IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON QUALITY EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS

By: Dheeraj Mehrotra, Head, TQM in Education & Computer Science Lecturer, City Montessori School & College, Kanpur Road, Lucknow.

Introduction:

The marching trend of the computing arena has marked a revolutionary stroke to the

developing educational arena. With computers making a headway in every walk of life

with increasing software expertise, the very base of our social infrastructure, the schools

have had a good pace of advancement. The computer education has introduced an

interesting phase among the students. The result of the SAARC contest by the Indian

teams in the past years of schools has proved that it is more-so-over a true explanation.

Tomorrow is not far away to them when there will be more intelligent use of computers.

It is certainly through this mini desk top tool that the students can be best empowered

for creativity of operations for better prospects and overall development at all levels.

These machines are certainly going to prove as the indispensable substitute to pencils,

papers and books.

There is a novel nomenclature of Edutainment, the latest buzzword of the day, as the

conglomeration of education and entertainment, with each element playing a significant

role. With the series of operation research over it, with the development of various

software of educational nature have provided a boon to both the learners and the

deeply involved educators. For the learners, there is an impressing attraction towards

the educational CDs, and has become a fun filled experience. Along with, the

educators, the teachers are getting aided with this tool and has made teaching easier

and interesting. To provide an access to the pre-primary lots, the software has been

termed as ‘Totware’, to surprise. They are designed specifically to promote a quality

workstation for the teachers and budding tablets of prosperity, the students. They are

edutainment programs aimed totally at the needs and abilities of children as young as

two years of age. They are even given pace to use underactivity, bright colours, music

and sound effects keeping little children interested while introducing them to basic

concepts. The products in this category address a wide range of skills and concepts.

These programs are mainly supportive of exploration and experimentation. India has a

proud image before her academic gentry inclusive of trainers at large. The software

developers in the country have also not been blind to the needs of the tiny tots. The

smart march towards the year 2001 series has had an alarmingly interesting modules of

teaching aids through multimedia and virtual reality. The stunning example to cite is of

an exciting computer class in Bombay. As you step in, you find a classroom of tiny tots

peering at colourful graphics on computer monitors. Fruits such as bananas or

pineapples appear on the screen in various configurations. The children count the

number of fruits and then punch the figure on the keyboard. If they get the number of

fruits and then punch the figure on the keyboard. If they get the number of fruits right,

they are rewarded with a teddy bear on the screen. This novel way of powerful

animations and video, fascinating fagots, and exciting activities provide hours of

interactive learning. With this, the student workforce is bound to come up with unique

excellence like writing stories on the computers, print out their own books and learn to

use spread sheets and similar programs in math projects.

Literature Review:

Does the Information Technology Trend fetch Quality to Students ?

Accordingly, the quality upgradation of the institute can be shaped well of universal

acceptance through the networking of computers in the classrooms through Internet or

any other international network which would delimit the walls of the classrooms by

extending the reach of its occupants to other distant countries. It is being made possible

to even access to the libraries of the different universities all around the globe. Far-

fetchingly, some districts in America have installed voice mail system that allows

parents to call in the head of their kids or to hear the day’s homework assignments or

any other relevant information.

With this journey of excellence in academic arena, the next unique operation under way

is of accessing on to schools through computers sitting right at home. This is sure to

make even a bed ridden child attend the class. Also through this, to the level best, all

the children would use the school’s electronic resources for help with home work or for

independent studies. Like many other path breaking efforts these limited bids in

education technology too have considerable following skeptics. According to them the

software wizardry applied to schools will rectify the creation of haves and have NOTs’. It

is going to build up a huge information gap, with well financed schools at the one end

and those in remote cities on the other. But with the march of time this gap is going to

be filled up through developments. We as educators are to execute our expertise in this

direction to promote the essence of “QUALITY IN ACADEMICS”, for overall excellence

in the schools all over.

The succeeding image is certainly going to produce in the mass revolt from the

teachers, as with the aid of the intelligent machine, the computers, as they may fear of

being probable jobless. But this has again the optimistic view and approach as it is quite

clear that computers are ‘His Master’s Slave’ and can never operate on their own. With

the march of time and tide, the arena of the Information Technology has had an

indispensable role in nearly all spheres of life. To quote the factual concern, the

following proves the same.

The Year : 2020 AD.

The Location: ABCD Medical College Lab.

The Session: Heart Surgery.

The Participants: MBBS students and the Instructor.

And, with all this what are they suppose to do?

The instructor is due to operate on the heart of a person who, in reality, does not exist.

But the students and the instructor can well “see” and “feel” and the Instructor can as

well explain about the minute of the cells possible, with all the activities being carried

out in a typical heart surgery. In fact, the concept is of ‘VR’ the virtual reality, in action.

Secondly, the year 2021 AD.

The Location: A Castle in GOA, India.

The Scenario: Tobo, a primary school kid, with his home PC. What is he there for? Well,

he is seeing a real time display of the great wall of China in order to prepare for a school

seminar on the great wonders of the world. And, how is this made possible? Tobo, is

hooked on to a world wide communication network made up of home computers,

mainframes, super computers with huge database, telecom lines, earth stations,

satellites and cameras, all in sync to meet to Tobo’s specific queries.

Now, with the buzzing virtual connectivity through the net, there is a global opening of

new vistas in the commercial world. It has created a powerful ripple in the ocean of

information world, to allow everybody to share the information for sustainable

developments across the globe. It is also a facilitation for all the connected to develop

their own website for anybody to access around the globe.

All this has become simple and even possible for a common man without a sound

knowledge of computers - one once awful device. Accordingly, the technology has

extended human capabilities, which is fundamental to the successful usage of

technology. As per Kearsley’s theory of qualitative productivity, “Increased productivity

is a function of human abilities extended through the soft and the hard components of

technology.”

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY =

Human Abilities

+

Soft Technology

+

Hard Technology

i.e. any component on the right becoming zero results in zero productivity. Moreover,

any mismatch between any of the three components will lead to disaster. But, to the

high order grading, the appropriate technology, reduces training time, minimizes training

resources, lowers dropout rates improves proficiency in performance and increases

satisfaction at all levels. The way this very technology in the form of computers, known

as Information Technology, introduced a very important technology, introduced a very

important instructional capability as INTERCONNECTIVITY.

Today, in the traditional educational arena, the teacher performs different functions like

planning, evaluating and locating appropriate instructional resources, developing

complementing instructional resources, handling administration, laisoning with students/

parents/ administration and teach as well. In addition the teachers do have to take care

of slow learners changes in syllabi, discipline and adhering to the overall development

of the child.

Information Technology Trends in India and its Scope in view of the prevailing

Poverty and illiteracy:

A new concept featuring CAPES, i.e. the Computer Aided Paperless Examination

System has also been developed by the NIC (National Informatics Centre), Govt. of

India, to regularise and facilitate the examination system of the country. It is fool proof of

any leakage and traditional corruption. On the other hand, on the part of the teachers,

the computer with well designed software, has several strengths that make it an

effective instructional tool. This computer aided instruction is made possible by

developing in accordance with the internal process of learning. These internal

processes are alertness, expectancy, retrieval, selective perfection and perception,

semantic encoding, retrieval and response, reinforcement, cues and generalisation. The

more of these that are included, the greater is the degree of confidence in the

performance. Alongwith, the learner characteristics such as interest, reading rate, prior

experience and knowledge and job interests have been successfully used by designers

to zero in an appropriate instructional strategies. The interaction encourages

participation, allows for remedial measures and increases value added learning time.

The learning should exercise appropriate control in terms of convenience, preference,

review, exit and sound tests. The regular review of the computer aided instruction

material is essential to improve on presentation format and upgrade to ensure curricular

and programme adequacies.

The University of tomorrow will certainly be serving in the information society, this

irrefutable fact has important implications for the strategies each institution should

adopt as it enters into the next century due to the significant impact the information

society will have on higher education in general and each University in particular. It is

important that each University take full cognizance of the changes in the information

society and face one of the most complex of all campus planning operations pertaining

to acquisition, distribution and management of computing and related technologies.

Hence each institution must make its plans and develop its strategies to be proactive

with respect to the environment context and must not lag behind society in general and

other educational institutions in particular.

The big concern of the survival and success of an institution depends on the extend to

which it looks to the future, identifies the opportunities in the turbulent world around it

and adapts its special competencies to those opportunities. In general terms, strategy is

the fundamental means an institution employs to achieve a match with its environment,

or, alternatively, a pattern in a stream of actions or decisions which relates an

organisation to its environment. As we move forward, the role of that information

services assumes on campus will surely expand to accommodate the burgeoning

technology that is finding increasing use in Higher Education. Its role will not only be to

provide the traditional academic and administrative computer services, but to develop

standards for networking computer acquisition, data interchange, video transmission

and whatever other areas are included under his or her control. Attendant to this activity

will be the development of organizational structures and enabling policies that will allow

the nation to better utilize the technology to satisfy the academic goals at a large. With

the accelerating phase of the advent of Information Technology there is an emergence

of a new social order. This has made the need for computer literacy among the masses

indispensable. Rapid progress in the area of electronics and space technology have

contributed substantially to this phenomena.

What and why of Information Technology in Schools?

A digital computer is an electronic machine and a very powerful tool in information

processing. The computer can well store, retrieve, analyses and synthesize data or raw

information received from various sources to produce meaningful information necessary

in making decisions and solving problems. It has become easy to obtain information

about our bank and insurance accounts, train and airline reservations through

computerised systems. Several special effects are created in electronic music and

watch television programmes. Computerised zerox machines, washing machines, digital

watches and the like are familiar to nearly all of us. We are also aware of all of the

factories in which computer controlled robots perform various mechanical operations

and space programmes which are heavily dependent on the new technologies. These

are just a few examples of the kind of changes which have offered in our society in

recent years and the rate of change is only going to rise in the years to come. To match

the new realities of today’s sophisticated technology, there is a pressing need to

develop new skills to make the most of the new technology that is available to us. The

costs of introducing and using these new techniques, providing the necessary

equipment, and training people in their use have to be set against the old methods of

operation and the social consequences of making the changes. The children in our

schools were born in this era of change. They cannot see anything strange in these

novel approaches. The curriculum for all pupils in schools will have to place emphasis

on technological change and its implications. Such a curriculum should ensure that all

students are able to use technology to communicate effectively with and through the

computer as well as appreciate its role.

The information revolution of the twentieth century which has been brought about by

advances in the computer technology has created an information society in which a

majority of the labour force is expected to hold information-related jobs. Ignorance about

computers will rather render people functionally illiterate as does ignorance of reading,

writing and arithmetic. This means that our society will depend heavily on information

technology in many areas of work and personal life. Hence, the new task of our schools

is to familiarise pupils with applications of computers. A computer literate has an aid to

problem solving in a variety of disciplines. This familiarity essentially involves an

understanding of the use of facilities such as word processing, screen reading and the

effective usage of files and data. It also demands a limited comprehension of keyboard

skills.

Under this, keeping with the marching pace towards the promotion of literacy, the idea

of providing knowledge about computers in schools was put into practise in the country

through a pilot project called CLASS, (Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools) in

1984, by the Government of India as a joint venture of the Ministry Of Human Resource

Development and the Department of Electronics.

Percentage of Schools having Electricity in Villages ?

Planning of Automation in Schools?

Technology in Schools - how liable?

The interactive nature of computer based learning and the facility to individualise the

learning experience, the needs of the learner are the two most important aspects of

computer assisted learning. The capacity of the computer functions somewhat like a

traditional teacher through the use of a suitable educational software. In this mode, the

computer can be used to teach the learner through tutorials, drill and practice, games,

simulations or a combination of any of these strategies. Besides the computer can be

programmed in such a way that tutorial lessons can be given to the pupils. With this,

students will be able to learn at their own performance independent of the teacher.

Using quality educational software packages, good learning environment can be

created in schools. As such, it is necessary for all citizens to understand what

computers are capable of. Students should be aware of the many uses of computers,

such as their use in teaching-learning, information storage and retrieval. Any country’s

social and economic well-being depends entirely on how well equipped its people are

for a literacy-intensive technology in order to promote overall quality oriented academic

excellence. If computers can assist us in the teaching process then there is a good

reason to welcome their appearance. Hence, it is absolutely essential for all those

involved in education to become computer literate.

With the irritation of leakage of question papers of academic arena, there appears a

tough tasks to exist for the academicians. Accordingly, there appears to be a great

phobia of the mass designing of the question papers of N sets manually.

The advent of the intelligent machine has led to the specific indispensable importance of

computers in this regard. The question paper setting assumes prime importance of

computers in this regard. The question paper setting assumes prime importance in the

present education system. Keeping this concept in regard, there has been a recent

development in order to pace the usage of computers, through the concepts of CAPES

and QUEPS.

CAPES, the Computer aided paperless examination system, offers firing of the multiple

questions on the terminal to the candidate on a particular subject, with the questions

having been already fed into the machine by the authority concerned for the conduct of

the examination. This system allows no cheating as the probability of flashing out a

similar question to a set of two candidates is one in every hundred. Here the candidate

is not at all required to have any working knowledge of computers, simply he/ she has to

press the right alternative key on the keypad. With this, there is no need of the office/

stationary/ Invigilators etc. The usage of this system has revealed great success by the

concerned authorities. The results are much more reliable and speedy as compared

with the traditional type of examination.

On the other hand, the recent development in this regard is the QUEPS, which is a

prototype knowledge based system, for question paper setting. This system also aims

at modelling the human expertise, which is perishable, is affected by fatigue and

prejudices and lacks ability to duplicate with ease. Perhaps, in the domain of question

paper setting, deep knowledge may be available in the form of question bank containing

different types of questions framed on a particular subject where they are made

available in the form of units featuring essays, short type questions and the objective

questions. The QUEPS and CAPES offer the usage of objective questions in terms of

framing and designing items for testing.

The questions are stored in a dynamic database, where each question is stored as a

predicate containing unit number, question number and the corresponding attribute list.

The attributes are stored as elements of a list. List handling predicates are used while

comparing the attributes as also while updating the lists of each question given out

once. This is in accordance with the view that questions are never stored in the memory

but are addressed or referred only through question numbers.

A Study on Development of IT SCENARIO in Schools:

It may sound farfetched but the tests have revealed that it is more or less the true

explanation that these systems offer plenty of scope for expansion in terms of the

expertise contained in it, as also using more sophisticated mechanism to incorporate

advanced concepts such as machine learning. Also in this domain the level of

complexity of the system has risen up to the advanced levels of testing. A point which

come to ponder over the introduction of this HI-TECH concept in the field of academics,

is of the limitation of its’ being to the objective system only. This again becomes

tiresome for the subjective brand of system where every level of the answer is ranked

in a different manner independent of any particular answer, which can be fed into the

machine.

The quality in this direction is highlighted with the quick declaration of results,

regularization of sessions and all in all bringing out overall satisfaction of the students

and the parents. This further brings the profitable aspect of the organisation in long run

as more and more fame is gathered for the same and the rush of admissions produce

more revenue monetarily bringing boon the education industry at large. The capacity of

any institution entirely depends upon the efficiency of the office staff working in within.

Keeping this view in regard, it is one of the concerns of the management to give prime

importance at times. In any organisation, the quality of work undertaken entirely

depends upon the speedy conduct with the strong guiding motivation of the BOSS. But

unfortunately, this has lagged far behind due to the increasing level of work load over

the years to be conducted through the old tools like carbon, pencil, ruler and the hard

key typewriters.

Now, with the march of time, the very business environment has changed faster than

ever before. The increased competition among organisations has led to the reappraisal

of accepted business practices for higher efficiency. The attempts are being made to

meet the competitive threat by reducing cost by rationalizing production, shedding

labour and restructuring business. These are complemented with investment in

technology to improve productivity. But the huge bulk of commercial documents

generated by companies in the trading cycle still remain locked in slow, antiquated

paperbound processes. Documents produced by one computer are printed and posted,

only to be entered into the recipient’s computer - a time consuming, error prone and

costly experience of exercise, estimated between 4% AND 7% of the value of the

goods traded.

According to the principle of Electronic Data Interchange, a ‘sending computer’, usually

located at a customer’s premises, uses telecommunications technology to transfer

orders data instantly to the receiving computer, usually located at the supplier’s

distribution centre. The received order data is then manipulated and formatted to match

the order entry files in the order data base of the supplier. Next, the information is

transferred into other database, with the generation of any appropriate error messages

and/ or exceptions reports. This technology can be very rightly applied to the transmittal

of any business forms, including invoices and purchases orders. The ‘sending

computer’ stores and follows up on it. The ‘receiving’ computer automatically transfers

the data to the ware house, the factory, the accounting and billing departments and the

shipping departments. Similarly, in the institutional base, the orders of the different

books and deputed stationeries are accordingly ordered and assured of the deliveries.

The electronic data interchange is vastly implemented in the trucking, marine shopping

and air cargo industries in developed countries. Implementation need not be expensive.

All that a small organisation needs to have is a personal computer, a modem and

telephone line and the necessary software. The day is not far off, when this very

technology would create the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM), applicable to

nearly all small scale business arenas as well.

References:

(a). Blankstein, Alan M. “Lessons from Enlightened Corporations.” EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP 49, 6

(March 1992): 71-75. EA 526 563.

(b). Deming, W. Edwards. OUT OF THE CRISIS. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, 1986. 507 pages.

(c). Olson, Lynn. “Quality-Management Movement Spurs Interest in New Awards for Education.”

EDUCATION WEEK 11, 26 (March 18, 1992a):

(d). Rhodes, Lewis A. “On the Road to Quality.” EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP 49, 6 (March 1992): 76-

80. EA 526 564.

(e). Quality Learning through Quality Teaching by Dheeraj Mehrotra We are building the pillars of our

future generation and if the seedlings are well fed they ought to produce Quality Results. – Dheeraj

Mehrotra ...www.boloji.com/analysis/069.htm

(f). Dheeraj Mehrotra - Contributing writer on Boloji.com Opinion Attaining Quality Through Literacy

...www.boloji.com/writers/dheerajmehrotra.htm

(g). “Quality Education Through Information Technology” - Myth or Reality By Dheeraj Mehrotra. Be it

the last day of college or the first day to a nursery with the tiffin the only content of the bag, the story of

Computer can no ...www.addistribune.com/Archives/ 2002/07/05-07-02/Quality.htm

About the Author:

Mr. Dheeraj Mehrotra is the Head of the Total Quality Management Department and a Computer Science

Lecturer, at City Montessori School & Degree College, Lucknow, INDIA. He is a prolific writer/ author with

over 500 write-ups to his credit on IT and Quality Education Issues apart from 32 Books of Computer

Science as a subject for school and college students ranging from class I to XII. His major achievements

include implementation of SIX SIGMA in Education (Source: www.isixsigma.com). He is the Resource

Person for the Computer Applications for the Association of Schools for the ISC. His qualifications

include, MS (Education Management), M.Phil (Education) with Post Graduate Courses in Computer

Science, Business Management, Teacher Training, Journalism and Human Resource Management. He is

persuing his 2 Year PG Diploma in HUMAN RIGHTS. He is the recipient of the NATIONAL AWARD for

innovation in Education for implementing and Mastering Classrooms through IT and QCC in Education, in

the year 2003. His team was also awarded the Computer Literacy Excellence State Award. He was

recently honoured by the PRESIDENT of INDIA for being the NATIONAL BEST TEACHER for the year

2005 being recommended by the council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, New Delhi, on

5th Sept. 2006. He was also recently awarded for the Best Teacher of India by Education World (Poll

Survey) and Tata Consultancy Services towards innovation in Education out of 80,000 teachers as one

of the TOP EIGHT FINALISTS and the BOLT District Award by AIR INDIA and DAINIK JAGRAN for the

district of Lucknow. He was also awarded the YOUNG LEADER Award by the World Council For Total

Quality and Excellence in Education, during the 10th ICSQCC. He owes all his achievements to the

QUALITY OF WORK LIFE at CMS under the leadership of Dr. (Mrs) Vineeta Kamran and the staff of

CMS.

He has developed websites on Quality issues involving Information Technology, Human Rights Education

and Six Sigma in Education as: www.computerscienceexpertise.com,

http://humanrightsforall.wetpaint.com

www.sixsigmaineducation.com, His personal details are available at

http://dheerajmehrotra.tripod.com

Publications:(i). A Complete Course in ISC Computer Science (XI) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(ii). A Complete Course in ISC Computer Science (XII) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(iii). A Complete Course in ICSE Computer Science (IX) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(iv). A Complete Course in ICSE Computer Science (X) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(v). A Complete Course in ICSE Computer Application (IX) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(vi). A Complete Course in ICSE Computer Application (X) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(vii). Computer Science Question Bank for ISC (C++) (XII) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(viii). Computer Science Question Bank for ICSE (X) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(ix). Computer Applications Question Bank for ICSE (X) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(x). Computer Science Question Bank for ISC (JAVA) (XII) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xi). Computer Science Question Bank for CBSE (XI-XII) (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xii). Computer Glossary & Abbreviations (Som Sudha, New Delhi)

(xiii). Pictorial Computer Dictionary (Firewall Media, New Delhi)

(xiv). Shortcuts to success in computing (Firewall Media, New Delhi)

(xv). Pocket Internet Browser (Firewall Media, New Delhi)

(xvi). 1000 IT Quizzes (Firewall Media, New Delhi)

(xvii). Learning Computers- Class VI (Hans Publications, New Delhi)

(xviii). Learning Computers- Class VII (Hans Publications, New Delhi)

(xix). Learning Computers- Class VIII (Hans Publications, New Delhi)

(xx). Step By Step Learning Computers Vol. 1 (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxi). Step By Step Learning Computers Vol. 2 (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxii). Step By Step Learning Computers Vol. 3 (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxiii). Step By Step Learning Computers Vol. 4 (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxiv). Step By Step Learning Computers Vol. 5 (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxv). Step By Step Learning Computers Vol. 6 (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxvi). Step By Step Learning Computers Vol. 7 (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxvii). Step By Step Learning Computers Vol. 8 (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxviii). CBSE Computer Science for XI (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxix). CBSE Computer Science for XII (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxx). Information Technology for Class XI Orissa Board (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)

(xxxi). Information Technology for Class XI Orissa Board (S.Chand & Co. New Delhi)