In an effort to provide the teacher educators with a platform to share their views, develop research ideas, and provide field–based recommendations to policy makers, a two-day research seminar called ‘Navyavichar’ was held by Intel in New Delhi.

The event, held as part of the Intel Teach Pre-Service programme, on September 12 also saw the launch of a research publication on best practices of technology integration in teacher education institutions.

The study, in the form of a book ‘Infusing Dynamism in Teacher education Through ICT Integration – Learnings from India’, has been brought out in collaboration with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

Releasing the book, Prof. M. A. Siddiqui, Chairperson, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) congratulated Intel for its ‘commendable work and collaboration to strengthen the teacher educators in order to make use of technology in their professional capacity.’

Acknowledging the value of ICT in teacher education, Prof Siddiqui touched upon various initiatives carried out by NCTE in collaboration with Intel, starting from a workshop for teacher educators in 2000 to the recent ambitious Project XPDITTE, which will cover more than 10,000 teacher education institutes in the country.

Also present on the occasion were NAAC Deputy Advisor Dr K Rama, Manager, Education, Intel South Asia Anshul Sonak, Director, Corporate Affairs, Intel South Asia Rahul Bedi, Director, SCERT Delhi Dr B N Vajpayee and teacher educators from the 20 TEIs which were part of the study.

Dwelling upon the process of conducting this collaborative study, Dr Rama said around 500 NCTE and NAAC accredited TEIs were approached with a proforma, out of which 200 institutions responded. ‘The proforma covered four issues, namely, access to technology; nature of use; challenges faced; and solutions devised.’ Twenty-five of them were selected to write about their experiences in technology integration and finally 20 TEIs came out with their versions.

The publication contains case studies of 20 TEIs detailing their practices of using and integrating ICTs in teaching / learning as well as their systems and processes. It assesses the extent to which technology integration has taken place in the TEIs and the manner in which it has been attempted. The outcome of the study not only reveals the status of such efforts but also the possible future directions needed to strengthen the process.

The two important aspects covered in the publication include integration of technology within the curricular boundaries and also beyond it. The TEIs which provided input included university departments, IASEs, CTEs, government colleges, government aided colleges and private colleges, rural and urban colleges, colleges that have ample funds and own labs and also those facing severe resource crunch.

Teacher educators, who have contributed to the study, also presented their practices of ICT integration to the audience and gave their inputs on an ICT policy in Education on the occasion.

The primary research findings of this study were initially shared in a ‘National Research Workshop on Integration of Technology in Education’, organised collaboratively by Intel and Jamia Millia Islamia in 2006. At the workshop the researchers had also touched upon important issues of curriculum studies; addressing student diversity through ICT; advancement of online professional development programme for in-service teachers; attitude of students towards ICT; etc.