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From Director’s Deskemphasize CEMCA’s emerging role in thecontext of its current Three Year Plan (2012-15). Dr. Steve Hutchinson in the Guest Columnexplores the situation of teacher education inIndia to situate and explain the rationale andapproach of the TESS-India project funded bythe DFID. Neil Butcher and Andrew Mooredescribe the UNESCO ICT-CFT frameworkapplication in Guyana as a Case Study of howgovernments can develop strategy forintegrating ICTs in education and build teachercompetencies. Spotlight section focusses onMaharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited -a company supported by State Govt ofMaharashtra in India and that has beenpromoting innovative use of ICT in education,including starting of the eB.Ed. programme incollaboration with I-CONSENT and offered inpartnership with the Yashwantrao ChavanMaharashtra Open University. We have tried toput together useful information in the sectionssuch as SMART Tips, Worth While Web, BookReview and Forthcoming Events.

Our efforts would be to bring this regularly toyou, and this is possible only with yoursuggestions, feedback and timely contributions.Tell us what you liked, what not, and what youwant us to include in future. You can reach usthrough the newly designed website (http://www.cemca.org.in) and also get more recentinformation about CEMCA activities bysubscribing to the eNewsletter.

Wish you a very happy New Year.

Dr. Sanjaya Mishra

Vol. 17 No. 1 January 2013 A Newsletter of the Commonwealth Educational Media for Asia

In this issue

Guest Column 2

Spotlight On 7

Worth While Web 9

CEMCA News 10

Case Study 13

SMART Tips 18

Regional Round Up 20

Book Review 21

Forthcoming Events 23

Greetings to all the stakeholders of theCommonwealth Educational Media Centre forAsia (CEMCA) and esteemed readers ofEduComm Asia.

After my joining CEMCA in July 2012, westarted planning for re-launch of the CEMCANewsletter – the EduComm Asia that becameirregular in 2010. I started thinking about therelevance of a quarterly Newsletter in today’sabundance of information on the World WideWeb (WWW). Then several of you startedasking about the Newsletter, and my convictionabout the value of organized information for aspecific readership made us sit and plan for thisissue. As we began preparing this issue to bringyou meaningful, relevant, and appropriateknowledge, we also realised the importance ofkeeping ourselves up-to-date to serve you better.

We understand the need for information sharingnot only about the activities of CEMCA, butalso about new developments and trends in theCEMCA’s field of competence. We know howeagerly some of you have been waiting for theissue of EduComm Asia, and it is my pleasure tobring you back this popular Newsletter to you.

This issue has been planned as a specialthematic issue on Teacher Education to

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Guest Column...

The Wisdom of Teachers: A NewAppr oach to Teacher EducationBy Steve Hutchinson

India faces a pressing need to educate,

train and develop millions of teachers

over the next few years in order to meetthe needs of a rapidly expanding

education system. How to do this at scale

and to quality and how best to use newtechnologies and the different ways of

thinking about knowledge that they

afford, remain critically importantquestions. In this guest column I’m going

to look at recent trends in education and

set out the argument for the developmentof open resource and practice networks

developed by the many (as opposed to the

few) set against a focus on learning in andthrough practice (rather than learning

that’s distant from practice). I’m going to

end by talking about the newly started,DFID funded, TESS-India (Teacher

Education through School-based Support

in India) Project and the ways that thisseeks to draw on the ‘wisdom of the

crowd’ (Surowiecki, 2004) to produce

high quality, infinitely adaptable andfreely available resources to support

school-based teacher education.

Analysis of the situation

Teachers, teacher educators andadministrators in India know the factsbetter than anyone. It seems that India hasa teacher shortage of around 1.3 millionteachers and many more in servicerequire further training and development.This is a huge number, and despitesignificant improvements in the States ofBihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan andUttar Pradesh, the research by De et al(2011) reported that in these states

of confidence on the ability of distanceeducation institutions to offer training of asufficiently high quality has resulted inbuilding more teacher training institutionsknowing well that a bricks and mortarapproach can never train enough teachers.But the rapid expansion of bricks andmortar colleges undermines the need forquality and quantity as faculty lackadequate training and preparation fortheir roles.

A conventional problem solving approachunderpinned by a conventional approachto teaching and learning can’t address theteacher quality and quantity issue in Indiatoday. Taking people out of theircommunities to learn about how to workin them is, I argue, fundamentally flawed.Learning about most things – how tocommunicate, interact, behave and so onis a local, communal, activity. Bringingpeople together – in the way that we takepeople away from their communities andbring them together in lecture halls - as aformal learning experience is notparticularly effective at changing the waywe do things in practice.

When we look at the world today we seea very different approach to learning. Wesee significant rise in the use of socialmedia and collaborative online tools:Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia are all nowcommonly used. We now have the toolsto collaborate and communicate in waysthat previous generations would findimpossible to comprehend. Andfortunately for us, it’s this ability to

Enrolment doesn’t mean attendance;

Attendance doesn’t imply learning;and

Mindless rote learning stilldominates.

Put simply: India requires more teacherswho are better trained, in a system thatembeds learning to teach in the context ofthe classroom and changes the way thatteachers teach and children learn andmotivates both children and teachers toturn up to school. But while this can beput simply, solutions are hard to come by.

Rittel, Horst and Webber (1973) talkabout ‘wicked’ problems. Wickedproblems like global warming, or globalfood security, are difficult to define andit’s impossible to see the start or even theend of them. The important thing torecognize about ‘wicked’ or ‘superwicked’ problems is that they’reimpossible to solve. You can only movethem towards resolution and the mosteffective way to do that is throughcollaboration and communication.

Take teacher education in India, forexample – a classic example of a wickedproblem. There is a huge need to trainmore teachers, but we seem to find it hardto think of new and innovative qualityapproaches to teacher training that willhelp us to address those needs. It isn’t justone single problem; there are many inter-linked problems, each with its ownsolution that just adds to the complexitiesof the problem. And treating it as a tameproblem - one that can be fully definedand solved through rational processes -will only make the situation worse. Lack

Take teacher education in

India, for examp le – a classic

example of a wicked problem.

There is a huge need to train

more teachers, but we seem

to find it hard to think of new

and innovative quality

approaches to teacher

training that will help us to

address those needs

3

collaborate and communicate that willhelp us to address the wicked problemthat is the Indian teacher educationsystem.

The horizontal axis: from one tomany to many with many

When the Open University (OU) in theUK first started in the late sixties, the firstgeneration of courses were based onprinted materials that were posted tostudents – with laboratory kits and so on –that came to be supported by late night orearly morning television programmes.Students in those days had to be verydedicated in the days before VCRs.Feedback was, and still is, provided bypersonal tutors on written assignmentsand tutors met groups of students face-to-face on a regular basis. The Universitydecided what knowledge was important, itpackaged it up and supported students ingetting to grips with that knowledge,testing them and then finally offering acertificate: from one to many. This, as itwas for most Universities then and now,was a knowledge one-way street. If wehad been creating an encyclopedia – wewould have been developing theEncyclopedia Britannica: a small group ofexperts deciding what knowledge counted

and then packaging it up for broadcast.

Over time – and with the advent ofcomputer access to on-line forums – the

OU developed moreinteractive ways offaculty staff andstudents engagingwith each other. TheOU’s pre-serviceteacher trainingcourse, the PostGraduateCertification inEducation (PGCE),was one of the firstcourses in the OU touse this on-lineapproach. In thosedays we gave acomputer to each ofthe PGCE students,which they thenpassed on to theschool that supported

them when they had completed theirstudies. 20 years later – that’s still arevolutionary idea!

During this phase of the University’sdevelopment, while the University stilldecided what ‘counted’ in terms ofimportant knowledge, students engagewith faculty and withtheir peers supportingeach other. In terms ofteacher education, thiswas often offeringresources, suggestingalternatives, respondingto late night calls abouthow to relate an obscureand abstract contentarea to a group oftroublesome and boredteenagers. This was animportant developmentat the OU – although we didn’t know it atthe time. Students had begun toparticipate in an educationally social waywith each other and with the University,supporting each other’s learning with

direct support and often through sharingmaterials and resources that they hadcreated.

And now, as we move forward 15 years,we see new social and online forms ofcommunication and engagement. At thisphase of its development the OU startedto offer significant amounts of itsmaterials on line (OpenLearn) andthrough iTunesU and YouTube. And whileiTunesU and YouTube are still one-waydistribution mechanisms (albeit with theopportunity to offer open comment on theresources) OpenLearn leads the way interms of open access student generatedcontent. In OpenLearn – we providesignificant amounts of material (withaccess to online forums). For example,one set of materials looks at mentoringstrategies for teachers in schools, with aforum where people who use the materialscan interact and a space where they can‘rate’ the materials – a bit like ‘liking’ acomment on Facebook. But there is also apart of the site called LabSpace – whereusers can post their own adaptations orembellishments of the materials for othersto use and to rate. The community itselfcan decide what counts as knowledge anddecides whether or not it’s useful. If wethink of creating an encyclopedia, thisnow looks more like Wikipedia.

From Encyclopedia Britannica toWikipedia, from Microsoft’s operatingsystem to Linux, from Outlook toFacebook – the World has changed fromone to many to many with many.

Figure 1: Pedagogical trends in the 21st Century (Source: Bean, Banksand Hutchinson, 2011)

4

The vertical axis: from distantlearning to close learning

On the vertical axis (in Figure 1) it’spossible to identify another trend –supported by a growing evidence base –that training and education is (mostly)best done in the context where thatlearning is going to be used. If you wantto learn to drive a car in Delhi – you’reprobably better off learning on the streetsof Delhi, rather than in a classroom –although it’s probably safer in theclassroom! The context is everything. Itdrives what you learn, how you learn itand how successful you are at it. Thatisn’t to say that there isn’t a role fortheory in helping learners to frame orquestion practice, but practice itself hasits own integrity and poses equallydemanding questions of theory.

It’ s therefore surprising that there are stillmany people across the World whobelieves that teachers can be trainedwithout going into classrooms. Learningto teach in these jurisdictions is atheoretical process with significantemphasis on learning content and otherrelated studies in the areas of philosophy,psychology, sociology and so on. I’m notarguing that these studies are worthless –and when I look at the reading lists ofthese courses I can see how interestingand challenging they could be. But I amarguing that these studies are onlyworthwhile in relation to practice if theyhave the context at their heart. If theydon’t, then it’s highly unlikely that it willchange the way teachers do things and theway that children learn things. It’s animportant point: protocols, ways ofworking, ideas, are constantlyrenegotiated and repositioned on theirway to practical implementation asdifferent people on the landscape ofprofessional practice engage with theideas. The ideas that policy makers haveat the start of the journey will always besubject to constant change, so that by theend of the journey they might bear littleresemblance to the initial proposal.

That takes us back to the second verticalcontinua: the movement from learningthat’s distant from practice to learningthat’s close to it. I appreciate I’m being alittle bit provocative here (particularlycoming from what’s conventionally calleda distance education university); butwhat’s more ‘distant’ – taking peopleaway from their practice and theircommunities and putting them in a largelecture theatre talking about abstracttheory or giving people learning activitiesto carry out and reflect on with theircommunities, in context?

To move the argument to focus morespecifically on the training and educationof teachers, what I’m saying is that thebest place to train teacher to teach is inschools, with theory that is closelyaligned to practice, that exposes practice

to critical questioning and that inspiresthoughtful and reflective responses andwhich also opens up reverse reflection,where theoretical understanding isexposed to the scrutiny of practice. I’malso arguing that teachers as experts intheir own practice (and I’m not sayingthat this is always what others might seeas good practice) have a great deal tooffer to the learning process. They knowthe daily realities of their classrooms.Their practice has its own integrity and ifwe want to change practice we have tofind ways to encourage teachers to sharetheir expertise and find ways ofintegrating different ways of working intotheir practice.

Let’s look again at the two framing trendsin Figure 1. Teacher education coursesthat live in the bottom left-hand cornersee teachers removed from their practice,perhaps to training centres, or teachertraining colleges, to receive centrallydeveloped training materials. Courses inthis quadrant should be able todemonstrate high levels of consistency asboth context and academic creation arelimited but they are unlikely to make asignificant impact on teacher practice forthree reasons:

1) It’ s a top-down approach that ignoresthe contextual expertise that teachersbring to their professional learning.

2) By ignoring this expertise, teachersaren’t helped to see how newlearning maps against their contextand will be transformed by it.

3) It’ s also a process that ignores thecreative capacity of the teachercommunity to support learning. Theteacher’s voice is diminished and theteacher is relegated to the role oflistener rather than contributor.

And, if you agree with me that the teachereducation situation in India is a ‘wickedproblem’, it won’t help the Indianeducation system to move towardsresolution.

To move the argument to focusmore specifically on the trainingand education of teachers, whatI’m saying is that the best place

to train teacher to teach is inschools, with theory that is

closely aligned to practice, thatexposes practice to critical

questioning and that inspiresthought ful and reflective

responses and which also opensup reverse reflection, wheretheoretical underst anding isexposed to the scrutiny of

practice.

5

The argument that follows is that teachereducation courses, projects andapproaches that occupy the top-rightquadrant are more likely to changepractice. They are focused in practice andon changing practice with practicalactivities that recognize the complexity ofrenegotiation. And they also draw on theexpertise and wisdom of the communityas teachers take a leading role insupporting the professional education ofother teachers.

But there are also problems with thisapproach. How does teacher educationdeveloped by the community addressover-arching and national strategicobjectives? How do novice readers andusers of the resources know what has aquality kite-mark? Zealots of the openapproach will say that quality is a matterfor the community. Through badging or,in facebook terms, ‘liking’ it’s possiblefor the community to recognize andreward expertise and support. But thereare real problems with this approachwhen you’re seeking such a significantparadigm shift in practice.

And that’s the starting point for the TESS-India project. What’s the best way to helpto move a wicked problem towardsresolution; that engages in collaborationand communication; that focuses onclassroom activities, but that alsorecognizes that, initially at least, thecommunity needs some support inidentifying best practice?

The TESS-India Project

TESS-India (teacher education throughschool-based support) is a DFID fundedcollaborative project led by the OpenUniversity in the UK that brings togethera network of teacher educators fromacross India to produce free, high qualityand infinitely adaptable resources tosupport a developing teacher and teachereducator community to improve thequality of teacher education and to helppartners to increase the numbers ofquality trained teachers.

Metaphorically speaking, we’re bringingthe best chefs from India together,working in partnership with the OU’s ownexpert chefs, to create a teacher educatorbanquet – but the food lacks regionalcolour, special ingredients and local waysof preparing and cooking the food. We’rethen inviting the teacher educatorcommunity to the banquet table to adaptthe meals and to share their own familyand regional cooking secrets. Some willtake some of the food and have a picnic;some will set a formal dining table andhave many courses and as the participantschange the meals and add to the menu andshare different ways of eating the mealswe’ll all benefit.

In a bit more detail:

We’re developing Open EducationalResources (OERs) to supportElementary teacher education inHindi/mother tongue, Mathematics,English, Science and Leadership andto support secondary teachereducation in English, Mathematics,Science and Leadership.

We’re focusing on 7 States and withthem we will develop an

implementation strategy that reflectswhat the teacher educatorsthemselves wish to prioritize, andwhat institutional support needs to bein place so that the TESS-Indiaproject can deliver transformativepractice-based resources tailored tothe different contextualized needs.

We’re going to ensure that the qualityof the materials developed, in formand presentation, will be of thehighest possible standards using asequence of structured collaborativeworkshops.

We will make ‘classroom-basedactivities’ for teachers the key focusof the OER materials.

The OER materials will be designedto facilitate teacher uptake ofinnovative and successful child-friendly ‘active learning’ pedagogicalapproaches.

We will integrate video and audiomaterial into the resources and makethese available for download or useon mobile phones and handheldtablets.

We will design a web environment tohost the OER resource network andfacilitate shareback, soft certificationand voting/reputation managementtools.

The OER materials will be developedin Hindi, English, Odia, Bangla,Kannada and Assamese to maximizecoverage and impact.

And finally, we will engage in robustmonitoring and evaluation.

Working from these starting points, theTESS-India partners will reach 1,000,000teachers by the end of the first phase ofthe project in 2015 with projected reachof 7 million teachers by 2025.

The TESS-India resources will be madeavailable for print, digital download(including DVD/CD ROMS, Micro SD

Metaphorically speaking, we’re

bringing the best chefs from

India together , working in

partnership with the OU’ s own

expert chefs, to create a teacher

educator banquet – but the food

lacks regional colour , special

ingredient s and local ways of

prep aring and cooking the food

6

cards that can be used in low cost mobilephones) and on the Internet. The specificdetails will depend on the teachereducation project priorities for each Statewhere teacher educators are able to adapt,amend and improve the core resourcesand share them back with the community.

Conclusions

To summarize, we’re bringing teachereducators from across India and the UKtogether to produce high quality resourcesfor teacher educators and teachers.Initially we’ll develop these in Englishand as ‘vanilla’ pan-India resources. Thenwe’ll work with State-based subjectspecialist experts who can also work inthe language of the State to engage in aprocess of ‘trans-culturization’. As aresult, all of the resources that have beendeveloped at a national level will belocalized for use in our 7 focus states.And then, finally, we’ll work with teachereducators to adapt the State materials sothat they fit the specific needs of eachstate.

All of the materials will be held on awebsite and we’ll invite the largercommunity to comment, to add resourcesand perspectives and, through a parallellab space, invite the community to adaptand refine resources, or even provide new

materials. The community will be able to‘like’ or vote on the new or revisedmaterials and contributors will be able tobuild their reputational status. And, if theamended or new resources get sufficientsupport from the community, a centralteam will be able to quality assure thecontent and adapt it for inclusion on thekite-marked site.

Through this process, we aim to engagethe wider community while still offeringresources that are of an internationallyhigh level. The ultimate aim would be towithdraw from this central control and

open it up fully to the community. But,given the issues I’ve raised in thiscolumn, and of the need for a paradigmshift in teaching and learning approachesin India, we think this half-way house is aprudent first step.

And, looking again at Figure 1, while thisisn’t a project that’s in the very top right-hand corner of the top right-handquadrant it’s a project that fundamentallyrelies on teachers’ expert knowledge of

their context and their active role inrenegotiating these pedagogicalapproaches in this context. It’s anapproach that also engages with theteacher educator and teacher communityat large, inviting and encouraging theirengagement, providing a platform fromwhich they can share their expertise,engage in a bigger community andactively support each other’s’development.

Working collaboratively; seeing teachersas the solution rather than the problem;helping them to support each other with afocus on learning in the classroom;developing, sharing and capitalizing onthe wisdom of teachers, is the only way,we believe, that significant and lastingchange can be made to teacher educationin India.

ReferencesBean, M., Banks, F. and Hutchinson, S. (2011) ‘Open learning for Open Societies: The Role British Institutions can play in the Indian Human Resources

Revolution’ in J. Johnson and R. Kumar (Eds) Reconnecting Britain and India: Ideas for an Enhanced Partnership, Academic Foundation , New Delhi, India.

De, A., Khera, R., Samson, M., Kumar, S (2011) PROBE revisited: A Report on Elementary Education in India, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Rittel, Horst, and Webber (1973); “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning,” pp. 155–169, Policy Sciences, Vol. 4, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company,Inc., Amsterdam. [Reprinted in N. Cross (ed.), Developments in Design Methodology, J. Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1984, pp. 135–144.]

Surowiecki, J (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies andNations Little, Brown

CEMCA offers internship to graduate and post-graduate students to gain work experience in thearea of CEMCA’s field of competence and enhancetheir academic knowledge through practical work

Internship Availableassignments. Internships are available for 2-6 sixmonths, and should be part of the learning anddevelopment plan of the candidate. For details visitKnowledge Management page at CEMCA Website.

Dr. Steve Hutchinson is the Director ofthe Open University’s TESS-India(Teacher Education through School-Based Support in India) project. Prior tothis, he was Director of the OU’s pre-service teacher education course, thePGCE, and Director of the PracticeBased Professional Learning Centre ofExcellence. He can be reached at<Steven.Hutchinson@open.ac.uk>

We aim to engage the wider

community while still offering

resources that are of an

internationally high level

7

MKCL and eB.Ed. ProgrammeBy Prof. M. N. Deshmukh

Spotlight On...

Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd(MKCL), a state government sponsoredcorporation, a business house establishedfor propagation of mass computer literacywith the major shareholders --Maharashtra State Govt. and all theUniversities in Maharashtra has offeredmajor technology support for onlineteacher education programme, in the formof e Platform and Support Services(ePASS).

MKCL is a unique institution in thecountry which has a great success story totell. Within a short span of a decade, ithas built huge capacity and enrichedinfrastructural, financial, human andintellectual resources for the state byproviding learning, governance andempowerment services to people with anetwork coverage in all metropolitan,urban, semi-urban, rural, tribal and hillyareas of the state with a network of over5000 Authorized LearningCenters equipped with more than 35,000computers and state-of-the-art hardware,software and internet connectivity.

MKCL has made more than six millionyouth computer literate at a veryaffordable cost through its MS-CITcourse since 2001. MKCL is alsoproviding direct facilitation services tomore than a million university studentsstudying in 11 state universities through

its Digital University Framework. It notonly helps other state Governments toestablish similar corporations likeRajasthan Knowledge CorporationLimited, but other countries also takesupport from MKCL in establishingsimilar organizations.

MKCL made all its capacities andsystems available to I-CONSENT (IndianConsortium for Educational

Transformation) for development anddeployment of e-B.Ed. programmethrough its ePASS including mechanismsand management tools and techniques like

E-Learning Resources for All (ERA) -- aLearning Management System (LMS) forthe students. Technical support serviceswere available to course teams fordesigning, developing, deploying anddelivering, using and updating the

courseware and learning materials in theform of Open Educational Resources(OER). It supported ‘Social Wealth’created through learning activities ofpedagogic innovation with constructivisteducation. This platform is useful also forcreating Primary and SecondaryNetworks of students, tutors and mentors,and the partner organizations.

eB. Ed. (E-Education)Programme

This programme is designed as a newparadigm suitable for a connected societyin which learning-working–developing isintegrated. This is a degree course about“e-Education” and it is also an e-learningprogramme. This course is to provide on-line, packaged ICT based alternativeteacher preparation programme fortraining of large number of teachers usingnetwork and Tech-MODE (TechnologyMediated Open and Distance Education).It is accessible to any learner (A3 learner- anyone, anywhere, anytime), particularlywhen this vast number is infested withnumerous disparities and divides, as inIndian situation.

The pilot run of this programme wasconducted for two years through threestudy centers and access centersorganized with the help of associate

universities and organizations andnetwork of local mentors and national andinternational experts on the panel ascentral resource grid, using all theadvanced technology and expertise at

8

MKCL e.g., ERA, e-platform ofMKCL, Learning ContentManagement System (LCMS),etc. The pilot batch of 47 studentshas successfully completed theprogramme with highly gratifyingexperiences for both, the learners,as well as, the course teams.

Challenges and Issues forInnovative TeacherEducation Programme

While developing this programmesome concerns in the field cameup. For example, educators, aswell as, the students of thisprogramme were a product ofconventional F2F schooling. De-learningand re-learning was little difficult forthem.

Work culture and study habits of studentsand mentors are not very conducive tolearning and working in onlineenvironment. They are accustomed tonon-reflective learning. Initially theyfound it difficult to cope up with therequirements of the programme like selfstudy, reflective thinking, group working,independent working / working with theperson-person and machine-personactivities, and use of ICT.

The course writers had to undergo aprocess of un-learning conventionalteaching and content-centric pedagogyorientation, learning and usingconstructivist pedagogy, orienting insituated learning design, working forcreating real life situations, developing

courses, producing the programme, fieldtesting the programme, getting feedbackand updating the courses and finalizingthe programme for global marketing.

It was very difficult for participants toremain on the new line of thinking. Theywere constantly going back to oldcontent-centric pedagogical approachesand ways of thinking and working. Manytimes, after working for several monthsand then realizing that the work is notwhat was expected and again restartingfrom ground zero was quite frustrating tothem.

On the hindsight, every one realized,including the course developers, a changein their thinking and insights developedduring the two years of working togetherin the B.Ed. (e-Education) project.Results of the pilot run were very positiveand promising.

The programme addresses some of the

questions: How to adopt‘development centric-learning-centric model’ which willprovide learning fordevelopment, through real lifeproblem situations of which thelearner is a part? How to adopt‘Experiential, contextuallearning’ model to integrate theprocess of educationaltransformation in the system of‘living-working-learning-developing-transforming’together in a connected society?How to create large techno-social structures for thistransformation?

Conclusion

A novel innovative teacher educationprogram is developed, tried out and fieldtested with a considerable success andgreat potentialities which may prove to bea very strong alternative to a mainstreamconventional teacher educationprogramme, a model which may providesolutions to number of problems ofteacher training faced by manydeveloping countries, particularly,Commonwealth countries.

MKCL is trusted and valued member ofthe I-CONSENT which offers eB.Ed.programme in partnership with theYashwantrao Chavan Maharastra OpenUniversity, Nashik.

Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited

ICC Trade Tower,‘A’ Wing, 5th Floor, Senapati Bapat Road,Shivajinagar, Pune - 411 016, Maharashtra, IndiaTel. No. : +91 20 4011 4500 / 4501Fax No. : +91 20 2563 0302e-Mail : mkcl(@)mkcl.orghttp://www.mkcl.org/

I-Consent

A wing, 5th Floor, International Convention Center,Senapati Bapat Road,Pune - 411016, Maharashtra, Indiahttp://www.mkcl.org/iconsent/index.html

This write-up has been prepared by Prof.M. N. Deshmukh, Member Secretary, I-Consent, who can be reached at<mndeshmukh11@hotmail.com>

9

While the World Wide Web is full of information for teachers and teacher educators, we present to you a select list of links thatare useful to keep as bookmark. All the links were active at the time of going to the press.

BBC Teachers site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/

Commonwealth of Learning Resources: http://www.col.org/RESOURCES/Pages/default.aspx

Curriki: http://welcome.curriki.org/

Discovery Education: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/

International Council on Education and Teaching: http://icet4u.org/

Khan Academy: http://www.khanacademy.org/

Librar y of Congress Teacher Resources: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/

MERLOT : http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Micr osoft in Education: http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/Pages/index.aspx

NASA Education Program: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/about/index.html

National Geographic Education: http://education.nationalgeographic.co.in/education/teaching-resources/?ar_a=1

OER Commons: http://www.oercommons.org/

Smithsonian Education: http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/

Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: http://www.tessafrica.net/

Teachers; Domain: http://www.teachersdomain.org/

TeachersFirst: http://teachersfirst.com/index.cfm

UNESCO Recommendations on status of Teachers: http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-binulis.pl?catno=160495&set=504F3518_1_339&gp=1&lin=1&ll=1

UNESCO Teacher Education: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/education-building-blocks/teacher-education/

Vidya Online: http://www.vidyaonline.net/

WikiEducator: http://wikieducator.org/Main_Page

World Teachers’ Day: http://www.5oct.org

Worth While Web

10

Consultation on CommunityRadio Technology ProgrammeAn expert roundtable was organised on 4-5 October 2012that brought representatives of different stakeholdersinvested in the sector like Ministry of Information andBroadcasting, Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd(BECIL), International organisations, CRS Representatives,NGOs, manufacturers of broadcast equipment and stationmanagement software, with the purpose of setting theexpectations for the programme and defining its scope.Prof. Santosh Panda, STRIDE, IGNOU guided the processof evolving the programme curriculum as per the DistanceEducation Council (DEC) standards and procedures foroffering self-learning academic programmes. Across theboard, the initiative was hailed as timely and much neededand over two days, stakeholders stated their vision and

COL Support to ICTCE2012The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) supported theInternational Conference on ICT Culture in Education 2012organized by the Educational Technology and ManagementAcademy (ETMA) from 27-29 September 2012. With the

expectations from the course, based onwhich the scope of the programme wasarrived at.

The material development of Certificate on Community RadioTechnology will follow a collaborative process and is expectedto be completed by June 2013.

support of COL, CEMCA facilitated participation of threeODL teachers from the region in the conference. The

recipients of the support were Md. Mizanoor Rahman

(Bangladesh Open University), Mrs Sharifah Rosfashida BtSyed Abd Latif (Open University of Malaysia) and Ms. Sabina

Yesmin (Bangladesh Open University). Each of the

participants presented their research paper during theconference, and also interacted with the participants. While a

visit to IGNOU helped Sharifah to know more about the

technological practices there, Mizan and Sabina benefitted byinteracting with their doctoral supervisors at IGNOU.

Indian Delegation VisitedMalaysiaCEMCA supported the study tour of Shri T.K. Kaul, DeputyRegistrar, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Shri D.K.Singh, Deputy Registrar, Uttarakhand Open University, and Smt.C. R. Valsala Hariharan, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of HumanResource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India, for visitingOpen University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and Wawasan Open

University, Penang from 29-31 October 2012, and 1-3 November2012 respectively. Initiated by the MHRD, GOI, the study tourwas aimed at understanding best practices which are followed ingovernance, financial management and student support servicesby these two Open and Distance Learning universities inMalaysia. The study team visited different schools, divisions andlibraries of both the universities to get first-hand informationthrough interaction with the staff and observed professionalpractices.

CEMCA News

11

Radio goes Global with WebRadio InitiativeTo bring radio listening closer to the web listeners across globe,Newzstreet Broadcast Services Private Limited (NBS) with theinitial support of CEMCA has created a platform -“iradioIndia.com” that supports 16 community radio stations goglobal.

The Web radio project wasinitiated by CEMCA as a PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP)initiative. Between June 2011 toAugust 2012 NBS designed arobust audio streamingtechnology platform to supportCEMCA’s initiative. With thelaunch of “CEMCA Web radiofacility” web listeners not onlyaccessed entertainment shows,songs and educationalprogrammes of CommunityRadio stations but also itallowed educational institutionsto provide audio lectures through web streaming technology.

Normally, web radio involves streaming media, presentinglisteners with a continuous stream of audio that cannot bereplayed, much like traditional broadcast media. In this respect,it is distinct from on-demand file serving. There are two differentkinds of facilities which are being provided to different stationsby NBS. One is the “LIVE RADIO” and the other is “RADIOON DEMAND”. The stations can upload their content in theinternet platform and can allow listeners to pick and choose thecontent and then make their own play list and listen on internetplatform or they can simply stream their content as they run intheir respective radio stations and people can listen as per theprogramme schedule of the station. Internet radio is also distinctfrom podcasting, which involves downloading rather thanstreaming. Many web radio services are associated with acorresponding traditional (terrestrial) radio station or radionetwork. Internet-only radio stations are independent of suchassociations.

Web radio services are usually accessible from anywhere in theworld - for example, one could listen to a Bangladesh stationfrom Europe or America. For example, Radio Padma in theBangladesh is now growing in popularity quotient due to webradio. Web radio remains popular among expatriates andlisteners with interests that are often not adequately served bylocal radio stations.

NBS has got adequate strength to support at least 1000 radiostations on the internet platform. NBS provided all kind ofsupport including technology, human resources, and maintenanceto community radio stations in the CEMCA project that ended in2012. While NBS is continuing to provide the services to thestations on one-to-one basis, CEMCA has discontinuedsupporting the direct maintenance costs to NBS, as it believesthat such an initiative should be self-sustaining, and participatingstations can pay the small service fees directly to NBS.

CEMCA considers that the webradio revolution needs to growin India and the Commonwealthcountries of Asia. It may benoted that starting a communityradio stations requiresappropriate permission andlicence from governmentagencies for transmission ofradio waves. Whereas, anyonecan create a web radio stationon the Internet and continuestreaming audio/voice. Thistechnology has the potential tomake Indian educational

institutions global in a cost effective way by allowing them toshare their audio lectures online (live or on-demand basis). Webradio will also help create more radio stations, where there is ascarcity of spectrum for traditional radio stations. CEMCA willcontinue to promote awareness about Web Radio throughinstitutional capacity building and advocacy for web radio. (withinputs from NBS)

Vir tual Open Schooling InitiativeLaunchedCEMCA in collaboration with the National Institute of OpenSchooling (NIOS), the premier open schooling institution in theworld, launched the Virtual Open Schooling initiative on 16October 2012. This joint activity will explore the possibility ofdeveloping a new model of educational delivery by integratingthe already existing excellent ICT infrastructure at NIOS. NIOScurrently uses ICT for Online admission, On-DemandExamination System, and Open Educational Resources. The oneday national consultative workshop held on 16 October 2012discussed the concepts and technology for virtual open schoolingwith the stakeholders, especially with the State Open Schools inIndia.

Dr. S.S.Jena, Chairman, NIOS while inaugurating theconsultative workshop pointed out that even today NIOS and

12

New Website of CEMCA LaunchedThe new website of CEMCA was launched by Prof. Asha Kanwar,President and CEO, Commonwealth of Learning during the 12th

Advisory Council Meeting of CEMCA held at Hotel Grand, NewDelhi on 17 December 2012. The new website is available atwww.cemca.org.in, while stakeholders can also access the same sitethrough www.cemca.org and www.cemca.asia. The new website isbased on the widely used Drupal open source content managementsystem. Thus, it has a variety of features such as social mediaintegration, structured navigation and increased usabilityexperience. The site is designed for web accessibility, and providesincreased interface to existing resources at CEMCA and COL.

State Open Schools (SOS) are serving to approximately 5million students only, and therefore, India needs to strengthenthe Open and Distance Education made of learning to serve alarger target group which could be only made possible byoffering programmes through VOS model. He also emphasizedthe importance of VOS in the context of Rashtriya MadhyamikShiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) for universalisation of secondaryeducation in India. Chief Guest for the inauguration of theconsultative meeting, Ms. S. Radha Chauhan, Joint Secretary,School Education, MHRD, Government of India stated that inthe 12th five year plan more than 90% of children in the agegroup of 14 years should be in School, and virtual schoolingcould be one of the alternatives to achieve this target. Explainingthe importance of ICT as an enabler which will provide relevanttools on a virtual platform, Ms. Chauhan also pointed out thehuge challenge of developing and delivering e-content vis-a-visthe common belief that a teacher cannot be replaced.

CEMCA also signed Memorandum of Understanding with NIOSon the occasion to facilitate the VOS initiative and alsocollaborate in the area of vocational education and developmentof Open Educational Resources.

Women students in IGNOU’sPGDEL to receive scholarshipThe Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia hasannounced 10 scholarships to women faculty members to pursueonline “Post Graduate Diploma in eLearning (PGDEL)” of IndiraGandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi.

In order to encourage use of online learning in Indian educationalinstitutions, and promote use of eLearning by faculty members,CEMCA will provide 10 scholarships to women faculty memberswho desires to pursue the online Post Graduate Diploma ineLearning (PGDEL), offered by Staff Training and ResearchInstitute of Distance Education (STRIDE) of IGNOU.

The Scholarship will be in the form of reimbursement of fullprogramme fee. Women teachers/academics from openuniversities, Higher Education Institutions, NCERT/NIOS/CBSEand other similar organisation are eligible for consideration, andare encouraged joining the programme and apply forreimbursement of fees from CEMCA with confirmed admission.

13

Case Study

Intr oduction

The recently developed InformationCommunication Technology (ICT)Professional Development Strategy forTeachers in Guyana holds thepromise of identifying a rapid, cost-effective way to enhance andoverhaul existing teacher educationsystems in environments with fewresources and limited humancapacity. As the name suggests, ICTis being used to leverage advantageby accessing quality free resourcessuch as curriculum frameworks,teaching and learning resources,and online tools. The strategyacknowledges the central role thateducation officials, teacher trainers,educators, and students play for itto be realized. It rests on anassumption that, by revising teachereducation to embrace ICT,improvements in studentperformance can be derived.

The Guyana Context

With a population of about780,000, Guyana is characterizedby a predominately rural population, withonly 28% of the inhabitants living inurban areas. Life expectancy is good,over 62 years for males and 70 years forfemales. Expenditure on Education in2007 was 6.1% of GDP, which gives thecountry a ranking of 28th in the world.1

The quality of both primary andsecondary education in Guyana, however,has been questioned. Research suggests itis only at tertiary level that functional

Implementing the UNESCO ICT CompetenceFramework for Teachers in GuyanaBy Neil Butcher and Andrew Moore

literacy is acquired. This situation hasbeen attributed in part to the low retentionof qualified teachers and the subsequentemployment of untrained and unqualifiedteachers.

In 2007, of 9,303 teachers across thesystem 42% were untrained. In responseto these statistics the Ministry ofEducation (MoE) has prioritized growingthe number of qualified teachers byproviding opportunities for both pre- andin-service teachers to gain accreditation.

As a crucial component of its strategy, theMinistry identified educationaltechnology, with concurrent developmentin teacher ICT competencies, as the agent

of change in this process. Consequentlyteacher education and training, supportedby technology, has been placed at theforefront of efforts to tackle ineffectiveteaching and low quality of learning inclassrooms. This is a challenge in acountry where only 27% of the populationis identified as Internet users.

The Ministry of Education’s ICToperational plan recognizes thatintegration of ICT into education is basedon addressing issues of content, access,competency, and the actual integration ofICT into teaching and learning, which isintricately tied with teacher and student

competencies in the availabletechnologies.

ICT ProfessionalDevelopment Strategy

The Guyana ICT ProfessionalDevelopment Strategy for Teachersshares the broader vision of theGuyana Ministry of Education’sICT Operational Plan that:

ICT and other assistivetechnologies for educationaldelivery will be supporting aquality and accessible teachingand learning environment at alllevels of the education system inGuyana. Further, most graduatesof the Secondary level will haveattained core competencies in ICTLiteracy.

The long-term outcomes of thisstrategy is to ensure that all Ministry ofEducation officials, teacher developmentmanagement and staff, school principals,and teachers are competent to harnessICT effectively to support high qualityteaching and learning in Guyaneseschools, with:

Most able to integrate the use ofbasic ICT tools into the standardschool curriculum, pedagogy, andclassroom structures, knowing how,where, and when (as well as when

Figure 1: Typical Guyana Primary School students

14

not) to use technology for classroomactivities and presentations, formanagement tasks, and to acquireadditional subject matter andpedagogical knowledge in support oftheir own professional development;and

A critical mass able to use moresophisticated methodologies andtechnologies with changes in thecurriculum that emphasize depth ofunderstanding and application ofschool knowledge to real worldproblems and pedagogy in which theteacher serves as a guide andmanager of the learning environmentand students are engaged inextended, collaborative project-basedlearning activities that can go beyondthe classroom and may involve localor global collaborations.2

The Strategy provides a comprehensiveframework and learning pathway forMinistry of Education officials, schoolprincipals, administrators, and teachers tobecome competent to harness ICTeffectively to support high quality

teaching and learning. Thislearning pathway uses theUNESCO ICT CompetenceFramework for Teachers(CFT) as its guidingframework. It seeks todevelop core competencesfor the key intendedaudiences for a suite ofprofessional developmentinitiatives, as mapped out infigure 2.

The types of strategyinitiatives identified in thedocument include:

1) Revision of the TeacherEducation curriculum toincorporate ICTcomponents at differentstages of initial and in-servicetraining, including subject specificfocus for secondary education.

2) Creation of a suite of ICT integrationcourses aimed at school managementas well as courses for ICT Schoolcoordinators and technical trainingfor ICT maintenance and support

personnel.

3) ICT awareness and capacity buildinginitiatives designed for educationstakeholders at ministerial andteacher education level.

Curriculum and MaterialsDevelopment Process

In developing the new curriculum theGuyana team used a method that provedquick and cheap to implement, butresulted in a comprehensive professionaldevelopment ICT programme. Byadopting and reworking the UNESCOICT Competency Framework forTeachers (CFT)3 the curriculum revisionand materials development team was ableto develop a curriculum that created alogical flow between courses run at CyrilPotter College of Education (CPCE) andUniversity of Guyana (UG). TheUNESCO ICT CFT also has at its core adistinctly education focus as it encouragesthe acquisition of ICT competencieswhile investigating issues around thenational education sector, curriculum,pedagogy, school administration andprofessional development. In developingmaterials and activities to support theUNESCO competencies the development

Figure 2 : ICT Professional Development Framework for Guyana

DevelopmentCycle

MapCurriculum

IdentifyOER

Revise

Create UsageGuides

Deploy

Evaluate

Figure 3: Materials Development Cycle

DetermineOER Usage

Advanced Diploma inEducation

(Two specialized courses on

ICT and on teaching IT as a

subject, plus ICT focuses in

other subject-specific

courses)

Bachelor of Education(Two specialized courses onICT and on teaching IT as asubject, plus ICT focuses in

other subject-specificcourses)

Introductory Stand-Alone Course on Use of

ICT in Education(Dedicated, generic CPD

course aimed at qualified,

practising teachers who have

not been taught about ICT in

their Initial Training)

Stand-Alone Course onICT integration in

Education(Dedicated, generic CPD

course aimed at qualified,

practising teachers who have

not been taught about ICT in

their Initial Training)

Specific Short Courses(Specialized introductory

courses aimed at practising

teachers, qualified and

unqualified, offered

alongside generic CPD

modules:

Use of Success Maker

TeachinglT as a subject

ICT maintenance and

support)

Initial Teacher Training Continuing Professional Development

KnowledgeDeepening

KnowledgeDeepening

Specific Short CoursesMenu of specialized CPD courses aimed at qualified,practising teachers:

ICT Integration for School Principals (both stand-alone and integrated into current course for principals)The Role of an ICT CoordinatorICT maintenance and supportIncorporation of new courses as demand arises

TechnologyLiteracy

15

team exploited free and open educationresources. They did very littlerepurposing of these resources but createdsets of student activities designed tocontextualise the readings. They alsocreated sets of facilitation guides to assistthe implementation of the programme.

Progress in Implementation

Significant achievements have beenregistered in implementation of thestrategy to date. These can besummarized as follows:

1) Module development. Two completeprofessional development moduleswere developed for implementationin Guyana (one on ‘TechnologyLiteracy’ and one on ‘KnowledgeDeepening’). These were then re-versioned specifically for both pre-service and in-service teachereducation, resulting finally in fourmodules4.

2) Professional development. As part ofthe module development process,several workshops have been runwith staff from CPCE, UG, andNCERD to develop the skills oflecturing staff to deploy the modules.These were also used asopportunities to integrate feedbackfrom staff into the module design.These professional developmentactivities were well received by

participants, andestablished a basisfor subsequentdelivery of themodules.

3) Moduleimplementation.The abovemodules have beensuccessfullyintegrated into pre-service teachereducationprogrammes atCPCE and UG, as

part of the wider Guyana ImprovingTeacher Education Project (GITEP):

a) At CPCE, the modules havebeen deployed in both 2011 and2012, to groups of around 200students in each year. The nextscheduled delivery of themodules at CPCE is in 2013,when the first module will bedelivered to around 350students. In addition, CPCE isoffering a Foundational ICTLiteracy module for studentswith no prior exposure to ICT,teaching them the basics of usingICT.

b) At UG, the modules have beenimplemented through thesubjects of Science andTechnology, having thus beendelivered to around 125 studentsduring 2012. Not all aspects ofthe modules have yet beenimplemented, as connectivityremains a problem, but the scopeof delivery will be expandedwhen connectivity is supplied(expected in the last quarter of2012). Encouragingly, around 25students have also completedICT Integration projects,demonstrating leadership aspotential ICT champions withintheir schools.

c) At NCERD, the module onTechnology Literacy has beendelivered to in-service teachersduring August holidayworkshops. These can onlyaccommodate 75 students persession, so the modules havebeen delivered to 75 in-serviceteachers each during 2011 and2012.

4) Development of case study andUNESCO ICT CFT toolkit. Flowingfrom the above activities, tworesources have been created: adetailed case study on the Guyanaexperience and a UNESCO ICT CFTToolkit. These have been distributedby COL and UNESCO throughvarious channels, including the WorldOER Congress held in Paris in June,2012.

Lessons Learned

The following lessons emerged duringimplementation of the Guyana ICTProfessional Development Strategy forTeachers project:

ICT Professional DevelopmentStrategy for Teachers Lessons:

- High level support of theinitiatives is key to success.

Figure 4: Screenshot of the Course’s CD interface. In this instance apage from Technology Literacy, Module 3 Unit 1

16

- There is need for a Committeeto bring key interests andstakeholders together forsuccessful implementation.

- The UNESCO ICT CFTprovides an excellent point ofreference for development orrefinement of developmentstrategies.

- It cannot be assumed thatteacher education providershave the necessary skills todevelop, adapt, and implementcourses aligned with the ICTCFT.

- ICT infrastructure is necessaryif a professional developmentinitiative like this one is tosucceed.

- A small amount of seed fundingis likely to be needed to initiateactivities to support technicalassistance and capacitybuilding to integrate thestrategy into existing processes

- Communication and advocacyas well as a defined Monitoringand Evaluation strategy areimportant to support theprocess.

Materials Development Lessons:

- Engagement in the process andadoption of the course materialsby the lecturers is enhanced ifthe product meets a real need orrequirement.

- Despite current advances in e-learning that use technology inever more sophisticated ways,the most appropriate use oftechnology needs to take intoaccount the context in which itwill be used. When assessing thecontext, both infrastructuralissues and human capacity needto be assessed. In this particularinstance, the paper-based

materials are possibly moreuseful than the electronic versionbecause access to ICT andfamiliarity with the tools is stilllimited for many students andteachers.

- Open Education Resources canoffer a cost effective route toacquiring quality teaching andlearning materials, especially inenvironments where resourcesare in short supply. It is not,however, a shortcut to thenormal materials developmentprocess. It requires time, someskill, and creativity to rework thematerials to satisfy a specific setof objectives identified by aCurriculum committee or body.

- The real benefit of using OER isthat once a ‘master’ version hasbeen fashioned from repurposedresources it can be legally sharedand distributed amongst a largegroup with no additional costs.Localized repurposing by thosewho wish and have the skills toadapt it can also be legallyendorsed.

Beyond Guyana

The partnership consisting of the Ministryof Education, Commonwealth Secretariat(ComSec), Microsoft, Commonwealth ofLearning (COL) and UNESCO have beeninstrumental to successful implementationof the UNESCO CFT in Guyana to date.Each partner has provided resources andcompetencies that created a synergistic

effect and mutually reinforced the interestof all parties which is a critical ingredientfor a successful and effective partnership.

The combined experiences of thesepartners in the revision and improvementof Teacher Education through devisingICT in Education professionaldevelopment initiatives has also resultedin the creation of a “ICT in EducationTeachers’ Professional DevelopmentToolkit”.

St Vincent and the Grenadines too neededan ICT in Education ProfessionalDevelopment Strategy for Teachers. Theirmain concern, however, was to deviseways to improve human capacity tosupport the activities stated therein. COLand ComSec helped to devise plans to:develop a cache of ICT in Education‘master teachers’ who would act asmentors to others and another to provideICT in Education training for SchoolPrincipals.

Both Trinidad and Tobago and Dominicawere supported through the developmentof an ICT in Education ProfessionalDevelopment Strategy for Teachers.Dominica also had need of a set ofbaseline survey tools to identify currentICT in Education trends. Samoa alreadyhad clear ICT in Education policydirectives, but did not have a clearimplementation plan. COL and ComSecprovided advice on these issues, and alsooffered access to a number of openlicensed ICT in Education programmesfor them to adapt and deploy.

Through discussion and collaborationwith teachers, teacher trainers andministry personnel in these countries,COL and ComSec were able to assemblevarious tools that comprise this ‘toolkit’.In addition, a resource produced beforethese activities – the UNESCO ICTCompetency Framework for Teachers(CFT) – provided a conceptualframework for activities in every country.

Each p artner has provided

resources and competencies

that created a synergistic effect

and mutually reinforced the

interest of all p arties which is a

critical ingredient for a

successful and effective

partnership

17

This Framework isintended to informeducation stakeholdersabout the role that ICT canplay in enhancing differentaspects of education. Theset of teachercompetencies described inthe Framework aredesigned to facilitateimprovements to schooladministration, teachingand learning, and teacherprofessional developmentthrough the exploitation oftechnology.5

Conclusion

The Guyana case study demonstrates that

digital resources and technologies can be

used effectively as a catalyst foreducational change. The potential

benefits that can be derived from

embracing digital tools and content aresignificant and can enhance teaching and

learning, administration andcommunication.

Where the Guyana Ministry of Educationhas been farsighted, however, was inrealizing that at the core of thistransformation was not the technologyitself but rather the people who would beexpected to wield it. These players can befound at all levels within the educationsector: Ministry, agencies, teachertraining institutions and the schoolsthemselves. Consequently, Guyana hasbuilt a professional development strategy

that meets the needs of alleducation stakeholders. Inaddition, the initiativesdesigned to capacitatethese personnel illustratethat digital resources suchas the UNESCO ICT CFTand OER as well as manydigital tools available ‘addvalue’ rather than imposingadditional burdens toexisting responsibilities.Educational technologypromises, after an initialinvestment of time andresources, improvedproductivity, enhanced

teaching and learning, more effectiveadministration and pervasivecommunication channels. The GuyanaProfessional Development Strategy forTeachers illustrates a potential pathway toachieving transformation.

Neil Butcher is Director of Neil Butcher& Associates and <neilshel@nba.co.za>.Andrew Moore a Project Manager withNeil Butcher & Associates and can bereached at <andryn@iafrica.com

EduComm Asia is your newsletter of useful ideas, views and information. From one issue to the next, weaim to strengthen the newsletter. The best way to do so is by keeping content diverse. You can help us to doso by becoming a contributor. Write to us about educational media news and other events that you wouldlike to see in the newsletter. All contributions shall be duly acknowledged and appreciated.

- EduComm Asia

Dear readers,

1 World Factbook. (2011). Guyana2 These statements are adapted from: UNESCO. 2008a. ICT Competency Standards for Teachers: Policy Framework.3 UNESCO ICT CFT is available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002134/213475E.pdf4 In Service international http://ccti.colfinder.org/education/ict-international

In Service Guyana - http://ccti.colfinder.org/education/guyana

Pre Service Inter - http://ccti.colfinder.org/education/pre-service-international

Pre Service Guyana - http://ccti.colfinder.org/education/pre-service-guyana5 Read more about UNESCO ICT CFT on the UNESCO website: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/teacher-education/unesco-ict-competency-framework-for-teachers/

18

SMART Tips

Using ‘Watchlist’ in Media WikiBy K. Gowthaman

The most common wiki for all of us isWikipedia, while WikiEducator isgrowing fast in number primarily withinthe community of educators. Both theseplatforms run using the Media Wiki –open source software that is designed tobe run on a large server. MediaWiki isextremely powerful and scalable softwarefor a feature-rich wiki implementation.Content of wiki is primarily enriched byits users. As it is a collaborative platform,users can contribute/update articlesavailable in wiki or create new articles.No one owns any page in wiki. As on 8th

December, 2012, around 51,019 usershave contributed and 19,105 articlesuploaded in wikieducator.org. It isalways difficult to keep track change ofinformation in ordinary web pages.Moreover wiki is a dynamic platformwhere pages created by you can also beedited by another user. In such a situationit is difficult to keep track of changes.However, Media Wiki provides severaltracking methods.

Wiki’ s Tracking Technology

Wiki provides various tracking methodssuch as Recent changes, Enhanced recentchanges, Related changes, Watchingpages, Watchlists, Page history, Diff(difference between two versions of apage), User contributions, Edit summary,Minor edit etc. Watchlist is one of theimportant tracking methods offered byWiki. Let us discuss about watchlist.

What is Watchlist?

The watchlist provides list of changes(addition/ deletion/ modification/updation etc) carried out in wiki pages. Itfunctions as a personalized recent changein a selected page. It can provide a list ofall watched pages as per requirement suchas reverse-order, changes made in dateand time. The default cutoff for thewatchlist is currently three days for userswith less than 1000 pages in theirwatchlist, and 12 hours for users withmore than 1000. (Note: This is a defaultprescribed by Wiki that cannot bechanged by the user).

Each line in the watchlist provides detailssuch as last edit, minor or major edit, date& time, difference between the currentand the previous version, editor’s username and the edit summary etc.

What watchlist does?

i) Last Edit: the last edit made to eachwatched page in reversechronological order

ii) Recent Changes: in the recentchanges, watch pages will be listed inbold to call attention to them.

My WatchList Link:

Log on to www.wikipedia.org orwww.wikieducator.org. You can seewatchlist by clicking on the ‘my watchlist’link in the sidebar. Figure 1 shows the‘my watchlist’.

How to set your page inwatchlist?

You can add pages to your watchlist while(i) viewing an article, and clicking the‘Watch’ link in the menu bar or (ii) whileediting an article, check the “Watch thispage” checkbox near the edit summary(Figure-2) or (iii) you can set yourpreferences to “Add pages you edit toyour watchlist” (Figure-3). Rememberyou need to logged in to perform thesetask, as these are personal settings.

How to remove a page fromwatchlist?

In order to remove a page from yourwatchlist by (i) view the article, and clickthe ‘unwatch’ link in the menu bar, or (ii)click the “My watchlist” link in thesidebar, and select “edit complete list”.You will be given a checkbox list fromwhich you can select multiple pages to beremoved from the list.

Watching a page allows you to receive e-mail notification of changes to it. Toenable this feature, you need to select “E-

Figure 1: ‘my watchlist’

Figure 2: Watchlist selection during editing

Figure 3: Watchlist in preferences

19

mail me when a page on my watchlist ischanged” at Preferences settings.

How to control the list ofchanges displayed?

Show/hide different types of edit: Youmay choose to hide or show minor edits,bot edits, one’s own edits, edits byanonymous users and edits by logged-inusers. Initially the default behavior for allof these is “show”. The defaults can bechanged using the options available onthe “Watchlist” tab of your userpreferences.

Time period covered: You can choosehow many hours or days you want the list

Dr. K. Gowthaman is Deputy Director atInter University Consortium forTechnology Enabled Education forDevelopment (IUC-TEFED), IGNOU. Hecan be reached at<gowthaman@ignou.ac.in>

of changes to go back, using the links atthe top of the watchlist. For the maximum(30 days), select “all”. For non-standardvalues, select one of the available linksand then edit the value after “days=” inthe URL. The default value, which mustbe a number of days not greater than 7, isset on the “Watchlist” tab of your userpreferences.

Enhanced watchlist: You can select todisplay only the last edit to each watchedpage (“Simple watchlist”). This iscurrently the default, but can producemisleading results. Having selected theexpanded watchlist, you can choose“enhanced” display mode, which groups

Research Shows

OER ASIA Survey Findings 2012OER Asia survey finding show the level ofawareness about Open EducationalResources and its use in Aisa. Thefollowing figures are self-explanatory andhigh percentages of respondents in thesurvey are unaware about CreativeCommons licensing system, and mostly

together all changes made to each page ona given day. You may choose to set the“Maximum number of changes to show inexpanded watchlist”

Hope that above description would behelpful for using the Watchlist trackingmethod in Media Wiki platforms such asWikipedia and WikiEducator.

Internet sources is the main source of OER use. For details andreports visit http://www.oerasia.org/oerasiasurvey

The graphics are drawn from the PPT report available in the

above website under CC-BY. Authors responsible for the reportare G Dhanarajan and I. Abeywardena of Wawasan Open

University, Penang, Malaysia.

20

Regional Round Up

Regional Symposium on Open EducationalResources

TESS-India ConsultationWorkshopTESS-India pre-operational consultation workshop was held inNew Delhi from 26-29 November 2012.

TESS-India (Teacher Education though School-based Supportin India) is a DFID funded project to develop high quality freeresources to support teacher educators across India. Focussingon seven states in India, the project expects to develop a set oflearning resources to support existing or new teacher educationprojects across India. The workshop in the week beginning the26th November was a vital part of the planning process aimed todevelop a curriculum framework for the writing of the teacherdevelopment units. The framework identifies the most difficultaspects of content knowledge and the trickiest area ofpedagogical approach for teachers in India, providing thecontent and pedagogical knowledge map for the resourceswhich will subsequently be adapted and localised and then

Educational leaders and practitioners of Open EducationalResources (OER) participated in a three day event at theWaswasan Open University, Penang from 19-21 September 2012to understand and share knowledge of the role played byemerging technologies in the context of increasing access,enhancing equity and promoting lifelong learningin higher education. Organized in collaborationwith DISTED College and IDRC, Canada, theevent was supported by the UNESCO, InternationalCouncil for Open and Distance Education,Association of Asian Open Universities and theCommonwealth of Learning, Canada. Majorthemes discussed in the symposium covered areassuch as institutional policy for OER, technologiesfor creation of OER, designing OER, sustainingOER projects and initiatives, and quality assuranceof OER. In addition to keynote addresses, therewere only about 20 selected papers presented in theSymposium giving scope to increased interactionand discussion. About 80 participants from all overthe world participated in the Symposium. Prof.Asha Kanwar, President and CEO ofCommonwealth of Learning in her keynote

presentation emphasized the expansion of the circle of OER asprogress in the last 10 year. Her presentation is available at http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2012presentations/Pages/2012-09-20.aspx

See also: http://www.oerasia.org/oersymposium

embedded into existing or new teacher education programmeacross India.

Dubai SCOP 2012The Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) of theInternational Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE)met at Dubai from 13-15 November 2012 in the spectacularcomplex of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed eUniversity (HBMeU).The SCOP conference focussed on Open and Distance Education(ODE): Barriers, Opportunities & Strategies Forward, with aview to tackle the various challenges and barriers associated withthe implementation of ODE from both an international andregional perspective. Participated by over hundred Rectors andVice Chancellors of distance teaching institutions around theworld, the event was a platform to discuss developments such asMassive Open Online Courses (MOOC), Open EducationalResources (OER) and use of Social Media to promote awarenessabout ODE. The meeting also discussed the strategic plan for the

21

ICDE in the next three years. With a mix ofkeynote presentations and small group work, theevent presented huge scope to discuss bilateral andmultilateral issues amongst the participants provingto be a great networking event for ODE. Dr.Sanjaya Mishra, Director, CEMCA represented theCommonwealth of Learning in the event andpresented one of the Keynote addresses. Dr.Mishra in his keynote entitled “Openness ineducation” called upon the Rectors and ViceChancellors to reflect on the concept of “openness”in their universities and develop strategies to createopen systems for knowledge transaction using newinformation and communication technologies topromote learning for development and foster knowledgesocieties. His presentation is available at

http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2012presentations/Pages/2012-11-14.aspx

Book Review

Open Educational Resources andChange in Higher Education:Reflections from PracticeOpen Educational Resources and Change in HigherEducation: Reflections from Practice Edited by JennyGlennie, Ken Harley, Neil Butcher and Trudi Van Wyk;Published by Commonwealth of Learning, Canada, 2012, ppi-xxiii, 1-291, ISBN 978-1-894975-53-7. Available at http://www.col.org/PublicationDocuments/pub_PS_OER_web.pdf

By S. K. Pulist

The world has been witnessing the exponential growth ofOpen Educational Resources (OER) during the recent times.The last few years have been instrumental in sowing the seedsof this new form of development, promotion, collaborationand sharing of e-learning resources across the world. Though,the developed countries seem to be more enthusiastic insupporting the new OER initiatives, the educationalinstitutions all over find it difficult to resist adoption of thischange and, therefore, need to re-ascertain their stand andreposition them in the new situation. This development hasaroused the need not only to recapitulate and consolidate theefforts made in this direction but also to put suitable systemsand practices in place for taking care of different dimensionsof the concept of OER including the legal and ethical ones.

The Commonwealth ofLearning and UNESCO areplaying a proactive role inproviding guidance in all newinternational initiatives. TheVolume in hand is one such

step ahead in the direction of

providing solution to many ofthe ‘legal, managerial,

financial, technical,

technological and pedagogical’issues arising out of the new

situation before the ‘practising educators’.

In the volume, the 28 scholars through their 15 chapters andseparate sections on ‘Introduction’ and ‘Conclusion’ have

provided a fresh insight to the concept of OER and its

application at different levels in higher education in differentparts of the globe. The case studies provided in the volume

focus on the experiences and practices being followed in

different corners of the world. The ‘Vignettes’ annexed tosome of the chapters discuss different dimensions of policy,

practice and reflections at international level to ‘capture more

personal accounts of OER experiences’. The ‘Introduction’provides an insight to the different initiatives taken in different

parts of the world and active role of UNESCO and COL in

taking the concept of OER further. It provides a historicalperspective of the OER movement which started in the last

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ways of identifying the challenges in use of OER acrossdiverse cultures and disciplines. It suggests for establishmentof an evaluation process for ensuring disciplinary and culturalrelevance of OER. Chapter 11 discusses the experience ofusing different educational resources on the web – both OERand non-OER with reference to pedagogical and learningprinciples. The changing role of teachers in the new setting isthe centre point of the discussion. The author cites a number ofexamples to substantiate his view. Chapter 12 concentrates onvarious methodologies of producing and sharing existingeducational materials with the rest of the world in the form ofOER. The authors focus on different issues involved inlicensing of the educational resources including the legal ones.They discuss different practices of sharing material in thismanner. The diagrammatic presentation of the models in thechapter catches eye of the reader. Chapter 13 continues thediscussion and takes it to other dimension with specialreference to policy and practice. The authors raise somepolicy issues while citing examples of the way institutions aredealing with these issues and uploading the teaching materialin the public domain.

Chapter 14 tries to analyse the OER policy adopted in Brazil.The author in this chapter shares the experiences of OERdevelopment project in the country that tries to buildawareness advocating for the OER community development.Chapter 15 presents a case study on growth of OER culture inNew Zealand with special reference to Otago Polytechnic,nurturing the development of an OER ecosystem with‘government interventions, institutional innovations andinternational partnerships’.

The volume reaffirms the contribution of the OER movementin higher education from global perspective in a big way. Theexperiences shared by the contributors can prove to be ofimmense help to the beginners who want to make headway inthe area of OER development and sharing the resources withthe rest of the world following an appropriate licensing policy.The new institutions will find it easy to frame and adopt apolicy on OER development and promotion following theexperiences discussed in the book. Surely it will facilitate thepolicy-makers and educational practitioners in viewing themovement from a dif ferent perspective and exploringpossibilities for making qualitative difference in the way thehigher education is imparted globally.

Dr. S. K. Pulist is Deputy Director at Distance EducationCouncil, IGNOU, New Delhi. He can be reached at<skpulist@ignou.ac.in>

decade. The ‘Conclusion’ on the other hand sums up thediscussions taken up in different chapters very nicely.

An overview of the variety of topics discussed in differentchapters will prove the worth of the book. Chapter 1 discussesthe prevalent issues emerging out from the workshopsorganised in different countries focussing on different aspectsof OER laying emphasis on finding ‘innovative ways tosupport the creation and use of quality resources andpromotion of quality teaching practices in higher education’.Chapter 2, describes the most typical barriers and challengesto the development and repurposing of OER as identifiedthrough surveys undertaken by UNESCO aiming ‘atinvestigating the prerequisites, challenges and opportunitiesfor the production and use of OER in the non-Englishspeaking countries of the Commonwealth of IndependentStates’.

Chapter 3 discusses the major OER initiatives which havetaken place in India, with emphasis on government’scommitment to OER development. The author focuses onsome major initiatives which have taken place following therecommendations of the ‘National Knowledge Commission’ inthe country. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 provide empirical accountbased on case studies of OER projects in Africa. Chapter 4specifically studies the different aspects of production andpromotion of health OER at the University of Ghana (UG) andKwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST). In Chapter 5, the case study by South AfricanInstitute of Distance Education provides evidence to supportthe argument that experts driven institutional collaborations inmaterials designing and emphasises that this practice canresult in development of high-quality cost-effective OERwhich would be useful in ‘diverse educational contexts’.

While Chapter 6 covers the task of OER development in thecore subjects for teacher education across 13 institutions innine Sub-Saharan countries, Chapter 7 analyses the OpenEducational Quality Initiative framework methodologyreflecting on its use to promote open education practices.Chapter 8 takes-up the practical and legal issues involved insurfing OER for some specific purposes. Chapter 9 analysesthe issues concerning the design and development of OERfrom a student’s perspective. The author argues that the ‘openavailability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability ofOER is likely to change the teacher–student and student–student relationships away from the more traditional, teacher-centred, “sage on the stage” face-to-face mode to a morelearner-centred, “guide on the side” blended learning mode’.

Chapter 10 presents an overview of cultural and disciplinary

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ISSN 0972-284X

is normally published quarterly by

Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for

Asia (CEMCA).

CEMCA, a regional centre of theCommonwealth of Learning (COL)

Vancouver, Canada, is an international agency.

CEMCA’s mission is to promote themeaningful, relevant and appropriate use ofICTs to serve the educational and trainingneeds of Commonwealth member states of

Asia. For more information,

visit us at:

13/14, Sarv Priya Vihar

New Delhi 110 016 India

please call us at:

0091 11 2653 71460091 11 2653 71480091 11 2651 6681

Our Fax No. is

0091 11 2653 7147or visit our website:

http://www.cemca.org.ine-mail: admin[at]cemca[dot]org

Editor -in-ChiefSanjaya Mishra, PhD

Editorial CoordinationRukmini Vemraju

Nutan Bharati

LayoutSabyasachi Panja

Printed and Published byR. Thyagarajan

For and on behalf of CEMCA

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New Delhi

You are welcome to reproduce or translateany material in this newsletter. Please credit

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newsletter are only for information and do notmean endorsement by CEMCA or COL.

Forthcoming Events

4th International Conference onE-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning-IC4E

IC4E is an international forum for state-of-the-art research in e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning.2013 4th International Conference on e-Education, e-Business, e-Managementand e-Learning (IC4E 2013) will be heldin Dubai, UAE during January 19-20,2013.

For further details contact:

Secretary of IC4E 2013Address: Room5, 6/F., Shun OnCommercial Building, 112-114 DesVoeux Road, Central, Hong Kong.Tel : 86-28-86528478 (China Branch)IC4E 2013E-mail: ic4e@iedrc.orgIC4E 2013website:http://www.iedrc.org/ic4eIEDRCWebsite: http://www.iedrc.org/

2013 International Conferenceon Information and EducationTechnology

The International Conference onInformation and Education Technologywhich will be held during 12-13 January2013, in Bruxelles, Belgium. ICIET 2013aims to bring together researchers,scientists, engineers, and scholar students

to exchange and share their experiences,new ideas, and research results about allaspects of Information and EducationTechnology, and discuss the practicalchallenges encountered and the solutionsadopted.

For further information, contact:

Email: iciet@iacsit.orgTel: +86-28-8652-8298Website: http://www.iciet.org/

6th Annual InternationalSymposium for EmergingTechnologies for OnlineLearning

The A A conference devoted to theemerging and innovative uses oftechnology designed to improve teachingand learning online, the 6th AnnualInternational Symposium for EmergingTechnologies for Online Learning will beheld from April 9-11, 2013 at PlanetHollywood Resort - Las Vegas, Nevada.

For more information, see:

http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2013/et4online/welcome

Third International Confer enceon Learning and Teaching(TIC2013)

To be organized by Tunku Abdul RahmanCollege, Kual Lumpur, Malaysia from 21-22 October 2013, the objectives of this

24

conference are to promote collaborations,discussion and sharing of knowledge,experience and expertise on innovativemethodologies and strategies in learning,teaching and assessments, digital learningand teaching eco-system; and effects ofglobalisation on institutional policies andprofessional development.

For further details, contact:

The Conference SecretariatTARC International Conference onLearning and Teaching 2013Tunku Abdul Rahman CollegeP.O. Box 1097950932 Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaTel: +603-4145 0170 / +603-4145 0123ext. 447/212,Mobile: +6012-396 4948Fax: +603-4149 9253E mail: tic2013reg@mail.tarc.edu.myWebsite: http://web3.tarc.edu.my/v1/tic/default.asp

The Unisa CambridgeInternational Conference onOpen and Distance eLearning2013

The University of South Africa in

association with Cambridge Distance

Education and the Commonwealth ofLearning presents the Unisa Cambridge

International Conference on Open and

Distance and eLearning from 30September - 3 October 2013 - Spier

Estate - Cape Town - South Africa.

For more information, contact:

Genevieve James

Tel: +27124296948

Email: pdrconf@gmail.comWeb site: http://www.unisa.ac.za/

ODeL2013/index.html

24th International Conference ofthe Society for InformationTechnology and TeacherEducation

New Orleans, LouisianaMarch 25 - 29, 2013

For more information, see:

Website: http://site.aace.org/conf/

The EdMedia World Conferenceon Educational Media andTechnology

is an international conference, organizedby the Association for the Advancementof Computing in Education (AACE) atVictoria, BC, Canada from June 24-28,2013.

For more information, see:

Web site: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/

E-LEARN 2013 - WorldConference on E-Learning inCorporate, Government,Healthcare & Higher Education

Las Vegas, Nevada: October 21-25, 2013

For more information, see:

Web site: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/

27th Annual Conference of theAsian Association of OpenUniversities

Conference Theme:

Leveraging the Powerof Open and Distance

Education for

Building a DivergentWorld - Today’s

Solutions and Tomorrow’s Vision

16-18 October 2013, Islamabad, Pakistan.

For more information, contact:

AAOU 2013 Conference Secretariat

Room-8, Block-7,Allama Iqbal Open University,

Islamabad, Pakistan.

Email:aaou2013@aiou.edu.pkWeb site: http://overseas.aiou.edu.pk/aaou.asp

25th ICDE World Conference inChina

The 25th ICDE World Conference will be

hosted by Tianjin Open University, China,on 16-18 October 2013.

Conference Theme: New Strategies for

Global Open, Flexible and DistanceLearning

For more information, contact:

The 25th ICDE World ConferenceOrganizing Committee

Tianjin Open University

No.1 Yingshui Road, Nankai District,Tianjin 300191, P.R. China

Tel: +86 22 23679937

Fax: +86 22 23678502Email: icde@tjrtvu.edu.cn