We hope you will enjoy going through the IT - Literacy tutorial. Yes, it has indeed been a challenge to prepare a self learning resource that would help a person who has not used a computer before to get over the fear of it and to start using it in less than thirty minutes. It struck us that we do not feel intimidated if we do not know how to drive a car, which in its engineering design is far more complex than a computer. We learn to drive it without bothering to know details such as its combustion or its transmission systems etc. We feel confident when instructor tells us that with a little practice we can learn to steer a car using its steering wheel and learn how to control its motion by using its gas paddle and the brake paddle. In the same way, the Windows operating system that now comes with every PC has made it possible for any person to be able to use a computer for creation, accessing and dissemination of information without first learning computer science.

This CD-ROM is an ambitious effort of the National Council for Teacher Education to help every teacher educator in the country in becoming IT Literate and assuming responsibility for introducing it as a compulsory component of pre-service teacher education courses. When new teachers become IT literate the goal of making every child IT literate will also be realised as and when computers become available for use of students and teachers in our schools.

The tutorial will begin with a video clipping on the basic components of a computer system. You will hear audio commentary synchronised with video and animations. You will observe the video and animations and carry out some simple instructions. There are several short tutorials that we want you to master.

The first tutorial is on how to control movement of cursor on the computer monitor by moving mouse on a pad and selecting a file by clicking left button of mouse on one of the selectable links etc. Some of the features of the NCTE CD-ROM have been mirrored for introducing to you its features such as multimedia files, selection and opening of text files and finding information on recognised institutions using search facilities.

You will then learn how to shut a computer and how to switch it on. You will also learn the basic controls of a Window screen such as how to shrink it, how to restore it back to its normal size and how to shut it.

You will learn to use keyboard for entering text and use of the arrow keys for movement of the cursor and use of special purpose keys such as enter, delete, backspace, escape etc.

You will then learn the basic features of the simplest text software, the Notepad. You will learn how to create your own information file by entering text using keyboard, by copying and pasting text from some other source and how to save your file by giving it a name etc.

We suggest that you go through the tutorials with patience and test your learning by carrying out the tasks that we expect every user to be able to perform after undergoing self learning using this CD-ROM.

We expect that after achieving the basic IT Literacy you will begin to explore on your own other features of standard software such as Microsoft Office. You will be amazed at your own achievement when before long you will be navigating yourself the cyber-superhighway for searching the wealth of information on school education in general and teacher education in particular that are now available freely in the public domain on the world wide web.

We congratulate you in advance on your becoming IT Literate after going through the tutorials that will now follow. Good Luck.




Prof. A.N. Maheshwari,
(Chairperson, NCTE)