IEC 2015 Document template

Prospects of Online Education in India

First author, affiliation, Second Author, affiliation, third author,affiliation

Email of corresponding author

Size of paper: 3000-4000 words

Abstract: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Policy documents have described technology as ‘a sound investment for continuous on-demand teacher training and support, research and content repositories, value-added distance education, and online campuses aimed at increasing the access, equity and quality of teacher education’.

About 500 words

Keywords: Online Education, Malaysia3-4 key words or phrases should be mentioned in alphabetical order, separated by commas.

Introduction

W

orld over, countries are concerned with the quality of teachers, leading to restructuring of pre- service teacher education and reworking of in-service professional development. Emphasis is being laid on participation, activities and interactive activities during programmes, whether pre- or in-service followed by continued support and community discussions for in-service teachers. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alexander (2008) describes social software or social networking as a ‘coherent’ digital strategy for collaboration using tools as diverse as e-mail listservs, Usenet groups, bulletin boards, discussion software, groupware, Web-based virtual communities, blogs, wikis, podcasting, videoblogs, and so on. The author goes on to say that “An entire genre of Web services has emerged solely for connecting people to each other based on their interests and personality, including: Friendster, MySpace, FaceBook, and Flickr”.

Malaysian perspective on use of online education

All policies and interventions pertaining to education recognize the critical and central role of teachers in providing quality education and advocate focus on the development needs of teachers, at several levels within the education system. Technology is seen as one means ofaddressing the wide range - in terms of qualifications, experience and support - of teachers in the country. The Approach Paper to the 10th Five Year Plan developed by the Planning Commission recommended that “For quality education, provision of adequate academic support/ training toall the teachers will be necessary. In this connection, the use of IT needs to be explored in terms of teachers’ capacity building….”. (Planning Commission, Government of India, 2001) The 11th year plan continued to stress the importance of technology in teacher education and identified continued professional development of teachers as a focus area (Planning Commission, Government of India, 2001).

Methodology

The sample for the study comprised xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and in-service teachers. Sampling was purposive since ICT is not commonly used in teacher education xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Results

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Figures

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Tables
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Referencing a Figure or Table Within Your Paper

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Use of ICT in general and social media in specific was not a part of the curriculum of any teacher education programme, whether pre-service or continuing. Although ICT in education was offered as either an optional paper or as a module within a compulsory paper, and exposure to computers in the computer laboratory and through a few projects (such as preparing a PowerPoint presentation) was a compulsory part of pre-service education, there was no effort towards training student teachers in use of social media for learning. Some in-service programmes offered teachers’ exposure to the use of social media but no formal, hands-on training was provided.

A couple of teacher educators interviewed maintained blogs for purposes ranging from posting information, etc. for students to posting thoughts, personal philosophy, etc. One each had used WikiEducator and online groups to support learning, the former through posting material for students and the latter by uploading assignments, etc. and having students compulsorily upload comments on their experiences with teaching practice in schools besides assignments. Teacher educators who used the blog reported that students did not post any comments despite requests to do so; they chose to do give feedback verbally when they met their teacher in person.

Table 1.1: Results of the sample study

Aspect explored / Teacher educators / Student teachers / In-service teachers
Awareness of social networking / 100% mentioned Facebook; about 60% mentioned onlinegroups and forums; 50%blogs; 25% Wikis. / 100% Facebook; 50% online groups; 90% blogs; 80% Wikis. / 100% Facebook; 60% online groups and forums; 30% blogs; 1%mentioned Wikis.
Socialnetworkingtosupport learning / 30% report use of blogs;20% report use of onlinegroups. / 60% report use of blogsand wikis; 40% reportuse of online groups. / 30% report a closedonline group to supporteach other (within a school).

Recommendations

The foremost role that social networking can play is continuing support of teachers from pre- service through induction into formal teaching and then continuing professional development. It is but axiomatic that pre-service education must provide hands on experience with technology so as to equip student teachers to gain confidence in the use of social media and other technologies so as to use them effectively in their professional lives. One way could be to set up networked online groups during the teacher preparation programme to ensure high comfort levels between members of the group. This collaboration could continue beyond to their professional life, since physical separation is meaningless (Khandpur & Husain, 2009).

Conclusion

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Labaree (2000) describes how the “structural isolation within which the teacher has to operate” exacerbates the teacher’s myriad problems. Social networking to facilitate teacher education will help the teacher in dealing with the very sensitive, very important role they play in the lives of may young students by helping them access various kinds of support, whenever they need it.

Acknowledgement

Use the singular heading even if you have many acknowledgments.

REFERENCES

Use APA style of referencin

  1. Alexander, B. (2008). Web 2.0 and Emergent Multiliteracies. Theory Into Practice, 47.
  2. Archambault, L., Wetzel, K., Foulger, T.S., & Williams, M.K. (2010). Professional Development 2.0: Transforming Teacher Education Pedagogy with 21st Century Tools. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 27(1).
  3. Chai, C. S., & Lim, C. P. (2011). The Internet and Teacher Education: Traversing between the Digitized World and Schools Retrieved 6 Nov 2011 from:
  4. Education Development Center. (2009). Upgrading Indonesian Primary School Teachers through Distance Education: Towards Systemic Improvement. A Study by the United States Agency for International Development, Decentralizing Basic Education 2 and Education Development Center. Retrieved 11 Nov 2011 from indonesia.usaid.gov/.../DBE2Final_Distance_Education_Study_29_6_09.

About the authors

First Author and the other authors may include biographies at the end of regular papers. These may be between 30-50 words for each of the author

XXXXXX: Dr. XXXXX is a professor, XXXXXXXXXXX.

XXXXXXXXX: xxxxxxxxxxx