Attitude towards Information and Communication Technology ICT Adjustment and Academic Achievement among Secondary School Students with Special Reference to Gender Rural Urban Dichotomy and Type of Management

Abstract

ICT stands for information and communication technology which signifies the use of diverse set of technological tools and resources in order to communicate, create, disseminate, store and manage information. It includes the sources: computers, the internet, broadcasting and the like. It is seen to have transformed the means through which we inform ourselves to remain fully acquainted with the global events and enables us to make our learning process effective and motivation oriented. Now-adays, in our mundane life, documentary evidences like books and journals (hard- copy) do not account as first or primary source. The global scenario is now believed to rely on images, videos and animations. The increased access to internet has opened new vistas of possibilities and has accelerated the pace of progress globally. This process is reportedly seen different from the pre-ICT era which once believed to transport messages through Pigeon Airways. Moreover, our classroom teaching learning process witnesses dramatic changes from Chalk and Talk method to well equipped electro fitted classrooms. It is pertinent to report that new ways of acquiring and accessing information has a significant influence on teaching and learning. Information and Communication Technologies consist of hardware, software, networks, and media for collection, storage, processing, transmission and presentation of information (voice, data, text, images), as well as related services. ICT s can be divided into two components, Information and Communication Infrastructure (ICI) which refers to physical telecommunication systems and networks (cellular, broadcast, cable, satellite, postal) and the services that utilize those (Internet, voice, mail, radio, and television), and Information Technology (IT) that refers to the hardware and software of information collection, storage, processing, and presentation (Heredero, 2006). Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become one of the basic building blocks of modern society (Gray and Souter, 2004)...