LOGO OF GCE

LOGO OF GCE

Tuesday, 12 July 2016

Notes on Commerce Education For Second Semester - Calicut University

RESOURCE UNITS
Resource units contain a collection of more objectives, more learning activities, more evaluation techniques, and more bibliography entries than can possibly be used by a given teacher for a particular classroom of pupils. A teacher can then select those objectives, from among many, which a given classroom of pupils needs to achieve. The teacher can also select, from among many, the learning activities and evaluation techniques which would be appropriate to use with a given class of pupils. Not all pupils, of course, learn equally well from ascertain learning activity; variety in learning activities is important to provide for individual differences. This, a pupil who reads poorly can learn much through other learning activities such as viewing and discussing films, filmstrips, slides, and pictures. With many kinds of learning activities available in elementary school .
Resource units may be developed cooperatively by teachers of a particular grade level within an elementary school or several elementary schools. The elementary school principal and elementary school supervisor should also be Involved in developing resource units in leadership capacities. A resource unit may be used on more than one specific grade level. Thus, first and second grade teachers within an elementary school, for example, cooperatively could develop resource units.' A resource unit is a planning aid that teachers' develop for themselves and that includes possible learning activities, materials to support those activities(lists of films, filmstrips, and other teaching aids and resources), as well as references or background material.
Several formats are available in the development of resource units. They have, however, much in common as to the essential parts. The following outline of the different parts should be helpful to the reader.
1.         The title and grade level or approximate grade level
2.       Justification for teaching the unit
3.       The objectives of the unit
4.       Possible questions and problems for pupils to solve
5.       Learning activities for pupils
a)Initiating the unit
b)Developing the unit
c) Culminating or ending the unit
6. Evaluating the achievement of pupils
7. The bibliography section
1.The Title And Grade Level Or Approximate Grade Level.
Units taught to pupils should be selected carefully. Content learned in the unit should be on the understanding level of pupils. Pupils should develop and/or maintain a high degree of interest when being actively involved in gaining important understandings, skills, and attitudes from a particular unit. From the learner's point of view, purposes need to exist for studying each particular unit. Titles and content of commerce units should assist learners in developing an inward desire to learn.
2.Justification For Teaching The Unit.
A vast amount of knowledge exists in the different areas of the commerce .Knowledge in these disciplines, no doubt, will continue to increase at a rapid rate. Teachers of social studies, principals, and supervisors must select with great care units which should be taught to pupils. Units which are taught must have ample justification.
3.The Objectives Of The Unit.
A resource unit contains, among other things, more objectives than a given class of pupils can realize. Commerce teachers need to select those which are attainable and provide for individual differences. Pupils in a school may be grouped homogeneously in terms of fast, average, and slow learners. Or, they can be grouped heterogeneously thus providing for a considerable range of achievement within a class. Teachers must have much information about their pupils such as interests, home background, achievement, capacity, and health in order to select objectives intelligently for a given group of pupils. The total pupil needs to realize optimum achievement; thus all three categories of objectives understandings, skills, and attitudes must be emphasized.
4.Possible Questions And Problems For Pupils To Solve.
In the Commerce curriculum, pupils must have ample opportunities to engage in problem solving activities. For problem solving to occur, the problem must be carefully identified and delimited. Once this task has been completed, information or data can be gathered to develop a hypothesi.: (orhypotheses) in answer to the problem. Further study and thought can help in testing the hypothesis or hypotheses. It is important to have a section in the resource unit which is devoted to possible questions and problems for pupils to solve as the unit progresses.
5.Learning Activities For Pupils.
The teacher must select learning activities which will guide learners to realize objectives. Each pupil must achieve important attainable objectives. Learning activities should be selected whereby pupils may feel successful in achieving new objectives. When starting a commerce unit, the teacher must develop within pupils readiness to benefit adequately from new learning activities provided in proper sequence. The commerce curriculum will need to be adjusted to each pupil in the class. Teachers must work in the direction of getting pupils actively involved in a variety of interesting learning activities pertaining to the ongoing unit. Too frequently, a teacher has been enthused in a unit that is taught, but enthusiasm for learning has been lacking on the part of children. It is necessary to evaluate the learning activities continuously which are provided for pupils to determine if individual differences within a class are being provided for. Selected learning activities may be used to initiate, develop, or culminate a unit.
6.Evaluating The Achievement Of Pupils.
The teacher wants to determine if pupils have realized stated objectives. To indicate if objectives have been realized, evaluation is necessary. Not all evaluation techniques will assess pupils in the same facet of development. Each evaluation technique has strengths and weaknesses. Thus, a variety of techniques needs to be utilized.
7.The Bibliography Section.
In this section, the commerce teacher  may find a listing of resources for his or her own personal use. This list would elude, for example, professional books and magazines which the teacher finds helpful in teaching social studies. The bibliography should also contain a listing of materials for pupils to utilize such as library books, films, tapes, filmstrips, slides, textbooks, pictures, and models.
E CONTENT AUTHORING
E Content Authoring is the process of writing the contents or learning materials in any electronic format. It is the digitalization of materials. Materials that help in e learning are called e content. It has an authoring tool (or software) and language which allows its user to create multimedia applications for manipulating multimedia objects.
In the development of educational software, an authoring system is a program that allows a non-programmer to easily create software with programming features. The programming features are built in but hidden behind buttons and other tools, so the author does not need to know how to program. Generally authoring systems provide lots of graphics, interaction, and other tools educational software needs.
E-Learning authoring tools enable trainers to integrate an array of media to create professional, engaging and interactive training content. With an authoring tool, one can repurpose digitized elements or learning objects from an existing course for use in a new course. In this way, it can be realised a return on investment for components that may have been developed using outside programmers or graphic design resources.
Scope of E Content Authoring
Custom content is at the forefront of the e-learning frontier. Trainers are continually trying to identify ways to create and publish increasingly complex custom e-learning content for use on the internet, intranets or CD-ROMS. Some trainers seek high speed deployment of critical information through an organisation, known as rapid e-learning, while others want control of courseware and independence from programmers.

                                    Many organizations are attempting to reduce their training costs by developing e-learning materials. Some organizations want an authoring tool that is easy to learn and can be used by a large team of people with different skill sets; others want to move to a blended training solution by offering a combination of classroom and e-learning courses. Authoring tools offer a way for e-learning managers to achieve their goals.
Different Steps in the Preparation of E- Content
1)        Planning: The first step in preparing e- content involves the selection of topic, format, content, language, e-content authoring tools, learning materials and media.
2)      Analysing: Here, the teacher analyses how to prepare the e-content material in an easy way.
3)      Organising: It includes the collection of images, videos, audio, pdf files, and all other materials, and arranging them in a systematic manner.
4)      Preparation of design for e- content.
5)      Production of e- content with the help of authoring tool.
6)      Evaluation of e- content prepared.
7)      Obtaining copyright on it. 
E-JOURNALS
                               Electronic version of a journal is called e-journal. The phrase journal or e-journal used to denote a border category of electronic publications that may or may not have print counterpart. Hyperlinks can be included to a journal with web characteristics. Apart from links between the text and references or footnotes, hyperlinks enable links to other documents. Electronic journals are becoming quite popular because the cost of electronic equipment is falling down considerably, thereby making e-publishing cost effective. The cost of electronic publishing and distribution also become more economic than paper printing.
The importance of e-journals is given below:
§  E-journals provide multiple accesses. So, the same resource can be used at the same time by a number of users.
§  People from all around the world can gain access to the same e-journals as long as long as internet connection is available. The user need not to go to library physically.
§  The student can access information from the electronic version of the journal at any time, night, day or holidays.
§  Hyper links provide more convenient additional information to the user from outside documents.
§  Electronic version of journals provides more comfortable linking between test and references as well as text and footnotes.
§  Printed journals need large storage spaces. Whereas electronic journal stored in a digital storage device takes very less space because digital information requires very little physical space to store them.
§  Security (ie. e-journals cannot be lost).
§  Speed of access and quick searching to latest information has led to their popularity.
§  Speed of access and quick searching to latest information has led to their popularity.
E-READING
            E-reading are playing an important role today. They fill a void that tablets cannot fill. They patch a gap that cannot be patched technologically. At the same time, manufactures are working to build compelling, readable displays that are not hampered by the problems of e-ink.
                                              E-reading is the process of reading textual data-like books, news papers, magazines etc, digitally. E-reader is a hand held electronic device designed to be used for reading e-books and similar digital material. Mobile devices that can display text, such as smart phones and PDAs, can also function as e-readers.
Some advantages of e-readers are given below:
·        Better readability of their screens and longer battery life. This is achieved by using electronic paper technology to display content to readers.
·        Many e-book readers can use the internet through WI-FI and the built-in software sometimes provides a link to a digital library.
·        An e-book reader may also download material from a computer or read it from a memory card.
·        Some e-readers are more aptly called tablets. These devices come equipped with features like WI-FI Mp3 support and full color touch screens. They are a lot like laptop computers.
BLOGS
            A Blog can be described as a very simple webpage where the entries are organized in reverse chronological order. A blog is usually open to the public and many are free to create. It is generally the work of one author but group blogs are not uncommon. Blogs can also offer an opportunity to interact with readers. Readers can post comments like with a guest look on a website. Blogs can also be regarded as a form of person al publishing on the Internet.
Term blog is a blend of the terms web and log, leading to web log and finally blog. Individual articles in a blog are called blog post or post. A person who maintains blog is called a blogger. Now, blogs are become an facility to author a website. Students can use blog to record what they learn, and teachers can use blog to record what they teach.
 The following are some benefits of blogs while it is used for educational purpose.

·        Blogs can be used to motivate students to do more reading and encourage them to improve their writing style.
·        The students become an editor and publisher through their blogs. This will improve the responsibility in writing an article.
·        Students can quickly catch-up if they miss a class with the help of the blog created by teacher.
·        Blogging can also be used to create electronic scrap books of student life.
·        The teachers and parents can monitor the activities and performance of the students by observing student blog.
WORKBOOK
Printed material accompanying a course text (textbook) that contains exercisesproblems, and practice material to clarify and reinforce the lessons presented in the textbook is known as workbook. Workbooks are usually filled with practice problems, where the answers can be written directly in the book. Workbooks are often used in schools for younger students, either in middle school or elementary school. They are favored because students can work directly in their books, eliminating the need for loose leaf and copying questions from a textbook. In industry, they may be customized interactive manuals which are used to help provide structure to an otherwise complex problem.
Workbooks also hold an advantage because they are usually smaller and lighter than textbooks, which equates to less trouble when the student brings the book home to complete their homework. The term workbook is also used to describe other compilations of questions that require the reader to complete scratch-work when dealing with higher-level mathematics. It can also be used as a training tool for certain job positions. More recently, electronic workbooks have permitted interactive and customized learning. Such workbooks may be used on computers, laptops, PDAs, and may be web-based.
HANDBOOK
Handbooks are collection of miscellaneous facts on a particular theme or year. They generally assume knowledge; hence they are usually used to provide answers to specialist queries. A handbook is a type of reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference. A handbook is a treatise on a special subject. Nowadays it is often a simple but all-embracing treatment, containing concise information and being small enough to be held in the hand.
A handbook is sometimes referred to as a vade mecum (Latin, "go with me") or pocket reference that is intended to be carried at all times. It may also be referred to as an enchiridion. Handbooks may deal with any topic, and are generally compendiums of information in a particular field or about a particular technique. They are designed to be easily consulted and provide quick answers in a certain area.
ANIMATION IN EDUCATION
Animations produced for the specific purpose of fostering learning. The popularity of using animations to help learners understand and remember information has greatly increased since the advent of powerful graphics-oriented computers. This technology allows animations to be produced much more easily and cheaply than in former years. Previously, traditional animation required specialised labour-intensive techniques that were both time-consuming and expensive. In contrast, software is now available that makes it possible for individual educators to author their own animations without the need for specialist expertise. Teachers are no longer limited to relying on static graphics but can readily convert them into educational animations.
Educators are enthusiastically taking up the opportunities that computer animation offers for depicting dynamic content. For example, PowerPoint now has an easy-to-use animation facility that, in the right hands, can produce very effective educational animations. Because animations can explicitly depict changes over time (temporal changes), they seem ideally suited to the teaching of processes and procedures. When used to present dynamic content, animations can mirror both the changes in position (translation), and the changes in form (transformation) that are fundamental to learning this type of subject matter.
Benefits of Using Animation in Education
1.         Communication Skills
The traditional pen and paper essay-writing format isn’t for every student. Animation is a brilliant and innovative new way to encourage children to communicate stories, ideas and concepts in a creative and original way. It can be particularly useful as a tool to encourage the creativity of students who find spelling and grammar a challenge, because it liberates them from the anxiety of always worrying about technicalities and enables them just to concentrate on the story instead. Domo is a great animation tool to encourage students to get started, as it provides a clear, colourful cartoon environment but also introduces ready-formed characters children can relate too, with their own personalities and habits, which give a helpful springboard to possible plot ideas.
2. Building Bridges
The process on many websites now also involves sharing your creations with your peer group, whether within the classroom or further afield by making students’ movies visible to others using the same tool. The opportunities this provides for collaboration with students from all over the world should not be underestimated, and it carries the additional benefit that a language barrier can be immediately overcome through the medium of animation, so it is a fantastic starting point for building up ties and a sense of community across borders with your students. 
3. Self-expression
For many students, self-expression can be a huge challenge, and traditional methods of art such as drawing and painting, while hugely enjoyable for some, can feel difficult and worrying for those who don’t necessarily have a huge amount of natural artistic talent. But the beauty of animation is that ready-made characters can be placed into pre-drawn environments, while students still retain the creative reins by choosing everything from plot to speech bubbles
4. Technical Skills
        While there are a range of fantastically simple animation tools available for younger children, it can also be a great gateway for older students to learn much more difficult technical skills too.
5. Presentation Skills
The other brilliant thing about animation is that it provides an exciting and dynamic platform to encourage students to give interesting, engaging class presentations. Gone are the days of students falling asleep in the back of the class while their classmates stood at the front of the room, reading from a sheet of paper! Animation is a great way to encourage students to put greater effort into their presentations, making slide shows, visual explanations of concepts and really visually connecting with their audience, a great skill for the future.
USE OF WORLD WIDE WEB IN EDUCATION
The use of the World Wide Web (WWW) as an instructional tool is gaining momentum as more teachers, instructors, and trainers incorporate it into their repertoire. Those strategies that employ the Web as the repository for instructional information are known as Web-Based Instruction (WBI). WBI can be employed in a distance education model or as an adjunct to teacher-led classrooms. Specifically, WBI can be used to meet the needs of a more diverse student group. Typical classes consist of students with varying abilities and previous knowledge, and WBI can help a teacher address these differences. WBI also allows students to work a pace that is more comfortable - some students work faster than their peers while others may wish to take longer. In addition, the use of WBI provides the opportunity for multiple grade levels to be accommodated in the same classroom at the same time.
From a teacher's perspective, WBI can help with many daily management tasks by reducing the paper flow required for paper-based instruction, allowing for quick and easy revisions to instructional materials, and ensuring that instructional materials are always available to students. In addition, because the bulk of instruction is delivered via the Web, the teacher is free to spend time working with individual students and small groups; less time is spent in whole-class instruction. An added bonus of Web-Based Instruction is the fact that it can offer students a "virtual teacher" because students can access the instructional materials anytime, anywhere. This allows students who were absent the opportunity to access instructional materials away from school, and even the possibility to accommodate students in a course when their schedule is full.
Uses of  Web-Based Instruction
There are a number of reasons why a teacher might choose to use Web-Based Instruction, including:
·        Enhancing student learning;
·        Spending more time with students working in small groups or one-on-one;
·        Reducing repetitive teaching tasks;
·        Reducing paper flow and management, and;
·        Providing improved instructional materials.
            You tube is one of the important contribution of Google not only for getting videos for entertainment but also for the effectiveness of learning. Lots of videos are available to give a n interesting and simulated learning experience in the classroom. Teachers can either download it or present directly with support of internet in the classroom.
Online education is becoming virally spreading across every corner. Many students and even lecturers are moving away from the traditional methods of studying and teaching. Comparing the education systems about 10-15 years back to the present times, many students are given assignments to research on, topics discussed in class and many write-ups to provoke out of the box thinking plus self-learning.
         With the developed technology and a generation moving away from physical pen and paper to mobile, tab, palmtop, etc., the access to online education looks more practical and a timely solution. Solution providers such as YouTube have taken the responsibility of helping our generation move forward in this manner. YouTube is not only the kingdom of digital entertainment but it can also be a great environment for learning.
Online learning
            Online  learning is reffered to as e-learning . Online learning is form of distant education .Online courses are delivered over the internet and can be accessed from a computer with a web browser .
            The term online learning is often used  synonymously with e-learning It is an umbrella term that includes any type of learning . It is anished on a computer and usually over the  internet . Online courses provide the goal of making educational content available to global audience . It has the ability to offer training anywhere , anytime .
Benefits of online learning
1.         Online cources offer choice and flexibilkity:
     Online courses give the  flexibility to spend time with work ,family , friends , significant other
 activity  Online education offers flexibility for students who have other commitments.
2.       Online Courses are convenient:
      The users get announcements, accessnotes, review assignments, take practice quizzes, discuss questions and chat with fellow students and study anytime. Otherthan certain due dates, the learner can make his / her own schedule for completing the requirements of the course.
3.       Online courses Increase accountability:
      Online Learning can be even more accountable than traditional professional development because assignments, activities course completions and participant progress can be monitored online.
4.       Online courses offer more Individual attention:
      Many Online education program allow pupils to work at their own place, Many students are not comfortable asking questions in class for fear of feeling stupid. The Internet eliminates that fear. All the activities of the learners are stored under his user credential. Thus the teacher can provide individual attention by analysing the learners performance.
5.       Online courses help to meet interesting people:
      Students entrolled in online education programms network with peers from all over the nation. An online course provides an oppurtunity to get to know other students via bulletin boards, chat rooms and mailing lists.
6.       Online Courses give real world skills:
      The learner who completes are online courses will be able to include e-mail and browsing as technical skills on his/her resume. That gives the learner a definite advantages over someone who doesn’t have these skills. The learner can find jobs online, get college applications online make travel plans online. Meet people from around the world and movies online and so on. The possibilities are practically endless.
7.       Online Courses promote lifelong learning:
      Most of what the students learn in a course is forgotten within a week or two of the end of classes. Having that spark of interest that what their learning is always available to them.
8.       Online Courses have financial benefits:
      Online education programmes often lessthan traditional institutions. It elininates travel expenses, registration costs, consultant fees and other expenses associated with seminars and on – site meetings. Consider the cost of missing work to make classess or not being eligible for a promotion because one can’t attend classes to advance your educational level.
9.       Online courses teach to be self disciplined:
      Sometimes that lesson is learned the hardway in the form of poor performance on an exam or assignment but ultimatly, learners succed because you realize the importance of doing things ………. Or even ahead of time or even ahead of time. That self realization propels the learners success in an online course. The motivation to study in an online course comes from you. It is something called student centered or achive learning.
10.     Online course connect to the global Village:
      No technological invention in the history of man has still a huge disparity between those who hare access to the internet and those who donot, the mere fact that any body can communicate across the globe. It is a small world, after all.
11.       Online Courses Provides better resource persons:
      Some online education programs connect students with top notch professors and guest lecturers from around the world.
Asyrichronous  and  Synchronous  e – learning
            Asynchronous and Synchronous e – learning are two categories learning. In Synchronous mode all the participants must be online at the sametime. But in the case of Asynchronous  students are online at a specified time Synchronous e – learning used such as video conferencing, chat and arranging face to face meetings as a compliment and asynchronous e – learning use media such as e- mail, discussion boards and blogs.
Asynchronous e – learning:
            Asynchronous e – learning, commonly faciliated by media such as e – mail and discussion boards, supports work, relations among learners and with teachers, even when participants cannot be online at the same time. It is typically applied to teacher – student or peer to peer learning interactions that are happening in different locations or at different times, rather than to online learning experiences that do not involve an instructor, colleague or peer. Students may spend more time refining their contributions, which are generally considered more thoughthel compared to synchronous communication.
Features:
·        Asychronous e-learning increases the ability to process information
·        Asychronous e-learning better supports cognitive participation
·        When communicate asychronously, however, the receiver has more time to comprehend the message, since the sender does not expect an immediate answer.
Synchronous e-learning:
      Synchronous e-learning, commonly supported by media such as video conferencing and chat, has the potential to support e – learners in the development of learning communities. Learners and teachers experience synchronous e – learning as more social and avoid frustration by asking and answering questions in real time. Synchronous online classes are those that require students and instructors to be online at the same time. Lecturers, discussions and presentations occur at a specific hour.
Features:
·        In Synchronous discussions, participants also discuss the things other than course work.
·        Synchronous communication increases psychological arousal
·        Synchronous communication increases motivation.
·        Synchronous e – learning better supports personal participation.
·        Questions are answered immediately
·        In synchronous e-learning learners respond quickly.
     
PODCASTING
A podcast is a form of digital media that consists of an episodic series of audiovideodigital radioPDF, or e-Pub files subscribed to and downloaded automatically through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. A podcast's distributor maintains a list of audio or video files in a series on a server as a web feed, and the listener or viewer uses special client application software, known as a pod catcher, to access this web feed, check it for updates, and download any new files in the series. This process can be automated so that new files are downloaded automatically, which may seem to the user as though broadcast or "pushed" to them. Files are stored locally on the user's computer or other device, ready for offline use Podcasting contrasts with webcasting (Internet streaming), which generally isn't designed for offline listening to user-selected content.
ANALYSING NEWS
            News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting of various news events and other information via televisionradio or internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or television studio newsroom, or by a broadcast network. It may also include additional material such as sports coverage, weather forecaststraffic reports, business news, commentary and other material that the broadcaster feels is relevant to their audience. Analysing the news from such sources plays an important in our commerce classroom.
            Actually the commerce students coming to the higher secondary classes have only have limited awareness on commercial aspects. Because there no subjects to promote commercial awareness at high school level. So analysing news broadcast related to business events and activities helps the teacher as well as students to make commerce classroom live one. Teachers can give lots of enrichment programmes to students on collecting , analysing and reporting different news related to business. Analysing the day to day business helps to update the awareness of the teacher as well as students.
PEOPLE AS RESOURCES  : Significance of Oral Data
            Classroom visits from informed professionals can be a valuable teaching tool. Resource experts serve as role models and make community institutions more familiar. Resource experts can provide additional content support to the classroom materials and should be encouraged to participate in a critiquing and debriefing activities in which students take on various decision-making roles. To assure effective use of resource persons, balance in presentation and preparation are key factors. It is important that resource experts do not give an unrealistically glowing or gloomy picture of their area of expertise. When dealing with controversial issues, both sides should be presented.
Experts can serve as subject-matter specialists, they can help students prepare for roles in a simulation from the point of view of a working professional, and using their own experiences, resource volunteers can help debrief the activity by comparing the decisions reached by the students with those reached in the real world. Avoid using resource experts to give unstructured lectures or career advice. Some experts, inexperienced in working in an educational setting, have the tendency to talk over the students’ heads or resort to “war stories.” Such anecdotes, while interesting to the students, can give an inaccurate overall picture. If desired, set aside a short period at the end of the visit for a question and answer session to deal with such matters. Finding experts and arranging visits need not be difficult. The public information offices of government agencies and non-profit organizations are good sources for contacting people. Offices of elected officials usually provide constituent services and can identify appropriate speakers from government institutions. Finally, instructors from local colleges or universities may provide expert help.
In commerce classroom also we can bring lots of experts may be from the lists of successful business peoples or from research scholars who are specialised in particular aspects.  The sharing of their experience and important findings in the area of specialization will increase the depthness of awareness of students . The oral explanations will give a good sensory experience to the learners.
           





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