К.ф.н., доцент Тасанбаева З.Р., Тайтелиева М.А.
Региональный социально-инновационный университет,
Казахстан
Южно-Казахстанский государственный педагогический
институт, Казахстан
TEACHING WITH
TECHNOLOGY IN THE INFORMATION AGE
The growth of the Internet has led to new
technologies. Many are being used today to create valuable learning
environments in education.
In the given article we are going to discuss the
history and importance of communicating information. We will talk about the
development of the Internet. This has made it possible for almost anyone with a
computer to share in what is called the Information Age.
Web-based learning,
the use of Web-based resources for learning, is becoming more common in
educational institutions. However, many Web-based courses do little more than
reaffirm traditional teaching approaches of presentation and assessment,
resulting in closed learning environments. Current trends in education stress
the need for learning that encourages critical thinking and problem solving,
collaboration and communication, global awareness and information literacy.
Therefore, we need to make Web-based learning more open. Integrating Web 2.0
tools and technology into the learning process is one way to do this. This
integration needs to be done carefully, using the new tools to enhance
traditional methods of instruction, moving Web-based learning from learning
islands to learning environments.
There are a growing number of educators starting to
design and deliver online courses built around Web 2.0 technologies. This may
be a result of simply wanting to experiment with Web 2.0 tools that they or
their students are using outside the classroom. More importantly, it may also
be a result of recognizing that learning using Web 2.0 tools encourages
critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and communication, global
awareness and information literacy, the so-called “21-st century skills”
(Buchem & Hamelmann, 2011, Rotherham & Willingham, 2010, Dohn, 2009).
Unfortunately, despite the efforts of these early innovators and the general
enthusiasm towards using Web 2.0 tools in education, their use is still the
exception rather than the norm. In addition, even when Web 2.0 tools are used,
they tend to be added on to courses rather than being integrated; a situation
resulting in limited learning improvements.
So why has adoption of Web 2.0 tools in
education been somewhat slow? First, there is the problem of “digital dissonance”
(Clarke, 2009): despite using Web 2.0 tools in their daily lives, both
educators and students still haven’t seen the potential of using the tools for
learning. Secondly, using Web 2.0 tools for learning is not compatible with
current curricula that emphasize knowledge consumption and reproduction of this
knowledge in assessments. Finally, even if educators have the opportunity to
use Web 2.0 tools for learning, as the learning focuses not just on the product
but also the process, assessment presents more challenges. But the above
problems are not intractable. One way to address the problems is for educators
to look at how Web 2.0 tools are integrated in existing online courses.
Research shows that the Internet's World Wide
Web is especially popular with young people. As a result, colleges and
universities are recognizing the learning gains that can be made with Web-based
instructional technology. For example, many educational institutions of higher
education in Kazakhstan, including the International Humanitarian Technical
University, offer their professors training in instructional technology.
Teachers can learn how to use the latest Web tools to improve their classes.
The education profession has entered the Web 2.0
period. Web 2.0 is a marketing term that defines a renewal of the Web since the
start of the twenty-first century. Any kind of Web-driven tool that is
interesting, useful, easy to learn and free is Web 2.0.
One such tool is a social networking service.
This is a Web site that helps people find others like themselves, create
personal identities, exchange resources and work together. Facebook is a social
networking Web site popular in Kazakhstan and around the world.
Social networking sites also provide teachers a
way to reach their students outside of the classroom. Students use Facebook as
often as they check their university e-mail [1].
Podcasting is also a very popular instructional
technology. The term was invented with the Apple company's iPod in mind. IPods
are small digital audio players that permit users to download music from their
computer directly to the device for listening later.
Podcasting also makes education transportable.
Teachers can make their talks, or lectures, available to students who miss the
class. Podcasts also let students hear what other experts have to say. Remember
that biology teacher who asked her students to bookmark Web sites about flowers
and plants? She might also ask her students to report about that collection of
resources in a podcast.
Podcasts are fed to computers using a technology
called RSS. Many creators of information on the Internet offer it directly to
people using RSS feeds. Our biology teacher example might ask her students to
register for RSS feeds from five popular science Web sites. To receive those
feeds, students need to register for a free RSS reader, or aggregator. Google
and MyYahoo both offer RSS readers [2].
Once the students register for a free RSS
reader, a connection has to be made between the reader and the student's
favorite science Web sites. Establishing these connections is called
subscribing. It is easy to do. Just look for an RSS sign on the site.
Using RSS technology helps people easily get new
material from Web sites that interest them. Did you know that Special English
offers RSS feeds?
Wikis have also become a popular Web 2.0
technology in education. Let us go back to our biology class. Suppose the
teacher decided to take her class on a camping trip to collect plants and
flowers. The students would need to work collectively to decide what to bring
on the trip. A wiki can help. A wiki is a Web site where anyone can create, edit
or change information collected on the site. Audio, video and pictures can be
added to a wiki as well.
The most popular wiki on the Internet is
Wikipedia. It is a free encyclopedia of information about people, places,
things, events and ideas that anyone can write, add to or edit. Wikipedia was
launched in two thousand one. Today, it includes more than ten million articles
in more than two hundred fifty languages. More than two million articles are in
English. Each article offers links to other Wikipedia articles or to other Web
resources.
Perhaps the best known form of Web 2.0 activity
is the Web log, or blog for short. There are reportedly more than one hundred
million blogs around the world. A blog is an online collection of personal
comments and links to other Web sites. Anyone can create a blog using sites
like blogger.com or wordpress.com. Bloggers often work together in small
communities. They read each other's posts, link to them or report what other
bloggers say.
Each individual post on a blog can become a
discussion through comments left by readers. There are personal blogs,
political blogs and entertainment blogs, just to name a few. In higher
education, professors use blogs to communicate their opinions or to create a
discussion with other educators. Students are also using blogs for personal
expression or as part of their classes.
There are many other ways that information
technology can be used in education. We have only reported about a few of them.
For example, there are virtual worlds and gaming, Web-based self-publishing and
photo-sharing. When it comes to information technology in higher education,
Kazakhstan university professors say the sky is the limit.
Литература:
1. И.И.
Попов, П.Б. Храмцов, Н.В. Максимов. Введение в сетевые информационные ресурсы и
технологии. Учебное пособие. М.: РПГУ, 2001, 207 с.
2. Ф.В. Шутилов, М.В.
Зелинская, М.Ф. Бовыкина Виды информационных технологий – www.prepod2000.kulichki.net/item_282.html