1.ssa telengana oer workshop handout

Workshop on
Telengana Open Educational Resources
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Telengana
IT for Change
Bengaluru, Karnataka
www.itforchange.net
UNICEF
Hyderabad
http://unicef.in
This resource book is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 3.0
License which makes it available for wide-scale, free, non-commercial reproduction and translation.
Author: IT for Change, 17th Main, 35th Cross, Jayanagar 4T Block, Bangalore 560041
Tel: 080-26538690; 080-26654134
For comments, feedback please write to koer@karnatakaeducation.org.in.
April 2015, Bangalore, Karnataka
Workshop on Open Educational Resources

Workshop on Telengana Open Educational Resources
Table of Contents
Understanding ICTs..............................................................................................................................3
ICTs – a brief history.......................................................................................................................3
ICTs and their implications for polity, society and economy..........................................................4
ICTs and implication for knowledge processes...............................................................................7
Why public software.............................................................................................................................8
The pedagogical argument for Public software...............................................................................8
Promoting local language resources through local language software............................................9
The social argument for free software...........................................................................................10
Best use of limited resources – the economics of free software....................................................10
Software as a public good..............................................................................................................11
Why Public Software is not yet popular?......................................................................................11
Why Public Institutions should use Public software?....................................................................12
Benefits from adopting public software.........................................................................................12
Introduction to the ICT environment..................................................................................................14
Basic hardware and software.........................................................................................................14
Hardware – The parts of a computer..............................................................................................14
Basic familiarity with ICT devices and artefacts...........................................................................15
Operating your computer...............................................................................................................17
Types of software...........................................................................................................................18
Edubuntu operating system............................................................................................................18
Creating and managing files and folders.......................................................................................19
Internet as a learning resource............................................................................................................21
What is the Internet........................................................................................................................21
To understand the basic working of the Internet............................................................................22
Web browser..................................................................................................................................23
What is a website?.........................................................................................................................25
Search engines...............................................................................................................................26
Google translate to translate English to Telugu.............................................................................27
Learning web based tools like blogs, wikis etc.............................................................................28
Explore 'Apps'................................................................................................................................28
Professional learning communities (PLCs)........................................................................................28
Email and Mailing groups..............................................................................................................30
E-mail Etiquette.............................................................................................................................31
Creating Resources 1 - Text Editing...................................................................................................32
Making changes to the text............................................................................................................33
Formatting characters and paragraphs...........................................................................................34
Creating Resources 2 - Personal digital libraries...............................................................................35
How to organize a personal resource library.................................................................................35
How to evaluate an Internet resource............................................................................................35
Creating Resources 3 - Mind mapping with Freemind......................................................................38
Creating Resources 4 - Educational tools – Marble (Social Science)................................................42
Creation Resources 5 - Educational tools – Google Map...................................................................44
Creation Resources 5 - Educational tools – KGeography..................................................................47
Creating Resources 6 – Using videos as a learning resource.............................................................50
Is the tiger 'bad' because it ate the goats? Why is the tiger eating the goat?......................................52
Creating Resources 7 - Image Editing Tools......................................................................................52
Open Educational Resources..............................................................................................................54
Participant Resource Book SSA – UNICEF – ITfC 2/56

Understanding ICTs
ICTs – a brief history
Most of you student teachers must be using a cell phone to communicate, which even ten years ago
would not have been the case with most students. A cell phone is a digital information and
communication device, a part of the recent ICT revolution. Yet ICTs are perhaps nearly as old as
humanity itself, as human beings needed to communicate with one another, beginning with symbolic
(non verbal) ways, before language was invented. Language could be seen as first 'ICT', it enabled
(oral) communication amongst human beings. Yet oral communication had the limitation of space and
time, meaning that the speaker and the listener had to be in the same space and time.
Script was the next ICT, invented around 5,000 years ago1
, which enabled information to be held
distinct from the communicator and be made available beyond the limitation of space and time that
oral communication imposed. (You would be learning more about the processes of speaking and
listening (comprising oral communication) and reading and writing (comprising written
communication) in your courses on language learning. Writing also enabled easier recording of human
history and thus the invention of script was a landmark in the history of ICTs.
Invention of printing technologies scaled up the 'writing' process and enabled mass production of
books. The invention of radio and television created the 'mass media' in which simultaneously the
same message could be transmitted to thousands of people. Each ICT invention enabled the processes
of information creation, sharing, storing and communicating to be easier, quicker, more efficient
(reaching more people) etc. Each invention was a significant event in the evolution of human
communication processes and in the explosion in the availability of information.
And we are now perhaps in the middle of the next epochal movement in the history of ICTs, the use of
digital2
methods of accessing, creating, modifying sharing, storing information as well as for
communication. Most of you student-teachers would have been born after the beginning of the mass
use of cell phones (the second generation or 2G cell phone technology was available for mass use
from 1991), towards the end of the first millennium, while many teacher educators would have been
born before this period! Since student-teachers have always seen mobile phones and computers
around them, Mark Prensky, who works in the ICTs and education space, says you are 'digital
natives3
', who have been born in an environment with access to digital technologies, while your
1 (Schmandt Besserat, 1978), cited in “Communication Technology and the Evolution of Knowledge”, Journal of
Electronic Publishing, Volume 9, Issue 2, Summer 2006, Hilary Wilder and Sharmila Pixy Ferris
2 Digital method refers to the storing of information in binary digits – 0 or 1. All information is stored in this manner.
3 Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants By Marc Prensky , examining the different methods by which children and adult
learners respond to technology

teachers are 'digital immigrants' who have lived a large part of their lives before mobile phones
became popular and for who these technologies may still seem unnecessary and unfamiliar. (For
student teachers, growing up in the digital technology paradigm, learning to navigate the digital world
is an essential skill). al, since digital ICTs have huge potential for doing good as well as harm. One
point to note is that, one technology does not replace the earlier one, rather the earlier technologies
tend to continue, thus creating a richer environment of multiple ICTs.
ICTs and their implications for polity, society and economy
Political
The political processes in most countries have been impacted by digital ICTs (henceforth, unless the
context requires otherwise, we will use the term ICTs to mean digital ICTs). Politicians now
participate on virtual platforms that allow them to communicate with people directly. For e.g. Twitter
which is a 'micro blogging' platform, is used by many political leaders, as well as government
departments to communicate its work and information. Mass movements have also used digital
networking tools to collaborate and support action. It is believed that during the recent Egypt struggle
for democracy, protests were coordinated using social networking platforms/tools, which made them
more effective. The counting of votes has now become a fraction of time, used earlier, through
'electronic voting machines' and in a large country like India with a large voter base, counting for an
entire constituency can be completed in a matter of hours.
Digital technologies also allow unauthorised access (even spying). Emails and documents can be
'hacked' and accessed. A large part of our ICT infrastructure is privately owned, and the companies
which often provide it 'free' (of cost) to users, may be using the information users feed, to monetise
the same as well as share it with others. The sharing of such information both authorised by us (when
we agree to the 'terms of use' of the software/tool), as well unauthorised, can be for the commercial
gains of the company (they can sell or hire this information to advertisers for example), or for political
purposes (to enable governments or other agencies to spy on us). There have been news items
recently that the National Security Agency of the US has been tapping into global information
networks and accessing private and confidential information from all over the world, including
communications of leaders of different countries. ICTs make such tapping much simpler and easier,
since the data passing over the global networks can be easily 'hacked' and a copy of the information
shared with the people conducting such espionage.
Thus the digital nature of ICTs can be both greatly beneficial as well as greatly harmful for furthering
human rights and development. Hence a critical perspective is essential, and as a teacher we need to

be cautious against the hype that surrounds ICTs, as a panacea for all problems. In this unit, we will
discuss the challenges and problems posed by ICTs, in every discussion on their benefits also, to
enable you to keep a balanced and critical perspective.
Socio-cultural
Since communication is the essence of social processes, the introduction of ICTs has dramatically
impacted most of our socio-cultural activities and processes. With the mass use of the cell phone, we
now assume that we can reach anyone anytime. This kind of access enables us to plan interactions /
activities in much more efficient ways. Even twenty years back, the best of possible communication
situations, one was not sure, if one could reach another person using a land-line / fixed line phone. In
the absence of email, the formal communication method of a letter sent over postal services
(sometimes derisively termed 'snail mail') meant a gap of several days before communication could be
established. The reduction in communication time, has opened up numerous more possibilities for
each of us (who are part of this digital world).
Social networking platforms are connecting millions of people to create 'virtual communities' or
groups. Such interactions with large number of people who may not be physically proximate, opens
new possibilities for friendships and learning. Of course, we also hear several anecdotes of how
people can be naively trusting of 'friends' on such networks and get exploited or fooled4
. It is
necessary to exercise diligence and caution in making friends on such platforms.
The mass sharing of information through the digital networks is also perhaps accentuating and
speeding up the assimilation of dominant cultures, which began with the advent of mass media.
Wherever one travels, we can see the popular symbols – 'Mac Donalds' and 'Pizza Huts'. The
shopping malls across cities look familiar with the similar brands available on sale. There is research
to suggest that this process is undermining local contexts and cultures. UNESCO study has
documented the decline of local cultures and languages and tha many languages have become extinct
and many dying. As teachers, your role would be in resisting this, by promoting digital avenues for
storing and sharing local culures as well. For instance, the Wikipedia encyclopedia has more than 5
million articles in English but less than 1% of that in Telugu. Documenting local cultures, resources,
literature and sharing it in digital formats on public digital platforms is an important priority for our
society, one in which teachers would need to have an important role.
4 For example, see the news article http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/youth-abducts-girl-after-
befriending-her-through-facebook/article5448768.ece?homepage=true in which a girl was kidnapped by her 'Facebook
friend', see the section on Internet safety in unit 3.

Economic
For several centuries, society was agrarian, meaning most people worked in agriculture, food (and
related items) production was the most significant part of the gross domestic product (GDP). With the
industrial revolution in the 18th
century, industry / manufacturing sector became very important and
its contribution to a nations GDP crossed that of agriculture.
Society is changing, moving from an Agricultural society → Industrial society → Knowledge society.
The table below lists highlights relating to the processes of production.
Kind of society Agricultural society Industrial society Knowledge society
Basic production Food Goods Services / knowledge
Basic material Land Capital Knowledge / Information
India in 1950 (2010) 70.00% (15) 20.00% (28) 10.00% (57)
ICTs have affected the nature/shape of many industries and occupations. Typewriters, film role based
cameras have become extinct. Information based 'service' industries such as travel and tourism,
financial services, insurance, have been significantly impacted. Many 'digital' occupations have also
begun, such as software engineering, digital photography, system administration, desk top publishing
etc. In the work and education course, you could touch on some of these occupations.
The possibilities of establishing information networks which can facilitate rapid communications and
decision making has led to the creation of very large scale transnational corporations. They are able to
support decentralised working, yet retain overall control through by better 'Management Information
Systems. Such networks are also on the other hand, supporting decentralised production and
collaborative production projects, such as FOSS or Wikipedia. Yochai Benker has written quite a bit
about how ICTs are promoting new collaborative methods of production and his 'Wealth of Networks'
is worth reading.
Governance
Democratic Governments have in the past struggle to share information transparently with citizens
and also support citizen/ community participation in their activities. This has been to the large
volumes of information being generated and stored across thousands of paper files which has made
sharing difficult if not impossible. Slow modes of communication also lead to delayed communication
with the public. However, increasingly, governments are using ICTs to improve information
processing and sharing, leading to greater transparency. India has passed the Right to Information Act,
2005 and the use of 'pro-active' disclosure through the Internet is seen as a very important way of

meeting RTI needs. Apart from information transparency, transaction processing too has been
simplified in many areas. The land records in Karnataka have been digitised through the Bhoomi
project, which has made getting mutation information easier. Booking of travel tickets has become
simple, and in case of education, admission, examination administration etc. has also become quicker
and more efficient.
ICTs and implication for knowledge processes
As discussed earlier, ICTs have caused an explosion of information as well as provided new channels
for communication. This has affected institutions, structures and processes relating to learning and
knowledge. For instance, earlier, formal learning methods were either physical / face to face or 'open
and distance'. Now both have acquired digital elements to look more like each other in the form of
new 'blended models' of learning. Face to face modes have acquired digital modes of interaction to
allow for more intensive/extensive learning possibilities beyond the physical interactions. Traditional
ODL modes (which had very little interactions, and none amongst learners) are also allowing for
regular interactions amongst learners and with faculty through digital modes, that makes it more like
face to face programmes. More on this is discussed in the unit dealing with Professional Learning
Communities (PLCs) and Open Educational Resources (OER). PLCs can use blended models to
provide maximum support to learning.
Thus digital methods have opened up numerous channels for self learning and peer learning. 'Massive
open online courses are online courses aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web.
In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide
interactive user forums that help build a learning community (source from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course)
On the other hand, with more and more materials being available and accessed digitally, some vendors
have begun bundling select resources into proprietary devices and selling/licensing the same. Apple is
a leader in this effort, and has entered into contracts with many American universities, in which it
bundles thousands of resources into its I-pad device and makes it available to the students. On one
hand, this makes it easy for the student to access a large number of resources easily and such resources
would be selected through a process of scrutiny thereby enabling some quality benchmarks. Apple
also allows digital annotations etc of these resources which can be student modified material,
available on the same device for easy reference.
However, by restricting free sharing and access to the Internet, Apple decides what should be learnt,
thereby appropriating an important political and pedagogical process. This has implications for teacher

agency as well as larger issues of educational aims. ICTs can be extremely seductive and keeping a
critical perspective will help us examine both the benefits as well as the limitations/dangers while
making our choices.
Increasingly the Internet, itself is in a similar danger of moving from an open place where all can
access all information, to walled gardens, where you can only access what the provider wants you to.
For instance, Facebook is offering, in many countries, free Internet access, but instead of to the entire
Internet, it is only to a few websites that Facebook allows. This makes Facebook, a private for-profit
company, the arbiter / gate keeper of the Internet to those opting for this. By creating a distinction
between the sites, it offers free access to, and other sites, Facebook is violating a principle called ''net
neutrality' in which all websites should have the same conditions of being accessed to. At a superficial
level, the offer of Facebook for free selective Internet access may seem benign. However, if more and
more opt for this, then the meaning of Internet would change for them. Having only a selective access,
as decided by a company (which could be based on its commercial considerations), can greatly distort
possibilities for a free informational space, that can promote awareness, learning, discussions, debates
– all necessary for evolving a democratic society.
Why public software
Public institutions support the public ownership of resources since that is essential for enabling equity
and social justice. Software is an important digital resource, and has a central role in the new ‘digital
society’ being created. Hence the public ownership over software resources that are essential to
participate in the digital world is essential. Public Institutions should therefore adopt and promote
such ‘public software’ to create such an eco-system of universal access to basic software as well as
community participation in its creation and modification.
The pedagogical argument for Public software
“Constructivist approach to learning”
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005, produced by NCERT emphasises that learning
happens when the learner actively participates in the process of learning and not when the learner is a
passive recipient of knowledge as a finished product. This is applicable to computer related learning
as well. Software can be really learnt only when the learner actually is able to modify the code, write
software, and develop applications.
To reflect the spirit of the NCF, our schools should provide learners with the opportunity to create and

modify software. Expecting students to write software without having access to free software is like
expecting students to write books without allowing them to read books. This is possible only through
the use of free software and not through proprietary software. Secondly if our students learn only
proprietary software, they will become dependant on it and also purchase proprietary software for
their own individual or household use – this is largely the situation in India, where most households
use proprietary software, since they have not even heard of free software. Private software vendors
offer their software at extremely low prices to schools, because they want to make students dependant
on their software and not explore alternatives. Thirdly, digital learning material created by the teachers
and students (which the NCF regards as an important part of the learning process), created using
proprietary software, will get locked into the proprietary formats of these applications and will require
one to continue paying money even to open them and read them. Open standards and software exist
precisely so that this is prevented. One needs to point out that proprietary locking, while free
alternatives exist, is a ploy to continue milking the user for profits far into the future. We already have
this unfortunate situation where teachers have made hundreds of presentations using proprietary
software, to read which, each user needs to procure a copy of the software, thus making user pay for
learning material created by the public school system.
The Indian Government has recently notified the 'policy on open standards in e-governance' by which
proprietary standards should not be used in government.
Promoting local language resources through local language
software
We may think that English is the 'natural' language of software. However software has no 'natural'
language and the domination of English in software only indicates that there have been lesser efforts
to extend software applications to other languages. We want to put in maximum effort to protect, grow
and develop local languages in India.. This is especially important in Information Technology, so that
its benefits are available to the entire community and not limited to English speaking citizens. Many
countries are putting in lot of effort and resources into making software and software platforms as well
as digital information resources in their own languages. For example, in Japan, France, Germany,
China, Russia; Internet and other software applications as well as digital information have been
developed in local languages. This form of local language software and applications development can
be best done by local software engineers working with free software. In contrast, when proprietary
software is used, changes can be done only by the vendor , and this means fewer people can be
involved in this effort. More importantly, this causes our language software to become dependant on
the market and business priorities of the sellers. Hence the public sector needs to lead the efforts in

developing software and digital information in local language, and this can be done very well through
the education system - in our network of schools, colleges and teacher education and support
institutions. The countries mentioned above and Kerala have succeeded in creating their local eco-
system for local language software and digital information. Back to top
The social argument for free software
“Samudaya” software – the social argument for free software Free software is created and modified
by communities of students, volunteers, employees and entrepreneurs working together in a spirit of
collaboration, while proprietary software is produced by business organisations only. Most of the free
software has been produced in this collaborative manner by people acting in a spirit of contribution
and collaboration across the world. Hence free software can also be called “Samudaya software”.
Thus the use of free software is completely in line with the emphasis on development in public sector.
Promoting the local development through “Swadeshi” software Free software has other important
economic benefits: development and independence. Although India has achieved political freedom 60
years ago, we are still suffering from economic colonisation. This is specially true in the IT Industry
which is dominated by many foreign multinationals. When governments buys a software license, the
license fees directly benefit multinationals based in foreign countries. However if free software is
used, it can be further developed and customized by local software engineers, and local software
enterprises and entrepreneurs can also provide support, consultancy, training, services etc. This means
that money paid for such services remains in the local economy and also local IT capabilities are
developed. This is a very critical consideration in the context of reducing imbalances in economic
growth and livelihood opportunities. Public Sector has always been a place where local
entrepreneurship has been promoted and using free software can promote local software engineer
entrepreneurs. Kerala already has the vision of being the free software destination in India and the
next such qualified state would be Gujarat. Free software can make the vision of the Chief Minister on
'IT' (Indian talent + Information technology = India Tomorrow) a reality.
Best use of limited resources – the economics of free software
Free software does not forbid selling and buying copies, but it means that the school system, after
acquiring a copy, is free to make more and redistribute them - for instance, to all the schools. The
schools do not need to pay for permission to use these copies. This creates the opportunity for great
cost savings. In developing countries like India, there is really no reason to spend public money on
proprietary software when equivalent free software is available.

For instance, in a state where there are 40,000 schools, with 5 computers for each class, then we
would spend - 40,000 * 5 * 25,000 = 500,00,00,000 (Rupees 500 crores) on basic private software (a
popular operating system and Office applications suite). On the other hand, if the option of free
software is selected, then this entire money could be used for other priorities such as basic
infrastructure, hardware, research into hardware innovations. If we take the entire Indian Public school
system, comprising of over 1.3 million schools, the amount that we can avoid diverting to proprietary
software can amount to more than 25,000 to even upto 100,000 crores.
Software as a public good
Since Governments function on the same principles of free software - transparency/openness, putting
public and community interest over private interest, public software should be actively promoted
within the public (Government) system and specially the education system. Proprietary software
functions on principles of competition, non-transparency / closed nature and 'for-profit' and these are
more aligned to the business world than to the Government sector. Hence while Proprietary software
has an important role in the business world, the public sector should prefer and promote public
software. Back to top
Why Public Software is not yet popular?
However there are also several obstacles in the adoption and promotion of free software, including by
the public sector. These include issues relating to support and maintenance, user training as well as
'user friendliness' of the applications. However a much larger obstacle is the general lack of awareness
about the concept of free software and existence of free software applications. Just as Xerox is
equated to photocopying, software for most users only means Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office.
People of course now buy 'Xerox' machines that may be manufactured by Canon or other companies,
in the case of desktop software, people only are aware of Windows and MS Office. Hardware
(Personal Computers and Laptops) vendors also usually bundle Windows with their systems and do
not offer a choice to the customer (this is actually a malpractice that is anti-competitive). Customers
hence are not told about possibilities of opting for free operating system and office applications which
can reduce the cost of purchase. Also not all features of one application are available in another and if
a person is used to one application, there is a huge inertia to move to another application. Also there is
a impression amongst many users of proprietary software that free software applications are not user
friendly, support and training is not available, drivers are not available and some applications run only
on proprietary software platforms. These impressions are not entirely true, though many of them
pertain to the larger issue of the creation and sustainance of a 'eco-system' for free software. It is also

ironic that many of the users who believe proprietary software to be superior have never used free
software. It would be fair for a user to use a comparable free software application as well for
sometime before concluding about its user friendliness Back to top
Why Public Institutions should use Public software?
The social, political and economic externalities of adoption of Public Software by society are
enormous. Since Public Software is 'software by the people, of the people and for the people' , it
represents democratic values. Hence Governments have special responsibility to both adopt and
promote Public Software. Government efforts are necessary and even sufficient to build the Public
Software eco-system that can lead to the thriving and universal adoption of Public Software as a
principle of software. Realising this, many Governments have adopted policies that clearly promote
Public Software, both within Government as well as in public institutions. The section on Policy gives
several instances where Governments have clearly supported Public Software, this includes many
governments in India. In addition, the actual software deployed in governments also can be Public
Software.
Since Governments function on the same principles of free software - transparency/openness, putting
public and community interest over private interest, public software should be actively promoted
within the public (Government) system and specially the education system. Private software functions
on principles of competition, non-transparency / closedness and 'for-profit' and these are aligned to the
business world than to the Government or non-profit sector. Hence while private software definitely
has an important role in the business world, the public sector should prefer Public Software. Given the
similarites in the nature of the public sector and Public Software, we can even term Public Software as
Public Software or Sarvajanik Software.
Secondly, government cannot purchase software whose source code is not provided to it. This has
security implications. The vendor can insert code that can monitor the activities of the Government
staff using the software and this can be a security threat to the Government. For this reason, the
defence department of the US and many countries will not purchase private software and insist on
open source. This threat is not an empty one – recent newspaper reports said that the World Bank has
debarred a software vendor from contracting with them, since the vendor installed spy software in the
projects they did for the World Bank. It is reported that spyware was also installed in software used by
nuclear reactors in Iran, which could have caused a nuclear disaster, if not detected.
Benefits from adopting public software
There are significant pedagogical benefits from using publicly owned software tools.

1. Learning is about concepts and processes, not products. Using proprietary tools keeps focus on
specific product and product features rather than on concepts. Multiple freely shareable
software resources provides a diversity of learning experiences which is valuable. It also
moves focus from product to concept.
2. Education should not allow 'lock-in' into proprietary products, that is detrimental to education.
3. Education should allow for 'constructivist' approaches, where teachers and learners can extend
available knowledge. Public software allows for constructivist possibilities
Apart from pedagogical benefits, public software has technological, economic and social
benefits as well-
4. Tools such as Drupal or Wordpress or Inkscape/Scribus or PiTiVi Video editors would provide
huge employment opportunities to students. Students and teachers can copy the software to
their own computers freely.
5. GNU/Linux is freely shareable. This can save public funds on license fees on procuring
proprietary software and upgrade fees at later dates. An IIM Bangalore study estimates India
would save around 20,000 crores per year on license fees by adopting public software.
6. There are a large number of freely shareable educational tools on GNU/Linux, pertaining to
mathematics, science, social sciences etc which can be used in all schools.
7. There are large number of additional tools on GNU/Linux freely shareable, such as SCIM
which supports word processing in more than 50 languages, including all languages used in
Karnataka such as Telugu, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Marathi, Hindi etc. or the ORCA screen reader
necessary for the visually handicapped or Scribus for desktop publishing. All these tools can be
pre-installed in a 'custom distribution' of GNU/Linux for a one-shot installation.
8. A big threat to use of ICTs is virus/worms. Popular proprietary software is susceptible to
viruses and schools are unable to keep procuring anti-virus software. In most schools and
educational institutions, many computers are unusable due to being affected by viruses.
GNU/Linux is virus resistant and hence more secure.
• Public software permits local customisation. The Telugu version of GNU/Linux are already
available and can be used. Further, the educational tools can be customised in Telugu by
teachers as well. Such customisation is not possible with proprietary software platform.

Introduction to the ICT environment
Basic hardware and software
A computer is a device which takes input, processes it and gives output which can be stored and
shared. When you enter data
into your computer, it is
called as input. An input can
be data like text or picture or
an instruction (what to do
with the data). This data is
processed (process means to
perform a series of operations
on a set of data) and you will get the output. Data or information that the computer generates is called
the output. A computer lets you to do many tasks like writing a letter, watching a educational film,
playing games, listening to music and more. You can also look for information on the Internet. Learn
more about the history of computers
http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.htm and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware
Hardware – The parts of a computer
You should open a computer in your lab and see its parts, referring to this section
A computer has many parts working together. The parts, which you can see and touch, are called
hardware. Computer hardware is divided into four parts; system unit, input devices, output devices
and storage media.
The picture shows
the common
hardware in a
computer. A laptop
computer has similar
parts but all as one
single item. The
'power' of a
computer depends
mainly on how
What does a computer do ?

much Random Access Memory (RAM) it has. These days, any new computer would have a minimum
of 4 GB (Gigabytes) of RAM. A gigabyte comprises of a billion (1 followed by 9 zeros) bits or binary
digits.
Basic familiarity with ICT devices and artefacts
Using the keyboard
The keyboard is usually the main device to providing instructions to the computer. The keys on the
keyboard can be divided into several groups based on function:
1. Typing (alphabets and numbers) keys: These keys are arranged as in a traditional 'QWERTY'
typewriter
2. Special purpose keys: These keys are used alone or in combination with other keys to perform
certain actions, such as CTRL, ALT, ESC, Function keys etc.
3. Navigation keys: These keys are used for moving around in documents / editing text. They
include the arrow keys, HOME, END, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, DELETE and INSERT.
4. Numeric keypad: The numeric keypad is handy for entering numbers quickly. The keys are
grouped together in a block like a conventional calculator or adding machine.
Typing keys
Whenever you need to type something in a programme you'll see a blinking vertical line (|). That's the
cursor. It shows where the text that you type will begin. You can move the cursor by clicking in the
desired location with the mouse, or by using the navigation keys.
Using special typing keys?
Keyboard

SHIFT: Press shift in combination with a letter to type an uppercase letter. Press shift in combination
with another key to type the symbol shown on the upper part of that key.
ENTER: Press enter to move the cursor to the beginning of the next line.
SPACEBAR: Press the spacebar to move the cursor one space forward.
BACKSPACE: Press backspace to delete the character before the cursor or the selected text.
ALT: Activates the menu of the application. Can be used along with arrow keys to select applications
Navigation keys
The navigation keys allow you to move the cursor, move around in documents and edit text. The
following table lists some common functions of these keys.
LEFT ARROW, RIGHT ARROW, UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW : Move the cursor or selection
one space or line in the direction of the arrow.
HOME : Move the cursor to the beginning of a line.
END: Move the cursor to the end of a line.
CTRL+HOME: Move to the top of a document.
CTRL+END: Move to the bottom of a document.
PAGE UP: Move the cursor or page up one screen.
PAGE DOWN: Move the cursor or page down one screen.
DELETE: Delete the character after the cursor, or the selected text; in Windows, delete the selected
item and move it to the Recycle Bin.
INSERT: Turn insert mode off or on. When insert mode is on, text that you type is inserted at the
cursor. When insert mode is off, text that you type replaces existing characters.
Practice typing using Tux Typing
Typing is similar to writing. Learning involves
practise. You can learn touch typing, using the
home keys (asdf for the left hand and jkl; for the
right) and all the fingers on both hands as well as the
thumbs for the spacebar while typing, by using a
computer program called Tux typing. Tux Typing is
a free and open source software, which is bundled
along with the free and open operating system
Ubuntu. To start Tux typing, click on Application →
Tux Typing

Accessories → Education → Tux typing. Click on the lessons button on the screen. You will see a list
of lessons. Start from lesson one and go on till the end. If you complete 30 lessons, you will be able to
do touch typing, using appropriate finger for each key.
Practise using the mouse using Tux Paint
Initially, the keyboard was the only device for providing instructions to the computer, but with the
invention of the 'graphic user interface'(GUI in short), the mouse has become an important input
device. The mouse makes giving instructions much simpler by point the mouse and clicking
i. Find pictures of flowers, animals and other objects in tux paint and insert it in your drawings.
ii. Open a new picture in tux paint and colour it.
iii. Make a greeting card for your friend using the different tool options. Save the file and quit the
activity.
Dexterity in using the mouse can make your work on the computer easier and quicker. You can also
use the keyboard instead of mouse in most cases, which may be even faster, such as CTRL C for copy
and CTRL V for paste, instead of using the mouse to select EDIT - COPY or EDIT – PASTE.
Output devices
Monitor, printer, projector, speakers are all output devices which share information from the computer.
Storage devices
Hard disks, pen drives, DVDs are all devices that store data. You must have your personal pen drive
to store digital information you find useful.
Operating your computer
Computer software
You can use a computer to do a many things - paint, write an essay, or listen to music, write a
programme,r record a video or make an animation etc. But these are not done using just have the
computer hardware. To make the computer do what you want there must be a relevant computer
programme. Software is a set of computer programmes that provides instructions to a computer for
executing specific tasks. This is separate from the hardware and it is the most important aspect of the
computer which allows it to do many different tasks.

Types of software
To explain our instructions to the computer we need a special computer programme which is called
the operating system. Operating system is also called system software as it
works with the hardware. Every computer must have an operating system to run
other computer programmes. Even your mobile phones will have an operating
system. Operating systems start automatically when you turn on the computer,
this process is termed booting. All the other computer programmes like
programmes to paint, type, listen to music, learn maths etc., are called
application software or 'Apps' which work with the system software. People
who write programmes are called computer programmers or software
developers. On any computer you will have software to paint, to type letters, to watch movies, to find
something on the Internet, to learn maths.
Edubuntu operating system
How does the operating system enable you to use the computer?
Operating systems use a program called the Graphical User Interface (GUI, which is pronounced as
goo-ee). It allows you to access other computer programmes (applications) by using a mouse. The
popular operating systems are Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and Mac OSx. In this section, you
will learn about the functions of an operating system, using an example of Ubuntu GNU/Linux
operating system. With this learning, you can operate a computer with Windows of Mac operating
systems
Logging in :
Select your username and type your
password the desktop will appear.
The desktop is shown in image
here. When you switch on your
computer, you will see a login
screen screen, login with the user id
and password created by the system
administrator. Edubuntu allows you
to have a user interface in Telugu,
by specifying your language as
Telugu during your user id creation.
Types of software
Illustration 1: Edubuntu Education Menu has many educational
applications

You can ask the system administrator to make
Telugu your user language, if you want. (Note
– the Telugu interface work is not fully
complete, so some of the labels may come in
English, while others will be in Telugu). You
can create two user ids for yourself, one with
English language and the second with Telugu,
this way you can experience and learn both
interfaces.
The applications menu at the top left has a list
of all the programmes (apps) on your computer. The places menu, next to it, lets you access the hard
disk, CD/DVD or pen drives. Digital cameras and MP3 players are also listed here when plugged-in.
Shutting down the computer
What will you do after you have finished your work? You have to turn off the computer. You must turn
it off by clicking on the last button on the right hand top corner and select shut down. Never turn off
the power button without shutting the computer properly.
If you have doubts or difficulties in using the Edubuntu operating system or any of the applications,
you can search for solutions on the Internet using a search engine. You can also find 'frequently asked
questions and answers' on
http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions .
Creating and managing files and folders
When you write an essay or paint something on a paper, you would like to keep it for future, right?
You would probably put it in a hard bound folder. Maybe, if you have more than one essay or
painting, you would have one folder to hold your essays and one folder to hold your paintings.
When you download resources from the Internet or create digital materials on your computer, you
would like store it in a meaningful manner, as you would do with your papers. You can store all that
you have done on a computer as a file. Every programme, image, video, text document, song and
document is stored as a file. And you can keep similar / linked files together in a folder. Folders can
also store other folders called sub-folders (you can imagine them as binders within a hard bound
folder). Folders are also called 'directories'. Do you know where the files and folders are kept in a
computer? They are stored on a disk (remember your hardware chapter where you learnt about hard
disk, pen drives, CDs).
Illustration 2: Ubuntu has a Telugu user interface as
well

To manage all the files and folders that
you make, we need a file manager (also
called as file browser). A file manager or
file browser is a computer programme that
provides a user interface to work with
files. Ubuntu uses a file manager/browser
called Nautilus and you can create folders
and documents, display your files and
folders and search and manage your files
using Nautilus.
This file manager lets you organise your
files into folders. Folders can contain files
and may also contain other folders. Using folders can help you find your files more easily. You can
also copy or move files from one folder to another, create new folders, delete unwanted folders, give
new names to the files and folders etc. using the file browser.
You can download the files from the Internet into a folder that you should create. Folder names should
be as meaningful as possible and can be long. Folder name like 'Untitled1' or 'files' etc is meaningless.
If you are storing information relating to mathematics topic say 'quadrilateral', you can create a folder
named Quadrilateral. Inside this, if you are storing an image of a square, you can name the file 'Image
of a Square'. Mentioning the month/date of the file downloading can also help later in remembering
for re-use.
Ubuntu creates default folders for each user for music, pictures, videos, documents. You can create
your own sub folders within documents folder for your different requirements, for eg. One folder for
each of the subjects of this course – Mathematics, Telugu, English etc. Within the subject folder, you
can create sub folders for resources, assignments etc.
Thanks to the Internet, it is possible to access information on any issue or topic. Combining a
judicious access to resources on the Internet with a clear plan of classifying and categorising resources
through appropriate folders on our computer, we can create a library on any topic of our interest.
Along with these downloaded resources, you need to create your own annotations and comments
using a text editor, to enable you to make sense of the resources. We will learn how to use a text editor
for this and other purposes in the next section.
File manager

Internet as a learning resource
The Internet has enormous possibilities of accessing information. ICTs are changing the way we
interact with the world and we need to build skills for critical information access and learn to use the
ICT infrastructure for accessing the internet and emailing. Internet allows us to connect in ways that
were not possible before.
Information can be accessed in multiple ways from the internet and we need to know how to search
for information on the internet. Sources of information, even if freely available on the internet, needs
to be acknowledged. There are different formats of resources available on the internet - images,
videos, audio files and each of these files have different formats. We must be aware of internet safety
while accessing images, videos and other information on the internet.
Accessing relevant information and media literacy is very important - evaluating a resource for
correctness/ relevance is an important skill. We should also be aware of legal, ethical, copyright
(content and presentation) and safety issues.
What is the Internet
The Internet is a physical network of millions of computers across the world, each of which has a
unique identifier called . Some of these computers act as 'servers', they route data across computers. A
network is a connection of many nodes. Even computers can be connected in a network. A computer
network is a group of two or more computer systems linked together. Computer networks can be
broadly classifed as:
• Local Area networks (LANs) : The computers are close together (may be, in the same building.
In your lab, you must have seen all the computers (clients) connected to one main computer - the
server. It is a LAN. The cables from the clients are connected to a device called a 'hub' and the
hub is connected to the server. (Your computer lab should be on a LAN. This will help in sharing
files, printer across computers).
• Wide Area networks (WANs) : The computers are farther apart and are connected by telephone
lines or radio waves.
What is the use of sharing information over a computer network? You might have
booked train or bus tickets when you travel across the state. To book a ticket you
need to find out which train or bus goes from your place to wherever you want to
go and also if the tickets are available on the dates you want to travel. If your
computer is connected to the computer in a railway reservation office which has the information about
the trains and ticket availability, you can book tickets from home. Such a connection of computers is
Hub

called an Internet connection. Information is communicated and shared between the two computers,
through the Internet connection.
If you want information about some book available in your library, you can connect to the library's
computer from home and get the information that you want. There are many such computers in
different organisations giving us different types of information. These computers are all connected to
one another. This is called the Internet. So, for sharing or getting information from another computer
on the Internet, you need a connection to the Internet.
What do you need to connect to the Internet?
Before you can connect to the Internet, you must have a computer, a modem (A
modem is a hardware device that allows a computer to transmit data over
telephone or cable lines) and access to a telephone line which is
connected to the Internet and a software to connect.
You can also use a device called data card for connecting to the Internet without any
wire connections. The data cards use the mobile phones network to connect to the
Internet. The connection software is usually provided by the service providers (which
are mostly telephone companies).
To understand the basic working of the Internet
As we saw earlier, the Internet is a physical network of millions of computers across the world, each
of which has a unique identifier called . Some of these computers act as 'servers', they route data
across computers. The routing of data is governed by a method or protocol called the TCP-IP,
(transmission control protocol/internet protocol). As the name suggests, TCP/IP is the combination of
TCP and IP protocols working together. Under TCP/IP each file being transported across the Internet
is broken into smaller parts called "packets" by the server. Each packet is assigned an IP (Internet
protocol) address of the computer it has to travel to. As the packet moves through the global network
it is "switched" by a number of servers toward its destination, the requesting computer or "client"
computer.
These packets do not usually travel together on the Internet. Packets from the same file may travel via
different paths through different servers, but toward the same destination. This “splitting into packets”
technology allows us to use Internet most efficiently. It means parts of a file can be shared across a
number of phone lines instead of having to find one phone line to put a large file into. It is also hard to
break the network, as the data will be routed around the trouble spot. In this respect TCP/IP can be
Data card
Modem

likened to a group of cars which need to go to the same destination, but instead of all of them going on
one road (which may be busy), each car can select a different road out of thousands of roads available
(thus picking the roads with least traffic), hence all cars can reach the destination in overall least time.
The TCP/IP protocol, which is the heart of the Internet was invented by Vincent Van Cerf, Robert
Kahn and Louis Pouzin.
Some of these servers maintain the links between the ip addresses of the servers and the 'domain
names' that we use while accessing the Internet. These are the 'domain name servers' and translate
'www.teachersofindia.org' into its ip address (which would be a series of number like 192.168.12.14).
World Wide Web (WWW)
There are millions of pages of shared information on the computers in the network, created by many
people and organisations, in the form of 'web pages' accessed using a software application called a
'web browser'. This information network is called the World Wide Web. The source of information is
called the web site. A web site is a collection of related web pages of information.
Web browser
Once you are connected to the Internet and are ready to look for things, you will need a software
called the web browser. There are many browsers available like Mozilla Firefox, Windows Internet
Explorer, Apple's Safari, Google Chrome etc. All browsers will have similar functions. We will use
Mozilla Firefox to learn how to browse the web.
Click on the icon on your top panel to start the Firefox Internet browser when you are using Ubuntu.
You will see a screen like this.
A website is nothing but a folder on a computer connected to the Internet, which has a 'address '. You

will have to enter the address of a website in the address bar (see the picture). This address is also
called Uniform Resource Locator (URL). In the address bar, type www.wikipedia.org and press enter.
This is a website where you can find information on many subjects.
This website has information in many languages. Move the mouse pointer on English and you will
find that the pointer has changed to a hand. These are links to other sections of the web site. They are
called hyper links. A hyper link is a mechanism by which a web page is linked to another related web
page. Text, images can be made into hyper links. When you click on English, you get the information
from the encyclopedia in English.
There are different sections, if you look at the right hand top corner, giving information about Arts,
History, Maths, Science etc. You can click on Maths and search on a certain topic. Type multiplication
in the search box that you see just above the different sections. You will get an article about
multiplication.
www refers to a folder on the computer where the information is stored. You will also see
http:// behind www. http refers to a protocol, the rules to access websites. Both http and
www are used together with website address http://www.wikipedia.org. However browsers
takes http and www by default, hence typing wikipedia.org is automatically replaced
by http://www.wikipedia.org
Home page of Wikipedia

What is a website?
Features of a website :
• Address Bar
• Home Page
• Resources available
• Is it free/ paid/ registered?
• About us
• Contacting the website
• Website address
Navigation :
• Links available on the page - internal, external:
• Opening a link from a page - new tab, new window:
• Browser back button vs using links to navigate:
• Settings and preferences
• Accessing information and downloading:
Troubleshooting
• When page does not open it could mean the following
◦ Internet connectivity
◦ Plug-ins not installed
◦ The website could be having difficulties
◦ The page may have been removed
Topics in Wikipedia

Search engines
A search engine is used to search for information on the World Wide Web. It keeps a track of all web
pages. We can search for information we want by providing a word or a sentence to a search engine.
Google is very popular search engine. In your browser's address bar type 'www.google.com'. In the
search box you see type 'Sachin Tendulkar centuries'. You will see a list of all the webpages having
information about Sachin Tendulkar's centuries. You can click on the hyper links and get more
information. Alternate search engines include Bing (from Microsoft), DuckDuckGo
(https://duckduckgo.com) etc.
The search engine software is built in a way to retrieve large amount of relevant information in a short
time. Type in different words relating to your professional and personal interests. See how many pages
of information are retreived and the time it takes to retrieve the same. How do you think the search
engine does this so quickly
Also do all student-teachers get the same links on page 1 when they search for an information? On
what criteria does the search engine decide to provide some links on page 1 while others on page 2
and still others on page 20?
The search engine has enormous implications for our processes of learning. In the past, rote learning
(remembering information) has been seen as important, since such committing information to memory
would allow us to access it during need. Traditional Indian schools also had memorising scripts as an
important learning method. However, with ICTs that has changed. Thanks to information explosion, it
A google search

is now impossible to commit to memory the numerous aspects of our daily lives. Secondly, thanks to
methods of storage and retrieval, including use of search engines, the need to memorise has also
reduced. Twenty years back, we used to remember peoples telephone (land-line) numbers, which were
not too many. Now with large number of contacts we have, we do not need to memorise their phone
(cell phone) numbers, since we can store it in the phone itself and can retrieve by name. In the same
way, any factual information can be retrieved in a fraction of a second and hence not worth
memorising.
Thus while in the past, significant amount of teaching was actually the dissemination of information,
not that would neither be required, nor would students accept it. Teaching has to hence necessarily
move to the next order of interpreting, critically reflecting on facts to assess and make meaning. Thus
in a way, search engines have done the processes of learning a good turn, by making information
transmission as a largely redundant part of learning. On the other hand, they have also enabled easy
copying of materials, without making much effort to understand, potentially encouraging superficial
learning.
Google translate to translate English to Telugu
Google Translate is a free translation service which can translate words, sentences and web pages
between any combination of our supported languages. In this chapter you will learn how to use this
service to translate English to Telugu.
In your web browser's address bar, type http://translate.google.com. Select From: English and To:
Google Translator

Telugu. In the below picture, you can see that the word like cat, dog, school and village have been
translated to Telugu. It is not perfect as of yet. This is still in initial stage and will become correct /
better over time
Google has many useful products, picasaweb (digital photo albums), maps (digital maps of places,
find yours), google books, google scholar, youtube (for Videos) etc. Try using them. On-line
dictionaries are also available such as http://shabdkosh.com.
Learning web based tools like blogs, wikis etc
Blogs and wikis are web tools, which
will allow you to upload your own
data on the Internet. While normally,
we associate Internet with
'downloading' information, we can
also upload using these simple tools.
A blog is like a journal, and you can
use a blog to write your diary or
reflections. Of course since a blog is
a public space (on the Internet), it
should contain details you are happy
to share with others.
Explore 'Apps'
There are thousands, if not millions of applications for various purposes. Many of them are quite
interesting if not useful. Digital albums (through Picassa or Flikr or Instagram), maps (Googlemaps),
calendar, mail clients, photo editing, audio editing etc. Try exploring these tools based on your
interests. Many are available on your mobile phones as well. There are also special sites with unique
applications, for eg http://gapminder.org has interesting visualisations for showing events or
movements across time. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPt8ElTQMIg for a fascinating video
of how health and wealth indicators have changed in the last 200 years.
Professional learning communities (PLCs)
Every profession has its own professional association for learning and sharing – like doctors, lawyers,
accountants, IAS officers and so on. These associations are a method of continuous interactions with
fellow practitioners (peers) and allow methods of learning beyond the college or university. You have
Illustration 3: Blog of Prof SN Prasad (retired) RIE

also learnt earlier about social constructivism and how we learn from each other and how conceptual
learning and contextual understanding are equally important.
Teachers, as professionals too need to connect regularly to their peers, for sharing their experiences,
practices as well as insights and learnings. They also need to be able to contact peers as well as
mentors for seeking support. However, in the large school system in India, we find that teachers are
often isolated in their practice and they have no way of sharing their experiences, reflecting and
sharing understanding or seeking solutions for their specific challenges. In the traditional in-service
teacher training programmes, the learning is usually at a point in time; teachers learn in workshops,
and there is limited opportunity for interactions after that. They largely do not have any formal,
organized methods of being in touch with their trainers or with each other to extend the learning after
the workshop. Hence field-level problems are difficult to solve and also teachers are not able to share
their experiences, ideas and resources with one another. After the training workshops, teacher
interactions is very limited and physical meetings at the cluster, block or district levels are often not
enough to meet these needs.
While professional communities and associations have been there for a long time, ICTs have made
possible ways of connecting and communicating with each other simpler and more accessible. Online
communities are often a good way of continuing interactions beyond the restrictions of meetings of
physical time and space. Online communities can be mailing forums or discussion groups and can be
accessed either through your phone or the computer.
The National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCF-TE, 2010) talks about a pioneering
model of teacher education with the following key components - (i) integrating technology tools for
teaching learning, (ii) collaborative networks for learning and sharing, (iii) continuous learning
models that allow for different paths and spaces for learning. Peer learning is regarded as a key
component of Teacher e Professional Development.
In Karnataka, DSERT has implemented an in-service teacher training programme called the “Subject
Teacher Forum” where the training programme has incorporated technology for classroom teaching
methods as well as for creating networks for collaborative and peer learning.
Mailing forums are a good way to keep the teacher community in contact with one another and serve
as a complement for the physical communities and interactions and provide for learning beyond the
workshops. Teacher use the mailing forum to share their experiences, share resources, ask for
clarifications, share question papers, share activities and ideas for CCE, issues in school
administration and for general information sharing as well. Over 5000 teachers are members of these

mailing forums in Karnataka.
In Karnataka, there are mailing forums for DIET faculty
(karnataka_eachereducators@googlegroups.com), Head Teachers (htfkarnataka@googlegroups.com),
mathematics and science teachers (mathssciencestf@googlegroups.com), social science teachers
(socialsciencestf@googlegroups.com), Kannada teachers (kannadastf@googlegroups.com) and
English teachers (englishstf@googlegroups.com)
Professional Learning Communities is a recent method for continuing professional development and
by providing teachers with peer support, it can be a sustainable method of development. You should
also try to form such a community in the school that you would teach in. The steps to form such a
PLC are explained in http://www.centerforcsri.org/plc/index.html
After this workshop, we will create a group called tsmathsscienceupstf@googlegroups.com which will
be the community of teachers from Telengana state.
Email and Mailing groups
Email, short for electronic mail refers to the exchanging of digital messages from an author to one or
more recipients, across the Internet or other computer networks. Email servers accept, forward,
deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online
simultaneously; they need connect only briefly for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.
Email provides a way to exchange information between two or more people that is generally far less
expensive than physical meetings or phone calls. Email is a popular method for communicating with
your colleagues, since it has many advantages
1. you can send a mail to many people at the same time, and they can also send their reply to the
same people, hence faciliating a group conversation
2. you can reply to a mail at your convenience, email is 'asynchronous', unlike a phone call, when
you need to be available for the same time period as the other person
3. the email is an electronic record of the conversation and can be recalled later
4. discussions over email thus can be a useful information source for review by oneself and others
5. email is cheap, since you pay for Internet access than for each mail. There are also free email
providers like google (gmail), yahoo (yahoomail) etc
You can register on www.gmail.com and open your own gmail account. Your gmail id cannot be used
by another person (the id needs to be unique to ensure mail delivery can happen correctly, just like

two postal addresses cannot be identical).
You can become member of mailing-lists in which a mail sent to the mailing-list will be forwarded to
all members. The mathematics teachers in Government high schools have a state wide mailing-list
called the mathssciencestf@googlegroups.com. For other such groups , visit
http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/?q=node/289
E-mail Etiquette
Email is similar to normal correspondence and most of the rules that govern correspondence will also
apply to e-mail.
Manage your inbox / in-tray - All your mails come into your INBOX. It is important to read and
process your email regularly. You may be missing an important or urgent request. Since the volume of
your mails will keep increasing, you need to use or judgement to decide what action to take on each
mail. Some mails may need your response while many will be only for your information. Mails that
are not relevant to you may be quickly read and deleted. Do not waste time in reading junk mail,
delete it immediately without reading. Also have some periods of time daily when you will check
email and other periods when you will not.
TO and CC - If you want the receiver to act on your mail put their id in the TO box. Putting an id in
the CC box usually means mail is only for their information and no action is expected.

Header /Footer - Like any letter each e-mail should have an initial paragraph providing a context to
the mail. Each e-mail should end with concluding paragraph followed by sender details (name,
designation.). A mail without head and footer can appear rude. You can use the auto signature option
in the outlook to put in your signature.
Reply and reply all - Use ‘Reply’ if your reply is intended only for the person who sent you the mail.
Use ‘reply all’ ONLY when you want everyone to read your reply.
E-mail limitations - Email is a good medium if quick communication and simple information. It is a
bad medium to communicate critical or negative points. Feedback of thoughts such e-mails are called
“flames” and can cause lot of trouble for the sender and for others. You must use your judgement and
use appropriate meanings of communication. Sometimes email is good and sometimes telephone is
appropriate.
Record - E-mail which you received or sent can be printed and put into the files. Hence there is no
need to send a paper document ‘just for the record’. This way we can help in reducing the movement
of paper.
Individual Id - Though you may begin to use email through a group id. Ex:
diethyderabad@gmail.com it is better to move to an individual id. Each officer should have their
own id. In case if you have PC you can configure an email client like Thunderbird. Email id is very
sensitive it if is not correctly keyed in, it will bounce back. You can save the e-mail ids in the address
book in the mail client.
Virus - Please do not open mails from unknown person. IN case of attachments, do not open them,
unless you are expecting the specific attachment. In case mail has words like ‘important’ etc, it is more
likely to be harmful!
Creating Resources 1 - Text Editing
You will learn about text editing and formatting in this section. If you want to write a letter to your
friend, a story or school work in a computer, what would you do or where would you type them? A
software application called the text editor would do that.
A text editor is a software used for creating (including writing, editing, formatting, and possibly
printing) text documents. Apart from entering and editing text, you can insert images and links also.
This software lets you to create a document, store it on the disk, show it on a screen, make changes to
it using the keyboard and print it on a printer.

LibreOffice Writer, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org writer, Web-based text editors (Google Docs) etc
are popular text editors. In this section you will learn how to use LibreOffice Writer on Ubuntu.
LibreOffice works on Ubuntu GNU/Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems. LibreOffice is a
public software and can be freely shared without licence restrictions or payment of licence fees. It has
features similar to that of MS Word, a widely used proprietary text editor. Hence if you learn to use
LibreOffice writer, you can work on MS Word later as well.
Type a paragraph describing the articles you have downloaded from the Internet. Save the file by
clicking on 'File' menu and selecting 'Save' option as shown in the picture.
Type the file name in the dialog box that shows up as 'My School' and click on the 'Save' button.
Making changes to the text
Inserting, deleting and selecting text cane be done to easily modify text documents. This process can
support processes of reflection and revision of thoughts/expressions. It is much easier to do this
editing on digital text documents. Hence if you can submit your assignments in digital format, you can
do multiple revisions of your thoughts and easily edit the same, to enhance the quality of your
writings. As a practice, try to revise your assignments at least couple of times before submission.
Copying text
Select the text you want to copy and click on 'Edit' menu and select 'Copy'. You can also copy text by
clicking on copy button or by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL and C.
Cutting text
Select the text you want to cut and click on 'Edit' menu and select 'Cut'. You can also cut text by
clicking on cut button, or by using the the keyboard shortcut CTRL and X.
Pasting text
Click on 'Edit' and select 'Paste' menu. You can also paste copied or cut text by clicking on the paste
button or by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL and V.
Copy pasting is perhaps one of the most powerful features of digital documents. Almost anything
digital can be copied and 'pasted' (replicated) at almost nil costs and very little efforts. The marginal
costs of reproduction are almost nil, and this has significant implications for the access to information
for humanity! Infinite number of copies can be made and shared. This feature can help you to build on
existing knowledge by editing/customising what you can access. However, it can also misused to
plagiarise existing texts. Hence whenever you copy paste, please ensure to give the source of the
information (attribution), and also check if the copyright clause of the text allows such copy pasting.
For more information about copyright and how as teachers you should access copyright materials, as

well as copyright you should use for materials created by you, refer
http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Understanding_copyright
• Text processing
• Insert text: It allows you to insert text anywhere in the document.
• Delete text: It allows you to erase characters, words, lines, or pages as easily as you can cross
them out on paper.
• Cut and paste : It allows you to remove (cut) a section of text from one place in a document
and insert (paste) it somewhere else.
• Copy : It allows you to duplicate a section of text.
• Page size and margins : It allows you to define various page sizes and margins, and the text
editor will automatically readjust the text so that it fits.
• Search and replace : It allows you to search for a particular word or phrase. You can also
replace one group of characters with another anywhere that the first group appears.
• Word wrap : The text editor automatically moves to the next line when you have filled one line
with text, and it will readjust text if you change the margins.
• Print: It allows you to send a document to a printer to get print out.
• Font specifications: It allows you to change fonts. (A font is how a character, alphabet or
symbol appears on the screen. Different fonts are available for typing different styles). For
example, you can make the text in your document bold (dark), italics (slant) and underlining.
You can also increase or decrease the size of the text.
• Graphics: It allows you to insert pictures and graphs into a document.
• Layout : It allows you to specify how a page will look including setting margins, page size
within a single document.
• Headers, footers, and page numbering: It allows you to put headers and footers that the text
editor will put at the top and bottom of every page. The text editor automatically keeps track of
page numbers so that the correct number appears on each page.
• Spell checker : It is a program that allows you to check the spelling of words. It will highlight
any words that it does not recognise.
Formatting characters and paragraphs
You can change the font style, size. You can make the text bold, slanting or underline the text. To
change case (small letters to capital letters etc), click on 'Format' menu and select 'Change Case'. To
capitalise the selected text, choose UPPERCASE option.

To change the colour of the text, click on the small arrow next to the icon in the picture.
You can format paragraphs, i.e., align the text left, centre, right and justify using these buttons
.
For more character formatting options, click on 'Format' menu and choose 'Character'.
There are many tabs like Indents and Spacing, Alignment, Text Flow, Outline & Numbering, Tabs,
Drop Caps, Borders, and Background available when you click on Format → Paragraph.
To shade a paragraph or give a background colour to it, click on the 'Background' tab and choose a
colour. And, to add border to paragraphs, click on the Borders tab.
Creating Resources 2 - Personal digital libraries
The focus of building a resource library is on the following :
1. identify, classify and organizing learning resources (for self) and for classrooms
2. do curriculum analysis identify appropriate ICT resources for various learning needs - analysing
and abstracting, evaluating and problem solving
3. develop a concept map of learning outcomes and map to resources
4. to evaluate an ICT resource
5. build personal resource libraries for classroom ideas
How to organize a personal resource library
We have seen earlier that the Internet is a continuous learning resource and there is a lot of content
you can access. However, to make the resources effective, you need to organize it well, and have a
clear unit plan on how to integrate multiple resources for teaching. Earlier we saw how to use some
tools for teaching learning. No single tool will be fully adequate for learning; we have to use a library
of tools, materials and resources.
How to evaluate an Internet resource
There are a few things you must check when we look at the usefulness of the information on any
website.
1. Source of the website. It is important to know about the source of the information. This will help

us have an idea of many ways of looking at things.
2. Use of multiple websites: Only one website will give us only one kind of information. Using more
than one website will give multiple perspectives. We can also cross check and identify errors if
any.
3. Relevance: Often when we search, one page will come up and often time we share with others
also. But it is important to really read (at least quickly) the contents of the page. This is because of
the way a search engine works. Any web page will have key words (called tags) and sometimes,
keywords will be added even if the word (and associated issue) is discussed very very briefly. So,
sorting for relevance is important. Information use is very contextual. A web page written about
rainfall and look at lifestyle and crops will be different for different places. So we need to look at
how it will be useful for us. Information also has to be valid for a given time. If the information is
very old, we need to test for accuracy.
4. Features of a website: How useful a website is depends on how many different ways we can
access the information and use it and view it. Can it be used by teachers, students, general public?
The understanding of this will also help us determine how much we can use the content.
How to search for information
The second aspect of using a website relates to how we search for information. What words we use,
how we phrase the question for search are all important features in deciding the quality of search
results. For example try these different searches - Giraffe, Evolution and Evolution of giraffe
You will notice that the pages that come up are all different. What we also need to keep in mind is
who is the user, what is the use etc. How we use the search terms determines what results see and
how relevant they are.
Checklist for evaluating a website
1. Whose website?
2. What kind of web site - commercial, educational, etc.
3. What kind of resources? Is the information reliable - always check more than one website
4. Does it allow for a discussion
5. Does it have transaction - like e-commerce websites
6. Is it easy to navigate?
7. Free/ Paid/ Subscription
8. Copyright
9. Navigation - Internal and External web links
10. How to contact the website?

For teaching-learning resources - In addition to the above
1. What is the website about?
2. Is the information reliable - always check more than one website
3. Who made it?
4. What it has?
5. Is it for teachers?
6. Or for children?
7. How to use in class?
How to evaluate a resource for teaching-learning
When you are compiling a resource library for teaching-learning, we have to evaluate how it can be
used for teaching in the classroom. Some questions that you check when evaluating resources are:
i. what are the concepts to be covered and how do the specific ICT resources fit in
ii. areas of learning reinforced
iii. how can learning be extended; what new ideas/ connections are possible?
iv. suitability to a given classroom context (age appropriateness, content level)
Steps in creating a personal resource folder
There are several steps in creating a resource folder:
1. Make a folder on the computer by topic
2. Access relevant resources from Internet
3. Save pages, images, videos
4. Copy and paste links
5. Insert into document
6. Insert links into document
7. Format document
For more information on how to create a resource library click
http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/How_to_build_a_resource_library
Register on wikipedia. Create articles in Telugu (http://kn.wikipedia.org) and add to existing articles.
This will be a valuable contribution to OERs in your language. (You can also do this for Urdu, Telugu,
Tamil or any of the Indian languages).

Creating Resources 3 - Mind mapping with Freemind
In this section, you will be able to understand the meaning of a mind map and learn how to create
mind maps using a software application called Freemind
What is a mind map?
Close your eyes and think of a word. For example think about the word plant. Now think of all the
words that that come into your mind when you think about the word plant. List these words in your
notebook.
Some of the common thoughts/words that would come into mind when thinking about plants are:
PLANT WATER PHOTOSYNTHESIS LEAF
FLOWER ROOT STEM
SOIL SUNLIGHT CARBON DI OXIDE
These words have meaning that can be pictured in the mind. These words can be called concept
words. Concept is a way of describing a word that can be pictured in the mind. It is also any thought,
idea, belief, picture or image that is formed in the mind when we think of a word or topic. For
example, one concept for plant is that it is a living thing.
Now look at these words:
HAVE USING NEED
CARRY-OUT
These words are not concept words but link two or
more concept words together. For example, plants
have roots, leaves, stem, flower. So one concept
may be linked to many other concepts. This can be
drawn like a map shown in the picture below. Now
add more concept words to the above picture or map by linking one concept to many other concepts
to make a mind map of the topic plant.
A mind map of plant with the words that was described above while picturing the word plant is seen
below in Figure 2.
Figure 1

What are the differences you notice in Figure 1 and Figure 2? One obvious difference is that in
Figure 1 not all the concept and link words that have been listed are there. The other difference is
that in Figure 1 a pen and paper has been used to draw the mind map freehand. In Figure 2 a software
application or tool called Freemind is used to draw the Mind-map.
To open Freemind - Select from the Ubuntu menu Applications > Office > Freemind
To create a new mind-map
1. Select the mode as Maps > Mindmap Mode (Shortcut Key ALT+1) from the Freemind
Menu
2. Select File > New
3. (Shortcut Key Ctrl+N). You should see a screen as follows:
Figure 2
Open Freemind

To start writing the Mind map
1. Double-Click on the Node New Mindmap as shown in Figure 3.
2. Delete the text New Mindmap and type in PLANT the central concept word.
To add a link word place your cursor on PLANT node (Parent Node) and use one of the following
options
1. Select menu option Edit > New Child Node (Shortcut Key Insert)
2. You have created a new child node of node PLANT
3. Enter the text have in this new node
4. Select menu option Format > Fork
To add another concept word place your cursor on have node (Parent Node) and
1. Select menu option Edit > New Child Node (Shortcut key: Insert)
2. You have created a new child node of node have
3. Enter the text STEM in this new node
4. Select menu option Format > Bubble
To add a concept word LEAVES you can also place your cursor on STEM (Sibling Node) and
1. Select menu option Edit > New Sibling Node (Shortcut key: Enter)
Figure 3

2. You have created a new sibling node of node STEM
3. Enter the text LEAVES in this new node
4. Select menu option Format > Bubble
In this way you can create the complete Mind-map for PLANT. By clicking 'FILE – SAVE AS option,
you can save your file as plant.mm. All Freemind files have the file extension mm.
To open a Freemind mind map
1. Select menu option File > Open
2. A window appears
3. Select the folder in which you saved the file
4. Select the file <filename>.mm in this case plant.mm
5. Click OK
Practice
See http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php for many mindmaps on different
subjects. You can also join the community online and contribute. You can write a book using
freemind! See the mindmap which has been created for the book' the childs language and the teacher'
available on http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/The_Child
%27s_Language_and_the_Teacher,Prof._Krishna_Kumar. Can you convert a book into a mind map in
the same way.
Figure 5

Creating Resources 4 - Educational tools – Marble (Social
Science)
In this section we will use an educational tool called Marble to understand how to use, study maps in
the teaching learning of social sciences. One of the techniques we use in geography is pictorial
representation of places, events, features using maps. Map making (cartography) is a very important
skill and has been around for many many years. For more information on the history of map making,
visit htp://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/map/h_map/h_map.htm and
http://en.wikipedia.orgt/wiki/History_of_cartography. We can use maps to emphasise some things
(for example the map showing volcanoes that you saw above), describe details of some things. There
are different kinds of maps for example physical map, political map, etc. Maps come in different
shapes and sizes. We can also make a map of our school, our locality and even our village. Open
Street maps http://www.openstreetmap.org/ are an example of how people are now making their own
maps of their neighbourhoods and adding things to it which are important for them.
In Yadgir, as a part of the district human development report, the important public institutions in that
taluka were marked on openstreetmaps and it can be seen on http://www.openstreetmap.org. A simple
visualisation of such geographic data can be seen on http://kalike.org/map/. As a student-teacher, you
can use your phone to map institutions and places in your own area, for example using the
OSMTracker application on a phone that has the android system.
Using Marble to teach latitudes
The Marble educational software can be used to demonstrate Latitudes. By increasing the scale by
moving the 'navigation slider',we can increase the map size. We can demonstrate that latitudes are
'parallel' to one another.

Demonstrate latitudes on the Marble atlas. Move the earth from west to east to simulate the rotation of
the earth. Move the Earth 'top down' and 'bottom up' also upside down to show Arctic Circle in the
bottom. Explain 'north' and 'south' are only conventions and not 'up' and 'down'
Discussion questions
1. Why do we need the concept of latitudes?
2. What physical features depend on latitude? Does weather/climate depend on Latitude?
3. What do we mean when we say 'the sun is above Tropic of Cancer on June' and above 'Tropic of
Capricorn' in December?
4. Why does Bangalore have peak summer during March-April, while Delhi has peak summer in
June?
5. Are Latitudes lines? Are they parallel lines?
6. Are latitudes parallel to one another?
Self assessment - Using Marble to discuss different kinds of maps
On the left side, you can see the different earth views for example precipitation in July and December,
rainfall in July and December etc. Click on each of the maps, explore. Try and answer the questions
below.
Discussion questions

Precipitation map
1. Show the 'Precipitation (July) map. Is there any pattern in the rain heavy zones? Does it depend on
the Latitudes?
2. (Tip) Is there more rain in the northern hemisphere than southern hemisphere? Within the northern
hemisphere, is it heavier in some parts, are these related to the latitude of that place?)
3. Why is the rain heavy in the south west coastal part of India (including coastal Karnataka)? Why is
there a vertical strip where there is very less rain?
Temperature map
1. Show the 'Temperature (July) map.
2. Where is the weather hotter - northern or southern hemisphere?
3. In the northern hemisphere, where is it the hottest? Why?
4. Why is it hotter around tropic of cancer in Africa and West Asia, compared to India?
5. Show the 'Temperature (December) map.
6. Where is the weather hotter - northern or southern hemisphere?
7. Why is the southern hemisphere not as hot in December as the northern hemisphere is in July?
which are colder, compared to Southern hemisphere during July. (or the range of temperatures in
northern hemisphere is much more than the southern hemisphere). Why? For more detailed
lessons on how to use Marble for teaching latitudes, longitudes and time zones and date line, you
can click on http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/The_Earth-Our_Living_Planet
Creation Resources 5 - Educational tools – Google Map
Google Maps is a Web-based service that provides detailed information about geographical regions
and sites around the world. In addition to conventional road maps, Google Maps offers aerial and
satellite views of many places. In some cities, Google Maps offers street views comprising
photographs taken from vehicles.
Google Maps offers several services as part of the larger Web application, as follows.
• A route planner offers directions for drivers, bikers, walkers, and users of public transportation
who want to take a trip from one specific location to another.
• The Google Maps application program interface (API) makes it possible for Web site
administrators to embed Google Maps into a proprietary site such as a real estate guide or
community service page.

• Google Maps for Mobile offers a location service for motorists that utilizes the Global
Positioning System (GPS) location of the mobile device (if available) along with data from
wireless and cellular networks.
• Google Street View enables users to view and navigate through horizontal and vertical
panoramic street level images of various cities around the world.
• Supplemental services offer images of the moon, Mars, and the heavens for hobby
astronomers.
Satellite view
Google Maps provides high-resolution aerial or satellite images for most urban areas of the world.
Satellite imagery does not necessarily appear in the same resolution— for example less populated
areas often appear with less detail.
Google's mapping engine prompted a surge of interest in satellite imagery, due to its easily pan-able
and searchable mapping and satellite imagery tool. Websites were created to feature satellite images of
interesting natural and human-made landmarks, including such novelties as large writing visible in the
imagery, famous stadiums, and unique geological formations. Although Google uses the word
satellite, most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying
at 800 feet (240 m) to 1,500 feet (460 m); however, most of the other imagery is from satellites.

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