Ssa Telengana TOER Workshop Resource Book March 3, 2015

Workshop on

Telengana Open Educational Resources Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Telengana

Resource Institution

IT for Change, Bengaluruwww.itforchange.net

http://www.itforchange.net/

Workshop on Telengana Open Educational Resources

This resource book has been prepared by It for Change as a resource handout for the Telengana Open

Educational Resources workshop.

For comments, feedback please write to [email protected]

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

March 2015

Participant Resource Book SSA – ITfC 2/60


Workshop on Open Educational Resources

Table of ContentsUnderstanding ICTs..................................................................................................................................4

ICTs – a brief history...........................................................................................................................4ICTs and their implications for polity, society and economy..............................................................5ICTs and implication for knowledge processes...................................................................................8

Why public software................................................................................................................................9The pedagogical argument for Public software...................................................................................9Promoting local language resources through local language software..............................................10The social argument for free software...............................................................................................11Best use of limited resources – the economics of free software........................................................11Software as a public good..................................................................................................................12Why Public Software is not yet popular?..........................................................................................12Why Public Institutions should use Public software?.......................................................................13Benefits from adopting public software............................................................................................13

Introduction to the ICT environment......................................................................................................15Basic hardware and software.............................................................................................................15Hardware – The parts of a computer.................................................................................................15Basic familiarity with ICT devices and artefacts...............................................................................16Operating your computer...................................................................................................................18Types of software...............................................................................................................................19Edubuntu operating system...............................................................................................................19Creating and managing files and folders...........................................................................................20

Internet as a learning resource................................................................................................................22What is the Internet............................................................................................................................22To understand the basic working of the Internet...............................................................................23Web browser......................................................................................................................................24What is a website?.............................................................................................................................26Search engines...................................................................................................................................27Google translate to translate English to Telugu.................................................................................28Learning web based tools like blogs, wikis etc.................................................................................29Explore 'Apps'....................................................................................................................................29

Professional learning communities (PLCs)............................................................................................29Email and Mailing groups.................................................................................................................31E-mail Etiquette.................................................................................................................................32

Creating Resources 1 - Text Editing .....................................................................................................33Making changes to the text................................................................................................................34Formatting characters and paragraphs...............................................................................................35

Creating Resources 2 - Personal digital libraries..................................................................................36How to organize a personal resource library ....................................................................................36How to evaluate an Internet resource................................................................................................36

Creating Resources 3 - Mind mapping with Freemind..........................................................................39Creating Resources 4 - Educational tools – Geogebra (Mathematics)...................................................43Creation Resources 5 - Educational tools – Simulations (Science) ......................................................50Creating Resources 6 – Using videos as a learning resource.................................................................54Creating Resources 7 - Image Editing Tools..........................................................................................56Open Educational Resources..................................................................................................................58



Understanding ICTs

ICTs – a brief historyMost of you student teachers must be using a cell phone to communicate, which even ten years ago

would not have been the case with most students. A cell phone is a digital information and

communication device, a part of the recent ICT revolution. Yet ICTs are perhaps nearly as old as

humanity itself, as human beings needed to communicate with one another, beginning with symbolic

(non verbal) ways, before language was invented. Language could be seen as first 'ICT', it enabled

(oral) communication amongst human beings. Yet oral communication had the limitation of space and

time, meaning that the speaker and the listener had to be in the same space and time.

Script was the next ICT, invented around 5,000 years ago1, which enabled information to be held

distinct from the communicator and be made available beyond the limitation of space and time that

oral communication imposed. (You would be learning more about the processes of speaking and

listening (comprising oral communication) and reading and writing (comprising written

communication) in your courses on language learning. Writing also enabled easier recording of human

history and thus the invention of script was a landmark in the history of ICTs.

Invention of printing technologies scaled up the 'writing' process and enabled mass production of

books. The invention of radio and television created the 'mass media' in which simultaneously the

same message could be transmitted to thousands of people. Each ICT invention enabled the processes

of information creation, sharing, storing and communicating to be easier, quicker, more efficient

(reaching more people) etc. Each invention was a significant event in the evolution of human

communication processes and in the explosion in the availability of information.

And we are now perhaps in the middle of the next epochal movement in the history of ICTs, the use of

digital2 methods of accessing, creating, modifying sharing, storing information as well as for

communication. Most of you student-teachers would have been born after the beginning of the mass

use of cell phones (the second generation or 2G cell phone technology was available for mass use

from 1991), towards the end of the first millennium, while many teacher educators would have been

born before this period! Since student-teachers have always seen mobile phones and computers

around them, Mark Prensky, who works in the ICTs and education space, says you are 'digital

natives3', who have been born in an environment with access to digital technologies, while your

1 (Schmandt Besserat, 1978), cited in “Communication Technology and the Evolution of Knowledge”, Journal of Electronic Publishing, Volume 9, Issue 2, Summer 2006, Hilary Wilder and Sharmila Pixy Ferris

2 Digital method refers to the storing of information in binary digits – 0 or 1. All information is stored in this manner. 3 Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants By Marc Prensky , examining the different methods by which children and adult



teachers are 'digital immigrants' who have lived a large part of their lives before mobile phones

became popular and for who these technologies may still seem unnecessary and unfamiliar. (For

student teachers, growing up in the digital technology paradigm, learning to navigate the digital world

is an essential skill). al, since digital ICTs have huge potential for doing good as well as harm. One

point to note is that, one technology does not replace the earlier one, rather the earlier technologies

tend to continue, thus creating a richer environment of multiple ICTs.

ICTs and their implications for polity, society and economy

Political

The political processes in most countries have been impacted by digital ICTs (henceforth, unless the

context requires otherwise, we will use the term ICTs to mean digital ICTs). Politicians now

participate on virtual platforms that allow them to communicate with people directly. For e.g. Twitter

which is a 'micro blogging' platform, is used by many political leaders, as well as government

departments to communicate its work and information. Mass movements have also used digital

networking tools to collaborate and support action. It is believed that during the recent Egypt struggle

for democracy, protests were coordinated using social networking platforms/tools, which made them

more effective. The counting of votes has now become a fraction of time, used earlier, through

'electronic voting machines' and in a large country like India with a large voter base, counting for an

entire constituency can be completed in a matter of hours.

Digital technologies also allow unauthorised access (even spying). Emails and documents can be

'hacked' and accessed. A large part of our ICT infrastructure is privately owned, and the companies

which often provide it 'free' (of cost) to users, may be using the information users feed, to monetise

the same as well as share it with others. The sharing of such information both authorised by us (when

we agree to the 'terms of use' of the software/tool), as well unauthorised, can be for the commercial

gains of the company (they can sell or hire this information to advertisers for example), or for political

purposes (to enable governments or other agencies to spy on us). There have been news items

recently that the National Security Agency of the US has been tapping into global information

networks and accessing private and confidential information from all over the world, including

communications of leaders of different countries. ICTs make such tapping much simpler and easier,

since the data passing over the global networks can be easily 'hacked' and a copy of the information

shared with the people conducting such espionage.

Thus the digital nature of ICTs can be both greatly beneficial as well as greatly harmful for furthering

learners respond to technology



human rights and development. Hence a critical perspective is essential, and as a teacher we need to

be cautious against the hype that surrounds ICTs, as a panacea for all problems. In this unit, we will

discuss the challenges and problems posed by ICTs, in every discussion on their benefits also, to

enable you to keep a balanced and critical perspective.

Socio-cultural

Since communication is the essence of social processes, the introduction of ICTs has dramatically

impacted most of our socio-cultural activities and processes. With the mass use of the cell phone, we

now assume that we can reach anyone anytime. This kind of access enables us to plan interactions /

activities in much more efficient ways. Even twenty years back, the best of possible communication

situations, one was not sure, if one could reach another person using a land-line / fixed line phone. In

the absence of email, the formal communication method of a letter sent over postal services

(sometimes derisively termed 'snail mail') meant a gap of several days before communication could be

established. The reduction in communication time, has opened up numerous more possibilities for

each of us (who are part of this digital world).

Social networking platforms are connecting millions of people to create 'virtual communities' or

groups. Such interactions with large number of people who may not be physically proximate, opens

new possibilities for friendships and learning. Of course, we also hear several anecdotes of how

people can be naively trusting of 'friends' on such networks and get exploited or fooled4. It is

necessary to exercise diligence and caution in making friends on such platforms.

The mass sharing of information through the digital networks is also perhaps accentuating and

speeding up the assimilation of dominant cultures, which began with the advent of mass media.

Wherever one travels, we can see the popular symbols – 'Mac Donalds' and 'Pizza Huts'. The

shopping malls across cities look familiar with the similar brands available on sale. There is research

to suggest that this process is undermining local contexts and cultures. UNESCO study has

documented the decline of local cultures and languages and tha many languages have become extinct

and many dying. As teachers, your role would be in resisting this, by promoting digital avenues for

storing and sharing local culures as well. For instance, the Wikipedia encyclopedia has more than 5

million articles in English but less than 1% of that in Telugu. Documenting local cultures, resources,

literature and sharing it in digital formats on public digital platforms is an important priority for our

society, one in which teachers would need to have an important role.

4 For example, see the news article http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/youth-abducts-girl-after-befriending-her-through-facebook/article5448768.ece?homepage=true in which a girl was kidnapped by her 'Facebook friend', see the section on Internet safety in unit 3.


http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/youth-abducts-girl-after-befriending-her-through-facebook/article5448768.ece?homepage=true

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/youth-abducts-girl-after-befriending-her-through-facebook/article5448768.ece?homepage=true


Economic

For several centuries, society was agrarian, meaning most people worked in agriculture, food (and

related items) production was the most significant part of the gross domestic product (GDP). With the

industrial revolution in the 18th century, industry / manufacturing sector became very important and

its contribution to a nations GDP crossed that of agriculture.

Society is changing, moving from an Agricultural society → Industrial society → Knowledge society.

The table below lists highlights relating to the processes of production.

Kind of society Agricultural society Industrial society Knowledge society

Basic production Food Goods Services / knowledge

Basic material Land Capital Knowledge / Information

India in 1950 (2010) 70.00% (15) 20.00% (28) 10.00% (57)

ICTs have affected the nature/shape of many industries and occupations. Typewriters, film role based

cameras have become extinct. Information based 'service' industries such as travel and tourism,

financial services, insurance, have been significantly impacted. Many 'digital' occupations have also

begun, such as software engineering, digital photography, system administration, desk top publishing

etc. In the work and education course, you could touch on some of these occupations.

The possibilities of establishing information networks which can facilitate rapid communications and

decision making has led to the creation of very large scale transnational corporations. They are able to

support decentralised working, yet retain overall control through by better 'Management Information

Systems. Such networks are also on the other hand, supporting decentralised production and

collaborative production projects, such as FOSS or Wikipedia. Yochai Benker has written quite a bit

about how ICTs are promoting new collaborative methods of production and his 'Wealth of Networks'

is worth reading.

Governance

Democratic Governments have in the past struggle to share information transparently with citizens

and also support citizen/ community participation in their activities. This has been to the large

volumes of information being generated and stored across thousands of paper files which has made

sharing difficult if not impossible. Slow modes of communication also lead to delayed communication

with the public. However, increasingly, governments are using ICTs to improve information

processing and sharing, leading to greater transparency. India has passed the Right to Information Act,

2005 and the use of 'pro-active' disclosure through the Internet is seen as a very important way of



meeting RTI needs. Apart from information transparency, transaction processing too has been

simplified in many areas. The land records in Karnataka have been digitised through the Bhoomi

project, which has made getting mutation information easier. Booking of travel tickets has become

simple, and in case of education, admission, examination administration etc. has also become quicker

and more efficient.

ICTs and implication for knowledge processesAs discussed earlier, ICTs have caused an explosion of information as well as provided new channels

for communication. This has affected institutions, structures and processes relating to learning and

knowledge. For instance, earlier, formal learning methods were either physical / face to face or 'open

and distance'. Now both have acquired digital elements to look more like each other in the form of

new 'blended models' of learning. Face to face modes have acquired digital modes of interaction to

allow for more intensive/extensive learning possibilities beyond the physical interactions. Traditional

ODL modes (which had very little interactions, and none amongst learners) are also allowing for

regular interactions amongst learners and with faculty through digital modes, that makes it more like

face to face programmes. More on this is discussed in the unit dealing with Professional Learning

Communities (PLCs) and Open Educational Resources (OER). PLCs can use blended models to

provide maximum support to learning.

Thus digital methods have opened up numerous channels for self learning and peer learning. 'Massive

open online courses are online courses aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web.

In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide

interactive user forums that help build a learning community (source from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course)

On the other hand, with more and more materials being available and accessed digitally, some vendors

have begun bundling select resources into proprietary devices and selling/licensing the same. Apple is

a leader in this effort, and has entered into contracts with many American universities, in which it

bundles thousands of resources into its I-pad device and makes it available to the students. On one

hand, this makes it easy for the student to access a large number of resources easily and such resources

would be selected through a process of scrutiny thereby enabling some quality benchmarks. Apple

also allows digital annotations etc of these resources which can be student modified material,

available on the same device for easy reference.

However, by restricting free sharing and access to the Internet, Apple decides what should be learnt,

thereby appropriating an important political and pedagogical process. This has implications for teacher


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course


agency as well as larger issues of educational aims. ICTs can be extremely seductive and keeping a

critical perspective will help us examine both the benefits as well as the limitations/dangers while

making our choices.

Increasingly the Internet, itself is in a similar danger of moving from an open place where all can

access all information, to walled gardens, where you can only access what the provider wants you to.

For instance, Facebook is offering, in many countries, free Internet access, but instead of to the entire

Internet, it is only to a few websites that Facebook allows. This makes Facebook, a private for-profit

company, the arbiter / gate keeper of the Internet to those opting for this. By creating a distinction

between the sites, it offers free access to, and other sites, Facebook is violating a principle called ''net

neutrality' in which all websites should have the same conditions of being accessed to. At a superficial

level, the offer of Facebook for free selective Internet access may seem benign. However, if more and

more opt for this, then the meaning of Internet would change for them. Having only a selective access,

as decided by a company (which could be based on its commercial considerations), can greatly distort

possibilities for a free informational space, that can promote awareness, learning, discussions, debates

– all necessary for evolving a democratic society.

Why public softwarePublic institutions support the public ownership of resources since that is essential for enabling equity

and social justice. Software is an important digital resource, and has a central role in the new ‘digital

society’ being created. Hence the public ownership over software resources that are essential to

participate in the digital world is essential. Public Institutions should therefore adopt and promote

such ‘public software’ to create such an eco-system of universal access to basic software as well as

community participation in its creation and modification.

The pedagogical argument for Public software“Constructivist approach to learning”

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005, produced by NCERT emphasises that learning

happens when the learner actively participates in the process of learning and not when the learner is a

passive recipient of knowledge as a finished product. This is applicable to computer related learning

as well. Software can be really learnt only when the learner actually is able to modify the code, write

software, and develop applications.

To reflect the spirit of the NCF, our schools should provide learners with the opportunity to create and

modify software. Expecting students to write software without having access to free software is like



expecting students to write books without allowing them to read books. This is possible only through

the use of free software and not through proprietary software. Secondly if our students learn only

proprietary software, they will become dependant on it and also purchase proprietary software for

their own individual or household use – this is largely the situation in India, where most households

use proprietary software, since they have not even heard of free software. Private software vendors

offer their software at extremely low prices to schools, because they want to make students dependant

on their software and not explore alternatives. Thirdly, digital learning material created by the teachers

and students (which the NCF regards as an important part of the learning process), created using

proprietary software, will get locked into the proprietary formats of these applications and will require

one to continue paying money even to open them and read them. Open standards and software exist

precisely so that this is prevented. One needs to point out that proprietary locking, while free

alternatives exist, is a ploy to continue milking the user for profits far into the future. We already have

this unfortunate situation where teachers have made hundreds of presentations using proprietary

software, to read which, each user needs to procure a copy of the software, thus making user pay for

learning material created by the public school system.

The Indian Government has recently notified the 'policy on open standards in e-governance' by which

proprietary standards should not be used in government.

Promoting local language resources through local language softwareWe may think that English is the 'natural' language of software. However software has no 'natural'

language and the domination of English in software only indicates that there have been lesser efforts

to extend software applications to other languages. We want to put in maximum effort to protect, grow

and develop local languages in India.. This is especially important in Information Technology, so that

its benefits are available to the entire community and not limited to English speaking citizens. Many

countries are putting in lot of effort and resources into making software and software platforms as well

as digital information resources in their own languages. For example, in Japan, France, Germany,

China, Russia; Internet and other software applications as well as digital information have been

developed in local languages. This form of local language software and applications development can

be best done by local software engineers working with free software. In contrast, when proprietary

software is used, changes can be done only by the vendor , and this means fewer people can be

involved in this effort. More importantly, this causes our language software to become dependant on

the market and business priorities of the sellers. Hence the public sector needs to lead the efforts in

developing software and digital information in local language, and this can be done very well through



the education system - in our network of schools, colleges and teacher education and support

institutions. The countries mentioned above and Kerala have succeeded in creating their local eco-

system for local language software and digital information. Back to top

The social argument for free software“Samudaya” software – the social argument for free software Free software is created and modified by

communities of students, volunteers, employees and entrepreneurs working together in a spirit of

collaboration, while proprietary software is produced by business organisations only. Most of the free

software has been produced in this collaborative manner by people acting in a spirit of contribution

and collaboration across the world. Hence free software can also be called “Samudaya software”.

Thus the use of free software is completely in line with the emphasis on development in public sector.

Promoting the local development through “Swadeshi” software Free software has other important

economic benefits: development and independence. Although India has achieved political freedom 60

years ago, we are still suffering from economic colonisation. This is specially true in the IT Industry

which is dominated by many foreign multinationals. When governments buys a software license, the

license fees directly benefit multinationals based in foreign countries. However if free software is

used, it can be further developed and customized by local software engineers, and local software

enterprises and entrepreneurs can also provide support, consultancy, training, services etc. This means

that money paid for such services remains in the local economy and also local IT capabilities are

developed. This is a very critical consideration in the context of reducing imbalances in economic

growth and livelihood opportunities. Public Sector has always been a place where local

entrepreneurship has been promoted and using free software can promote local software engineer

entrepreneurs. Kerala already has the vision of being the free software destination in India and the

next such qualified state would be Gujarat. Free software can make the vision of the Chief Minister on

'IT' (Indian talent + Information technology = India Tomorrow) a reality.

Best use of limited resources – the economics of free softwareFree software does not forbid selling and buying copies, but it means that the school system, after

acquiring a copy, is free to make more and redistribute them - for instance, to all the schools. The

schools do not need to pay for permission to use these copies. This creates the opportunity for great

cost savings. In developing countries like India, there is really no reason to spend public money on

proprietary software when equivalent free software is available.

For instance, in a state where there are 40,000 schools, with 5 computers for each class, then we

would spend - 40,000 * 5 * 25,000 = 500,00,00,000 (Rupees 500 crores) on basic private software (a



popular operating system and Office applications suite). On the other hand, if the option of free

software is selected, then this entire money could be used for other priorities such as basic

infrastructure, hardware, research into hardware innovations. If we take the entire Indian Public school

system, comprising of over 1.3 million schools, the amount that we can avoid diverting to proprietary

software can amount to more than 25,000 to even upto 100,000 crores.

Software as a public goodSince Governments function on the same principles of free software - transparency/openness, putting

public and community interest over private interest, public software should be actively promoted

within the public (Government) system and specially the education system. Proprietary software

functions on principles of competition, non-transparency / closed nature and 'for-profit' and these are

more aligned to the business world than to the Government sector. Hence while Proprietary software

has an important role in the business world, the public sector should prefer and promote public

software. Back to top

Why Public Software is not yet popular?However there are also several obstacles in the adoption and promotion of free software, including by

the public sector. These include issues relating to support and maintenance, user training as well as

'user friendliness' of the applications. However a much larger obstacle is the general lack of awareness

about the concept of free software and existence of free software applications. Just as Xerox is

equated to photocopying, software for most users only means Microsoft Windows or Microsoft

Office. People of course now buy 'Xerox' machines that may be manufactured by Canon or other

companies, in the case of desktop software, people only are aware of Windows and MS Office.

Hardware (Personal Computers and Laptops) vendors also usually bundle Windows with their systems

and do not offer a choice to the customer (this is actually a malpractice that is anti-competitive).

Customers hence are not told about possibilities of opting for free operating system and office

applications which can reduce the cost of purchase. Also not all features of one application are

available in another and if a person is used to one application, there is a huge inertia to move to

another application. Also there is a impression amongst many users of proprietary software that free

software applications are not user friendly, support and training is not available, drivers are not

available and some applications run only on proprietary software platforms. These impressions are not

entirely true, though many of them pertain to the larger issue of the creation and sustainance of a 'eco-

system' for free software. It is also ironic that many of the users who believe proprietary software to

be superior have never used free software. It would be fair for a user to use a comparable free software



application as well for sometime before concluding about its user friendliness Back to top

Why Public Institutions should use Public software?The social, political and economic externalities of adoption of Public Software by society are

enormous. Since Public Software is 'software by the people, of the people and for the people' , it

represents democratic values. Hence Governments have special responsibility to both adopt and

promote Public Software. Government efforts are necessary and even sufficient to build the Public

Software eco-system that can lead to the thriving and universal adoption of Public Software as a

principle of software. Realising this, many Governments have adopted policies that clearly promote

Public Software, both within Government as well as in public institutions. The section on Policy gives

several instances where Governments have clearly supported Public Software, this includes many

governments in India. In addition, the actual software deployed in governments also can be Public

Software.

Since Governments function on the same principles of free software - transparency/openness, putting

public and community interest over private interest, public software should be actively promoted

within the public (Government) system and specially the education system. Private software functions

on principles of competition, non-transparency / closedness and 'for-profit' and these are aligned to the

business world than to the Government or non-profit sector. Hence while private software definitely

has an important role in the business world, the public sector should prefer Public Software. Given the

similarites in the nature of the public sector and Public Software, we can even term Public Software as

Public Software or Sarvajanik Software.

Secondly, government cannot purchase software whose source code is not provided to it. This has

security implications. The vendor can insert code that can monitor the activities of the Government

staff using the software and this can be a security threat to the Government. For this reason, the

defence department of the US and many countries will not purchase private software and insist on

open source. This threat is not an empty one – recent newspaper reports said that the World Bank has

debarred a software vendor from contracting with them, since the vendor installed spy software in the

projects they did for the World Bank. It is reported that spyware was also installed in software used by

nuclear reactors in Iran, which could have caused a nuclear disaster, if not detected.

Benefits from adopting public softwareThere are significant pedagogical benefits from using publicly owned software tools.

1. Learning is about concepts and processes, not products. Using proprietary tools keeps focus on



specific product and product features rather than on concepts. Multiple freely shareable

software resources provides a diversity of learning experiences which is valuable. It also

moves focus from product to concept.

2. Education should not allow 'lock-in' into proprietary products, that is detrimental to education.

3. Education should allow for 'constructivist' approaches, where teachers and learners can extend

available knowledge. Public software allows for constructivist possibilities

Apart from pedagogical benefits, public software has technological, economic and social

benefits as well-

4. Tools such as Drupal or Wordpress or Inkscape/Scribus or PiTiVi Video editors would provide

huge employment opportunities to students. Students and teachers can copy the software to

their own computers freely.

5. GNU/Linux is freely shareable. This can save public funds on license fees on procuring

proprietary software and upgrade fees at later dates. An IIM Bangalore study estimates India

would save around 20,000 crores per year on license fees by adopting public software.

6. There are a large number of freely shareable educational tools on GNU/Linux, pertaining to

mathematics, science, social sciences etc which can be used in all schools.

7. There are large number of additional tools on GNU/Linux freely shareable, such as SCIM

which supports word processing in more than 50 languages, including all languages used in

Karnataka such as Telugu, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Marathi, Hindi etc. or the ORCA screen reader

necessary for the visually handicapped or Scribus for desktop publishing. All these tools can be

pre-installed in a 'custom distribution' of GNU/Linux for a one-shot installation.

8. A big threat to use of ICTs is virus/worms. Popular proprietary software is susceptible to

viruses and schools are unable to keep procuring anti-virus software. In most schools and

educational institutions, many computers are unusable due to being affected by viruses.

GNU/Linux is virus resistant and hence more secure.

• Public software permits local customisation. The Telugu version of GNU/Linux are already

available and can be used. Further, the educational tools can be customised in Telugu by

teachers as well. Such customisation is not possible with proprietary software platform.



Introduction to the ICT environment

Basic hardware and software A computer is a device which takes input, processes it and gives output which can be stored and

shared. When you enter data

into your computer, it is

called as input. An input can

be data like text or picture or

an instruction (what to do

with the data). This data is

processed (process means to

perform a series of operations

on a set of data) and you will get the output. Data or information that the computer generates is called

the output. A computer lets you to do many tasks like writing a letter, watching a educational film,

playing games, listening to music and more. You can also look for information on the Internet. Learn

more about the history of computers

http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.htm and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware

Hardware – The parts of a computerYou should open a computer in your lab and see its parts, referring to this section

A computer has many parts working together. The parts, which you can see and touch, are called

hardware. Computer hardware is divided into four parts; system unit, input devices, output devices

and storage media.

The picture shows

the common

hardware in a

computer. A laptop

computer has similar

parts but all as one

single item. The

'power' of a

computer depends

mainly on how


What does a computer do ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware

http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.htm


much Random Access Memory (RAM) it has. These days, any new computer would have a minimum

of 4 GB (Gigabytes) of RAM. A gigabyte comprises of a billion (1 followed by 9 zeros) bits or binary

digits.

Basic familiarity with ICT devices and artefacts

Using the keyboard

The keyboard is usually the main device to providing instructions to the computer. The keys on the

keyboard can be divided into several groups based on function:

1. Typing (alphabets and numbers) keys: These keys are arranged as in a traditional 'QWERTY'

typewriter

2. Special purpose keys: These keys are used alone or in combination with other keys to perform

certain actions, such as CTRL, ALT, ESC, Function keys etc.

3. Navigation keys: These keys are used for moving around in documents / editing text. They

include the arrow keys, HOME, END, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, DELETE and INSERT.

4. Numeric keypad: The numeric keypad is handy for entering numbers quickly. The keys are

grouped together in a block like a conventional calculator or adding machine.

Typing keys

Whenever you need to type something in a programme you'll see a blinking vertical line (|). That's the

cursor. It shows where the text that you type will begin. You can move the cursor by clicking in the

desired location with the mouse, or by using the navigation keys.

Using special typing keys?


Keyboard


SHIFT: Press shift in combination with a letter to type an uppercase letter. Press shift in combination

with another key to type the symbol shown on the upper part of that key.

ENTER: Press enter to move the cursor to the beginning of the next line.

SPACEBAR: Press the spacebar to move the cursor one space forward.

BACKSPACE: Press backspace to delete the character before the cursor or the selected text.

ALT: Activates the menu of the application. Can be used along with arrow keys to select applications

Navigation keys

The navigation keys allow you to move the cursor, move around in documents and edit text. The

following table lists some common functions of these keys.

LEFT ARROW, RIGHT ARROW, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW : Move the cursor or selection

one space or line in the direction of the arrow.

HOME : Move the cursor to the beginning of a line.

END: Move the cursor to the end of a line.CTRL+HOME: Move to the top of a document.

CTRL+END: Move to the bottom of a document.PAGE UP: Move the cursor or page up one screen.

PAGE DOWN: Move the cursor or page down one screen.DELETE: Delete the character after the cursor, or the selected text; in Windows, delete the selected item and move it to the Recycle Bin.

INSERT: Turn insert mode off or on. When insert mode is on, text that you type is inserted at the

cursor. When insert mode is off, text that you type replaces existing characters.

Practice typing using Tux Typing

Typing is similar to writing. Learning involves

practise. You can learn touch typing, using the

home keys (asdf for the left hand and jkl; for the

right) and all the fingers on both hands as well as the

thumbs for the spacebar while typing, by using a

computer program called Tux typing. Tux Typing is

a free and open source software, which is bundled

along with the free and open operating system

Ubuntu. To start Tux typing, click on Application →


Tux Typing


Accessories → Education → Tux typing. Click on the lessons button on the screen. You will see a list

of lessons. Start from lesson one and go on till the end. If you complete 30 lessons, you will be able to

do touch typing, using appropriate finger for each key.

Practise using the mouse using Tux Paint

Initially, the keyboard was the only device for providing instructions to the computer, but with the

invention of the 'graphic user interface'(GUI in short), the mouse has become an important input

device. The mouse makes giving instructions much simpler by point the mouse and clicking

i. Find pictures of flowers, animals and other objects in tux paint and insert it in your drawings.

ii. Open a new picture in tux paint and colour it.

iii. Make a greeting card for your friend using the different tool options. Save the file and quit the

activity.

Dexterity in using the mouse can make your work on the computer easier and quicker. You can also

use the keyboard instead of mouse in most cases, which may be even faster, such as CTRL C for copy

and CTRL V for paste, instead of using the mouse to select EDIT - COPY or EDIT – PASTE.

Output devices

Monitor, printer, projector, speakers are all output devices which share information from the computer.

Storage devices

Hard disks, pen drives, DVDs are all devices that store data. You must have your personal pen drive

to store digital information you find useful.

Operating your computer

Computer software

You can use a computer to do a many things - paint, write an essay, or listen to music, write a

programme,r record a video or make an animation etc. But these are not done using just have the

computer hardware. To make the computer do what you want there must be a relevant computer

programme. Software is a set of computer programmes that provides instructions to a computer for

executing specific tasks. This is separate from the hardware and it is the most important aspect of the

computer which allows it to do many different tasks.



Types of softwareTo explain our instructions to the computer we need a special computer programme which is called

the operating system. Operating system is also called system software as it

works with the hardware. Every computer must have an operating system to run

other computer programmes. Even your mobile phones will have an operating

system. Operating systems start automatically when you turn on the computer,

this process is termed booting. All the other computer programmes like

programmes to paint, type, listen to music, learn maths etc., are called

application software or 'Apps' which work with the system software. People

who write programmes are called computer programmers or software

developers. On any computer you will have software to paint, to type letters, to watch movies, to find

something on the Internet, to learn maths.

Edubuntu operating system

How does the operating system enable you to use the computer?

Operating systems use a program called the Graphical User Interface (GUI, which is pronounced as

goo-ee). It allows you to access other computer programmes (applications) by using a mouse. The

popular operating systems are Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and Mac OSx. In this section, you

will learn about the functions of an operating system, using an example of Ubuntu GNU/Linux

operating system. With this learning, you can operate a computer with Windows of Mac operating

systems

Logging in :

Select your username and type your

password the desktop will appear.

The desktop is shown in image

here. When you switch on your

computer, you will see a login

screen screen, login with the user id

and password created by the system

administrator. Edubuntu allows you

to have a user interface in Telugu,

by specifying your language as

Telugu during your user id creation.


Types of software

Illustration 1: Edubuntu Education Menu has many educational

applications


You can ask the system administrator to make

Telugu your user language, if you want. (Note

– the Telugu interface work is not fully

complete, so some of the labels may come in

English, while others will be in Telugu). You

can create two user ids for yourself, one with

English language and the second with Telugu,

this way you can experience and learn both

interfaces.

The applications menu at the top left has a list

of all the programmes (apps) on your computer. The places menu, next to it, lets you access the hard

disk, CD/DVD or pen drives. Digital cameras and MP3 players are also listed here when plugged-in.

Shutting down the computer

What will you do after you have finished your work? You have to turn off the computer. You must turn

it off by clicking on the last button on the right hand top corner and select shut down. Never turn off

the power button without shutting the computer properly.

If you have doubts or difficulties in using the Edubuntu operating system or any of the applications,

you can search for solutions on the Internet using a search engine. You can also find 'frequently asked

questions and answers' on

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions .

Creating and managing files and foldersWhen you write an essay or paint something on a paper, you would like to keep it for future, right?

You would probably put it in a hard bound folder. Maybe, if you have more than one essay or

painting, you would have one folder to hold your essays and one folder to hold your paintings.

When you download resources from the Internet or create digital materials on your computer, you

would like store it in a meaningful manner, as you would do with your papers. You can store all that

you have done on a computer as a file. Every programme, image, video, text document, song and

document is stored as a file. And you can keep similar / linked files together in a folder. Folders can

also store other folders called sub-folders (you can imagine them as binders within a hard bound

folder). Folders are also called 'directories'. Do you know where the files and folders are kept in a

computer? They are stored on a disk (remember your hardware chapter where you learnt about hard

disk, pen drives, CDs).


Illustration 2: Ubuntu has a Telugu user interface as well

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions


To manage all the files and folders that

you make, we need a file manager (also

called as file browser). A file manager or

file browser is a computer programme that

provides a user interface to work with

files. Ubuntu uses a file manager/browser

called Nautilus and you can create folders

and documents, display your files and

folders and search and manage your files

using Nautilus.

This file manager lets you organise your

files into folders. Folders can contain files

and may also contain other folders. Using folders can help you find your files more easily. You can

also copy or move files from one folder to another, create new folders, delete unwanted folders, give

new names to the files and folders etc. using the file browser.

You can download the files from the Internet into a folder that you should create. Folder names should

be as meaningful as possible and can be long. Folder name like 'Untitled1' or 'files' etc is meaningless.

If you are storing information relating to mathematics topic say 'quadrilateral', you can create a folder

named Quadrilateral. Inside this, if you are storing an image of a square, you can name the file 'Image

of a Square'. Mentioning the month/date of the file downloading can also help later in remembering

for re-use.

Ubuntu creates default folders for each user for music, pictures, videos, documents. You can create

your own sub folders within documents folder for your different requirements, for eg. One folder for

each of the subjects of this course – Mathematics, Telugu, English etc. Within the subject folder, you

can create sub folders for resources, assignments etc.

Thanks to the Internet, it is possible to access information on any issue or topic. Combining a

judicious access to resources on the Internet with a clear plan of classifying and categorising resources

through appropriate folders on our computer, we can create a library on any topic of our interest.

Along with these downloaded resources, you need to create your own annotations and comments

using a text editor, to enable you to make sense of the resources. We will learn how to use a text editor

for this and other purposes in the next section.


File manager


Internet as a learning resourceThe Internet has enormous possibilities of accessing information. ICTs are changing the way we

interact with the world and we need to build skills for critical information access and learn to use the

ICT infrastructure for accessing the internet and emailing. Internet allows us to connect in ways that

were not possible before.

Information can be accessed in multiple ways from the internet and we need to know how to search

for information on the internet. Sources of information, even if freely available on the internet, needs

to be acknowledged. There are different formats of resources available on the internet - images,

videos, audio files and each of these files have different formats. We must be aware of internet safety

while accessing images, videos and other information on the internet.

Accessing relevant information and media literacy is very important - evaluating a resource for

correctness/ relevance is an important skill. We should also be aware of legal, ethical, copyright

(content and presentation) and safety issues.

What is the InternetThe Internet is a physical network of millions of computers across the world, each of which has a

unique identifier called . Some of these computers act as 'servers', they route data across computers. A

network is a connection of many nodes. Even computers can be connected in a network. A computer

network is a group of two or more computer systems linked together. Computer networks can be

broadly classifed as:

• Local Area networks (LANs) : The computers are close together (may be, in the same building.

In your lab, you must have seen all the computers (clients) connected to one main computer - the

server. It is a LAN. The cables from the clients are connected to a device called a 'hub' and the

hub is connected to the server. (Your computer lab should be on a LAN. This will help in sharing

files, printer across computers).

• Wide Area networks (WANs) : The computers are farther apart and are connected by telephone

lines or radio waves.

What is the use of sharing information over a computer network? You might have

booked train or bus tickets when you travel across the state. To book a ticket you

need to find out which train or bus goes from your place to wherever you want to

go and also if the tickets are available on the dates you want to travel. If your

computer is connected to the computer in a railway reservation office which has the information about

the trains and ticket availability, you can book tickets from home. Such a connection of computers is


Hub


called an Internet connection. Information is communicated and shared between the two computers,

through the Internet connection.

If you want information about some book available in your library, you can connect to the library's

computer from home and get the information that you want. There are many such computers in

different organisations giving us different types of information. These computers are all connected to

one another. This is called the Internet. So, for sharing or getting information from another computer

on the Internet, you need a connection to the Internet.

What do you need to connect to the Internet?

Before you can connect to the Internet, you must have a computer, a modem (A

modem is a hardware device that allows a computer to transmit data over

telephone or cable lines) and access to a telephone line which is

connected to the Internet and a software to connect.

You can also use a device called data card for connecting to the Internet without any

wire connections. The data cards use the mobile phones network to connect to the

Internet. The connection software is usually provided by the service providers (which

are mostly telephone companies).

To understand the basic working of the InternetAs we saw earlier, the Internet is a physical network of millions of computers across the world, each

of which has a unique identifier called . Some of these computers act as 'servers', they route data

across computers. The routing of data is governed by a method or protocol called the TCP-IP,

(transmission control protocol/internet protocol). As the name suggests, TCP/IP is the combination of

TCP and IP protocols working together. Under TCP/IP each file being transported across the Internet

is broken into smaller parts called "packets" by the server. Each packet is assigned an IP (Internet

protocol) address of the computer it has to travel to. As the packet moves through the global network

it is "switched" by a number of servers toward its destination, the requesting computer or "client"

computer.

These packets do not usually travel together on the Internet. Packets from the same file may travel via

different paths through different servers, but toward the same destination. This “splitting into packets”

technology allows us to use Internet most efficiently. It means parts of a file can be shared across a

number of phone lines instead of having to find one phone line to put a large file into. It is also hard to

break the network, as the data will be routed around the trouble spot. In this respect TCP/IP can be


Data card

Modem


likened to a group of cars which need to go to the same destination, but instead of all of them going on

one road (which may be busy), each car can select a different road out of thousands of roads available

(thus picking the roads with least traffic), hence all cars can reach the destination in overall least time.

The TCP/IP protocol, which is the heart of the Internet was invented by Vincent Van Cerf, Robert

Kahn and Louis Pouzin.

Some of these servers maintain the links between the ip addresses of the servers and the 'domain

names' that we use while accessing the Internet. These are the 'domain name servers' and translate

'www.teachersofindia.org' into its ip address (which would be a series of number like 192.168.12.14).

World Wide Web (WWW)

There are millions of pages of shared information on the computers in the network, created by many

people and organisations, in the form of 'web pages' accessed using a software application called a

'web browser'. This information network is called the World Wide Web. The source of information is

called the web site. A web site is a collection of related web pages of information.

Web browserOnce you are connected to the Internet and are ready to look for things, you will need a software

called the web browser. There are many browsers available like Mozilla Firefox, Windows Internet

Explorer, Apple's Safari, Google Chrome etc. All browsers will have similar functions. We will use

Mozilla Firefox to learn how to browse the web.

Click on the icon on your top panel to start the Firefox Internet browser when you are using Ubuntu.

You will see a screen like this.

A website is nothing but a folder on a computer connected to the Internet, which has a 'address '. You


http://www.teachersofindia.org/


will have to enter the address of a website in the address bar (see the picture). This address is also

called Uniform Resource Locator (URL). In the address bar, type www.wikipedia.org and press enter.

This is a website where you can find information on many subjects.

This website has information in many languages. Move the mouse pointer on English and you will

find that the pointer has changed to a hand. These are links to other sections of the web site. They are

called hyper links. A hyper link is a mechanism by which a web page is linked to another related web

page. Text, images can be made into hyper links. When you click on English, you get the information

from the encyclopedia in English.

There are different sections, if you look at the right hand top corner, giving information about Arts,

History, Maths, Science etc. You can click on Maths and search on a certain topic. Type multiplication

in the search box that you see just above the different sections. You will get an article about

multiplication.


www refers to a folder on the computer where the information is stored. You will also see http:// behind www. http refers to a protocol, the rules to access websites. Both http and www are used together with website address http://www.wikipedia.org. However browsers takes http and www by default, hence typing wikipedia.org is automatically replaced by http://www.wikipedia.org

Home page of Wikipedia

http://www.wikipedia.org/




What is a website?

Features of a website :

• Address Bar • Home Page • Resources available • Is it free/ paid/ registered?• About us • Contacting the website • Website address

Navigation :

• Links available on the page - internal, external: • Opening a link from a page - new tab, new window: • Browser back button vs using links to navigate:• Settings and preferences• Accessing information and downloading:

Troubleshooting

• When page does not open it could mean the following ◦ Internet connectivity ◦ Plug-ins not installed ◦ The website could be having difficulties ◦ The page may have been removed


Topics in Wikipedia


Search enginesA search engine is used to search for information on the World Wide Web. It keeps a track of all web

pages. We can search for information we want by providing a word or a sentence to a search engine.

Google is very popular search engine. In your browser's address bar type 'www.google.com'. In the

search box you see type 'Sachin Tendulkar centuries'. You will see a list of all the webpages having

information about Sachin Tendulkar's centuries. You can click on the hyper links and get more

information. Alternate search engines include Bing (from Microsoft), DuckDuckGo

(https://duckduckgo.com) etc.

The search engine software is built in a way to retrieve large amount of relevant information in a short

time. Type in different words relating to your professional and personal interests. See how many pages

of information are retreived and the time it takes to retrieve the same. How do you think the search

engine does this so quickly

Also do all student-teachers get the same links on page 1 when they search for an information? On

what criteria does the search engine decide to provide some links on page 1 while others on page 2

and still others on page 20?

The search engine has enormous implications for our processes of learning. In the past, rote learning

(remembering information) has been seen as important, since such committing information to memory

would allow us to access it during need. Traditional Indian schools also had memorising scripts as an

important learning method. However, with ICTs that has changed. Thanks to information explosion, it


A google search

https://duckduckgo.com/

http://www.google.com/


is now impossible to commit to memory the numerous aspects of our daily lives. Secondly, thanks to

methods of storage and retrieval, including use of search engines, the need to memorise has also

reduced. Twenty years back, we used to remember peoples telephone (land-line) numbers, which were

not too many. Now with large number of contacts we have, we do not need to memorise their phone

(cell phone) numbers, since we can store it in the phone itself and can retrieve by name. In the same

way, any factual information can be retrieved in a fraction of a second and hence not worth

memorising.

Thus while in the past, significant amount of teaching was actually the dissemination of information,

not that would neither be required, nor would students accept it. Teaching has to hence necessarily

move to the next order of interpreting, critically reflecting on facts to assess and make meaning. Thus

in a way, search engines have done the processes of learning a good turn, by making information

transmission as a largely redundant part of learning. On the other hand, they have also enabled easy

copying of materials, without making much effort to understand, potentially encouraging superficial

learning.

Google translate to translate English to TeluguGoogle Translate is a free translation service which can translate words, sentences and web pages

between any combination of our supported languages. In this chapter you will learn how to use this

service to translate English to Telugu.

In your web browser's address bar, type http:// translate.google.com . Select From: English and To:


Google Translator

http://translate.google.com/

http://translate.google.com/


Telugu. In the below picture, you can see that the word like cat, dog, school and village have been

translated to Telugu. It is not perfect as of yet. This is still in initial stage and will become correct /

better over time

Google has many useful products, picasaweb (digital photo albums), maps (digital maps of places,

find yours), google books, google scholar, youtube (for Videos) etc. Try using them. On-line

dictionaries are also available such as http://shabdkosh.com.

Learning web based tools like blogs, wikis etcBlogs and wikis are web tools, which

will allow you to upload your own

data on the Internet. While normally,

we associate Internet with

'downloading' information, we can

also upload using these simple tools.

A blog is like a journal, and you can

use a blog to write your diary or

reflections. Of course since a blog is

a public space (on the Internet), it

should contain details you are happy

to share with others.

Explore 'Apps'There are thousands, if not millions of applications for various purposes. Many of them are quite

interesting if not useful. Digital albums (through Picassa or Flikr or Instagram), maps (Googlemaps),

calendar, mail clients, photo editing, audio editing etc. Try exploring these tools based on your

interests. Many are available on your mobile phones as well. There are also special sites with unique

applications, for eg http://gapminder.org has interesting visualisations for showing events or

movements across time. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPt8ElTQMIg for a fascinating video

of how health and wealth indicators have changed in the last 200 years.

Professional learning communities (PLCs)Every profession has its own professional association for learning and sharing – like doctors, lawyers,

accountants, IAS officers and so on. These associations are a method of continuous interactions with

fellow practitioners (peers) and allow methods of learning beyond the college or university. You have


Illustration 3: Blog of Prof SN Prasad (retired) RIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPt8ElTQMIg

http://gapminder.org/

http://shabdkosh.com/


also learnt earlier about social constructivism and how we learn from each other and how conceptual

learning and contextual understanding are equally important.

Teachers, as professionals too need to connect regularly to their peers, for sharing their experiences,

practices as well as insights and learnings. They also need to be able to contact peers as well as

mentors for seeking support. However, in the large school system in India, we find that teachers are

often isolated in their practice and they have no way of sharing their experiences, reflecting and

sharing understanding or seeking solutions for their specific challenges. In the traditional in-service

teacher training programmes, the learning is usually at a point in time; teachers learn in workshops,

and there is limited opportunity for interactions after that. They largely do not have any formal,

organized methods of being in touch with their trainers or with each other to extend the learning after

the workshop. Hence field-level problems are difficult to solve and also teachers are not able to share

their experiences, ideas and resources with one another. After the training workshops, teacher

interactions is very limited and physical meetings at the cluster, block or district levels are often not

enough to meet these needs.

While professional communities and associations have been there for a long time, ICTs have made

possible ways of connecting and communicating with each other simpler and more accessible. Online

communities are often a good way of continuing interactions beyond the restrictions of meetings of

physical time and space. Online communities can be mailing forums or discussion groups and can be

accessed either through your phone or the computer.

The National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCF-TE, 2010) talks about a pioneering

model of teacher education with the following key components - (i) integrating technology tools for

teaching learning, (ii) collaborative networks for learning and sharing, (iii) continuous learning

models that allow for different paths and spaces for learning. Peer learning is regarded as a key

component of Teacher e Professional Development.

In Karnataka, DSERT has implemented an in-service teacher training programme called the “Subject

Teacher Forum” where the training programme has incorporated technology for classroom teaching

methods as well as for creating networks for collaborative and peer learning.

Mailing forums are a good way to keep the teacher community in contact with one another and serve

as a complement for the physical communities and interactions and provide for learning beyond the

workshops. Teacher use the mailing forum to share their experiences, share resources, ask for

clarifications, share question papers, share activities and ideas for CCE, issues in school

administration and for general information sharing as well. Over 5000 teachers are members of these



mailing forums in Karnataka.

In Karnataka, there are mailing forums for DIET faculty

([email protected]), Head Teachers ([email protected]),

mathematics and science teachers ([email protected]), social science teachers

([email protected]), Kannada teachers ([email protected]) and

English teachers ([email protected])

Professional Learning Communities is a recent method for continuing professional development and

by providing teachers with peer support, it can be a sustainable method of development. You should

also try to form such a community in the school that you would teach in. The steps to form such a

PLC are explained in http://www.centerforcsri.org/plc/index.html

After this workshop, we will create a group called [email protected] which will

be the community of teachers from Telengana state.

Email and Mailing groupsEmail, short for electronic mail refers to the exchanging of digital messages from an author to one or

more recipients, across the Internet or other computer networks. Email servers accept, forward,

deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online

simultaneously; they need connect only briefly for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.

Email provides a way to exchange information between two or more people that is generally far less

expensive than physical meetings or phone calls. Email is a popular method for communicating with

your colleagues, since it has many advantages

1. you can send a mail to many people at the same time, and they can also send their reply to the

same people, hence faciliating a group conversation

2. you can reply to a mail at your convenience, email is 'asynchronous', unlike a phone call, when

you need to be available for the same time period as the other person

3. the email is an electronic record of the conversation and can be recalled later

4. discussions over email thus can be a useful information source for review by oneself and others

5. email is cheap, since you pay for Internet access than for each mail. There are also free email

providers like google (gmail), yahoo (yahoomail) etc

You can register on www.gmail.com and open your own gmail account. Your gmail id cannot be used

by another person (the id needs to be unique to ensure mail delivery can happen correctly, just like


http://www.gmail.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.centerforcsri.org/plc/index.html








two postal addresses cannot be identical).

You can become member of mailing-lists in which a mail sent to the mailing-list will be forwarded to

all members. The mathematics teachers in Government high schools have a state wide mailing-list

called the [email protected]. For other such groups , visit

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/?q=node/289

E-mail EtiquetteEmail is similar to normal correspondence and most of the rules that govern correspondence will also

apply to e-mail.

Manage your inbox / in-tray - All your mails come into your INBOX. It is important to read and

process your email regularly. You may be missing an important or urgent request. Since the volume of

your mails will keep increasing, you need to use or judgement to decide what action to take on each

mail. Some mails may need your response while many will be only for your information. Mails that

are not relevant to you may be quickly read and deleted. Do not waste time in reading junk mail,

delete it immediately without reading. Also have some periods of time daily when you will check

email and other periods when you will not.

TO and CC - If you want the receiver to act on your mail put their id in the TO box. Putting an id in

the CC box usually means mail is only for their information and no action is expected.


http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/?q=node/289



Header /Footer - Like any letter each e-mail should have an initial paragraph providing a context to

the mail. Each e-mail should end with concluding paragraph followed by sender details (name,

designation.). A mail without head and footer can appear rude. You can use the auto signature option

in the outlook to put in your signature.

Reply and reply all - Use ‘Reply’ if your reply is intended only for the person who sent you the mail.

Use ‘reply all’ ONLY when you want everyone to read your reply.

E-mail limitations - Email is a good medium if quick communication and simple information. It is a

bad medium to communicate critical or negative points. Feedback of thoughts such e-mails are called

“flames” and can cause lot of trouble for the sender and for others. You must use your judgement and

use appropriate meanings of communication. Sometimes email is good and sometimes telephone is

appropriate.

Record - E-mail which you received or sent can be printed and put into the files. Hence there is no

need to send a paper document ‘just for the record’. This way we can help in reducing the movement

of paper.

Individual Id - Though you may begin to use email through a group id. Ex:

[email protected] it is better to move to an individual id. Each officer should have their

own id. In case if you have PC you can configure an email client like Thunderbird. Email id is very

sensitive it if is not correctly keyed in, it will bounce back. You can save the e-mail ids in the address

book in the mail client.

Virus - Please do not open mails from unknown person. IN case of attachments, do not open them,

unless you are expecting the specific attachment. In case mail has words like ‘important’ etc, it is more

likely to be harmful!

Creating Resources 1 - Text Editing You will learn about text editing and formatting in this section. If you want to write a letter to your

friend, a story or school work in a computer, what would you do or where would you type them? A

software application called the text editor would do that.

A text editor is a software used for creating (including writing, editing, formatting, and possibly

printing) text documents. Apart from entering and editing text, you can insert images and links also.

This software lets you to create a document, store it on the disk, show it on a screen, make changes to

it using the keyboard and print it on a printer.




LibreOffice Writer, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org writer, Web-based text editors (Google Docs) etc

are popular text editors. In this section you will learn how to use LibreOffice Writer on Ubuntu.

LibreOffice works on Ubuntu GNU/Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems. LibreOffice is a

public software and can be freely shared without licence restrictions or payment of licence fees. It has

features similar to that of MS Word, a widely used proprietary text editor. Hence if you learn to use

LibreOffice writer, you can work on MS Word later as well.

Type a paragraph describing the articles you have downloaded from the Internet. Save the file by

clicking on 'File' menu and selecting 'Save' option as shown in the picture.

Type the file name in the dialog box that shows up as 'My School' and click on the 'Save' button.

Making changes to the textInserting, deleting and selecting text cane be done to easily modify text documents. This process can

support processes of reflection and revision of thoughts/expressions. It is much easier to do this

editing on digital text documents. Hence if you can submit your assignments in digital format, you can

do multiple revisions of your thoughts and easily edit the same, to enhance the quality of your

writings. As a practice, try to revise your assignments at least couple of times before submission.

Copying text

Select the text you want to copy and click on 'Edit' menu and select 'Copy'. You can also copy text by

clicking on copy button or by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL and C.

Cutting text

Select the text you want to cut and click on 'Edit' menu and select 'Cut'. You can also cut text by

clicking on cut button, or by using the the keyboard shortcut CTRL and X.

Pasting text

Click on 'Edit' and select 'Paste' menu. You can also paste copied or cut text by clicking on the paste

button or by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL and V.

Copy pasting is perhaps one of the most powerful features of digital documents. Almost anything

digital can be copied and 'pasted' (replicated) at almost nil costs and very little efforts. The marginal

costs of reproduction are almost nil, and this has significant implications for the access to information

for humanity! Infinite number of copies can be made and shared. This feature can help you to build on

existing knowledge by editing/customising what you can access. However, it can also misused to

plagiarise existing texts. Hence whenever you copy paste, please ensure to give the source of the

information (attribution), and also check if the copyright clause of the text allows such copy pasting.

For more information about copyright and how as teachers you should access copyright materials, as



well as copyright you should use for materials created by you, refer

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Understanding_copyright

• Text processing

• Insert text: It allows you to insert text anywhere in the document.

• Delete text: It allows you to erase characters, words, lines, or pages as easily as you can cross

them out on paper.

• Cut and paste : It allows you to remove (cut) a section of text from one place in a document

and insert (paste) it somewhere else.

• Copy : It allows you to duplicate a section of text. • Page size and margins : It allows you to define various page sizes and margins, and the text

editor will automatically readjust the text so that it fits.

• Search and replace : It allows you to search for a particular word or phrase. You can also

replace one group of characters with another anywhere that the first group appears.

• Word wrap : The text editor automatically moves to the next line when you have filled one line

with text, and it will readjust text if you change the margins.

• Print: It allows you to send a document to a printer to get print out.

• Font specifications: It allows you to change fonts. (A font is how a character, alphabet or

symbol appears on the screen. Different fonts are available for typing different styles). For

example, you can make the text in your document bold (dark), italics (slant) and underlining.

You can also increase or decrease the size of the text.

• Graphics: It allows you to insert pictures and graphs into a document.

• Layout : It allows you to specify how a page will look including setting margins, page size

within a single document.

• Headers, footers, and page numbering: It allows you to put headers and footers that the text

editor will put at the top and bottom of every page. The text editor automatically keeps track of

page numbers so that the correct number appears on each page.

• Spell checker : It is a program that allows you to check the spelling of words. It will highlight

any words that it does not recognise.

Formatting characters and paragraphsYou can change the font style, size. You can make the text bold, slanting or underline the text. To

change case (small letters to capital letters etc), click on 'Format' menu and select 'Change Case'. To

capitalise the selected text, choose UPPERCASE option.


http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Understanding_copyright


To change the colour of the text, click on the small arrow next to the icon in the picture.

You can format paragraphs, i.e., align the text left, centre, right and justify using these buttons

.

For more character formatting options, click on 'Format' menu and choose 'Character'.

There are many tabs like Indents and Spacing, Alignment, Text Flow, Outline & Numbering, Tabs,

Drop Caps, Borders, and Background available when you click on Format → Paragraph.

To shade a paragraph or give a background colour to it, click on the 'Background' tab and choose a

colour. And, to add border to paragraphs, click on the Borders tab.

Creating Resources 2 - Personal digital librariesThe focus of building a resource library is on the following :

1. identify, classify and organizing learning resources (for self) and for classrooms

2. do curriculum analysis identify appropriate ICT resources for various learning needs - analysing

and abstracting, evaluating and problem solving

3. develop a concept map of learning outcomes and map to resources

4. to evaluate an ICT resource

5. build personal resource libraries for classroom ideas

How to organize a personal resource library We have seen earlier that the Internet is a continuous learning resource and there is a lot of content

you can access. However, to make the resources effective, you need to organize it well, and have a

clear unit plan on how to integrate multiple resources for teaching. Earlier we saw how to use some

tools for teaching learning. No single tool will be fully adequate for learning; we have to use a library

of tools, materials and resources.

How to evaluate an Internet resourceThere are a few things you must check when we look at the usefulness of the information on any

website.

1. Source of the website. It is important to know about the source of the information. This will help



us have an idea of many ways of looking at things.

2. Use of multiple websites: Only one website will give us only one kind of information. Using more

than one website will give multiple perspectives. We can also cross check and identify errors if

any.

3. Relevance: Often when we search, one page will come up and often time we share with others

also. But it is important to really read (at least quickly) the contents of the page. This is because of

the way a search engine works. Any web page will have key words (called tags) and sometimes,

keywords will be added even if the word (and associated issue) is discussed very very briefly. So,

sorting for relevance is important. Information use is very contextual. A web page written about

rainfall and look at lifestyle and crops will be different for different places. So we need to look at

how it will be useful for us. Information also has to be valid for a given time. If the information is

very old, we need to test for accuracy.

4. Features of a website: How useful a website is depends on how many different ways we can

access the information and use it and view it. Can it be used by teachers, students, general public?

The understanding of this will also help us determine how much we can use the content.

How to search for information

The second aspect of using a website relates to how we search for information. What words we use,

how we phrase the question for search are all important features in deciding the quality of search

results. For example try these different searches - Giraffe, Evolution and Evolution of giraffe

You will notice that the pages that come up are all different. What we also need to keep in mind is

who is the user, what is the use etc. How we use the search terms determines what results see and

how relevant they are.

Checklist for evaluating a website

1. Whose website?2. What kind of web site - commercial, educational, etc.3. What kind of resources? Is the information reliable - always check more than one website4. Does it allow for a discussion5. Does it have transaction - like e-commerce websites6. Is it easy to navigate?7. Free/ Paid/ Subscription8. Copyright 9. Navigation - Internal and External web links10. How to contact the website?



For teaching-learning resources - In addition to the above

1. What is the website about? 2. Is the information reliable - always check more than one website3. Who made it?4. What it has?5. Is it for teachers?6. Or for children?7. How to use in class?

How to evaluate a resource for teaching-learning

When you are compiling a resource library for teaching-learning, we have to evaluate how it can be

used for teaching in the classroom. Some questions that you check when evaluating resources are:

i. what are the concepts to be covered and how do the specific ICT resources fit in

ii. areas of learning reinforced

iii. how can learning be extended; what new ideas/ connections are possible?

iv. suitability to a given classroom context (age appropriateness, content level)

Steps in creating a personal resource folder

There are several steps in creating a resource folder:

1. Make a folder on the computer by topic

2. Access relevant resources from Internet

3. Save pages, images, videos

4. Copy and paste links

5. Insert into document

6. Insert links into document

7. Format document

For more information on how to create a resource library click

http://ka rnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/How_to_build_a_resource_library

Register on wikipedia. Create articles in Telugu (http://kn.wikipedia.org) and add to existing articles.

This will be a valuable contribution to OERs in your language. (You can also do this for Urdu, Telugu,

Tamil or any of the Indian languages).


http://kn.wikipedia.org/

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/How_to_build_a_resource_library

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/How_to_build_a_resource_library


Creating Resources 3 - Mind mapping with FreemindIn this section, you will be able to understand the meaning of a mind map and learn how to create

mind maps using a software application called Freemind

What is a mind map?

Close your eyes and think of a word. For example think about the word plant. Now think of all the

words that that come into your mind when you think about the word plant. List these words in your

notebook.

Some of the common thoughts/words that would come into mind when thinking about plants are:

PLANT WATER PHOTOSYNTHESIS LEAF

FLOWER ROOT STEM

SOIL SUNLIGHT CARBON DI OXIDE

These words have meaning that can be pictured in the mind. These words can be called concept

words. Concept is a way of describing a word that can be pictured in the mind. It is also any thought,

idea, belief, picture or image that is formed in the mind when we think of a word or topic. For

example, one concept for plant is that it is a living thing.

Now look at these words:

HAVE USING NEED

CARRY-OUT

These words are not concept words but link two or

more concept words together. For example, plants

have roots, leaves, stem, flower. So one concept

may be linked to many other concepts. This can be

drawn like a map shown in the picture below. Now

add more concept words to the above picture or map by linking one concept to many other concepts

to make a mind map of the topic plant.

A mind map of plant with the words that was described above while picturing the word plant is seen

below in Figure 2.


Figure 1


What are the differences you notice in Figure 1 and Figure 2? One obvious difference is that in

Figure 1 not all the concept and link words that have been listed are there. The other difference is

that in Figure 1 a pen and paper has been used to draw the mind map freehand. In Figure 2 a software

application or tool called Freemind is used to draw the Mind-map.

To open Freemind - Select from the Ubuntu menu Applications > Office > Freemind

To create a new mind-map

1. Select the mode as Maps > Mindmap Mode (Shortcut Key ALT+1) from the Freemind

Menu

2. Select File > New

3. (Shortcut Key Ctrl+N). You should see a screen as follows:


Figure 2

Open Freemind


To start writing the Mind map

1. Double-Click on the Node New Mindmap as shown in Figure 3.

2. Delete the text New Mindmap and type in PLANT the central concept word.

To add a link word place your cursor on PLANT node (Parent Node) and use one of the following

options

1. Select menu option Edit > New Child Node (Shortcut Key Insert)

2. You have created a new child node of node PLANT

3. Enter the text have in this new node

4. Select menu option Format > Fork

To add another concept word place your cursor on have node (Parent Node) and

1. Select menu option Edit > New Child Node (Shortcut key: Insert)

2. You have created a new child node of node have

3. Enter the text STEM in this new node

4. Select menu option Format > Bubble

To add a concept word LEAVES you can also place your cursor on STEM (Sibling Node) and

1. Select menu option Edit > New Sibling Node (Shortcut key: Enter)


Figure 3


2. You have created a new sibling node of node STEM

3. Enter the text LEAVES in this new node

4. Select menu option Format > Bubble

In this way you can create the complete Mind-map for PLANT. By clicking 'FILE – SAVE AS option,

you can save your file as plant.mm. All Freemind files have the file extension mm.

To open a Freemind mind map

1. Select menu option File > Open

2. A window appears

3. Select the folder in which you saved the file

4. Select the file <filename>.mm in this case plant.mm

5. Click OK

Practice

See http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php for many mindmaps on different

subjects. You can also join the community online and contribute. You can write a book using

freemind! See the mindmap which has been created for the book' the childs language and the teacher'

available on http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/The_Child

%27s_Language_and_the_Teacher,Prof._Krishna_Kumar. Can you convert a book into a mind map in

the same way.


Figure 5

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/The_Child's_Language_and_the_Teacher,Prof._Krishna_Kumar

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/The_Child's_Language_and_the_Teacher,Prof._Krishna_Kumar

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/


Creating Resources 4 - Educational tools – Geogebra (Mathematics)In this section we will learn

• About GeoGebra a mathematical software application that helps you learn Geometry and Algebra.

• How to use GeoGebra.

• Connect GeoGebra with the geometry taught in the maths class to better understand some of the

concepts and properties.

Can you guess why the creators of this tool named it GeoGebra. Geo is an abbreviation for Geometry

and Gebra for Algebra. Did you know that you can represent all geometric figures as algebra

equations? GeoGebra helps you see both the geometric figures and its algebra representation at the

same time, hence the name GeoGebra.

In GeoGebra you can animate the geometric figure you have drawn and dynamically see how some

values like length, area, perimeter of a figure changes, see the same figure in different ways.

Here we will see two simple lessons using Geogebra. First you should get familiar with the Geogebra

window.



For For detailed resources on how to learn Geogebra you can click on

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Portal:ICT_Literacy. Before we get into some

lessons using Geogebra, let us learn to use some basic features of Geogebra.

Drawing points, line segment and rays

1. Drawing points

• Select Point Tool, and click anywhere on

the drawing point to plot six points A, B,

C, D, E, F.

2. Drawing line segments and lines

Select Segment between two points tool, click o on point A and then point B.

Select Line through two points tool, click on point C and then point D.

Select Ray through two points tool, click on point E and the point F.


http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Portal:ICT_Literacy


Can you describe in your own words the

difference between a segment, line and ray? Also

see the algebra view and observe the equations of

the line b and ray c. The line segment a is

represented in the algebra view as a = 2.83, where

2.83 is the length of the segment.

ii. Drawing a parallel lineiii. Select Point Tool and click anywhere on the

drawing point to plot three points A,B, C.

iv. Select Line through two points tool, click on

point A and then point B.

Select Parallel Line tool, click on point C first.

Then click on line AB. Now use the Move Tool

and move points A, B and C. What do you

observe? Describe it.

Next with Move Graphics view tool and move

the drawing pad. Do the two lines ever meet?

Rotate a rayDraw line segment AB of any length (Segment between two points tool).Select the Ray Through two points tool, click on

point A, then select another point C on the

drawing pad as shown in the figure.

Select the Angle tool, as seen in the figure and

click on points B, then A and finally C. You will

see an angle measure. Click on the Move tool and

move point C.

Observe the change of angle.

Observe the direction (clockwise, anticlockwise)

in which you move the ray? In which direction

does the angle increase/ decrease?



Practice - Drawing polygons

1. Select Point tool and plot three points A B and C to represent the vertices of a triangle.

2. To draw a three-sided polygon – triangle, select Polygon tool click on point A, then B and C

and again click on point A.

3. Select Point tool and plot three points A B C and D to represent the vertices of a quadrilateral.

4. To draw a four-sided polygon – quadrilateral, select Polygon tool, click on point A, then B, C

and D and again click on point A.

5. Try making a pentagon and hexagon on your own.

Creating a geometric figure and discussions

Now we will draw a right angled triangle where the base is 5 units and the hypotenuse is 8 units. For

more information on triangles, you can refer to reading material on KOER at

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Triangles and

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Similarity_and_Congruence

You have to familiarize yourself with the tool bar to complete this figure. All buttons on the tool bar

hide many related tools. You choose the tool you want by pressing the small red arrow in the lower

right corner of the button. Choose from the list that shows up.

1. Start your drawing by using the tool Segment with Given Length from Point.


http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Similarity_and_Congruence

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Triangles


2. Continue by drawing the right angle. Do this by drawing a perpendicular line through point

A. Choose the perpendicular line tool, click on point A first and then on the line.

3. To mark the third corner of the triangle

you use one of the circle tools, Circle

with Centre and Radius.

4. Click on the point B and fill in the

length of the hypotenuse as radius.



5. Choose the tool Intersect Two Objects, click on the circle and the perpendicular line. The

point in the intersection is the third corner of the triangle.

6. The perpendicular line and the circle,

even the points do not need to be visible

or seen now, you only want to show the

triangle. Hide an object by right-clicking

the object and uncheck Show Object by

clicking on it.

7. The lengths of the sides in the triangle can be shown. Right-click one of the sides and

choose Object Properties in the menu which shows up. Check the Show Label field and

choose Value from the drop down list.



8. To show the size of the angles use the Angle tool. Click on each vertex of the triangle. The

order in which you click the vertices must be in the clock wise direction. In this figure click

in this order BAC, CBA, and ACB.

9. Click on Area tool and then click on the polygon.

10. Change the shape of the triangle by moving the points you are able to move (use the

Move tool).

Discussion questions

1. How many points do we need to draw a triangle? How many segments?

2. What is the hypotenuse? Is it a side of the triangle also?

3. If a triangle is a right triangle, what should be the value of one angle? How do we draw that?



[There are two ways – one with a perpendicular line and the other with a rotating ray]

4. Why are we using the circle with hypotenuse as radius for the third point? Is there any other way

you could have done this? Do we have enough data to do that?

5. Measure the third side and also measure the other two angles. With the same base can you

construct other right triangles?

6. Verify the area calculation of the triangle.

7. Complete this to be a rectangle and also discuss why the area of the triangle is given as

Area = ½ x b x h

Creation Resources 5 - Educational tools – Simulations (Science) PhET is a collection of simulations that can be integrated in classroom teaching-learning. We will

look at two examples of simulations.

For this we will need to open an application called PhET on the computer. You can find PhET under

Applications> Education> Science. PhET is an educational resource that contains computer

demonstrations of experiments and activities. When we click on Play with sims – it will open

simulations in various subjects. We will click on Physics and scroll down to the simulation on

Pendulum Lab.

When we want to open a simulation, we click on the green rectangle which says “Run Now”.

What are computer simulations?

Computer simulations are very useful for scientific research when a physical experiment may be very

costly or dangerous or extremely time consuming to do. When a scientist is studying a problem, she

will make assumptions about what causes the change and make predictions about what will change.

This is based on past study of the subject and knowledge. This information can be input to the

computer and the simulation will make all the calculations and show what changes happen.

Sometimes, the changes that the simulation will show will be different from what the scientist

predicted. This will help the scientists refine the theory. The simulation shows the experiment on a

computer. The scientist can change the inputs to see how the experiment changes. In a classroom, a

simulation of an experiment can be used to generate discussions around a concept/ phenomenon.

Computer models are different from animations. In an animation, we simply see a movie which



shows a phenomenon happening. The inputs cannot be changed whereas in a simulation you can

change the inputs/ parameters.

When using simulations, it is important that we make the approach one of inquiry and not one of

visual representation of a content area.

We will look at two examples of how to work with simulations.

Observe the simulation “Wave on a String”

You will see a picture like this. This is similar to a situation that you might have had where you tie a

rope to one end and the other end is in your hand. When you shake your hand, the rope will shake

though it will be fixed at the other end. Similarly, if we move the wrench here, the rope (which is a

collection of beads) will also move without being removed from the other end.

Answer the following questions

1. When you “move” the wrench up and down, did the string move? How did it move? How did

each of the beads move?

2. When you look at the simulation, it looks like something is moving from one end to another.

What is moving?

3. Let us understand what happens when you move the string using the manual option.

Move the wrench upwards

Move the wrench downwards

Move the wrench upwards and downwards



Are the beads in the string moving left to right; right to left, or up and down? What does this tell you about waves

How fast does the string move when tension is high and when tension is low. Is there a difference and why?

When you add damping how does the string move4. Let us understand what happens when you move the string using the oscillating option. You

can complete the table below. You will see that there is a green rectangle on the top in which

there are control buttons for amplitude, frequency and damping. We know what damping is.

At the end of this simulation, you will be able to describe amplitude and frequency.

Increase and decrease

amplitude

How does the wave look? How do the beads

move? What changes in the beads when you

change the amplitude? Do all the beads move in

the same way? When you increase or decrease

amplitude, what happens to the frequency

Increase and decrease

frequency

How does the wave look? How do the beads

move? What changes in the beads when you

change the amplitude? Do all the beads move in

the same way? When you increase or decrease

frequency, what happens to the amplitude?

Change the values of tension

and damping

What do you observe is happening to the wave?

What happens if the wave end is not fixed but

loose?

Use the ruler to see how the beads move?

How far do the beads jump? Does it change?

Observe the simulation “Pendulum Lab”

1. Notice where the pendulum is – is it

higher, lower or at the same level as the

central position?

2. Notice the graph – what are the two

variables on the bar chart?

3. What do you think will happen to the

pendulum next?



4. Notice where the pendulum is – has it

moved? What can you say about its

movement?

5. Notice the graph – what are the variables

on the bar chart? What are the values of

PE and KE as compared to total energy?

6. Notice where the pendulum is – has it

moved? Is it higher or lower than the

central position?

7. Did you notice anything about the speed

of the bob as it moves from one extreme

position to another?

8. Notice the graph – what are the variables

on the bar chart?

9. What has happened to the values of the

KE and PE as compared to total energy?

10. What do you think is happening? Is this

what you will think will happen when you

try this experiment? Why? Why not?

What is different?



11. Notice where the pendulum is. This

extreme position to the right is at a

different height than. Why? What role

does friction play and where does it come

from

12. Look at the graph – what are the variables

in the bar chart? Where has the thermal

energy come from? What do you expect

will happen to the simple pendulum?

Mechanics of the simple pendulum

The motion of a pendulum is a classic example of mechanical energy conservation. A pendulum

moves it sweeps out a circular arc, moving back and forth in a periodic fashion. Neglecting air

resistance (which would indeed be small for an aerodynamically shaped bob), there are only two

forces acting upon the pendulum bob. One force is gravity. The force of gravity acts in a downward

direction and does work upon the pendulum bob. However, gravity is an internal force (or

conservative force) and thus does not serve to change the total amount of mechanical energy of the

bob. The other force acting upon the bob is the force of tension. Tension is an external force and if it

did do work upon the pendulum bob it would indeed serve to change the total mechanical energy of

the bob. However, the force of tension does not do work since it always acts in a direction

perpendicular to the motion of the bob. At all points in the trajectory of the pendulum bob, the angle

between the force of tension and its direction of motion is 90 degrees. Thus, the force of tension does

not do work upon the bob.

Since there are no external forces doing work, the total mechanical energy of the pendulum bob

is conserved.

Creating Resources 6 – Using videos as a learning resourceVideos can also be used as learning resources. The videos can be used as an aid for discussion and it

is also possible to dub videos using desktop recording software. As in the case of simulations, the

kind of questions will determine the effectiveness of the video as a resource. We will take an example

of such a resource for a topic ecosystem. is. We will use the computer lab to access some resources

on ecosystems. It is also possible to combine the use of a video with an experiment, field visit or even



a simulation.

Hands-on activities

1. Go around the area around your school and record all that you see. This can include plants,

animals and non-living things.

2. What is the climate in your region like – seasons and rainfall?

3. What crops, fruits and vegetables are there? Which animals, birds and trees are found? Are

there any large animals (leopard, elephants) that come to your area?

Using videos for discussions

1. We will watch a fun video on what are the various kinds of ecosystems (biomes) and the

animals that live there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90XU0B_ya6g&feature=related

2. Watch the following videos

• This is a short video about an ecosystem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuejxJttBqo&feature=related

• This is a video about the Chilka lake, Orissa ecosystem. This is an example of an aquatic

ecosystem http://www.chilika.com/chilika_video_gallery.htm

Discussion questions

i. Are biome and ecosystem the same? What is the connection?

ii. Are all biomes found in all places? If yes, why? If no, why not?

iii. With a physical map, see how many biomes are found in India

iv. What is the name of ecosystem that your area is in? What region is it?

v. What important ideas did you get about ecosystems from this video?

3. These are two videos that describe the food chain and food web

i. Food chain in Africa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bn7wdCP2v4&feature=related

ii. Interactions in an ecosystem http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=XJ6VtduDSyY&feature=related

iii. Description of a food chain and web http://www.youtube.com/watch?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eZBzfnAogU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ6VtduDSyY&feature=related



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bn7wdCP2v4&feature=related

http://www.chilika.com/chilika_video_gallery.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuejxJttBqo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90XU0B_ya6g&feature=related


v=9eZBzfnAogU&feature=related

iv. Interactions and energy flow in an ecosystem http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=o_RBHfjZsUQ

More discussion questions

i. When we say food web, what comes to your mind? Why do you think it is called food web?

ii. Can you think why there are few consumers and large number of producers? What happens

when a consumer eats a producer?

i. Can you give examples of each of these categories in your area – producer, consumer and

decomposer?

ii. For this web to work properly, what is needed?

iii. What is energy flow? How does it flow – from small organisms to large or large organisms to

small? Why do you think so? What elements do you observe in the ecosystem that give you

this idea?

iv. Is the tiger 'bad' because it ate the goats? Why is the tiger eating the goat?

4. Read some of the following links on biogeochemical cycles.

http://www.geography4kids.com/files/cycles_intro.html

Creating Resources 7 - Image Editing Tools GIMP is a powerful and complex open source image editing programme. The GIMPs tools are

displayed as icons on the toolbox. A user can identify a tool by hovering over it. The name of the tool

will appear below. Clicking on the icon will select that corresponding tool.

A beginner can utilise the following tools in GIMP:

Crop

Select the area that you would like to retain. The area can be extended or reduced by selecting one of

the sides. Once your desired area is selected (the remaining area will turn grey or darker), then double

click inside the desired area. The photo will be cropped to that size.

The tool is used to reduce the size of large images and to remove unnecessary areas in a photo.


http://www.geography4kids.com/files/cycles_intro.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_RBHfjZsUQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_RBHfjZsUQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eZBzfnAogU&feature=related


Scale

Open the image that you want to work on in GIMP. Select the scale tool and click on the image. The

image would then have tiny boxes on every side. Another box will pop up. You can insert the

measurements that you want in this box. Or you could manually drag with the help of clicking one of

the sides and reduce to the size you want. The tool is used to to reduce the size of heavy images. It

makes uploading on websites more easy.

Move

After scaling an image, if you want to add another image to the frame, you would have to move the

first image to the side. This can be done using the move tool. Select the move tool. Select the image.

Click and drag to a suitable location. The tool is used when there is more than one element in the

window you are working on.

Add text

Select the Text tool (a capital A). Now, drag the tool to were you want to insert text. A tiny box pops

up. Type your text in the box. The size, colour, style of the text can be changed in the settings below

the tool box. The length of the text box can be adjusted after you finishing typing your text by

selecting the corners and dragging. The tool is used to add a title or caption explaining the text is

useful.

Scale image size

Select the image. Go to the menu bar on top and click on the 'Image' option. Then click on 'Scale

image...'. This would show you options of 'width and height' along with 'X resolution' and 'Y

resolution'. Enter in 72 pixels in both X and Y spaces. This would help reduce the file to a small size.

The tool is used to reduce resolution which helps in file size and to make photos for uploading on

websites (should not be used for printing).

Reducing Image size

• Right click on the image file and open with GIMP image editor.

• Once the image open in a GIMP image tool.

• Goto to file and click on Export as.

• The dialog opens with the file name already typed/saved in the Name box.

• Better rename the file (for you reference)and click on the export.

• Now you will get export image as popup screen.



Reduce the image Quality to make the image size even smaller by draging.

Note:A quality of 50 produces a reasonable image using much less disk space, which will, in

turn, load much faster on a web page. Although the image is somewhat degraded, it is

acceptable for the intended purpose.

Open Educational ResourcesYou have heard of the National Curriculum Framework 2005, which speaks of contextual, inclusive

and meaningful education. In your units on education, you have also read about constructivist learning

models. For these ideas to come true, relevant learning resources must be available for the students

(teachers) and teachers (teacher-educator). These resources must be contextual, easily available, allow

for learners to modify and adapt for their requirements.

Right now, in many cases, the textbook tends to be the most important resource for teachers, if not the

only resource. This resource is limited, made once in a year and represent on set of thoughts. These

resources are largely text based, have very audio visual resources and may not address multiple

learning needs. External resources, though available, are also largely non-digital, expensive and

cannot easily be adapted for local needs and contexts.

For critical and diverse perspectives to develop, multiple resources must be available and it must be

possible for knowledge to be constructed and shared from multiple contexts. Otherwise, it is possible

that only some forms of knowledge will remain important and other will die out. For knowledge

sharing to freely happen, educational resources must become freely available, freely shareable and

freely changeable to adapt to local contexts and needs. You have also read about the role of ICTs in

the creation, sharing and distribution of knowledge in section on ICTs and Society.

Open Educational Resources (OERs), as they are called

are such learning resources. Open Educational Resources

are digital resources that are available freely, in multiple

formats – text, audio, video – to allow for multiple

learner needs.

This is a global phenomenon and began in 2001 with the

launch of wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), where

knowledge is created and shared by many many people

and not restricted to one person. Following this,

Massachussetts Institute of Technology, a leading




university in the United States of America, released many of its course materials for free called Open

Courseware (2001). In teacher education also, educational resources were developed collaboratively

by a programme for Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa and published on

http://www.tessafrica.net. These are some of the early initiatives in OERs; now many more OERs are

available across the world teaching and learning. In India, National Programme on Technology

Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) (http://nptel.iitk.ac.in) and IGNOU have offered many of the courses as

Open Educational Resources.

Kinds of OERs

There are different kinds of OERs:

- Sharing already created academic content for free www.khanacademy.org; www.tessafrica.net - -

Structuring free course materials and courses – like www.nroer.metastudio.org; ; www.edx.org;

www.coursera.org ; www.nptel.iitk.ac.in

- Collaborate and creating materials - www.wikipedia.org

The Karnataka Open Educational Resources (KOER) project is a project of DSERT Karnataka to

enable and support teachers to collaborate and create educational resources and share with all.

Principles of OERs

Open Educational Resources are those resources that allow the following four kinds of freedoms to

learners/ users. These “Freedoms” are as follows:

• Resources can be accessed for free, used and 're-used'

• Resources can be revised/ adapted to make it relevant

• Resources can be re-mixed / combined to make a new resource

• Resources can be redistributed - the revised/ remixed resource can be shared back. These are

called the 4 Rs (re-use, re-vise, re-mix and re-distribute)

Licensing and copyright

These resources are shared under copyright which are less restrictive than the usual 'all rights reserved'

and allow for some or all of the four R's. One popular copyright used for such resources is the

“Creative Commons”. Creative Commons is a type of copy right (sometimes called Copy Left) that

will allow you to use the resources, modify them, combine them and also redistribute. When you are



http://www.nptel.iitk.ac.in/

http://www.coursera.org/

http://www.edx.org/

http://www.nroer.metastudio.org/

http://nptel.iitk.ac.in/

http://www.tessafrica.net/


accessing/ sharing something as OERs, you can share it under Creative Commons License, by

explicitly mentioning that 'Copyright – Creative Commons' in your text. If nothing is mentioned, the

default copyright is 'all rights reserved', which will mean others cannot modify or share your

resources.

OERs – A national priority

At the national level, the is maintaining a National Repository of Open Educational Resources. For

more information on NROER, click http://nroer.gov.in/home

Karnataka Open Educational Resources, is a resource repository collaboratively created by the

teachers of Karnataka. It is organized on the same principles of OERs and is built on a wiki platform

like wikipedia. Teachers and teacher-educators play a key role in creating locally relevant, meaningful

and dynamic resources.

The objectives of KOER are

1. To develop a process of learning, sharing and creating by building collaborative peer networks

2. To provide for continuous learning through the process of resource creation

3. Provide a sustainable model of creating and sharing educational resources that can enhance the

educational outcomes

4. To build a repository of teaching resources – for teachers, teacher educators and as a resource base

for teacher education

For information on KOER, visit

http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/KOER_background-note


http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/KOER_background-note

http://nroer.gov.in/home