National Curriculum Framework 2005 stresses upon learner centered environment, which means ‘paying careful attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring with them to the classroom’
‘Geography is the study of earth as abode of mankind’. But over the period of time the scope of the subject has widened. It is now an integrative and interdisciplinary subject with sub-fields from other branches of science and social sciences. Likewise many new branches of study came out of it. It was Prof A Z Harbertson who made it interesting with scientific outlook. The Cause and Effect relationship was incorporated in the subject. Thus it was provided with a rightful place in school curriculum after 1905.
It can not be denied that ‘teaching is an art’ where the success of a teacher lies in his/her ability to make a subject lucid and intelligible to pupils. Geography has also some general as well as specific objectives of teaching, which is driven by prevailing social, political and economic factors. Bloom’s taxonomy classified instructional objectives into cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor domain. The cognitive domain objectives include knowledge, understandings, applications, analysis, synthesis and evaluation where as the effective domain objectives include the appreciation, values, attitudes, interests, feelings etc. and the psychomotor domain objectives include skills. Realisations of these objectives are under specific aims of teaching geography.
Choosing a method of teaching depends upon available resources, psychological re-quirement of pupils, environment and above all feasibility of implementing it. Some methods such as Socratic Method or question-answer method, descriptive method, observation method, regional method, lecture method etc. are more frequently used where as some others like project method, Dalton plan method, laboratory method, excursion method etc. are neglected. The latter types of approaches are gaining much importance now a days. This has been realised in National Curriculum Framework 2005 stressing upon learner centered environment, which means ‘paying careful attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring with them to the classroom’.
In this circumstance of inevitable change challenges are many. The digital age concept of global village is being established firmly. Now the access to information is no longer a personal property of individual or organisation; rather everyone is flooded with it. To cope with this situation adoption of new technologies is essential in education. The solution is the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In educational context it includes me-dium of mass communication like radio, television, computer, Internet, telephone etc.
Radio and Television programmes are in use for educational purposes either as direct substitution for teachers temporarily or as complementary teaching since long. Use of satellite technology has made it possible to use this medium for teaching extensively. Interactive Radio Instruction is one such programme which intends to substitute class room teaching to some extent. This has been successfully used in Africa, Latin America and in Thailand, Bangladesh and Indonesia of Asia. Likewise TV programmes of IGNOU in India are designed in this regard. The programmes of National Geography channel, Discovery channel, Animal Planet, History channel etc. are highly informative and interesting to captivate audience irrespective of their age group. But its availability at fixed time and not accessible at remote locations are main drawbacks. But a TV tuner card in computer can enable to record the programme to display at the time of convenience. It is also possible to gain access to these programmes even in remote location through DTH technology. The participation of private players in this field is expanding its horizon rapidly.
Computer is the catalyst to bring about a paradigm shift in education from teacher-centered pedagogy to learner centered. This can be integrated more appropriately in teaching geography than any other subject. There are a number of readymade educational CDs available. Those possessing an artistic sense and knowledge of some advance drawing tool like ‘Adobe Photoshop’ can prepare presentation with beautiful maps, diagrams and photographs for effective classroom teaching. It is also the most acceptable tool for self-directed learning.
The Internet is a vast source of information available through a network of millions of computers around the world. There are a number of ways to use the information in classroom pedagogy delivery. The simplest way of using it is to search data, information, images, videos, animations etc. and presenting a given topic in the classroom in an interesting way through regular methods of teaching like lecture method, discussion method etc. There are three main types of Internet search tools, such as:
Search engine: It helps to search as many of the web as possible i.e. www.google.com, www.msn.com etc.
Specialist search tool: It aims to help a particular audience find high quality websites for their particular need i.e. Geosource: (www.library.uu.nl/geosource) which is a guide to web resources in human geography, planning, geo-science and environmental science.
Library websites: It provides information on library catalogues, access to full text databases or tutorial to use the resources i.e. British Library Integrated Catalogue (http://www.bl.uk), European Library (http://search.theeuropeanlibrary.org) e-journals like CyberGEO: (http://www.cybergeo.eu) European Journal of Geography.
Teaching is an art’ where the success of a teacher lies in his/her ability to make a subject lucid and intelligible to pupils. Choosing a method of teaching depends upon available resources, sychological re-quirement of pupils, environment and above all feasibility of implementing it
Research papers, government publication, databases, images, videos and maps are available in abundance. There are a few extremely popular web sites for videos of different kind, Google images for pictures, Google Earth for searching places on earth, Wikimapia for maps etc.
Like wise membership to professional bodies and research bodies also help one to keep track on the latest development in the field of interest i.e. ESRC: (www.esrc.ac.uk) society today- our research, National Environment Research Council-UK, National Research Council (U.S), Royal Geographical Society (www.rgs.org), Association of American Geographer (www.aag.org ) etc.
Further Internet also provides audio and video connectivity which is facilitating virtual classroom in far off places. Educational games and puzzles available online or the option to download has played a vital role in teaching school children some of the elementary concepts easily like the location of places on map.
Through Internet one can contribute video to youtube, article to wikipedia or present messages to blog pages. There is an ever-growing number of geography-related blogs available on the web like geo blogs, geography matters, geography blogs etc.
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DRAWING OF OUTLINED MAP BY USING PHOTOSHOP
- Open Adobe Photoshop and click on file menu to open a new file with transparent contents.
- Browse through the file browser tool and search for a map of the country which you want to modify.
- Copy the map into your new file.
- Select brush tool and move it over the outline of the map.
- For attractive look you can add bevel emboss and shadow to it in layer style menu.
- Delete the first layer and save the file in *.gif format.
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No doubt, ICT plays a major role in modern teaching learning process. It has brought a sea change in the communication of teacher and the taught. It certainly can be an essential aid for an effective teaching, but it can never replace a teacher completely. Thus the teacher and the ICT should be complementary to each other. So far as the modern educational system is concerned a teacher without ICT will be fruitless and ICT without a teacher will be rootless. 
NPTEL is an acronym for National Programme on Technology Enhan-ced Learning which is an initiative by seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for creating course contents in engineering and science.
NPTEL as a project originated from many deliberations between IITs, Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) during the years 1999-2003. A proposal was jointly put forward by five IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras) and IISc for creating contents for 100 courses as web based supplements and 100 complete video courses, for forty hours of duration per course. Web supplements were expected to cover materials that could be delivered in approximately forty hours. Five engineering branches (Civil, Computer Science, Electrical, Electronics and Communication and Mechanical) and core science programmes that all engineering students are required to take in their undergraduate engineering programme in India were chosen initially. Contents for the above courses were based on the model curriculum suggested by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the syllabi of major affiliating Universities in India.
Helping the Community: The Goal of NPTEL
In order to quell the shortage of technologically-skilled manpower in the increasingly dominant and ever improving Indian automotive space, Eicher and National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysore have come together to set up training centers based on industry-institution collaboration and thereby implementing a critical action point of the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016.
Education programme 
Need to Integrate Technology in Higher Education
Potential of India's knowledge economy has been aptly described as, “Unlike China, India's significant cheap labour pool is not a pool of factory workers, but a huge crop of scientists”.
Indian Higher Education is an area of great debate and policy direction requirement. Despite its large pool of technical manpower institutions, India in it's strive to achieve the desired results, seems to have missed the bus. The two changes that took place in the global economy in the last to decades are: the growth of internet and e-education and the expanding growth of World Trade Organization (WTO). While the advent of Internet has changed the world, higher education has undergone a much bigger transformation. Higher Education has already become a trillion dollar global business and Indian students, besides the Chinese, are perhaps the largest “customers” of this business. According to the Economist's special survey, Higher Education is a global business and there are about 100 million students in this sector of which 2% are foreign students.
India's Knowledge Economy
India's Higher Education policy since 1950's in creating schools of excellence like the IIT, IIM, Centres of Science and Law have paid rich dividends. Indian trained doctors until recently were the backbone of British Medical Service while engineers from IIT's are highly regarded in the US. Remittances from these Indians kept our foreign reserves in good condition in difficult days. However, the once highly criticised brain drain is now giving rich dividends as many Indian professionals return to India with all their experience, money and connections. The IT sector has been a major trend setter in this context. Further, a number of leading research companies in IT, Medical and Financial Sectors have set up R & D and Scientific Research Units in India and have taken advantage of India's new crop of scientists and engineers.
Some Features of Indian Higher Education System
The growth of Higher Education is India has been phenomenal but perhaps not enough. Starting with 1950-51 there were only 263,000 students in all disciplines in 750 colleges affiliated to 30 universities compared to 11 million students and 17000 degree colleges affiliated to 230 universities and non affiliating university level institutions in 2005. In addition, there were about 10 million students in over 6500 vocational institutions.
In India both public and private institutions coexist. For example, of the 13072 higher education institutions in 2000-01, there were only 58% in the public domain and the remaining 42% were privately managed. Currently a rapid growth in private unaided colleges is being witnessed.
In so far as universities are concerned, only Central or State Governments can open a university and that too by legislation. The UGC can however grant institutes of excellence, deemed university status. UGC has also developed National Accreditation & Assessment Council (NAAC) and AICTE has also established is own accreditation mechanism by setting up National Board of Accreditation (MBA).
India as a Knowledge Society: Need for Quality Control
In 2000, the then Prime Minister had laid down a vision to leap frog India into a knowledge base society. Planning Commission's document India as a Knowledge Super Power; Strategy for Transformation conceives India as a knowledge society built on foundation of ICT's. This requires India to make its education more attuned to characteristics of new global environment and improving the quality of tertiary education including also providing opportunity for life long learning. While India leads in quality of Mathematics, Science and Management education, there is a need to improve soft skills, a critical prerequisite for modern job requirements.
The concept of providing subsidised education to students should shift to providing more scholarships to needy and deserving students which will bring in efficiencies in the entire system
India currently produces a fairly large core of knowledge workers with numerous universities and world class institutions. However, the struggle between quality and quantity has been made worse by an extremely bureaucratic regulatory and management framework built on numerous controls. What is required today is to focus on quality assurance and accreditation. The National Accreditation Board has long wait list and a bureaucratic process. Private universities in India are not accredited. Synchronization of curriculum leading to joint degrees is welcome and indeed a way forward.
There is lack of partnership between universities and also with universities abroad. However, many private universities have tie ups with universities abroad and have started offering dual degrees, one by themselves and another by the foreign counterpart.
India has a very large system of post secondary technical, science and engineering education which gives it one of the largest stocks of scientists, engineers and technicians in the world. However, besides the world class institutions such as IIT's, IIMs, Indian Institute of Science, etc. hundreds of newly established engineering and technical colleges and over 500 government/government aided self financing engineering colleges are offering only degree programmes in addition to some 1100 polytechnics offering diplomas. It is the latter institutions which need stricter monitoring and quality control. Currently only about 15% of such institutions are accredited by National Accreditation Board and less than 6% of these institutions have noteworthy research activity. In addition there is the serious problem of corruption and capitation fee in our mushrooming institutions imparting science, engineering, management, and medical education. In one sense this reflects that the pent up demand for quality education is not being met in India.
Technical Education
There is a need to integrate technical education with higher education so that students can pursue these courses simultaneously (a la Australia and Manipal with a nucleus of numerous educational institutions at various levels). Degrees from Manipal are recognized in more than 40 countries and twinning programmes, in which a student completes first two years in Manipal and the remaining in US, Australia, are extremely popular.
Public Spending in Higher Education vs. National Scholarship/Loan scheme
Given the competing demand on public funds for elementary and higher education, with the former a high priority need, it is crucial to move to a system of private financing of higher education with a very large scholarship/loan base at low or zero interest rate. India already has an education cess with income tax which could provide full scholarships and subsidized interest on loans from banks. It could also provide guarantee on loans to the very poor. The concept of providing subsidised education to students should shift to providing more scholarships to needy and deserving students which will bring in efficiencies in the entire system as it will then be based on cost to each student and will also determine the popularity of the institution as well as the course from a demand perspective.
Career Oriented Training/Short Term Courses
India produces every year a large number of graduates and 700,000 post graduate students. The demand for post graduate diplomas in a large number of fields of employment is increasing rapidly as employers need well trained people with well grounded personalities. Soft skill training is required and should be brought within the curriculum. The private sector has responded by a mushrooming of short specialized courses. However one needs to exercise strict quality controls.
Thus, it can be said that India's Higher Education Sector is in dire need for mid-course correction. The issues associated with quality control, accreditation and funding need to be looked afresh. Opening the borders to foreign Universities is likely to bring in healthy competition. Education bureaucracy does also require a overhaul.