ICT use among the Students of Arts and Science Remote Colleges in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The Government of Tamil Nadu is implementing the scheme of distributing free laptop computers for students studying government school and colleges in 2011.Atleast 37.88 lakh students have benifitted from the government project so for.It is useful to develop computer knowledge for poor students and enable to know about ICT. While higher education policy recognises the importance of improving pedagogy with the help of tools and methods made available by Information and Communication Technology (ICT), this need has not been addressed in practice. In this milieu,SPACE conducted a study among 200 students chosen through convenience sampling from five districts of Tamil Nadu to understand how undergraduate students in arts and science colleges relate to new ICTs especially the Internet. Results indicate a wide gap between boys and girls in their use of Internet across different socio-economic groups. Many colleges do not provide free Internet access to students. Problems in access is more acutely felt by girls who are restricted by social norms from visiting browsing centres. Fewer girls than boys felt confident in using Internet. The study suggests the need to create a teaching and learning environment in colleges that utilises the opportunities thrown open by the World Wide Web, to equip students and teachers in its use and to ensure that students have an enabling access to ICTs within their campus.