excellent thesis for computer science: blogs for educational excellence

WEB LOGS (BLOGS) FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING ASAN INTERFACE TOWARDS QUALITY EDUCATION

BY

DHEERAJ MEHROTRAMS (ED. MGMT), MPHIL(ED.)

PRESIDENT AWARDEE, AUTHOR AND FREELANCE JOURNALIST

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1.0 INTRODUCTION – AN OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION TO A BLOG:

It is defined as a social software and a tool which has to meet at least two of the followingconditions:

It allows people to communicate, collaborate and build a community online.

It can be syndicated, shared, reused or remixed

It allows people to easily learn from and capitalize on the behaviour or knowledge of others

Weblogs are defined as “ frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed inreverse chronological sequence” (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus et al., 2004, p. 1). A weblog typicallyconsists of posts that are usually time-stamped, vary in length and frequency of updates, and areorganised in reverse chronology so that readers always see the most recent post first (Bausch etal., 2002; Blood, 2002; Mortensen & Walker, 2002; Trammel & Gasser, 2004).

Since 1999, weblogs have proliferated following the development of user-friendly weblogpublishing services such as Live Journal, Blogger.com and Pitas. Weblogs are still growing, andgrowing even larger. A study conducted in June 2002 found 2% of Internet users in the UnitedStates had created a weblog (Pew, 2005). Since then, the percentage soared to 7% in late2004, corresponding to approximately 8 million weblogs. In the same year, the number of weblogreaders rocketed by 58% to 32 million Americans or 27% of Internet users in the country. And allthese had not taken into account weblogs from other parts of the world.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The approach of learning through Blogs has been categorised as the module of learning andsharing knowledge. With the march of time and tide, this has mounted to excell with perfectionand modulation.

Blogging has become an influential phenomenon that is gaining recognition and acknowledgementby the media, scholars, and government officials throughout the world. Recent events that havehighlighted the importance of weblogs include the Asian tsunami disaster, the Iraq war, and



September 11 attack. It is the outcome of the large workforce involved in the research of theprogramming modules which has led to the manipulation of the software qualitative analysis in abig way. The strength of these web links and the proforma ultimately laminates success to masterand dwell in the policies framed towards the user friendly modules. The blogs not only remain theremarkable feature of any website as a requisite likewise that of the contact me module and atthe same time helps in the manifestation of the urgency of this feature towards the definition andthe practical applications further.

Various research studies have been done on weblogs, from the classification of weblogs (Herring,Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright, 2004; Trammel & Gasser, 2004) to the purpose of blogging (Nardi,Schiano, Gumbrecht, and Swartz, 2004). Yet few studies have touched on the attitudinal andbehavioural aspects of ethics behind this activity. This is an important area for us to understandas how bloggers think and act may have tremendous impacts on others and themselves.

IDENTIFICATION OF BLOGGERS:

From the literature on blogging, we identified two distinct groups of bloggers: personal andnonpersonal. Personal weblogs are those that resemble an online diary or personal journal. Non-personal weblogs are those that focus on specific topics and content, usually intended for largeraudiences. In addition to different types of content and intended audiences, these two types ofbloggers are likely to have different perspectives on the functions and impact their blogs havewhich may in turn influence their ethics in blogging.

1.2 Research Questions:

a. What is the need of BLOG in Education?

b. How does Educational BLOG bring Quality in Education?

c. Does the usage of BLOGS serve as an effective educational tool ?

d. Does there lie a need of BLOGS for Education?

Like Podcast, wiki and other types of new technology, blogs can be use in classroom environment



for diary entry; it also can be a useful tool to link communication between study groups within aclass or other classes or even schools. If use effectively, blogs can create a learning environmentthat extend beyond the schoolyard.

Why should we use blogs in the classroom?

There are numerous educational benefits of blogs. They may wary from time to time andenvironment to environment but certainly encapsulates the importance in a big way to inherit thequality learning properties of the learners and the teachers.

RESEARCH APPROACH:

Survey Report of Meaning of Blogs in Education:

Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilise with students whenever there isa curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in theclassroom.

Definition:

Blog/WebLog: a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. Ablog can take the form of a diary, journal, what’s new page, or links to other web sites.Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001

From an education perspective the availability and ease of use of blogging software makescreating blogs a viable classroom activity and a means for teachers to communicate with otherteachers.

Blogs are:

• Highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participantsin classrooms.

• Excellent opportunities for students to read and write.



• Effective forums for collaboration and discussion.

• Powerful tools to enable scaffolding learning or mentoring to occur.

How do we use blogs in education?

Blogs can serve at least four basic functions.

1. Classroom Management

Class blogs can serve as a portal to foster a community of learners. As they are easy to createand update efficiently, they can be used to inform students of class requirements, posthandouts, notices, and homework assignments, or act as a question and answer board.

2. Collaboration

Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work to further develop writing orother skills with the advantage of an instant audience. Teachers can offer instructional tips, andstudents can practice and benefit from peer review. They also make online mentoringpossible. For example, a class of older students can help a class of younger students developmore confidence in their writing skills. Students can also participate in cooperative learningactivities that require them to relay research findings, ideas, or suggestions.

3. Discussions

A class blog opens the opportunity for students to discuss topics outside of the classroom.With a blog, every person has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions.Students have time to be reactive to one another and reflective. Teachers can also bringtogether a group of knowledgeable individuals for a given unit of study for students to networkand conference with on a blog.

4. Student Portfolios

Blogs present, organize, and protect student work as digital portfolios. As older entries arearchived, developing skills and progress may be analyzed more conveniently. Additionally, asstudents realize their efforts will be published, they are typically more motivated to produce



better writing. Teachers and peers may conference with a student individually on a developingwork, and expert or peer mentoring advice can be easily kept for future reference.

Henry Farrell identifies five major uses for blogs in education:

1. Teachers use blogs to replace the standard class Web page. Instructors post class times andrules, assignment notifications, suggested readings, and exercises. Aside from the ordering ofmaterial by date, students would find nothing unusual in this use of the blog. The instructor, however,finds that the use of blogging software makes this previously odious chore much simpler.

2. Instructors begin to link to Internet items that relate to their course. Mesa Community College’sRick Effland, for example, maintains a blog to pass along links and comments about topics inarchaeology.15 Though Mesa’s archaeology Web pages have been around since 1995, bloggingallows Effland to write what are in essence short essays directed specifically toward his students.Effland’s entries are not mere annotations of interesting links. They effectively model his approachand interest in archaeology for his students.

3. Blogs are used to organize in-class discussions. At the State University of New York at Buffalo,for example, Alexander Halavais added a blog to his media law class of about 180 students.Course credit was awarded for online discussion, with topics ranging from the First Amendmentto libel to Irish law reform. As the course wound down with a discussion of nude bikers, Halavaisquestioned whether he would continue the blog the following year because of the workload, butstudents were enthusiastic in their comments

Mireille Guay, an instructor at St-Joseph, notes: “The conversation possible on the weblog is alsoan amazing tool to develop our community of learners. The students get to know each otherbetter by visiting and reading blogs from other students. They discover, in a non-threatening way,their similarities and differences. The student who usually talks very loud in the classroom and thestudent who is very timid have the same writing space to voice their opinion. It puts students in asituation of equity.”

4. Some instructors are using blogs to organize class seminars and to provide summaries ofreadings. Used in this way, the blogs become “group blogs”—that is, individual blogs authoredby a group of people. Farrell notes: “It becomes much easier for the professor and students toaccess the readings for a particular week—and if you make sure that people are organizedabout how they do it, the summaries will effectively file themselves.”

5. Students may be asked to write their own blogs as part of their course grade. Educational



Technologist Lane Dunlop wrote about one class at Cornell College: “Each day the students reada chunk of a book and post two paragraphs of their thoughts on the reading.” In another class,French 304, students were given a similar exercise. Using a French-language blogging servicecalled Monblogue, Molly, a business student, posted a few paragraphs every day.”

e. When and Why Not to Use Blogs in Education?

Never never approach blogs as discussion boards, listservs or learning management systems:Almost invariably the first thing people do when encountering new technologies is to try and get itto do what the technologies they are used to do and this is no exception when it comes to blogs.Group blogs are a bad idea and don’t work: Sure there’s a place for collaborative/ group blogsbut that place is not in education. Blogs work well for individuals… they are tools of centredcommunication and pretty far removed from community management systems like Drupal. Justdon’t go there!

Don’t try and force blogging into something else: Blogging suits highly customisable, individual,owned and fiercely flexible tools like WordPress. You can try and fit blogs into other systems suchas Moodle, Drupal or Tiki but you’re not going to do well because the entire centralised philosophyof these systems is utterly opposed to that of successful blogging platforms

Ignore RSS at your peril: Probably the biggest mistake that adopters tend to make is to ignoreRSS or just through it a casting glance. The problem is that these people aren’t bloggers and justdon’t understand. Without RSS blogs would pretty much just be extensions of geocities pages.Your learners are NEVER going to surf each others sites everyday and the majority of them won’teven go to that funky web-based aggregator you set-up.

TRUSTWORTHINESS OF THE DATA

The approach pertains to the success in regard to the teachers community. It is widelyobserved that the literacy among the masses particularly the teachers have come up withfast and steady progress. No more IT, the Information Technology has been categorised asthe so called Science subject of study. It is regarded and graded as the skill rather thanbeing referred to as a subject of study. This type of skill and particularly Blogs now havebecome a tool to make study and learning easy, fun and interesting. The analysis showsthat every class of 40 children:



Data Analysis:

No. of Children in the class: 40

No. of Children having access to Computers at Home: 30

No. of Children having access to Computers at Cyber Cafe: 10

No. of Children having access to Computer Working: 40

Teachers’ Knowledge of Computers: Yes.

Access to Internet: 40

Owning a Website: 02

Owning an Email ID: 38

Owning/ sharing a BLOG: 10

(Survey done with class XII-A at Spring Dale College, Lucknow)



2.0 The Scenario Today – Background

Learning Today

The weB LOGs today is the in thing with the advancement of knowledge and expertise at times ofneed and transformation of meaning information in times to make communication a better. Thescenario deals in making information of exposure nature with nearly every website offering a toolfor the depiction of ideas and comments for the readers also as a matter of fact to dwell into thenumber of hits to a site with an identity to the browser.

The dealing relates to the perfection of the modules being considered, the sites offer varioustools and topics of interest in related to the composition of the order in particular. For example,the site responsible for Global Education may deal in topics friendly to the following:



This may count to the following options viz.

This facilitates learning making it interesting and of repute with ideas and inputs from the readersin particular. The dealing is done in a fine stroke with perfection to the the debates and the pointsdiscussed with overviews on a global scenario in particular. The definition to this regards iscategorised in action of framework and attitude of the young readers in perfection and experience.

My experiment suggests that the BLOGS are an attribute to the junction of knowledge and givesthe opportunity to discuss and channelise the perfection in order of the latest to the knowledgeand action by the society. These are the inputs generated in action and of taste by the relatedmembers of the society. Not only this generates interest of the particular subject but this alsoaccelerates learning in inception to the category of choice and target.

The study shows that the need and intelligence of this content is required as a requisite to performto the best of the knowledge and the reputation of the organisation giving the information topublic. The normal procedures which adopt to the ways and means come up to the ultimate withperfection of interface in nature and ultimate.



The research of the analysis show in further that An aspiring blogger can be overwhelmed withthe vast amount of resources, tools, and advice for bloggers available on the net. While in no waydefinitive - there’s simply too much going on in this space to cover it all - we did our best to bringyou a comprehensive list of blogging resources, which should be equally useful to beginners aswell as veteran bloggers.

CYBER LITERACY TODAY :

Here I would like to repeat my survey mentioned in the last chapter of analysis done at oneof my class rooms:

Data Analysis:

No. of Children in the class: 40

No. of Children having access to Computers at Home: 30

No. of Children having access to Computers at Cyber Cafe: 10

No. of Children having access to Computer Working: 40

Teachers’ Knowledge of Computers: Yes.

Access to Internet: 40

Owning a Website: 02

Owning an Email ID: 38

Owning/ sharing a BLOG: 10

(Survey done with class XII-A at Spring Dale College, Lucknow)



WORKING/ LEARNING HABITS TODAY

The working and learning scenario has been of use and the module in the best possible manner.The scenario today of research and my study, come up to the conclusion that it has to be welloriented and conducted with the help of the Internet base learning and uploading information onthe websites. The concept of Blogging as being studied has been graded and regarded as thegood substitute of the net based website oriented learning.

Although the data is uploaded by the users and the learning and are accessed by having a littleregistration and sharing of the identity, the blogging has been more successful and interactive ascompared to the net based interactive module of one to one mapping.

I have studied of the the free blogs available on the net which allow teaching and learning withinclusive modules and subjects of choice and art in a big way. Some of them have beencategorised to function and identity.

Free Blogs Available on the Net:

WordPress -

WordPress allows you to create and host a blog on their own servers and you can display it to theworld. You don’t get as much customization and functionality as if you have it hosted on your ownserver (for example, advertising is not allowed), but it is still a very good way to blog withoutpaying money.

Blogger -

A service owned by Google, Blogger is a way to have your blogs hosted for free and you can postas much as you want. It allows Google’s AdSense to be used.

Xanga -

iXanga is a lively community of online diaries and journals. Users create their own profiles andthere are many opportunities to interact with other users.

LiveJournal -



LiveJournal is excellent if you wish to blog on a personal level and join a community and shareyour blogs among friends.

Vox -

A new contender to the arena but Vox is a very nice and powerful blogging tool; not to mentionfree!; You receive many social experiences with this option as Vox is based heavily on communitybased blogging.

Tumblr -

Tumblr is great if you don’t have time to blog, but still want to share something now and again. Itlets you easily post videos, pictures, links, and of course you can write them too.



3.0 LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR

Insight

The present scenario of learning and aiming to the importance of Quality education has in a wayblocked the importance of a teacher based study to limitations. The day and the societyincapsulates the importance of more and more options open for learning and being involved ineducation or the action research. The Blogs in this way provide an arena and the profile for thereaders and the browsers to upload the data of their choice and information of repute. Thedefination relates to the text and the proforma of need and choice by the people in context ofchoice, independence and repute.

Now, with the buzzing virtual connectivity through the net, there is a global opening of new vistasin the commercial world. It has created a powerful ripple in the ocean of information world, to

allow everybody to share the information for sustainable developments across the globe. It isalso a facilitation for all the connected to develop their own website for anybody to accessaround the globe.

All this has become simple and even possible for a common man without a sound knowledge ofcomputers - one once awful device. Accordingly, the technology has extended human capabilities,

which is fundamental to the successful usage of technology. As per Kearsley’s theory of qualitativeproductivity, “Increased productivity is a function of human abilities extended through the soft andthe hard components of technology.”

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY =Human Abilities

+

Soft Technology



+

Hard Technology

i.e. any component on the right becoming zero results in zero productivity. Moreover, any mismatchbetween any of the three components will lead to disaster. But, to the high order grading, theappropriate technology, reduces training time, minimizes training resources, lowers dropout rates

improves proficiency in performance and increases satisfaction at all levels. The way this verytechnology in the form of computers, known as Information Technology, introduced a very importanttechnology, introduced a very important instructional capability as INTERCONNECTIVITY.

Today, in the traditional educational arena, the teacher performs different functions like planning,evaluating and locating appropriate instructional resources, developing complementing

instructional resources, handling administration, laisoning with students/ parents/ administrationand teach as well. In addition the teachers do have to take care of slow learners changes insyllabi, discipline and adhering to the overall development of the child.

The module of WEB LOGS (BLOGS) FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING AS AN INTERFACETOWARDS QUALITY EDUCATION defines in particular the view of managment of the processof learning in a particular way and direction further. This also deals with the pertext of knowningthe cause and controlling it to the ultimate in conjunction with the preface of topics and choice ofthe language. Particularly, there are incidences where in the definitions pertain to the cause ofworking for the concept in addition to the research modules and study for the perfection in particular.

As a matter of fact, the theme is:



Blogs for Teaching and Learning

Something more than just technology

The aspects relate further as follows:

- New teaching and learning paradigmStudent centred approachCompetence based

Higher Education Area

- New roles of teachersstudentsinstitutions

As Case Study Analysis of Using Blogs for teaching/ learning MATHS for example is consideredas follows:

§ Using a blog makes learning independent of time and place – from teaching at a certain timein a certain place to teaching anytime and anywhere. Blogs and other asynchronous mediagive learners time to reflect. The media formats available today are:



Obviously looking at the intelligence which follow, the educational scenario of Maths learningdefines the usage as:

§ Using a blog makes education demand oriented and participant-centered – from one wayteaching and supply orientation to participation buy everyone.

Learners are self driven:

o Strong desire to learn

o Want to discover

o Act proactively

o Take initiatives

o Want to set own goals

o Need freedom

o Individual feedback



“Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

Mark Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”

3.2 Analysis:

The analysis to this study shows that the following is the umberalla covered with the BLOGcommunity to the ultimate in action:

The Quality in communication defines the best means for Participation, Recommendation, SocialSoftware, Sharing and collaboration.

§ Using a blog encourages learners to be active throughout the course period.

§ Using a blog helps learners to improve their writing competences and thinking skills.

§ Using a blog makes education more informal.

§ Using a blog involves also external people.

Let us assume of the the absence of any clear mode of modulation and communication.



“ …the philosophy of mutually maximizing collective intelligence and added value for each participant by formalized and dynamic information sharing and creation.

Högg, R. Meckel, M., Stanoevska-Slabeva, K., Martignoni, R., 2006. Overview of business models for Web 1.0 communities. Proceedings of GeNeMe, p.23-37.

This as a matter is true to the sense of working in order for making a networking of brains andattitutes to order. Hence a BLOG may be concluded towards Education to be defined as:



as a social software, a tool must meet at least two of the following conditions:

It allows people to communicate, collaborate

and build a community online

It can be syndicated, shared, reused or remixed

It allows people to easily learn from and capitalize

on the behaviour or knowledge of others

Meredith Gorran Farkas

w h y w e b l o g s ?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022


http://www.flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022


There may be a question to one’s mind of WHY WEBLOGS? as it may come to the conclusionfurther. This may prove to the need of ones’ exchange of information for betterment. How educationcomes into play is further decision based factor to conclude.

To my surprise of learning and understanding the following analysis of one of the published reportsshow the conclusion:

The obvious reasons pertain to the selection of the policies to projection and lamination in repute,action and patience in order to make the work possible the way being demanded in order toapplicate to the reasons by the networked members in particular.

There is always an obvious reason for this show in order to execute and maximize the periodicalcapsules further.

The Educational Usages of BLOGS pertaining in sense of its applicabity subdue to the following:

a. Technologies do NOT change teaching & learning, but can help us to introduce new



methodologies and learning environments.

b. They do the following:

Blogs support:

knowledge building reflection

monitoringsharing

archiving

Possibilities of Web 2.0

tools

c. The Blogs applicate to the Blooms Taxonomy:

>> Bloom’s Taxonomy

experimenting, monitoring

implementing, executing

designing, planning, producingorganising, attributing,

integrating

summarising, inferring, paraphrasing

recognising, identifying, retrieving



4.0 Developing Skillful Learning – Technology

4.1 Keeping Up with the Pace: Improving Network Technology

There are incidences of the fact that Blogs in Education has been the inthing. The followingquotation from the site, explains the cause in my research particularly, the direct telecast of theresource and information further to the level of the readers:

I continue my investigation into blogging, the power and purpose in the classroom. I am recentlyserved on the design team of a large grant focusing on literacy and handhelds. We have adiscussion forum, but I wanted to dive deeper and see how we might create our own blogs. Tointroduce this to our teachers I created two great activities that introduce blogs. If your wouldlike my activities, send me an e-mail, and I wil l send them to you in [email protected]

>> Using blogs in the classroom

To share opinions and learning.

To see knowledge as interconnected.

To facilitates reflection and evaluation.

To develop a digital portfolio.

To promote creative writing.

To teach responsible public writing. Source: http://anne.teachesme.com/2007/01/17/rat ionale-for-educational-

blogging (Davis 2007)


mailto:[email protected]

http://anne.teachesme.com/2007/01/17/rationale-for-educational


4.2 Small Changes, Big Difference: IT Development

The question lies before us is of the importance of Quality Education through blogging, Are wepreparing students to be successful in school or successful in life? If life long learning is the goal,the methods, tools and strategies must change from “text based” instruction to interactive learning.Instead of instructors who talk faster as the high stakes tests get closer, we need to stop talkingand help students make sense of the content using new strategies that engage these students.Stream video into the classroom, collaborate with others across the globe, reshape curriculumwith the goal of increased student achievement. Need a jumpstart to getting started in yourclassroom attend this eye opening session.

As a matter of fact, the scenario says:

Today, networks have the capability to connect people, resources and ideas together in an ever-expanding global conversation on just about every topic-including education. By joining thisconversation (BLOGS) one can contribute, create content, and have his ideas amplified bycontributors world-wide. The users may hence Join the BLOGGER as there is an exploration ofthe critical attributes of what it means to be network literate, how network literacy empowers 21stCentury teaching and learning.



5.0 Developing Learning Habits through Blogging

5.1 The Negative View

The fact which limelights the review of learning through blogging has been true to the fact ofconversation of skills to the ultimate. The habits which target to learning for better throughthis tool is immense of repute and density.

If a Picture Says a Thousand Words STOP TALKING!

Let the power of multimedia images increase comprehension. Infuse your classroom with stillimages, moving pictures, music and primary source documents. Vary your lesson planning toinclude these elements that reach the 21st Century brains. Experience powerful examples ofways you can engage the minds and increase comprehension. This session will help you putyour hands on multimedia examples for your classroom.

You May not Be a Blogger or a Podcaster, but Your Students Are

What? Many educators don’t know if these words are nouns or verbs, yet our students are spendingcountless hours doing both. We can block and filter all school day, but as educators we need toknow what is going on and help students understand the long term effects of what students aredoing online today. All blogs or podcasts are not bad, but students need our guidance to helpmake good choices as they craft their messages online. If you also are a parent this is a mustattend session!

5.2 The Schools Role

Sending your child to school is different than in past generations. No longer is every single pieceof school news and homework written down on paper. Many teachers, especially in middle andhigh schools, use e-mail, blogs, forums and websites to discuss school issues, disperseinformation, and for the most part as a communication tool between the teachers, parents andstudents. Today, schools use websites, social networks and blogs to post:

· Homework and class assignments· Lunch menus· Tuition and student fees· Uniform and/or dress code policies



· Progress reports· Report cards· Non-scheduled school closings (due to weather, emergency, etc.)· School calendars· School supply lists· Discipline policies· Information on admittance procedures

Going Paperless

Because most families have access to at least one computer on a daily basis, many schools aregoing paperless in effort to reduce the amount of paper being used and/or wasted. Older studentsare required to log in either at home or in the classroom to receive and file homework assignments.No longer will the excuse, “My dog ate my homework” be acceptable! Parents of younger studentscan access the school’s private website or blog to receive the same information. Schools havesaved thousands of dollars every year going paperless.

Reach More in Less Time

Updating a school or class blog with pertinent information can be done quicker and more easilythan contacting each class member or parent personally. This includes a last-minute school closuredue to inclement weather or an emergency. Parents and older students are recommended tocheck in with a school’s site several times a week for updates, or they can sign up for a newsfeed and have the updates sent directly to their e-mail.

Feedback

One of the benefits of a blog is the feedback that can be provided. Various issues can be “talkedout” through a blog’s comments or forum. Teachers can also provide answers to homeworkquestions, as well as respond to other concerns parents or students may have. A teacher’sresponse via the Internet is a lot quicker than waiting until class starts the next morning.

Using Blogs as a Teaching Tool

Besides using blogs as a means of communicating with parents and students, weblogs are alsobeing used as a teaching device. Middle and high school students are creating blogs duringvarious classes as a way of learning from each other and dispelling the negativity blogs mayhave. Students can create weblogs and present ideas on a variety of subjects including:



· Social studies· History· Geography· Science· Biology· Physics· Chemistry· English· Writing

Teachers can set up private accounts for each student, keeping them secure by allowing onlylimited accessibility. These blogs can then be accessed during class time (or at home forhomework), where they can be updated, edited or graded. Students can critique each other’sweblogs, which can provide valuable feedback for both the students and the teacher.

Knowing about the world: The better:

Learning Around the World

Additionally, blogs can do more than simply connect students in the classroom: They can bringschools together from all over the world. Through one of several notable educational programsavailable, students in the United States, for instance, can connect with those overseas and viceversa.

And what they can learn from each other can not be found in any textbook, including differencesand similarities in:

· Culture· Language· Music styles· Fashion· Religion· Weather· Classroom learning techniques



6.0 Developing Pace of Learing through Blogging

6.1 Relating to the Students

The pace of learning has been dwelled in action over the time. Education blogs are becoming ameans for educators, students, and education administrators to interact more effectively thanever before.

Blogs provide a communication space that teachers can utilise with students whenever there isa curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in theclassroom.

Definition:

Blog/WebLog: a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. Ablog can take the form of a diary, journal, what’s new page, or links to other web sites.Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001

From an education perspective the availability and ease of use of blogging software makescreating blogs a viable classroom activity and a means for teachers to communicate with otherteachers.

6.2 Case Studies – School Education

1. Classroom and Teacher Applications : Students keep their diaries or journals in the form of aBlog, while other examples include blogs with a structured activity relating to a specific text.

2. School Libraries: A number of libraries use blogs to provide current information to libraryusers. They are also involved with delivering some of this information from newspapers andother sources using RSS feeds.

3. Collaborative blogs Collaborative blogs, also known as Group Blogs, publish posts written bymultiple users. Student 2.0 is an excellent example of a group blog authored by students.

Source: http://students2oh.org/


http://students2oh.org/


It comments as follows:

We are students: the ones who come to school every day, raise our hands with safe questions,and keep our heads down. Except, now we have a voice—a strong voice—to share our ideasthrough a global network.

Blogs in Education

There are evident chances and resumes that someone close to you, has a personal or professionalblog. A blog is a website that acts as an online journal, a place to post information, and a way tokeep in touch with others. A blog can be used as an important tool for networking and sharing tipsor news with other teachers, dispersing information to your students, and keeping parents abreastof what is happening in your classroom.

The majority of the blog writers try to expose and dwell their own identity on the web, into thecyberspace. They do Write about their passions as they pertain to teaching or the field ofeducation, and tell other professionals about their blog.

As time goes on, a blogger may develop a number of regular readers. These readers will commenton the writings, either agreeing or disagreeing with the content. This is hence an effective and funway to share the ideas, gather tips from others’ experiences, and mingle with fellow educatorsfrom all around the world.



Data Analysis:

Source: Internet Analysis of Data

6.3 Summary

In terms of demographics, our findings show that non-personal bloggers are more likely to bemale, significantly older and have more formal years of education compared with personalbloggers. The data also indicate that non-personal bloggers have more readers daily than personalbloggers, and this could be due to the wide variety of content they write about. Unlike personalbloggers who write mainly about events in their lives, non-personal bloggers write a variety ofcontent that is useful and appealing to a larger audience. Nonpersonal bloggers more frequentlycheck how many readers access their weblogs than personal bloggers. A likely reason for this isthat a primary purpose of non-personal weblogs is to provide commentaries or viewpoints forothers to read and appreciate, and a large audience is one indication that a non-personal weblogis successful.



A sample snap shot of Blogs in Education:

Today in class !

Most importantly, our findings show that while personal and non-personal bloggers have somethings in common in terms of their ethical beliefs and practices, there are also some distinctivedifferences. For example, non-personal bloggers valued attribution and truth telling the most, butfor personal bloggers truth telling was less important than attribution and minimizing harm. Thetype of ethics most practiced by the personal bloggers was minimizing harm, while the non-personal bloggers practiced truth telling, attribution, and minimizing harm equally. The personalbloggers were also less consistent in practicing the ethics they said they valued than the non-personal bloggers.

As an ultimate, your blog can also be used as a classroom management tool. Post assignmentsfor your students, reducing the chances that they didn’t know that a project was due. Include linksto educational websites that will enhance your students’ knowledge and understanding of conceptsand topics discussed in class. Post extra credit assignments on the blog as an incentive tostudents who check it regularly.

Now the question comes of having a classroom blog will also help parents to be informed ofwhat’s going on in the classroom. This, in turn, will lead to more parents taking active roles in their



children’s education. Write up a synopsis of what the class has been studying each month, or atthe end of each term. Be sure to get parental permission before posting photos of students onyour site. Photographs of in-class projects, science experiments, and the students working ingroups will help parents to feel as though they are well-informed of their child’s daily routine.

Now further we need to encourage our students to keep blogs as well. This can be a classroomor an individual project. Blogging will further help our students to express themselves and topractice valuable computer, keyboarding, writing, spelling, and grammatical skills. Also it hencebecomes mandatory for the kids to teach them how to upload photos from a digital camera ifpossible. This is ultimate to their interest and research.



7.0 Developing Strategies - Parents/ Teachers Acceptance

7.1 The Importance of the Parents/ Teachers

Certainly of usage and utility, whether the teachers are new to the teaching field one must fieldhimself or act as a seasoned veteran, and can find inspiration, advice and shared experiencesby reading the blogs of other teachers. Both established bloggers and those new to the gamelike the bloggers can offer some interesting and sometimes entertaining reading material foranyone involved in the education field.

No wonder with teachers or with parents, at their odd hours or leisure, initially, the blogging isbecoming an art of practice. Since it is also becoming more and more popular in the classroom.Teachers can blog to stay in touch with parents and students or they can incorporate blogs fromall of the students as a learning tool. The beauty of the student blog is that children from Kindergartento high school can blog. No matter how you use blogs in your classroom, these tools will help youget started, enhance your experience, or bring the students into the fun.

As a matter of concern and thought, as a teacher, you are already well aware that keeping yourstudents safe is a priority. Introducing blogs in the classroom is undeniably a powerful learningtool, but it also brings about an opportunity for the teacher to reexamine student safety.

The strategies which count the most include the following:

Create scrapbooks, slide shows, postcards, and more to post on your blog with this tool. Whileit’s not specifically designed for educators, teachers can receive the premium subscription forfree.

Let your students design their own personal avatars with one of these free tools. Using an avatarlets the students personalize while also keeping their identity private.

Create an online presentation with audio and text. You can incorporate PowerPoint, Flickr, Word,PDF, and more. Teachers get a free account.



you can add a button on your blog that allows readers to easily bookmark and share your website.Having this button will allow parents and other teachers easier access to your site.

Add photos to your blog and put them in motion with this tool. Create fun slide shows and morewithout using difficult software.

Create a ribbon for your favorite cause or use an originally designed ribbon to tie all your students’blogs together with this simple tool.

Choose your characters and add word or thought bubbles complete with your own text to createyour very own comic strip. This is a fun activity for students to incorporate in their blogs, too.

Add any imaginable widget to your blog with this tool. Let your students run wild to allow theirindividuality to shine with these widgets that range from clocks to animals to word searches.

Add any number of fun widgets like Google maps, games, calendars, and more on your blog.There are some great learning opportunities among these.

Concluding Suggestions for Teachers towards Blogging:

There are many ways you can use blogging in your teaching, here are ten to get you started:

1. Post materials and resources

The web is a fantastic tool when it comes to distributing resources - all you have to do on yourBLOG is upload, or copy and paste, your materials to your blog and they’ll be instantly accessibleby your student from school and from home. What’s more, you can easily manage who gets toaccess them through password and plugin safety measures.

2. Host online discussions

If you’ve ever struggled to create an online discussion space - you’re going to love what BLOGSwill do for you. Students can simply respond to blog posts and discuss topics you’ve set themthrough comments of through our simple forum functionality - commentators can also sign up toreceive emails when their comments are replied to and you can easily manage and edit allresponses through your blog’s administrative panel.



3. Create a class publication

Do you remember the good old days of class newspapers? Well, they just got a lot easier withyour Blog- you can add students as contributors, authors and even editors in order to produce acustom designed, finely tuned and engaging collaborative online publication by your class.

4. Replace your newsletter

Always enjoyed photocopying and stapling pages and pages of newsletters on a Friday afternoon?Though not! It’s ridiculously simple to post class information, news, events and more on yourBlog.

5. Get your students blogging

It’s all very good sending your students off to blog sites, or even creating them for them, but youneed to operate as a hub for their work and a place where they can easily visit each others blogsfrom. Your Edublog can be used to glue together your students blogs, and besides which, ifyou’re asking your students to blog… you should certainly be doing it yourself.

6. Share your lesson plans

We all love planning and admin, right? Well, using an Edublog can turn planning and reflection onclasses into a genuinely productive - and even collaborative - experience. Sharing your plans,your reflections, your ideas and your fears with other educators both at your school and aroundthe world using an edublog is a great way to develop as a teacher, and a brilliant use of a blog.

7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions

With a couple of clicks you can embed online video, multimedia presentations, slideshows andmore into your edublog and mix it up with your text and static resources. No cds required, nocoding necessary - just select the video, podcasts or slidecast you’d like to use and whack it inyour blog to illustrate, engage and improve your teaching toolbox.

8. Organise, organise, organise

You don’t only have to use your blog as a pedagogue… you can equally easily use the tools toorganise everything from sports teams in your school, to rehearsals for the upcoming production.You can set up as many edublogs as you like, so don’t be afraid to use a dedicated one for a



dedicated event - your can even use it as a record to look back on down the line.

9. Get feedback

There’s nothing that says you can’t allow anonymous commenting on a blog (although you’re alsoentirely within your rights to put all comments through moderation!) but why not think about usinga blog as a place for students - and even parents, to air issues, leave feedback or generally tellyou how great you are.

10. Create a fully functional website

One of the great things about blogs are that they are much, much more than just blogging tools. Infact, you can use your edublog to create a multi-layered, in-depth, multimedia rich website - thathardly looks like a blog at all. So, if you’d rather create a set of static content, archive of importantinformation or even index for your library - you can bend an blog to suit your needs.



8.0 CONCLUSION

As per the series of observations and reputed researches around the cyberspace, the termblogging is no longer a new or a novice term to brainstorm through. As a matter fo fact, it maysound far-fetched, the the experiences have revealed that Blogging has become an influentialphenomenon that is gaining recognition and acknowledgement by the media, scholars, andgovernment officials throughout the world. No wonder, I repeat my words of the recent events thathave highlighted the importance of weblogs include the Asian tsunami disaster, the Iraq war, andSeptember 11 attack, the Mumbai Attacks and the recent one being the attack on the Sri Lankanteam in Pakistan. I certainly agree to the the conclusion and put my theory to certain that the blogsplay an ultimate role in forwarding the negotiations and the praisworthy comments of the commonpeople to public which otherwise would never come to lime light of independence pressure ofRight to Speech.

My topic of research in this aspect has been of ultimate consideration further. Talking of theaspect, Web logs (BLOGS) FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING as An Interface TowardsQuality Education. With the importance being kicked off of better ultimate and exposure theteaching learning methodology has certainly been given a new profile through. When we considerthe quality in education, what lacks is the understanding and the practical applicability of thecontent of taught and the learn in particular. It may be very easy to pose of the existing status oflearning but what acuals gains one would come across of the utlisation of BLOGS both by theteachers and that of the students come to the bouncing fact that there is certainly an open end tolearning out of the four walls of the class room. With the new technology and the ICT bouncing intothe classroom learning scenario, the boundraries of the classrooms do need to expand with theinclusion of the cyberspace which does not have any limitations further. The dealings need to bedealt with ultimate faith and wisdom in order to encapsulate the righthood of the modules,comments and the flaws if any. There need to have a strong comment by the network administratorand the web managers who would manage the blogs/ software towards the upload and downloadoptions further.

The marching trend of the computing arena has marked a revolutionary stroke to the developingeducational arena. With computers making a headway in every walk of life with increasing software

expertise, the very base of our social infrastructure, the schools have had a good pace ofadvancement. The computer education has introduced an interesting phase among the students.The result of the SAARC contest by the Indian teams in the past years of schools has proved that



it is more-so-over a true explanation.

Tomorrow is not far away to them when there will be more intelligent use of computers. It iscertainly through this mini desk top tool that the students can be best empowered for creativity ofoperations for better prospects and overall development at all levels. These machines are certainly

going to prove as the indispensable substitute to pencils, papers and books.

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

conglomeration of education and entertainment, with each element playing a significant role.With the series of operation research over it, with the development of various software ofeducational nature have provided a boon to both the learners and the deeply involved educators.

For the learners, there is an impressing attraction towards the educational CDs, and has becomea fun filled experience. Along with, the educators, the teachers are getting aided with this tool andhas made teaching easier and interesting. To provide an access to the pre-primary lots, the

software has been termed as ‘Totware’, to surprise. They are designed specifically to promote aquality workstation for the teachers and budding tablets of prosperity, the students. They areedutainment programs aimed totally at the needs and abilities of children as young as two years

of age. They are even given pace to use underactivity, bright colours, music and sound effectskeeping little children interested while introducing them to basic concepts. The products in thiscategory address a wide range of skills and concepts. These programs are mainly supportive of

exploration and experimentation. India has a proud image before her academic gentry inclusiveof trainers at large. The software developers in the country have also not been blind to the needsof the tiny tots. The smart march towards the year 2001 series has had an alarmingly interesting

modules of teaching aids through multimedia and virtual reality. The stunning example to cite is ofan exciting computer class in Bombay. As you step in, you find a classroom of tiny tots peering atcolourful graphics on computer monitors. Fruits such as bananas or pineapples appear on the

screen in various configurations. The children count the number of fruits and then punch the figureon the keyboard. If they get the number of fruits and then punch the figure on the keyboard. If theyget the number of fruits right, they are rewarded with a teddy bear on the screen. This novel way

of powerful animations and video, fascinating fagots, and exciting activities provide hours ofinteractive learning.

With this, the student workforce is bound to come up with unique excellence like writing storieson the computers, print out their own books and learn to use spread sheets and similar programs



in math projects.

Accordingly, the quality upgradation of the institute can be shaped well of universal acceptancethrough the networking of computers in the classrooms through Internet or any other internationalnetwork which would delimit the walls of the classrooms by extending the reach of its occupants

to other distant countries. It is being made possible to even access to the libraries of the differentuniversities all around the globe. Far-fetchingly, some districts in America have installed voicemail system that allows parents to call in the head of their kids or to hear the day’s homework

assignments or any other relevant information.

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

accessing on to schools through computers sitting right at home. This is sure to make even a bedridden child attend the class. Also through this, to the level best, all the children would use theschool’s electronic resources for help with home work or for independent studies. Like many

other path breaking efforts these limited bids in education technology too have considerablefollowing skeptics. According to them the software wizardry applied to schools will rectify thecreation of haves and have NOTs’. It is going to build up a huge information gap, with well financed

schools at the one end and those in remote cities on the other. But with the march of time this gapis going to be filled up through developments. We as educators are to execute our expertise inthis direction to promote the essence of “QUALITY IN ACADEMICS”, for overall excellence in the

schools all over.

The succeeding image is certainly going to produce in the mass revolt from the teachers, as with

the aid of the intelligent machine, the computers, as they may fear of being probable jobless. Butthis has again the optimistic view and approach as it is quite clear that computers are ‘HisMaster’s Slave’ and can never operate on their own. With the march of time and tide, the arena of

the Information Technology has had an indispensable role in nearly all spheres of life. To quotethe factual concern, the following proves the same.

The Year : 2020 AD.

The Location: ABCD Medical College Lab.

The Session: Heart Surgery.



The Participants: MBBS students and the Instructor.

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

The instructor is due to operate on the heart of a person who, in reality, does not exist. But thestudents and the instructor can well “see” and “feel” and the Instructor can as well explain aboutthe minute of the cells possible, with all the activities being carried out in a typical heart surgery.

In fact, the concept is of ‘VR’ the virtual reality, in action.

Secondly, the year 2021 AD.

The Location: A Castle in GOA, India.

The Scenario: Tobo, a primary school kid, with his home PC. What is he there for? Well, he isseeing a real time display of the great wall of China in order to prepare for a school seminar onthe great wonders of the world. And, how is this made possible? Tobo, is hooked on to a world

wide communication network made up of home computers, mainframes, super computers withhuge database, telecom lines, earth stations, satellites and cameras, all in sync to meet to Tobo’sspecific queries.

Now, with the buzzing virtual connectivity through the net, there is a global opening of new vistasin the commercial world. It has created a powerful ripple in the ocean of information world, to

allow everybody to share the information for sustainable developments across the globe. It isalso a facilitation for all the connected to develop their own website for anybody to accessaround the globe.

All this has become simple and even possible for a common man without a sound knowledge ofcomputers - one once awful device. Accordingly, the technology has extended human capabilities,

which is fundamental to the successful usage of technology. As per Kearsley’s theory of qualitativeproductivity, “Increased productivity is a function of human abilities extended through the soft andthe hard components of technology.”



INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY =

Human Abilities

+

Soft Technology

+

Hard Technology

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

between any of the three components will lead to disaster. But, to the high order grading, theappropriate technology, reduces training time, minimizes training resources, lowers dropout ratesimproves proficiency in performance and increases satisfaction at all levels. The way this very

technology in the form of computers, known as Information Technology, introduced a very importanttechnology, introduced a very important instructional capability as INTERCONNECTIVITY.

Today, in the traditional educational arena, the teacher performs different functions like planning,evaluating and locating appropriate instructional resources, developing complementinginstructional resources, handling administration, laisoning with students/ parents/ administration

and teach as well. In addition the teachers do have to take care of slow learners changes insyllabi, discipline and adhering to the overall development of the child.

A new concept featuring CAPES, i.e. the Computer Aided Paperless Examination System hasalso been developed by the NIC (National Informatics Centre), Govt. of India, to regularise andfacilitate the examination system of the country. It is fool proof of any leakage and traditional

corruption. On the other hand, on the part of the teachers, the computer with well designed software,has several strengths that make it an effective instructional tool. This computer aided instructionis made possible by developing in accordance with the internal process of learning. These

internal processes are alertness, expectancy, retrieval, selective perfection and perception,semantic encoding, retrieval and response, reinforcement, cues and generalisation. The more



of these that are included, the greater is the degree of confidence in the performance. Alongwith,the learner characteristics such as interest, reading rate, prior experience and knowledge and

job interests have been successfully used by designers to zero in an appropriate instructionalstrategies. The interaction encourages participation, allows for remedial measures and increasesvalue added learning time. The learning should exercise appropriate control in terms of

convenience, preference, review, exit and sound tests. The regular review of the computer aidedinstruction material is essential to improve on presentation format and upgrade to ensure curricularand programme adequacies.

The University of tomorrow will certainly be serving in the information society, this irrefutable facthas important implications for the strategies each institution should adopt as it enters into the

next century due to the significant impact the information society will have on higher education ingeneral and each University in particular. It is important that each University take full cognizanceof the changes in the information society and face one of the most complex of all campus planning

operations pertaining to acquisition, distribution and management of computing and relatedtechnologies. Hence each institution must make its plans and develop its strategies to be proactivewith respect to the environment context and must not lag behind society in general and other

educational institutions in particular.

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

looks to the future, identifies the opportunities in the turbulent world around it and adapts itsspecial competencies to those opportunities. In general terms, strategy is the fundamental meansan institution employs to achieve a match with its environment, or, alternatively, a pattern in a

stream of actions or decisions which relates an organisation to its environment. As we moveforward, the role of that information services assumes on campus will surely expand toaccommodate the burgeoning technology that is finding increasing use in Higher Education. Its

role will not only be to provide the traditional academic and administrative computer services,but to develop standards for networking computer acquisition, data interchange, video transmissionand whatever other areas are included under his or her control. Attendant to this activity will be

the development of organizational structures and enabling policies that will allow the nation tobetter utilise the technology to satisfy the academic goals at a large. With the accelerating phaseof the advent of Information Technology there is an emergence of a new social order. This has

made the need for computer literacy among the masses indispensable. Rapid progress in thearea of electronics and space technology have contributed substantially to this phenomena.



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

The computer can well store, retrieve, analyse and synthesize data or raw information receivedfrom various sources to produce meaningful information necessary in making decisions andsolving problems. It has become easy to obtain information about our bank and insurance

accounts, train and airline reservations through computerised systems. Several special effectsare created in electronic music and watch television programmes. Computerised zerox machines,washing machines, digital watches and the like are familiar to nearly all of us. We are also aware

of all of the factories in which computer controlled robots perform various mechanical operationsand space programmes which are heavily dependent on the new technologies. These are just afew examples of the kind of changes which have offered in our society in recent years and the

rate of change is only going to rise in the years to come. To match the new realities of today’ssophisticated technology, there is a pressing need to develop new skills to make the most of thenew technology that is available to us. The costs of introducing and using these new techniques,

providing the necessary equipment, and training people in their use have to be set against theold methods of operation and the social consequences of making the changes. The children inour schools were born in this era of change. They cannot see anything strange in these novel

approaches. The curriculum for all pupils in schools will have to place emphasis on technologicalchange and its implications. Such a curriculum should ensure that all students are able to usetechnology to communicate effectively with and through the computer as well as appreciate its

role.

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

the computer technology has created an information society in which a majority of the labourforce is expected to hold information-related jobs. Ignorance about computers will rather renderpeople functionally illiterate as does ignorance of reading, writing and arithmetic. This means

that our society will depend heavily on information technology in many areas of work and personallife. Hence, the new task of our schools is to familiarise pupils with applications of computers. Acomputer literate has an aid to problem solving in a variety of disciplines. This familiarity essentially

involves an understanding of the use of facilities such as word processing, screen reading andthe effective usage of files and data. It also demands a limited comprehension of keyboard skills.

Under this, keeping with the marching pace towards the promotion of literacy, the idea of providingknowledge about computers in schools was put into practise in the country through a pilot project



called CLASS, (Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools) in 1984, by the Government of Indiaas a joint venture of the Ministry Of Human Resource Development and the Department of

Electronics.

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

experience, the needs of the learner are the two most important aspects of computer assistedlearning. The capacity of the computer functions somewhat like a traditional teacher through theuse of a suitable educational software. In this mode, the computer can be used to teach the

learner through tutorials, drill and practice, games, simulations or a combination of any of thesestrategies. Besides the computer can be programmed in such a way that tutorial lessons can begiven to the pupils. With this, students will be able to learn at their own performance independent

of the teacher.

Using quality educational software packages, good learning environment can be created in

schools. As such, it is necessary for all citizens to understand what computers are capable of.Students should be aware of the many uses of computers, such as their use in teaching-learning,information storage and retrieval. Any country’s social and economic well-being depends entirely

on how well equipped its people are for a literacy-intensive technology in order to promote overallquality oriented academic excellence. If computers can assist us in the teaching process thenthere is a good reason to welcome their appearance. Hence, it is absolutely essential for all

those involved in education to become computer literate.

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

to exist for the academicians. Accordingly, there appears to be a great phobia of the massdesigning of the question papers of N sets manually.

The advent of the intelligent machine has led to the specific indispensable importance of computersin this regard. The question paper setting assumes prime importance of computers in this regard.The question paper setting assumes prime importance in the present education system. Keeping

this concept in regard, there has been a recent development in order to pace the usage ofcomputers, through the concepts of CAPES and QUEPS.

CAPES, the Computer aided paperless examination system, offers firing of the multiple questionson the terminal to the candidate on a particular subject, with the questions having been already



fed into the machine by the authority concerned for the conduct of the examination. This systemallows no cheating as the probability of flashing out a similar question to a set of two candidates

is one in every hundred. Here the candidate is not at all required to have any working knowledgeof computers, simply he/ she has to press the right alternative key on the keypad. With this, thereis no need of the office/ stationary/ Invigilators etc. The usage of this system has revealed great

success by the concerned authorities. The results are much more reliable and speedy as comparedwith the traditional type of examination.

On the other hand, the recent development in this regard is the QUEPS, which is a prototypeknowledge based system, for question paper setting. This system also aims at modelling thehuman expertise, which is perishable, is affected by fatigue and prejudices and lacks ability to

duplicate with ease. Perhaps, in the domain of question paper setting, deep knowledge may beavailable in the form of question bank containing different types of questions framed on a particularsubject where they are made available in the form of units featuring essays, short type questions

and the objective questions. The QUEPS and CAPES offer the usage of objective questions interms of framing and designing items for testing.

The questions are stored in a dynamic database, where each question is stored as a predicatecontaining unit number, question number and the corresponding attribute list. The attributes arestored as elements of a list. List handling predicates are used while comparing the attributes as

also while updating the lists of each question given out once. This is in accordance with the viewthat questions are never stored in the memory but are addressed or referred only through questionnumbers.

It may sound farfetched but the tests have revealed that it is more or less the true explanation thatthese systems offer plenty of scope for expansion in terms of the expertise contained in it, as

also using more sophisticated mechanism to incorporate advanced concepts such as machinelearning. Also in this domain the level of complexity of the system has risen up to the advancedlevels of testing.

A point which come to ponder over the introduction of this HI-TECH concept in the field ofacademics, is of the limitation of its’ being to the objective system only. This again becomes

tiresome for the subjective brand of system where every level of the answer is ranked in adifferent manner independent of any particular answer, which can be fed into the machine.



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

sessions and all in all bringing out overall satisfaction of the students and the parents. This furtherbrings the profitable aspect of the organisation in long run as more and more fame is gatheredfor the same and the rush of admissions produce more revenue monetarily bringing boon the

education industry at large.

The capacity of any institution entirely depends upon the efficiency of the office staff working in

within. Keeping this view in regard, it is one of the concerns of the management to give primeimportance at times. In any organisation, the quality of work undertaken entirely depends uponthe speedy conduct with the strong guiding motivation of the BOSS. But unfortunately, this has

lagged far behind due to the increasing level of work load over the years to be conducted throughthe old tools like carbon, pencil, ruler and the hard key typewriters.

Now, with the march of time, the very business environment has changed faster than ever before.The increased competition among organisations has led to the reappraisal of accepted businesspractices for higher efficiency. The attempts are being made to meet the competitive threat by

reducing cost by rationalizing production, shedding labour and restructuring business. These arecomplemented with investment in technology to improve productivity. But the huge bulk ofcommercial documents generated by companies in the trading cycle still remain locked in slow,

antiquated paperbound processes.

Documents produced by one computer are printed and posted, only to be entered into the

recipient’s computer - a time consuming, error prone and costly experience of exercise, estimatedbetween 4% AND 7% of the value of the goods traded.

In a complex web of trading relationship in which each organisation is a customer of another, wecan see what paper work all too easily becomes a barrier to the trade it was designed to support.Under the novel scheme of hi-tech system within an organisation of academic nature, for example,

a small local area network within the office, the principal’s room, different other subjected relateddepartments if required, are linked through connected computers having an access of eachother universally. This certainly reduces the circular work from one desk to the other. Accordingly,

there is a paperless workplace having a direct line from one computer system to the computersof all the probable customers and suppliers. With this, every transaction could be electronic,



sales returns could be analyzed and fed into ordering process, orders could be raised to reflectboth demand and the known stock process, orders could be raised to reflect both demand and

the known stock available in any commodity related business environment. Similarly, under theeconomic activity pertaining to the services as the product, like Banks and educational institutions,the on-line result display on the terminals, interactive teaching etc. are the promotional qualitative

services which can be adopted through this machine, belonging to information technology. Apartfrom this, the official work load of sending of instruction etc., could be sent to the distributors intandem with the order to ensure fast delivery. Carriage by road, rail, sea or air could be booked

simultaneously. Customer clearance and documentation could be available in advance of thegoods arriving, thus avoiding hold ups. Even payment instructions could be issued to banks toensure prompt payment without the mountain of paper work involved in the present day business

transaction. This very transmissions of information to the trading partners computers for processingis known as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). It replaces conventional paper documents withformatted and standardized business documents, transmitted as electronic transmission of

business data from computer to computer, of independent organisations, using an agreed standardto structure the transaction, which is accomplished without human intervention.

According to the principle of EDI, a ‘sending computer’, usually located at a customer’s premises,uses telecommunications technology to transfer orders data instantly to the receiving computer,usually located at the supplier’s distribution centre. The received order data is then manipulated

and formatted to match the order entry files in the order data base of the supplier. Next, theinformation is transferred into other database, with the generation of any appropriate errormessages and/ or exceptions reports. This technology can be very rightly applied to the transmittal

of any business forms, including invoices and purchases orders. The ‘sending computer’ storesand follows up on it. The ‘receiving’ computer automatically transfers the data to the ware house,the factory, the accounting and billing departments and the shipping departments. Similarly, in

the institutional base, the orders of the different books and deputed stationeries are accordinglyordered and assured of the deliveries. The electronic data interchange is vastly implemented inthe trucking, marine shopping and air cargo industries in developed countries. Implementation

need not be expensive. All that a small organisation needs to have is a personal computer, amodem and telephone line and the necessary software. The day is not far off, when this verytechnology would create the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM), applicable to nearly all

small scale business arenas as well.



Categorising some of the examples for the web logs or the blogs in particular as follows certainlypertain to the importance of this technological progress in demand and action in particular. Whatis required is an interest of ICT usage by the teachers and the students in particular. Since weneed to catch them young and innocent, our ultimate aim is to target the students for thistechnological practice but the teachers and the other support staff must have the say into theirexpertis of the usage and the user-friendly attitute in order to accomplish the tasks further.

The future is bright and jovial:

As more teachers become social networking savvy, and schools become wired to allow Internetaccess in the classroom, you will see many more blogs of this type appear. Students today arebeing taught from early age — some as young as preschool — the value of computers and theInternet. There’s no doubt that the use of blogs in the classroom will prevail as a learning tool.

Overview:

The purpose of this report is to consolidate blogging results and share the findings with thelearners. Sharing the blogging report allows you to close the blogging loop and subsequentlyfulfill the meaning of blogging with perfection. Demonstrating increase blogging as a powerfulway of helping the learners better and meaningful.



>> Some useful links

>> wordpress admin panel



>> Blogger.com



>> Blogger admin panel

>> Some other Blog platforms:

B2Evolutionhttp://b2evolution.net/

LiveJournalhttp://www.livejournal.com/

Edublogs http://edublogs.org/

Twitter (microblogging) http://twitter.com


http://b2evolution.net/

http://www.livejournal.com/

http://edublogs.org/

http://twitter.com


>> and…

Add widgets to your blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OVRlXn9mAs

Syndicate, get updates automatically

www.feedreader.com

www.bloglines.com

www.google.com/reader


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OVRlXn9mAs

http://www.feedreader.com

http://www.bloglines.com

http://www.google.com/reader
