Notes

    •  ICT includes both old and new tools for handling information.
    • Old tools include radio, TV and telephone. Computers, satellite, wireless technology and the internet form the new tools
    • Education has been identified as one of the 12 main services under General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which needs to be opened up for free flow of trade between countries.
    • ICT education in India has three main parts:

    1. ICT education: Creation of trained manpower to meet the IT needs of
    knowledge society, in terms of both software and hardware
    2. ICT supported education: ICT is used by most of the universities and
    institutions to supplement printed study materials. Here ICT includes ICT tools
    new and old
    3. ICT-enabled education: A comprehensive educational program is purely
    delivered through ICT

    • Strengths of ICT: Individualization of learning, Interactivity, Distance and climate insensitive, More economical, higher speed of delivery and wider reach, Multiple teaching functions and diverse audiences, Uniform quality.
    • Limitations of ICT: High infrastructure and start up costs, Little attention towards individual differences in order to achieve economics of scale, Accessibility issues, Difficulty in performance evaluation, Continuous need to train the trainers
    • Media technology can be grouped into two categories, synchronous and asynchronous.

    Synchronous media requires all participants to be together at the same time even though when they are in different locations. Ex: Online chat, instant messaging, videoconferencing etc.

    Asynchronous media allows participants in the learning process to be at different times and at different places. Ex: Email, wikis, blogs, forums etc.

     

    In view of ICT, education can be classified into three main categories:
    1. E-learning: Online learning best fit for advanced level (ex: Net coaching)
    2. Blended learning (Combination of multiple approaches: Face-to-face learning, Self-paced learning, Online collaborative learning( discussion)
    3. Distance learning (learn from home & open learning)

     

    E-learning initiatives (India’s MOOCs)

    • Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are free online courses available for anyone to enroll. A MOOC may be patterned on a college or university course or may be less structured. Although MOOCs don't always offer academic credits, they provide education that may enable certification, employment or further studies.
    • The word MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier, from the University of Prince Edward Island for a course offered by the University of Manitoba, "Connectivism and Connective Knowledge." There were 25 tuition-paying students from university and 2,300 non-paying students from the general public who took the course online.
    • In 2011, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) OpenCourseWare (OCW) became the first large collections of MOOC resources made available by a university. In 2012, MIT and Harvard spearheaded the edX initiative for the promotion of MOOCs.

     

    1. National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT):

    • Content generation and connectivity along with provision for access devices for institutions and learners is the main objective of NMEICT
    • Centrally sponsored scheme for higher education institutions
    • Facilitate Teacher training through a view software
    • NFLIBNET provides lakhs of e-books and thousands of high quality paid ejournals have been made available to colleges and universities with a view to inculcate research culture in teachers and students

    2. National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL)

    • The main theme of NPTEL is to build on the engineering and core science courses
    • NPTEL was initiated by seven IITs along with IISc in 2003
    • NPTEL is also termed as the digital library for education

    3. SWAYAM:

    • Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds
    • Aims at providing best quality education that can be accessed by anyone, anytime and anywhere using the IT system
    • It was launched by the government of India to achieve three cardinal principlesAccess, Equity and quality
    • It an indigenous (made in India) IT massive Open Online Courses
       

    4. SWAYAM Prabha:

    • 32 educational DTH channels telecasted on 24*7 basis
    • Everyday, there will be new content of at least 4 hours which would be repeated 6 times a day, allowing a student to choose the time of his convenience

    5. National Digital Library (NDL):

    • 72 lakh digital books available through NDL and through mobile as well
    • Project developed by IIT Kharagpur under NMEICT by MHRD

    6. National Academic Depository (NAD)

    • NAD aspires to make the vision of Digital Academic Certificates a reality for every Indian

    7. Virtual labs

    • Design good experiments which would enhance the learning of a student

    8. E-Yantra:

    • Aims at creating projects to train teachers & students in the area of robotics developed by IIT Bombay

    9. E-Acharya

    • E content portal of NMIECT. Contents are provided by NCERT

    10.E-Kalpa

    • Creates and provides digital learning environment for Design in India

    11.The Free and Open Source Software for Education (FOSSEE)

    • Project sanctioned by IIT Bombay aims to promote the use of open source software in educational institutions

    12.E-Vidwan

    • An expert database and National researcher’s network for guiding and support researchers.

    13.Central Cloud Infrastructure

    • IIT Delhi initiated project to set up a robust 24*7 backed data centre.
    • The cloud is called ‘Baadal’

    14.Lekhika 2007

    • Developed by Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)
    • The objective is to spread computer literacy to the masses in India who do not know English

    15.EDUSAT

    • The launch of EDUSAT brought satellite connectivity to large parts of rural India.
    • IGNOU is leveraging satellite, TV and internet technologies to offer online courses

    16.Gyan Darshan:

    • Launched in 2000, a joint effort of IGNOU and IITs, a bouquet of channels that broadcasts educational programmes for schoolkids, university students and adults.
    • The courses are contributed by IGNOU, UGC Consortium for Educational Communication (UGC – CEC), IITs and so on.
    • CEC is an inter university center of UGC

    17.Gyan vani

    • It is a bouquet of FM radio channels that broadcast programs contributed by IGNOU and IITs

    18.E-Gyankosh:

    • Knowledge repository launched by IGNOU

    19.Education and Research Network (ERNET)

    • Government of India sponsored communication infrastructure for researchers

    20.GRID GARUDA

    • India’s first national grid bringing together the academic, scientific and research communities for developing their data and other applications. It is connected with
      the National Knowledge Network (NKN)

    21.Shruti-drishti

    • It is basically created for visually the impaired women’s empowerment (VIWE)

    22.Sakshat

    • Online portal provided with links that gives exam alerts, educational news, etc.

     

     

    NTA DECEMBER 2019 (06/12/2019-COMMERCE)

    1. Which of the following statements is/are correct?
    A. A Local Area Network (LAN) is usually located on one brand of computer
    B. The acronym ‘ISP’ stands for Internet Standard Provider
    (a) A only (b) B only (c) Both A & B (d) Neither A nor B

    2. Select the option that contains exclusively the text file formats:
    (a) JPEG, MP3, RTF
    (b) CSV, RTF, TXT
    (c) GIF, JPEG, MP3
    (d) CSV, MP3, PDF

    3. MATCH THE FOLLOWING

    (a) AII, BIV, CI, DIII (b) AIII, BI, CIV, DII (c) AIII, BI, CII, DIV (d) AII, BI, CIV, DIII

    Web Authoring: A website development system that allows Web pages to be visually created like a desktop publishing program to edit and create webpages

    4. Assertion (A): The clock speed of CPUs has not increased significantly in recent years
    Reason (R): Software now being used is faster and therefore processors do not have to be faster
    (a) A & R are correct, R is the correct explanation of A
    (b) A & R are true, R is not the correct explanation of A
    (c) A is true, R is false
    (d) A is false, R is true

    Clock speed of a CPU: The performance of CPU, the brain of the computer has a major impact on the speed at which programs load and how smoothly they run. Clock speed is measured in two ways: Clock rate or frequency. Higher the clock speed faster the CPU. The clock speed is usually expressed in GHz (Giga hertz). A “cycle” is technically a pulse synchronized by an internal oscillator, but for our purposes, they are basic unit that helps understand CPUs speed. During each cycle, billions of transistors with the processor open and close
    A CPU with a clock speed of 3.2 GHz executes 3.2 billion cycles per second.

    5. Which of the following statements is/are correct?
    A. The clock speed of a CPU is measured in hertz (Hz)
    B. Bluetooth technology consumes more power than wi-fi technology
    (a) A only (b) B only (c) Both A & B (d) Neither A nor B

    Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are methods that provide wireless internet. Bluetooth consumers less power energy.

    NTA DECEMBER 2019 (05/12/2019- POLITICAL SCIENCE/ MALAYALAM)

    1. Which of the following statements is/are correct?
    A. It is usually faster to access data stored in RAM than that in hard drive
    B. The hexadecimal number 99 is the same as the decimal number 99
    (a) A only (b) B only (c) Both A & B (d) Neither A nor B
     

    Different storage devices:
    1. Registers: Number of high-speed, special-purpose memory units called registers. Registers are located in the CPU. They carry out critical functions in the execution of the programmes
    2. Cache memory: It is the volatile memory which is nearest to the CPU memory. It is the fastest memory that provides high-speed data access to computer microprocessor. The capacity of Cache memory is too low in comparison to RAM and Hard Disk. Earlier Cache memories were available separately, but the microprocessors contain the cache memory on the chip itself
    3. Random Access Memory (RAM): Also termed as the main memory. It is the temporary memory, volatile, that allows information to be stored randomly and accessed quickly and directly. The data remains in RAM till the computer is switched off.
    4. ROM: It is the permanent memory of a computer. A set of instructions is built into the computer by the manufacturer and cannot be accessed or changed by the user
    5. PROM: It is a memory chip in which you can store a program. Once the PROM has been used, you cannot wipe it clean and use it to store something else. Like ROMs, PROMs are non-volatile
    6. EPROM: Special type of PROM that can be erased by exposing it to ultraviolet light
    7. EEPROM: Special type of PROM that can be erased by exposing it to an electrical charge. It is also termed as flash memory

    SRAM &DRAM: Static Random Access Memory is a type of RAM that stores data using a static method, in which the data remains constant as long as electric power is supplied to the memory chip. Dynamic RAM uses capacitors and transistors. SRAM uses transistors and latches in construction. SRAM is comparatively faster than DRAM, hence SRAM is used for cache memory while DRAM is used for main memory.

     

    2. Select the option that contains only computer input devices:
    (a) Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Printer
    (b) Mouse, Monitor, Joystick, Keyboard
    (c) Joystick, Keyboard, Digitizer, Monitor
    (d) Joystick, Keyboard, Mouse, Digitizer
    Digitizer: Digitizer tablet is a tool used to convert hand-drawn images into a format suitable for computer processing. Images are usually drawn onto a flat surface with a stylus and then appear on a computer monitor screen.


    3. Which of the following statements are correct?
    A. Google’s web browser is called ‘Chrome’
    B. Apple’s web browser is called ‘Safari’
    C. ‘Mozilla firefox’ is an open source web browsing software
    (a) AB only (b) AC only (c) BC only (d) ABC

    Open-source software (OSS) is a type of computer software in which the source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. It may be developed in a collaborative public manner
    Examples:
    Firefox – A web browser that competes with chrome, internet explorer etx
    Open office – A competitor to Microsoft office
    Gimp – A graphic tool with features found in photoshop
    Alfresco – Collaboration software that competes with Microsoft share point
    Marketcetera – An enterprise trading platform for hedge fund managers that competes with Flextrade and Portware
    Zimbra – Open source e-mail software that competes with Outlook server

    MySQL, Ingres and Enterprise DB – Open source data base software packages that each go head-to-head with commercial products from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase and IBM
    SugarCRM – customer relationship management software that competes with salesforce.com and Siebel
    Asterix – An opensource implementation for running a PBX corporate telephony system that competes with offerings from Nortel and Cisco, among others
    Free BSD and Sun’s OpenSolaris- Open source versions of the UNIX operating system

     

    NTA DECEMBER 2019 (04/12/2019- MANAGEMENT)

    1. Which of the following statements is/are correct?
    A. Software is loaded into secondary storage from RAM and is then executed by the CPU
    B. A search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the www.

    (a) A only (b) B only (c) Both A & B (d) Neither A nor B

    Booting: In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer. It can be initiated by hardware such as a button press, or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) has no software in its main memory, so some process must load software into memory before it can be executed. This may be done by hardware or firmware in the CPU, or by a separate processor in the computer system.
    BIOS (basic input/output system) is the program a personal computer's microprocessor uses to get the computer system started after you turn it on. It also manages data flow between the computer's operating system and attached devices such as the hard disk, video adapter, keyboard, mouse and printer.
    The BIOS's primary function is to handle the system setup process including driver loading and operating system booting.

    2. Regarding E-governance, which of the following statements is/are correct?
    A. Decreasing transparency is an ICT enabled advantage of E-Governance
    B. E-governance is related to implementation of ICT in the government processes and functions
    C. Common service centres (CSCs) help in providing and using E-Governance related services
    (a) ABC (b) BC (c) AC (d) AB

    Common Service Centres are physical facilities for delivering Government of India e-Services to rural and remote locations where availability of computers and Internet was negligible or mostly absent.

    NTA DECEMBER 2019 (04/12/2019- ECONOMICS)

    1. Assertion (A): Sniffing may be used to steal data or information over a network
    Reason (R): Sniffing is a process of monitoring and capturing all data packets passing through given network.
    (a) Both A & R are correct, R is the correct explanation of A
    (b) Both A & R are correct, R is not the correct explanation of A
    (c) A is true, R is false
    (d) A is false, R is true

    Sniffing is the process of monitoring and capturing all the packets passing through a given network using sniffing tools. It is a form of “tapping phone wires” and get to know about the conversation. It is also called wiretapping applied to the computer networks.

    Sniffing and snooping should be synonyms. They refer to listening to a conversation. For example, if you login to a website that uses no encryption, your username and password can be sniffed off the network by someone who can capture the network traffic between you and the web site.
    Spoofing refers to actively introducing network traffic pretending to be someone else. For example, spoofing is sending a command to computer A pretending to be computer B. It is typically used in a scenario where you generate network packets that say they originated by computer B while they really originated by computer C. Spoofing in an email context means sending an email pretending to be someone else.

    Packet sniffing(snooping) Packet spoofing. Packet sniffing refers to listening to other's conversation. Packet spoofing refers to actively introducing fake network traffic pretending to be someone else. It is a passive attack (i.e. attacker cannot cause any kind of damage)

    2. In computer related activities, which of the following is inappropriate for describing a language translator?
    (a) Assembler (b) Compiler (c) Interpreter (d) Codec
    A codec is a device or computer program which encodes or decodes a digital data stream or signal. Codec is a portmanteau of coder-decoder. ... Codecs are used in videoconferencing, streaming media, and video editing applications.