible manner. The scenario today of research and my study, come up to the conclusion that it has to be well oriented and conducted with the help of the Internet base learning and uploading information on the websites. The concept of Blogging as being studied has been graded and regarded as the good substitute of the net based website oriented learning. Although the data is uploaded by the users and the learning and are accessed by having a little registration and sharing of the identity, the blogging has been more successful and interactive as compared to the net based interactive module of one to one mapping. I have studied of the the free blogs available on the net which allow teaching and learning with inclusive modules and subjects of choice and art in a big way. Some of them have been categorised to function and identity.

Free Blogs Available on the Net:

WordPress WordPress allows you to create and host a blog on their own servers and you can display it to the world. You don’t get as much customization and functionality as if you have it hosted on your own server (for example, advertising is not allowed), but it is still a very good way to blog without paying money. Blogger A service owned by Google, Blogger is a way to have your blogs hosted for free and you can post as much as you want. It allows Google’s AdSense to be used. Xanga iXanga is a lively community of online diaries and journals. Users create their own profiles and there are many opportunities to interact with other users. LiveJournal -

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LiveJournal is excellent if you wish to blog on a personal level and join a community and share your blogs among friends. Vox A new contender to the arena but Vox is a very nice and powerful blogging tool; not to mention free!; You receive many social experiences with this option as Vox is based heavily on community based blogging. Tumblr Tumblr is great if you don’t have time to blog, but still want to share something now and again. It lets you easily post videos, pictures, links, and of course you can write them too.

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3.0 LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR

Insight The present scenario of learning and aiming to the importance of Quality education has in a way blocked the importance of a teacher based study to limitations. The day and the society incapsulates the importance of more and more options open for learning and being involved in education or the action research. The Blogs in this way provide an arena and the profile for the readers and the browsers to upload the data of their choice and information of repute. The defination relates to the text and the proforma of need and choice by the people in context of choice, independence and repute. Now, with the buzzing virtual connectivity through the net, there is a global opening of new vistas in the commercial world. It has created a powerful ripple in the ocean of information world, to allow everybody to share the information for sustainable developments across the globe. It is also a facilitation for all the connected to develop their own website for anybody to access around the globe. All this has become simple and even possible for a common man without a sound knowledge of computers - one once awful device. Accordingly, the technology has extended human capabilities, which is fundamental to the successful usage of technology. As per Kearsley’s theory of qualitative productivity, “Increased productivity is a function of human abilities extended through the soft and the hard components of technology.”

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY

= Human Abilities + Soft Technology

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+ Hard Technology

i.e. any component on the right becoming zero results in zero productivity. Moreover, any mismatch between any of the three components will lead to disaster. But, to the high order grading, the appropriate technology, reduces training time, minimizes training resources, lowers dropout rates improves proficiency in performance and increases satisfaction at all levels. The way this very technology in the form of computers, known as Information Technology, introduced a very important technology, introduced a very important instructional capability as INTERCONNECTIVITY. Today, in the traditional educational arena, the teacher performs different functions like planning, evaluating and locating appropriate instructional resources, developing complementing instructional resources, handling administration, laisoning with students/ parents/ administration and teach as well. In addition the teachers do have to take care of slow learners changes in syllabi, discipline and adhering to the overall development of the child.

The module of WEB LOGS (BLOGS) FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING AS AN INTERFACE TOWARDS QUALITY EDUCATION defines in particular the view of managment of the process of learning in a particular way and direction further. This also deals with the pertext of knowning the cause and controlling it to the ultimate in conjunction with the preface of topics and choice of the language. Particularly, there are incidences where in the definitions pertain to the cause of working for the concept in addition to the research modules and study for the perfection in particular. As a matter of fact, the theme is:

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Blogs for Teaching and Learning Something more than just technology

The aspects relate further as follows:

Higher Education Area - New teaching and learning paradigm Student centred approach Competence based - New roles of

teachers students institutions

As Case Study Analysis of Using Blogs for teaching/ learning MATHS for example is considered as follows:

§

Using a blog makes learning independent of time and place – from teaching at a certain time in a certain place to teaching anytime and anywhere. Blogs and other asynchronous media give learners time to reflect. The media formats available today are:

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Obviously looking at the intelligence which follow, the educational scenario of Maths learning defines the usage as:

§

Using a blog makes education demand oriented and participant-centered – from one way teaching and supply orientation to participation buy everyone.

Learners are self driven: o Strong desire to learn o Want to discover o Act proactively o Take initiatives o Want to set own goals o Need freedom

o Individual feedback

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“Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

Mark Prensk y, “Digita l Natives, Digital Immigrants”

3.2 Analysis:

The analysis to this study shows that the following is the umberalla covered with the BLOG community to the ultimate in action: The Quality in communication defines the best means for Participation, Recommendation, Social Software, Sharing and collaboration.

§

Using a blog encourages learners to be active throughout the course period.

§

Using a blog helps learners to improve their writing competences and thinking skills.

§

Using a blog makes education more informal.

§

Using a blog involves also external people.

Let us assume of the the absence of any clear mode of modulation and communication.

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“ …the philosophy of mutually maximizing collective intelligence and added value for each participant by formalized and dynamic information sharing and creation. Högg, R. Meckel, M., Stanoevska-Slabeva, K., Martignoni, R., 2006. Overview of business models for Web 1.0 communities. Proceedings of GeNeMe, p.23-37.

This as a matter is true to the sense of working in order for making a networking of brains and attitutes to order. Hence a BLOG may be concluded towards Education to be defined as:

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as a social software, a tool must meet at least two of the following conditions: It allows people to communicate, collaborate and build a community online

It can be syndicated, shared, reused or remixed It allows people to easily learn from and capitalize on the behaviour or knowledge of others Meredith Gorran Farkas

why weblogs?

http://www.flick r.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022

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There may be a question to one’s mind of WHY WEBLOGS? as it may come to the conclusion further. This may prove to the need of ones’ exchange of information for betterment. How education comes into play is further decision based factor to conclude. To my surprise of learning and understanding the following analysis of one of the published reports show the conclusion:

The obvious reasons pertain to the selection of the policies to projection and lamination in repute, action and patience in order to make the work possible the way being demanded in order to applicate to the reasons by the networked members in particular.

There is always an obvious reason for this show in order to execute and maximize the periodical capsules further. The Educational Usages of BLOGS pertaining in sense of its applicabity subdue to the following: a. Technologies do NOT change teaching & learning, but can help us to introduce new

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methodologies and learning environments. b. They do the following:

Blogs support:

Possibilities of Web 2.0 tools

knowledge building reflection monitoring sharing archiving

c. The Blogs applicate to the Blooms Taxonomy:

>> Bloom’s Taxonomy experimenting, monitoring designing, planning, producing organising, attributing, integrating implementing, executing summarising, inferring, paraphrasing recognising, identifying, retrieving

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4.0 Developing Skillful Learning – Technology

4.1 Keeping Up with the Pace: Improving Network Technology There are incidences of the fact that Blogs in Education has been the inthing. The following quotation from the site, explains the cause in my research particularly, the direct telecast of the resource and information further to the level of the readers: I continue my investigation into blogging, the power and purpose in the classroom. I am recently served on the design team of a large grant focusing on literacy and handhelds. We have a discussion forum, but I wanted to dive deeper and see how we might create our own blogs. To introduce this to our teachers I created two great activities that introduce blogs. If your would like my activities, send me an e-mail, and I will send them to you in Word. [email protected]

>> Using blogs in the classroom To share opinions and learning. To see knowledge as interconnected. To facilitates reflection and evaluation. To promote creative writing. To develop a digital portfolio. To teach responsible public writing.

Source: http://anne.teachesme.com/2007/01/17/rat ionale-for-educationalblogging (Davis 2007)

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4.2 Small Changes, Big Difference: IT Development

The question lies before us is of the importance of Quality Education through blogging, Are we preparing students to be successful in school or successful in life? If life long learning is the goal, the methods, tools and strategies must change from “text based” instruction to interactive learning. Instead of instructors who talk faster as the high stakes tests get closer, we need to stop talking and help students make sense of the content using new strategies that engage these students. Stream video into the classroom, collaborate with others across the globe, reshape curriculum with the goal of increased student achievement. Need a jumpstart to getting started in your classroom attend this eye opening session. As a matter of fact, the scenario says: Today, networks have the capability to connect people, resources and ideas together in an everexpanding global conversation on just about every topic-including education. By joining this conversation (BLOGS) one can contribute, create content, and have his ideas amplified by contributors world-wide. The users may hence Join the BLOGGER as there is an exploration of the critical attributes of what it means to be network literate, how network literacy empowers 21st Century teaching and learning.

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5.0 Developing Learning Habits through Blogging 5.1 The Negative View

The fact which limelights the review of learning through blogging has been true to the fact of conversation of skills to the ultimate. The habits which target to learning for better through this tool is immense of repute and density.

If a Picture Says a Thousand Words STOP TALKING! Let the power of multimedia images increase comprehension. Infuse your classroom with still images, moving pictures, music and primary source documents. Vary your lesson planning to include these elements that reach the 21st Century brains. Experience powerful examples of ways you can engage the minds and increase comprehension. This session will help you put your hands on multimedia examples for your classroom. You May not Be a Blogger or a Podcaster, but Your Students Are What? Many educators don’t know if these words are nouns or verbs, yet our students are spending countless hours doing both. We can block and filter all school day, but as educators we need to know what is going on and help students understand the long term effects of what students are doing online today. All blogs or podcasts are not bad, but students need our guidance to help make good choices as they craft their messages online. If you also are a parent this is a must attend session!

5.2 The Schools Role Sending your child to school is different than in past generations. No longer is every single piece of school news and homework written down on paper. Many teachers, especially in middle and high schools, use e-mail, blogs, forums and websites to discuss school issues, disperse information, and for the most part as a communication tool between the teachers, parents and students. Today, schools use websites, social networks and blogs to post: · · · ·

Homework and class assignments Lunch menus Tuition and student fees Uniform and/or dress code policies

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· · · · · · ·

Progress reports Report cards Non-scheduled school closings (due to weather, emergency, etc.) School calendars School supply lists Discipline policies Information on admittance procedures

Going Paperless Because most families have access to at least one computer on a daily basis, many schools are going paperless in effort to reduce the amount of paper being used and/or wasted. Older students are required to log in either at home or in the classroom to receive and file homework assignments. No longer will the excuse, “My dog ate my homework” be acceptable! Parents of younger students can access the school’s private website or blog to receive the same information. Schools have saved thousands of dollars every year going paperless. Reach More in Less Time Updating a school or class blog with pertinent information can be done quicker and more easily than contacting each class member or parent personally. This includes a last-minute school closure due to inclement weather or an emergency. Parents and older students are recommended to check in with a school’s site several times a week for updates, or they can sign up for a news feed and have the updates sent directly to their e-mail.

Feedback One of the benefits of a blog is the feedback that can be provided. Various issues can be “talked out” through a blog’s comments or forum. Teachers can also provide answers to homework questions, as well as respond to other concerns parents or students may have. A teacher’s response via the Internet is a lot quicker than waiting until class starts the next morning.

Using Blogs as a Teaching Tool Besides using blogs as a means of communicating with parents and students, weblogs are also being used as a teaching device. Middle and high school students are creating blogs during various classes as a way of learning from each other and dispelling the negativity blogs may have. Students can create weblogs and present ideas on a variety of subjects including:

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· · · · · · · · ·

Social studies History Geography Science Biology Physics Chemistry English Writing

Teachers can set up private accounts for each student, keeping them secure by allowing only limited accessibility. These blogs can then be accessed during class time (or at home for homework), where they can be updated, edited or graded. Students can critique each other’s weblogs, which can provide valuable feedback for both the students and the teacher. Knowing about the world: The better: Learning Around the World Additionally, blogs can do more than simply connect students in the classroom: They can bring schools together from all over the world. Through one of several notable educational programs available, students in the United States, for instance, can connect with those overseas and vice versa. And what they can learn from each other can not be found in any textbook, including differences and similarities in: · · · · · · ·

Culture Language Music styles Fashion Religion Weather Classroom learning techniques

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6.0 Developing Pace of Learing through Blogging

6.1 Relating to the Students The pace of learning has been dwelled in action over the time. Education blogs are becoming a means for educators, students, and education administrators to interact more effectively than ever before. Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilise with students whenever there is a curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom. Definition: Blog/WebLog: a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what’s new page, or links to other web sites. Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001 From an education perspective the availability and ease of use of blogging software makes creating blogs a viable classroom activity and a means for teachers to communicate with other teachers.

6.2 Case Studies – School Education 1. Classroom and Teacher Applications : Students keep their diaries or journals in the form of a Blog, while other examples include blogs with a structured activity relating to a specific text. 2. School Libraries: A number of libraries use blogs to provide current information to library users. They are also involved with delivering some of this information from newspapers and other sources using RSS feeds. 3. Collaborative blogs Collaborative blogs, also known as Group Blogs, publish posts written by multiple users. Student 2.0 is an excellent example of a group blog authored by students. Source: http://students2oh.org/

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It comments as follows: We are students: the ones who come to school every day, raise our hands with safe questions, and keep our heads down. Except, now we have a voice—a strong voice—to share our ideas through a global network.

Blogs in Education There are evident chances and resumes that someone close to you, has a personal or professional blog. A blog is a website that acts as an online journal, a place to post information, and a way to keep in touch with others. A blog can be used as an important tool for networking and sharing tips or news with other teachers, dispersing information to your students, and keeping parents abreast of what is happening in your classroom. The majority of the blog writers try to expose and dwell their own identity on the web, into the cyberspace. They do Write about their passions as they pertain to teaching or the field of education, and tell other professionals about their blog. As time goes on, a blogger may develop a number of regular readers. These readers will comment on the writings, either agreeing or disagreeing with the content. This is hence an effective and fun way to share the ideas, gather tips from others’ experiences, and mingle with fellow educators from all around the world.

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Data Analysis:

Source: Internet Analysis of Data

6.3 Summary In terms of demographics, our findings show that non-personal bloggers are more likely to be male, significantly older and have more formal years of education compared with personal bloggers. The data also indicate that non-personal bloggers have more readers daily than personal bloggers, and this could be due to the wide variety of content they write about. Unlike personal bloggers who write mainly about events in their lives, non-personal bloggers write a variety of content that is useful and appealing to a larger audience. Nonpersonal bloggers more frequently check how many readers access their weblogs than personal bloggers. A likely reason for this is that a primary purpose of non-personal weblogs is to provide commentaries or viewpoints for others to read and appreciate, and a large audience is one indication that a non-personal weblog is successful.

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A sample snap shot of Blogs in Education:

Today in class !

Most importantly, our findings show that while personal and non-personal bloggers have some things in common in terms of their ethical beliefs and practices, there are also some distinctive differences. For example, non-personal bloggers valued attribution and truth telling the most, but for personal bloggers truth telling was less important than attribution and minimizing harm. The type of ethics most practiced by the personal bloggers was minimizing harm, while the nonpersonal bloggers practiced truth telling, attribution, and minimizing harm equally. The personal bloggers were also less consistent in practicing the ethics they said they valued than the nonpersonal bloggers. As an ultimate, your blog can also be used as a classroom management tool. Post assignments for your students, reducing the chances that they didn’t know that a project was due. Include links to educational websites that will enhance your students’ knowledge and understanding of concepts and topics discussed in class. Post extra credit assignments on the blog as an incentive to students who check it regularly. Now the question comes of having a classroom blog will also help parents to be informed of what’s going on in the classroom. This, in turn, will lead to more parents taking active roles in their

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children’s education. Write up a synopsis of what the class has been studying each month, or at the end of each term. Be sure to get parental permission before posting photos of students on your site. Photographs of in-class projects, science experiments, and the students working in groups will help parents to feel as though they are well-informed of their child’s daily routine. Now further we need to encourage our students to keep blogs as well. This can be a classroom or an individual project. Blogging will further help our students to express themselves and to practice valuable computer, keyboarding, writing, spelling, and grammatical skills. Also it hence becomes mandatory for the kids to teach them how to upload photos from a digital camera if possible. This is ultimate to their interest and research.

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7.0 Developing Strategies - Parents/ Teachers Acceptance

7.1 The Importance of the Parents/ Teachers Certainly of usage and utility, whether the teachers are new to the teaching field one must field himself or act as a seasoned veteran, and can find inspiration, advice and shared experiences by reading the blogs of other teachers. Both established bloggers and those new to the game like the bloggers can offer some interesting and sometimes entertaining reading material for anyone involved in the education field. No wonder with teachers or with parents, at their odd hours or leisure, initially, the blogging is becoming an art of practice. Since it is also becoming more and more popular in the classroom. Teachers can blog to stay in touch with parents and students or they can incorporate blogs from all of the students as a learning tool. The beauty of the student blog is that children from Kindergarten to high school can blog. No matter how you use blogs in your classroom, these tools will help you get started, enhance your experience, or bring the students into the fun. As a matter of concern and thought, as a teacher, you are already well aware that keeping your students safe is a priority. Introducing blogs in the classroom is undeniably a powerful learning tool, but it also brings about an opportunity for the teacher to reexamine student safety.

The strategies which count the most include the following: Create scrapbooks, slide shows, postcards, and more to post on your blog with this tool. While it’s not specifically designed for educators, teachers can receive the premium subscription for free. Let your students design their own personal avatars with one of these free tools. Using an avatar lets the students personalize while also keeping their identity private. Create an online presentation with audio and text. You can incorporate PowerPoint, Flickr, Word, PDF, and more. Teachers get a free account.

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you can add a button on your blog that allows readers to easily bookmark and share your website. Having this button will allow parents and other teachers easier access to your site. Add photos to your blog and put them in motion with this tool. Create fun slide shows and more without using difficult software. Create a ribbon for your favorite cause or use an originally designed ribbon to tie all your students’ blogs together with this simple tool. Choose your characters and add word or thought bubbles complete with your own text to create your very own comic strip. This is a fun activity for students to incorporate in their blogs, too.

Add any imaginable widget to your blog with this tool. Let your students run wild to allow their individuality to shine with these widgets that range from clocks to animals to word searches. Add any number of fun widgets like Google maps, games, calendars, and more on your blog. There are some great learning opportunities among these.

Concluding Suggestions for Teachers towards Blogging: There are many ways you can use blogging in your teaching, here are ten to get you started: 1. Post materials and resources The web is a fantastic tool when it comes to distributing resources - all you have to do on your BLOG is upload, or copy and paste, your materials to your blog and they’ll be instantly accessible by your student from school and from home. What’s more, you can easily manage who gets to access them through password and plugin safety measures. 2. Host online discussions If you’ve ever struggled to create an online discussion space - you’re going to love what BLOGS will do for you. Students can simply respond to blog posts and discuss topics you’ve set them through comments of through our simple forum functionality - commentators can also sign up to receive emails when their comments are replied to and you can easily manage and edit all responses through your blog’s administrative panel.

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3. Create a class publication Do you remember the good old days of class newspapers? Well, they just got a lot easier with your Blog- you can add students as contributors, authors and even editors in order to produce a custom designed, finely tuned and engaging collaborative online publication by your class. 4. Replace your newsletter Always enjoyed photocopying and stapling pages and pages of newsletters on a Friday afternoon? Though not! It’s ridiculously simple to post class information, news, events and more on your Blog. 5. Get your students blogging It’s all very good sending your students off to blog sites, or even creating them for them, but you need to operate as a hub for their work and a place where they can easily visit each others blogs from. Your Edublog can be used to glue together your students blogs, and besides which, if you’re asking your students to blog… you should certainly be doing it yourself. 6. Share your lesson plans We all love planning and admin, right? Well, using an Edublog can turn planning and reflection on classes into a genuinely productive - and even collaborative - experience. Sharing your plans, your reflections, your ideas and your fears with other educators both at your school and around the world using an edublog is a great way to develop as a teacher, and a brilliant use of a blog. 7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions With a couple of clicks you can embed online video, multimedia presentations, slideshows and more into your edublog and mix it up with your text and static resources. No cds required, no coding necessary - just select the video, podcasts or slidecast you’d like to use and whack it in your blog to illustrate, engage and improve your teaching toolbox. 8. Organise, organise, organise You don’t only have to use your blog as a pedagogue… you can equally easily use the tools to organise everything from sports teams in your school, to rehearsals for the upcoming production. You can set up as many edublogs as you like, so don’t be afraid to use a dedicated one for a

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dedicated event - your can even use it as a record to look back on down the line. 9. Get feedback There’s nothing that says you can’t allow anonymous commenting on a blog (although you’re also entirely within your rights to put all comments through moderation!) but why not think about using a blog as a place for students - and even parents, to air issues, leave feedback or generally tell you how great you are. 10. Create a fully functional website One of the great things about blogs are that they are much, much more than just blogging tools. In fact, you can use your edublog to create a multi-layered, in-depth, multimedia rich website - that hardly looks like a blog at all. So, if you’d rather create a set of static content, archive of important information or even index for your library - you can bend an blog to suit your needs.

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8.0 CONCLUSION As per the series of observations and reputed researches around the cyberspace, the term blogging is no longer a new or a novice term to brainstorm through. As a matter fo fact, it may sound far-fetched, the the experiences have revealed that Blogging has become an influential phenomenon that is gaining recognition and acknowledgement by the media, scholars, and government officials throughout the world. No wonder, I repeat my words of the recent events that have highlighted the importance of weblogs include the Asian tsunami disaster, the Iraq war, and September 11 attack, the Mumbai Attacks and the recent one being the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Pakistan. I certainly agree to the the conclusion and put my theory to certain that the blogs play an ultimate role in forwarding the negotiations and the praisworthy comments of the common people to public which otherwise would never come to lime light of independence pressure of Right to Speech. My topic of research in this aspect has been of ultimate consideration further. Talking of the aspect, Web logs (BLOGS) FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING as An Interface Towards Quality Education. With the importance being kicked off of better ultimate and exposure the teaching learning methodology has certainly been given a new profile through. When we consider the quality in education, what lacks is the understanding and the practical applicability of the content of taught and the learn in particular. It may be very easy to pose of the existing status of learning but what acuals gains one would come across of the utlisation of BLOGS both by the teachers and that of the students come to the bouncing fact that there is certainly an open end to learning out of the four walls of the class room. With the new technology and the ICT bouncing into the classroom learning scenario, the boundraries of the classrooms do need to expand with the inclusion of the cyberspace which does not have any limitations further. The dealings need to be dealt with ultimate faith and wisdom in order to encapsulate the righthood of the modules, comments and the flaws if any. There need to have a strong comment by the network administrator and the web managers who would manage the blogs/ software towards the upload and download options further. The marching trend of the computing arena has marked a revolutionary stroke to the developing educational arena. With computers making a headway in every walk of life with increasing software expertise, the very base of our social infrastructure, the schools have had a good pace of advancement. The computer education has introduced an interesting phase among the students. The result of the SAARC contest by the Indian teams in the past years of schools has proved that

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it is more-so-over a true explanation. Tomorrow is not far away to them when there will be more intelligent use of computers. It is certainly through this mini desk top tool that the students can be best empowered for creativity of operations for better prospects and overall development at all levels. These machines are certainly going to prove as the indispensable substitute to pencils, papers and books. There is a novel nomenclature of Edutainment, the latest buzzword of the day, as the conglomeration of education and entertainment, with each element playing a significant role. With the series of operation research over it, with the development of various software of educational nature have provided a boon to both the learners and the deeply involved educators. For the learners, there is an impressing attraction towards the educational CDs, and has become a fun filled experience. Along with, the educators, the teachers are getting aided with this tool and has made teaching easier and interesting. To provide an access to the pre-primary lots, the software has been termed as ‘Totware’, to surprise. They are designed specifically to promote a quality workstation for the teachers and budding tablets of prosperity, the students. They are edutainment programs aimed totally at the needs and abilities of children as young as two years of age. They are even given pace to use underactivity, bright colours, music and sound effects keeping little children interested while introducing them to basic concepts. The products in this category address a wide range of skills and concepts. These programs are mainly supportive of exploration and experimentation. India has a proud image before her academic gentry inclusive of trainers at large. The software developers in the country have also not been blind to the needs of the tiny tots. The smart march towards the year 2001 series has had an alarmingly interesting modules of teaching aids through multimedia and virtual reality. The stunning example to cite is of an exciting computer class in Bombay. As you step in, you find a classroom of tiny tots peering at colourful graphics on computer monitors. Fruits such as bananas or pineapples appear on the screen in various configurations. The children count the number of fruits and then punch the figure on the keyboard. If they get the number of fruits and then punch the figure on the keyboard. If they get the number of fruits right, they are rewarded with a teddy bear on the screen. This novel way of powerful animations and video, fascinating fagots, and exciting activities provide hours of interactive learning. With this, the student workforce is bound to come up with unique excellence like writing stories on the computers, print out their own books and learn to use spread sheets and similar programs

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in math projects. Accordingly, the quality upgradation of the institute can be shaped well of universal acceptance through the networking of computers in the classrooms through Internet or any other international network which would delimit the walls of the classrooms by extending the reach of its occupants to other distant countries. It is being made possible to even access to the libraries of the different universities all around the globe. Far-fetchingly, some districts in America have installed voice mail system that allows parents to call in the head of their kids or to hear the day’s homework assignments or any other relevant information. With this journey of excellence in academic arena, the next unique operation under way is of accessing on to schools through computers sitting right at home. This is sure to make even a bed ridden child attend the class. Also through this, to the level best, all the children would use the school’s electronic resources for help with home work or for independent studies. Like many other path breaking efforts these limited bids in education technology too have considerable following skeptics. According to them the software wizardry applied to schools will rectify the creation of haves and have NOTs’. It is going to build up a huge information gap, with well financed schools at the one end and those in remote cities on the other. But with the march of time this gap is going to be filled up through developments. We as educators are to execute our expertise in this direction to promote the essence of “QUALITY IN ACADEMICS”, for overall excellence in the schools all over. The succeeding image is certainly going to produce in the mass revolt from the teachers, as with the aid of the intelligent machine, the computers, as they may fear of being probable jobless. But this has again the optimistic view and approach as it is quite clear that computers are ‘His Master’s Slave’ and can never operate on their own. With the march of time and tide, the arena of the Information Technology has had an indispensable role in nearly all spheres of life. To quote the factual concern, the following proves the same. The Year : 2020 AD. The Location: ABCD Medical College Lab. The Session: Heart Surgery.

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The Participants: MBBS students and the Instructor. And, with all this what are they suppose to do? The instructor is due to operate on the heart of a person who, in reality, does not exist. But the students and the instructor can well “see” and “feel” and the Instructor can as well explain about the minute of the cells possible, with all the activities being carried out in a typical heart surgery. In fact, the concept is of ‘VR’ the virtual reality, in action. Secondly, the year 2021 AD. The Location: A Castle in GOA, India. The Scenario: Tobo, a primary school kid, with his home PC. What is he there for? Well, he is seeing a real time display of the great wall of China in order to prepare for a school seminar on the great wonders of the world. And, how is this made possible? Tobo, is hooked on to a world wide communication network made up of home computers, mainframes, super computers with huge database, telecom lines, earth stations, satellites and cameras, all in sync to meet to Tobo’s specific queries. Now, with the buzzing virtual connectivity through the net, there is a global opening of new vistas in the commercial world. It has created a powerful ripple in the ocean of information world, to allow everybody to share the information for sustainable developments across the globe. It is also a facilitation for all the connected to develop their own website for anybody to access around the globe. All this has become simple and even possible for a common man without a sound knowledge of computers - one once awful device. Accordingly, the technology has extended human capabilities, which is fundamental to the successful usage of technology. As per Kearsley’s theory of qualitative productivity, “Increased productivity is a function of human abilities extended through the soft and the hard components of technology.”

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INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY

= Human Abilities + Soft Technology + Hard Technology

i.e. any component on the right becoming zero results in zero productivity. Moreover, any mismatch between any of the three components will lead to disaster. But, to the high order grading, the appropriate technology, reduces training time, minimizes training resources, lowers dropout rates improves proficiency in performance and increases satisfaction at all levels. The way this very technology in the form of computers, known as Information Technology, introduced a very important technology, introduced a very important instructional capability as INTERCONNECTIVITY. Today, in the traditional educational arena, the teacher performs different functions like planning, evaluating and locating appropriate instructional resources, developing complementing instructional resources, handling administration, laisoning with students/ parents/ administration and teach as well. In addition the teachers do have to take care of slow learners changes in syllabi, discipline and adhering to the overall development of the child. A new concept featuring CAPES, i.e. the Computer Aided Paperless Examination System has also been developed by the NIC (National Informatics Centre), Govt. of India, to regularise and facilitate the examination system of the country. It is fool proof of any leakage and traditional corruption. On the other hand, on the part of the teachers, the computer with well designed software, has several strengths that make it an effective instructional tool. This computer aided instruction is made possible by developing in accordance with the internal process of learning. These internal processes are alertness, expectancy, retrieval, selective perfection and perception, semantic encoding, retrieval and response, reinforcement, cues and generalisation. The more

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of these that are included, the greater is the degree of confidence in the performance. Alongwith, the learner characteristics such as interest, reading rate, prior experience and knowledge and job interests have been successfully used by designers to zero in an appropriate instructional strategies. The interaction encourages participation, allows for remedial measures and increases value added learning time. The learning should exercise appropriate control in terms of convenience, preference, review, exit and sound tests. The regular review of the computer aided instruction material is essential to improve on presentation format and upgrade to ensure curricular and programme adequacies. The University of tomorrow will certainly be serving in the information society, this irrefutable fact has important implications for the strategies each institution should adopt as it enters into the next century due to the significant impact the information society will have on higher education in general and each University in particular. It is important that each University take full cognizance of the changes in the information society and face one of the most complex of all campus planning operations pertaining to acquisition, distribution and management of computing and related technologies. Hence each institution must make its plans and develop its strategies to be proactive with respect to the environment context and must not lag behind society in general and other educational institutions in particular. The big concern of the survival and success of an institution depends on the extend to which it looks to the future, identifies the opportunities in the turbulent world around it and adapts its special competencies to those opportunities. In general terms, strategy is the fundamental means an institution employs to achieve a match with its environment, or, alternatively, a pattern in a stream of actions or decisions which relates an organisation to its environment. As we move forward, the role of that information services assumes on campus will surely expand to accommodate the burgeoning technology that is finding increasing use in Higher Education. Its role will not only be to provide the traditional academic and administrative computer services, but to develop standards for networking computer acquisition, data interchange, video transmission and whatever other areas are included under his or her control. Attendant to this activity will be the development of organizational structures and enabling policies that will allow the nation to better utilise the technology to satisfy the academic goals at a large. With the accelerating phase of the advent of Information Technology there is an emergence of a new social order. This has made the need for computer literacy among the masses indispensable. Rapid progress in the area of electronics and space technology have contributed substantially to this phenomena.

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A digital computer is an electronic machine and a very powerful tool in information processing. The computer can well store, retrieve, analyse and synthesize data or raw information received from various sources to produce meaningful information necessary in making decisions and solving problems. It has become easy to obtain information about our bank and insurance accounts, train and airline reservations through computerised systems. Several special effects are created in electronic music and watch television programmes. Computerised zerox machines, washing machines, digital watches and the like are familiar to nearly all of us. We are also aware of all of the factories in which computer controlled robots perform various mechanical operations and space programmes which are heavily dependent on the new technologies. These are just a few examples of the kind of changes which have offered in our society in recent years and the rate of change is only going to rise in the years to come. To match the new realities of today’s sophisticated technology, there is a pressing need to develop new skills to make the most of the new technology that is available to us. The costs of introducing and using these new techniques, providing the necessary equipment, and training people in their use have to be set against the old methods of operation and the social consequences of making the changes. The children in our schools were born in this era of change. They cannot see anything strange in these novel approaches. The curriculum for all pupils in schools will have to place emphasis on technological change and its implications. Such a curriculum should ensure that all students are able to use technology to communicate effectively with and through the computer as well as appreciate its role. The information revolution of the twentieth century which has been brought about by advances in the computer technology has created an information society in which a majority of the labour force is expected to hold information-related jobs. Ignorance about computers will rather render people functionally illiterate as does ignorance of reading, writing and arithmetic. This means that our society will depend heavily on information technology in many areas of work and personal life. Hence, the new task of our schools is to familiarise pupils with applications of computers. A computer literate has an aid to problem solving in a variety of disciplines. This familiarity essentially involves an understanding of the use of facilities such as word processing, screen reading and the effective usage of files and data. It also demands a limited comprehension of keyboard skills. Under this, keeping with the marching pace towards the promotion of literacy, the idea of providing knowledge about computers in schools was put into practise in the country through a pilot project

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called CLASS, (Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools) in 1984, by the Government of India as a joint venture of the Ministry Of Human Resource Development and the Department of Electronics. The interactive nature of computer based learning and the facility to individualise the learning experience, the needs of the learner are the two most important aspects of computer assisted learning. The capacity of the computer functions somewhat like a traditional teacher through the use of a suitable educational software. In this mode, the computer can be used to teach the learner through tutorials, drill and practice, games, simulations or a combination of any of these strategies. Besides the computer can be programmed in such a way that tutorial lessons can be given to the pupils. With this, students will be able to learn at their own performance independent of the teacher. Using quality educational software packages, good learning environment can be created in schools. As such, it is necessary for all citizens to understand what computers are capable of. Students should be aware of the many uses of computers, such as their use in teaching-learning, information storage and retrieval. Any country’s social and economic well-being depends entirely on how well equipped its people are for a literacy-intensive technology in order to promote overall quality oriented academic excellence. If computers can assist us in the teaching process then there is a good reason to welcome their appearance. Hence, it is absolutely essential for all those involved in education to become computer literate. With the irritation of leakage of question papers of academic arena, there appears a tough tasks to exist for the academicians. Accordingly, there appears to be a great phobia of the mass designing of the question papers of N sets manually. The advent of the intelligent machine has led to the specific indispensable importance of computers in this regard. The question paper setting assumes prime importance of computers in this regard. The question paper setting assumes prime importance in the present education system. Keeping this concept in regard, there has been a recent development in order to pace the usage of computers, through the concepts of CAPES and QUEPS. CAPES, the Computer aided paperless examination system, offers firing of the multiple questions on the terminal to the candidate on a particular subject, with the questions having been already

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fed into the machine by the authority concerned for the conduct of the examination. This system allows no cheating as the probability of flashing out a similar question to a set of two candidates is one in every hundred. Here the candidate is not at all required to have any working knowledge of computers, simply he/ she has to press the right alternative key on the keypad. With this, there is no need of the office/ stationary/ Invigilators etc. The usage of this system has revealed great success by the concerned authorities. The results are much more reliable and speedy as compared with the traditional type of examination. On the other hand, the recent development in this regard is the QUEPS, which is a prototype knowledge based system, for question paper setting. This system also aims at modelling the human expertise, which is perishable, is affected by fatigue and prejudices and lacks ability to duplicate with ease. Perhaps, in the domain of question paper setting, deep knowledge may be available in the form of question bank containing different types of questions framed on a particular subject where they are made available in the form of units featuring essays, short type questions and the objective questions. The QUEPS and CAPES offer the usage of objective questions in terms of framing and designing items for testing. The questions are stored in a dynamic database, where each question is stored as a predicate containing unit number, question number and the corresponding attribute list. The attributes are stored as elements of a list. List handling predicates are used while comparing the attributes as also while updating the lists of each question given out once. This is in accordance with the view that questions are never stored in the memory but are addressed or referred only through question numbers. It may sound farfetched but the tests have revealed that it is more or less the true explanation that these systems offer plenty of scope for expansion in terms of the expertise contained in it, as also using more sophisticated mechanism to incorporate advanced concepts such as machine learning. Also in this domain the level of complexity of the system has risen up to the advanced levels of testing. A point which come to ponder over the introduction of this HI-TECH concept in the field of academics, is of the limitation of its’ being to the objective system only. This again becomes tiresome for the subjective brand of system where every level of the answer is ranked in a different manner independent of any particular answer, which can be fed into the machine.

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The quality in this direction is highlighted with the quick declaration of results, regularization of sessions and all in all bringing out overall satisfaction of the students and the parents. This further brings the profitable aspect of the organisation in long run as more and more fame is gathered for the same and the rush of admissions produce more revenue monetarily bringing boon the education industry at large. The capacity of any institution entirely depends upon the efficiency of the office staff working in within. Keeping this view in regard, it is one of the concerns of the management to give prime importance at times. In any organisation, the quality of work undertaken entirely depends upon the speedy conduct with the strong guiding motivation of the BOSS. But unfortunately, this has lagged far behind due to the increasing level of work load over the years to be conducted through the old tools like carbon, pencil, ruler and the hard key typewriters. Now, with the march of time, the very business environment has changed faster than ever before. The increased competition among organisations has led to the reappraisal of accepted business practices for higher efficiency. The attempts are being made to meet the competitive threat by reducing cost by rationalizing production, shedding labour and restructuring business. These are complemented with investment in technology to improve productivity. But the huge bulk of commercial documents generated by companies in the trading cycle still remain locked in slow, antiquated paperbound processes. Documents produced by one computer are printed and posted, only to be entered into the recipient’s computer - a time consuming, error prone and costly experience of exercise, estimated between 4% AND 7% of the value of the goods traded. In a complex web of trading relationship in which each organisation is a customer of another, we can see what paper work all too easily becomes a barrier to the trade it was designed to support. Under the novel scheme of hi-tech system within an organisation of academic nature, for example, a small local area network within the office, the principal’s room, different other subjected related departments if required, are linked through connected computers having an access of each other universally. This certainly reduces the circular work from one desk to the other. Accordingly, there is a paperless workplace having a direct line from one computer system to the computers of all the probable customers and suppliers. With this, every transaction could be electronic,

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sales returns could be analyzed and fed into ordering process, orders could be raised to reflect both demand and the known stock process, orders could be raised to reflect both demand and the known stock available in any commodity related business environment. Similarly, under the economic activity pertaining to the services as the product, like Banks and educational institutions, the on-line result display on the terminals, interactive teaching etc. are the promotional qualitative services which can be adopted through this machine, belonging to information technology. Apart from this, the official work load of sending of instruction etc., could be sent to the distributors in tandem with the order to ensure fast delivery. Carriage by road, rail, sea or air could be booked simultaneously. Customer clearance and documentation could be available in advance of the goods arriving, thus avoiding hold ups. Even payment instructions could be issued to banks to ensure prompt payment without the mountain of paper work involved in the present day business transaction. This very transmissions of information to the trading partners computers for processing is known as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). It replaces conventional paper documents with formatted and standardized business documents, transmitted as electronic transmission of business data from computer to computer, of independent organisations, using an agreed standard to structure the transaction, which is accomplished without human intervention. According to the principle of EDI, a ‘sending computer’, usually located at a customer’s premises, uses telecommunications technology to transfer orders data instantly to the receiving computer, usually located at the supplier’s distribution centre. The received order data is then manipulated and formatted to match the order entry files in the order data base of the supplier. Next, the information is transferred into other database, with the generation of any appropriate error messages and/ or exceptions reports. This technology can be very rightly applied to the transmittal of any business forms, including invoices and purchases orders. The ‘sending computer’ stores and follows up on it. The ‘receiving’ computer automatically transfers the data to the ware house, the factory, the accounting and billing departments and the shipping departments. Similarly, in the institutional base, the orders of the different books and deputed stationeries are accordingly ordered and assured of the deliveries. The electronic data interchange is vastly implemented in the trucking, marine shopping and air cargo industries in developed countries. Implementation need not be expensive. All that a small organisation needs to have is a personal computer, a modem and telephone line and the necessary software. The day is not far off, when this very technology would create the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM), applicable to nearly all small scale business arenas as well.

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Categorising some of the examples for the web logs or the blogs in particular as follows certainly pertain to the importance of this technological progress in demand and action in particular. What is required is an interest of ICT usage by the teachers and the students in particular. Since we need to catch them young and innocent, our ultimate aim is to target the students for this technological practice but the teachers and the other support staff must have the say into their expertis of the usage and the user-friendly attitute in order to accomplish the tasks further. The future is bright and jovial: As more teachers become social networking savvy, and schools become wired to allow Internet access in the classroom, you will see many more blogs of this type appear. Students today are being taught from early age — some as young as preschool — the value of computers and the Internet. There’s no doubt that the use of blogs in the classroom will prevail as a learning tool.

Overview: The purpose of this report is to consolidate blogging results and share the findings with the learners. Sharing the blogging report allows you to close the blogging loop and subsequently fulfill the meaning of blogging with perfection. Demonstrating increase blogging as a powerful way of helping the learners better and meaningful.

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>> Some useful links

>> wordpress admin panel

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>> Blogger.com

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>> Blogger admin panel

>> Some other Blog platforms: B2Evolution

http://b2evolution.net/

LiveJournal

http://www.livejournal.com/

Edublogs

http://edublogs.org/

Twitter

(microblogging)

http://twitter.com

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>> and… Add widgets to your blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O VRlXn9mAs

Syndicate, get updates automatically www.feedreader.com www.bloglines .com www.google.com/reader

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