TU Initiative in ICTs Use In Reference to Pre-Service Teacher Education

Background  School Sector Reform Plan( )  ICT assisted teaching/learning in schools  ICT infrastructure development in schools  Alternative modes of schooling  Three years Plan( )  Schools will be encouraged to use ICT in education to increase access and quality  Access increase in rural education  Decrease digital divide  IT Policy (2010)  Internet access expansion to schools  HR development with national and international collaboration  Promotion of industry-academia collaboration  Formulation and implementation of special programme

Contd.  ICT in higher education Practices in the World  Open universities integrating ICTs in ODL  First generation to Fifth generation of ODL – Web 2 technology use  Virtual universities  E-resources  E-learning  Synchronous and asynchronous mode of virtualization of learning

Contd.  Hybridized system in conventional universities  Courses/courseware(readings and e- materials, etc)  Lecture series and assignments through ICTs use  Uploading assignment to the professors/tutors  ICT in Teacher training and teacher education programme

Pre-service Teacher Education  Pre-service teacher education programme in universities  Discussion focused in TU  Aims  To produce trained teachers to teach at different levels of school education. To prepare high educational human resources such as education administrators, curriculum designer, educational planners and researchers. To provide the country with the teachers to teach visually impaired and hard of hearing people, and also to the differently abled pupils. To provide its teachers with research opportunities and refresher training for their professional development. To support MOE in the formation of education policy, programme, planning and their implementation and evaluation. To work as national forum to bring about debates and discussions in order to address the critical educational issues. To share and disseminate educational researches and innovations by linking itself with the international educational communities. To make its presence felt among the educational institutes of the SAARC countries

Contd.  Programs Offered  Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree programme  Four year Bachelor proposed and preparation going on(annual and semester mode)  Core course ( with professional courses and ICT in Education)  Content course  On school practicing  Two year Master’s (annual and semester mode)  Core curses  Contents course  On school practicing  Research  ICT Education programme( B.Ed and M.Ed)  One year B.Ed or Post-graduate Diploma programme  Mphil and PhD in Education/specialization areas  Teacher preparation courses(for Lower-secondary or Basic School teachers)

Contd.  Mode of Course Delivery  More lecture base teaching  Very less Project and problem base  Homogeneous methods/pedagogy focused  Less ICT use in most of the campuses(affiliated colleges/constituents)  On school activity: only 45 days practice teaching  Course nature: theoretical

Need of Change in Teacher Education and Training  Heterogeneity addressing pedagogy to be introduced  Innovative approach of teacher education and training  Inclusive approach  Community of practice - through networking  Online professional training/education(transactional distance theory )  Continuous upgrading  Supplementary to enhancing professional learning  Learning access to rural teachers  Real-time problem/issue of teaching addressed within network

Need of Change in TU  TU needs in introducing ICTs in teaching, learning and research  Growing number of students but inadequate physical infrastructure  Irregularity issue in conventional programme  Increasing and creating leaning opportunity to the students  Software use – research, teaching, experiments  Matching competencies of the graduates with other universities  A committee was constituted to make a study  Submitted report in 2012 to the authority  Proposed dual-mode in TU  Made a decision of making TU dual-mode university  Faculty of Education given to run pilot programme of ODL  Four subjects – Nepali, social study, health, education  Now Open and Distance Education Centre established  Promotion of ICTs use in teaching and research  Classroom use  E-library

Running Projects  Three projects are running  FOE, NCED, Yamk/Hamk university Finland collaboration for open and distance learning  Now ODL is running in 6 centres  Training to the faculties in using VLE  NORHED, QUANTICT Project in Central Department of Education  Three university collaboration TU, KU and HiOA Norway  Central Department of Education connected to two other support centres  Runs master’s programme in ODL – English and Mathematics

Contd.  Focus on HR development and minimum ICT infrastructure  30 teacher educators trained in VLE (started from digital literacy to VLE)  Now prepare course  Learning materials  Assignments  Testing/assessment  One ICT lab with computers and interactive board  Universities Denmark and TU collaboration under BSU  E- learning and PBL component  Focused in PhD programme and research (in FOE and HSS of TU)  Focus on capacity development, piloting of the programme, research dissemination and networking  Workshops on e-learning, PBL use in education and supervision  Basic ICT infrastructure support

Contd.  FOE in transformation  Central Department of Education equipped with Internet available within the premises, classroom with multi-media projector, e-library, faculty and staffs training/workshop in using ICTs in education with support from Second Higher Education Project  Course revision  Bachelor – one course ICT in Education as core course  Master’s – one course in ICT in Education as core course  Post graduate  Every subject introduce ICT in specific subject.  Challenge : managing necessary infrastructure HR development/capacity development Providing access of ICT tools to students Bandwith and power back up management Access availability in different parts of the country

ICT Competencies  Related to MOODLE learning platform  Modularization of curriculum  Use of learning management tools given in MOODLE  Social forums  Assignment preparation  Podcasting  Searching and using free online learning sources(courseware)

How did we prepare?  Survey of ICTs competencies in faculties and staffs  A course for digital literacy prepared  Basic infrastructure for providing ICT training  Lab with computers  Internet connectivity  Power-back up  MOODLE Platform Hosting in Web  TOT to dedicated few  Exposure to what ICT can do? Experiences from the practices in the world

Contd.  Training provided to the faculties and staffs based on the prepared digital literacy curriculum  Advance training of ICTs use in course designing  MOODLE platform orientation workshop  Writing of the curriculum in module suitable for distance learning integrating e-learning and e-pedagogy  Preparation of assignments  Searching open courseware to use in ODL  Designing weekly course in MOODLE and uploading  Comments and Feedback sessions  Preparation of other modules  Constant IT experts support

Learning  Necessary Competencies in teachers/tutors  Computer literacy(word processing, internet use, e- library/e-resources use)  Basic trouble shooting in using computers(hands-on- experience: learning by doing)  Course creation and implementation  Content delivery: easy upload and management of content in variety of formats  Asynchronous discussion: discussion forum, threads, attachment capability  Online assessment(test preparation and grading)  Student tracking (involvement of students in learning task)  Synchronous discussion: vsee, skype, BigblueBotton etc freely available software  Students tools: create, store, share, comments, and learn.

Contd.  VLE Pedagogy  Community of practice/socio-cultural learning  Resource base learning  Peer learning  Content led/instructive learning  Complex learning  Problem base learning  Collaborative learning  Instructor led learning

Contd.  VLE Technology  Blogs  Wikis  Podcasting  Social software  Structured conferencing  Instant messaging  E-portfolios

Contd.  Some overview Some overview   

Open and Distance Education Centre  An autonomous unit in TU for conducting open and distance learning mode programme  Preparation of ODEC  Data center(hosting or own?)  E-library, learning platform and other systems  Distribution of e-library to each individual students with individual ID and password  Media lab for production  Training/workshop hall with necessary infrastructure

Contd.  Preparation of tablet in cheaper price to increase affordability  Mobile server, router and tablet  Massive training to the faculties on using online learning  Preparation of basic ICT competencies standards  Training manual preparation  Face-to-face for beginning with basic skills of using ICT tools and further training Online.

Contd.  Vision to be a leading centre of open and distance learning in producing necessary human resources  Infrastructure Set up: media lab, server system,  HR management: preparation of trainers, ICT experts trained in e-learning appointed,  Course Preparation: some courses prepared for online learning.  HR development focus  ICT education awareness and use in school to higher education  Online resources search and use

Contd.  Software use in teaching, learning and research  ICT tools using competency for school to higher education  Curriculum and learning resources preparation  Management of classroom (using ICTs)  Evaluation/assessment using ICTs(e- assessment)  Use of learning management system for teaching

 ODLpp ODLpp 