Педагогические науки/1. Дистанционное образование

Dytuna Olena

Dnipropetrovsk National University

Project-Based Multimedia Learning Through

Distance Education in Focus Groups

Many present day activities focus on developing linguistic competence for example, the ability to use lexics, grammar and phonetics of the language. They also develop the pragmatic abilities of the learners to use the language for real-life communication. The activity of project-based multimedia learning stimulates through process in learners by forcing them to think and make decision.

The purpose of our report is to show the content of the method of project-based multimedia learning, the usage and the implementation it in teaching English process through distance education.

Project-based learning is an old and respected education method. The use of multimedia is a dynamic new form of communication. The merging of project-based learning English and multimedia represents a powerful teaching strategy that is called “project-based multimedia learning”.

Project-based multimedia learning is a method of teaching in which students acquire new knowledge and skills in the course of designing planning and producing a multimedia product.

Project-based multimedia learning has seven key dimensions such as core curriculum, real-world connection, extended time frame, students decision making, collaboration, assessment, multimedia.

Here is a brief explanation of each.

Core curriculum. At the foundation of any unit of this type is a clear set of learning goals drawn from whatever curriculum or set of standards is in use. We use the term core to emphasize that project-based multimedia learning should address the basic knowledge and skills all students are expected to acquire.

Real-world connection. Project-based multimedia learning strives to be real. It seeks to connect students’ work with the wider world in which students live.

Extended time frame. A good project is not a one-shot lesson; it extends over a significant period of time. The actual length of a project may vary with the age of the students and the nature of the project.

Students decision making. In project-based multimedia learning, students have a say. Teachers look carefully at what decisions have to be made and divide them into “teacher’s” and “students” based on a clear rationale.

Collaboration. We define collaboration as working together jointly to accomplish a common intellectual purpose in a manner superior. Students may work in pairs or in teams of as many as five or six. Whole-class collaborations are also possible. The goal is for each students involved to make a separate contribution to the final work.

Assessment. Regardless of the teaching method used, data must be gathered on what students nave learned. When using project-based multimedia learning, teachers face additional assessment challenges because multimedia products by themselves do not represent a full picture of student learning. Students are gaining content information, becoming better team members, solving problems and making choices about what new information to show in their presentations. We consider assessment to have three different roles in the project-based multimedia context:

- Activities for developing expectations;

- Activities for improving the media products;

- Activities for compiling and disseminating of learning.

Multimedia. In multimedia projects, students do not learn simply by “using’ multimedia produced by others. As students design and research their projects, instead of gathering only written notes, they also gather and create pictures, video clips, recording and other media objects that will serve as the raw material for their final product.

What value does the teacher add when she implements project-based multimedia learning? The answer of this question lies in the concept of “value added”. Richard Murnane and Frank Levy (1996) describe three skills sets students need to be competitive for today’s job. These are hard skills (math, reading, problem-solving skills , mastered at a much higher level than previously expected of high school graduates); soft skills (the ability to work in a group and to make effective oral and writing presentations); and the ability to use personal computer to carry out routine tasks (for example, word processing, data management and creating the multimedia presentations).

If means that high school graduates need to master a combination of foundation skills and competencies. These are exactly the soft skills students learn when engaged in project-based multimedia learning.

Project-based multimedia learning is one instructional strategy that we can use and may also include non-technical projects, lecture and note-talking, writing and artistic or creative project-based multimedia learning strategy in teaching English process through distance education:

1. It is a powerful motivator students engaged in the creating in multimedia projects.

2. It makes teachers look for and aplly the methods that optimize learning effect.

3. It makes teachers structurize the form of material.

Distance education is a multimedia education that uses for educational purposes e-mail textbooks, videoconferences, a computerized slide show, Web site and taking part in discussion in focus groups.

In this sense, one of the subjects which has been more extensively used in distance language teaching is focus groups.

Focus groups are organized discussion with a selected group of people with objective of gaining information about their views and experiences on a topic (Gibbs, 1998).

While focus groups have been used mostly in the fields of marketing our business specialities, over the past few decades they have come to be used as the methods of data gathering in qualitative studies.

The main benefit of focus groups is their ability to collect the data, to observe the information and then to analyze it. Focus groups are feelings and reactions because of the group synergy generated in these discussions.

Since focus groups rely on group interaction more than individual reports, often students have the opportunity to compare their experiences to those of the other participants and new information or different perspectives may be sparked by this interaction (Hoppe, Wells, Morrison Gillmore Wilsdom, 1995).

According to Morgan, the basic argument on favour of self-contained focus groups is that they reveal aspects of experiences and perspectives that would not be as accessible without group interaction. The focus groups used in the learning process must be homogenous.

The following parameters for focus groups are set:

- Group participants should be familiar with each other.

- Group participants should be homogenous.

- Group session should be no more than two hours.

- Group rules in each session include respecting each other opinions, no put-downs and letting everyone have a chance to talk.

After setting these initial focus group parameters it was decided that participants be able to choose the language in which they will participate.

Most authors resist the use of videotape recording in focus groups (Krueger, 1994; Morgan, 1997).

The primary goal of a focus group is to establish and facilitate discussion. In this case focus groups are being used after getting the basic knowledge on subject to interpret and analyze the given information.

Before focus group starts the discussion it is necessary to ask several questions. Firstly the participants would be asked the warm-up questions and then the actual data-collecting questions. It is possible to use the written answers to questions which participant are writing during the first few minutes before the discussion.

Литература

1. Copyright. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002.

2. Krueger, 1994. Focus Groups.

3. Morgan (1997). Focus Groups as Qualitative Research. Sage Publication.

4. Morgan, D., Spanish, M. (1984). Focus Group: A New Toll for Qualitative Research. Qualitative Sociology.

5. Florens, Alonso (1995). Using Focus Groups in Educational Research. Exploring Teachers Respectives on Educational Change. Evaluation Review.

6. Hoppe, Wells, Morrison, Gillmore, Wilsdon (1995). Educational Review.

7. Gibbs, A. (1998). Focus Groups. Social Research Update.