Social, Economic and technological changes of the fast decades are making teaching more crucial than ever. The information and knowledge society needs a continuous change in the role and working of teachers. Being a teacher in the Knowledge society, one has to deal with i) new knowledge and new ways for accessing knowledge; ii) a networked world with new types of co-operation and collaboration; iii) a society in which knowledge plays a crucial role and life long learning.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought new possibilities into the classroom, at the same time; they have placed more demands on teachers. Information and Communication Technologies exemplified by the internet and interactive multimedia are obviously of great significance for teachers. It needs to be effectively integrated into the formal classroom teaching and learning conditions. The integration of ICT in teaching in general and teacher education in particular is need of the day.
The curriculum makers and experts introduced the Educational Technology and Computer Education (50:50) at B.Ed level in the year 2002, keeping in view of the above facts.
Hence, in the present study an attempt was made to i) To identify the internet services utilized by the B.Ed. students ii) To find out the level of Internet Utilization of B.Ed., trainees iii) To find out the significant difference in internet utilization with respect to their personal, familial and institutional variables. The survey method was employed and a sample of 400 B.Ed students was selected from 5 B.Ed. colleges in Tirunelveli district by adopting random sampling technique. The investigator specially constructed and standardized the Internet Utilization scale for the present study. It is found that most of the internet services are not utilized properly by the B.Ed students and the level of Internet utilization of B.Ed. students is average. The last section of the paper provides some suggestions for effective utilization of internet for teaching and learning purposes.
