The Application Of Technologies In Educational Process Research Paper

Development of new technologies inevitably led to introduction of these technologies into various spheres of human lives. People could hardly imagine their lives without cell phones, tablets, computers, Internet. No wonder, that along with such wide development of these technologies, their application in the educational process became an issue of discussions. There is a strong controversy about how the learning process should be organized, and how far could the reforms in this sphere go. Those experts, who support the traditional approach, state that the process of learning could be successful in case a teacher presents information to his students, they perceive this information, remember it, understand it and finally recall for passing an exam to prove their knowledge of the subject. This system has proved to be successful within many generations till nowadays. Such system of education passes the leading role to the teacher, this kind of learning was referred to as heteronomous learning.

Those experts, who supported the progressive approach to learning stated that students are to remain passive during this process of education, moreover this is a huge mistake to think that all materials, which are presented to a big group of students, would be perceived by each individual to the same extend. Their main assumptions are that modern world needs active learners, with their developed abilities to react, to investigate, to plan, to work individually upon various problems. Then the responsibility for the learning process would be related to the students not to the teachers. The role of the teacher in this case is limited to advisor or facilitator. This kind of learning was called autonomous. This approach is ambitious enough and thus recalling numerous debates and considerations. However it is necessary to admit, irrespective of all the positive things, which were brought to humanity by standard type of education, it is not possible to avoid harmonization of education with modern world, its tendencies and directions of development.

At any country of the modern world there is a need to reconsider the major education plans, educational priorities, with the aim of providing to the modern students all possible means to be prepared for real life, they would have to lead after their education is finished. In other words, this means, that it is not correct and wise to split the process of education from the real life challenges and transformations. People used to learn within hundreds of years already, still it is necessary to remember that final aims of education could be split into universal ones, like for example gaining basic knowledge in mathematics, and into knowledge and skills which are actual for the modern life. Thus students of the 21st century should be ready for revealing of their flexibility, creativity, be ready to solve problems and take individual responsibility. “It engages and deepens student ownership of learning while maintaining rigor and relevance of instructional content. And it demands that students use current information and analysis tools to process and apply their learning in a variety of contexts.” (Costa 2012). Nowadays according to statistical date more than 6.7 million students are taking their courses online. Educational institutions are to respond to the current needs with provision of various digital learning solutions, which should be supported by qualified specialists. The range of these services is rather wide – including online development services, introduction of new learning strategies and their personalization, reconsideration of programs or complete courses, providing correspondingly accurate curriculum.

The process of education involves not only gaining of some knowledge, as it was already mentioned above – one of the central roles here is played by organization of the communication process between a teacher and his students. Digital learning has in this relation sufficient practical advantages, as it contributes to speeding up of the communication between teachers and students. For example the time for submitting of assignments could be seriously reduced. Furthermore, students can interact with their tutors more easily and more often, individually or in groups – asynchronously or synchronously. In a New Zealand experiment, virtual tutorial groups of three or four students proved very successful (Bates, 2005). Students and teachers were to sit in front of their computers with their headsets on. Each of the students was given time for presenting his written assignment, which could be seen on everybody’s monitor. Further the rest of the students could conduct a discussion of the most important notions, with guaranteed involvement of each of them into this process. This intensive cooperation is a good example of application of distance lessons. One of the strongest points in the digital learning environment is the challenge for the students, which initiates their individual contribution and activity. Still this example shows successful results of actually heteronomous learning, as there was teacher present.

It is not correct to use the digital learning only for the aim of presentation of computer-based learning programs, involving audiovisual sequences and digitized texts. These are simple examples of how conventional forms of expository teaching and externally controlled learning could be increased (Bates, 2005). The problem is that some of the pedagogical errors were transformed gradually into habitual modes of behavior and consequently they don’t allow sometime to judge about the actual opportunities of digital learning. In reality digital learning has much wider possibilities, than are sometimes imagined. This happens first of all because in most situations human mind prefers to remain with familiar things, at least during the initial stage of introduction. It is possible to explain this with the help of a simple example – as soon as people invented cars, they were still made in the form of old vehicles, which people were used to, only later they were seriously transformed. The same situation is with digital learning, when researchers make their assumptions of its opportunities, they base first of all on what is already known about the process of education, with insufficient consideration of the real opportunities it is able to provide. “With digital learning as well, new and it seems completely unknown opportunities are being opened up that are based on computer, media, network and hypertext/hypermedia technologies. One of these is the intensified development of autonomous learning as self-planned, self-organized and self-assessed learning. The digital learning environment provides even now unusually favorable preconditions that enable and simplify this special type of learning in a variety of ways” (Bates, 2005). These ways include learning in hypertext, network-based learning, learning through virtual communication.

Learning in hypertext is related to text blocks, in other words they are defined as “cognitive units”, which are situated in various cognitive levels. This is up to each student to choose where he would like to start from, what unit would seem the most interesting to him. In order to make this choice, they certainly have to browse all the offered units, this process was never present before in traditional pedagogic. During the browsing process each student has the chance to look through information, picking out some interesting facts and details. Having found the needed starting point, he could start researching the other information, which is completely unknown to him. This process is also a new one for traditional approach. The most important feature of this process is the fact that students are looking through those units of information, paying as much attention and time, as they need to each of them, finding the most interesting facts and information, expanding their knowledge and gaining new one. They are to study various objects, including texts, videos, images and so on. Students are able to use the links between units of information in order to get from one to another, which at the same time helps them to organize the gained information in the correct way in their heads. This is up to each individual student to define the learning paths in this network, being provided with curricular freedom. Critics of this approach argue that there is a still present tutor’s control over the information presented, and in some situations students are not able to follow their own connections built between cognitive units.

Networks play vitally important role for proper organization of the digital learning process, as their contribution into development of autonomous learning could not be underestimated. The high speed of provision of the necessary information, forces students to work quicker and they are more interested in looking for some specific information, which is of greater interest to them. Networks guarantee access to numerous electronic works of reference, students have the chance to select the necessary information, then save it to their hard disks for example and use for future learning activities. Here students gain even more freedom than in case with hypertext, as there was still some subtle heteronomous steering present, because those cognitive units were written by concrete authors with concrete aims. Working in a network, students have to make the selections themselves. One of the drawbacks, which is often mentioned as the counter argument, is the relatively high risk of failure to find the correct information and concentration of the wrong subjects and facts.

Networks are also often used for creating the possibility of communication between two computers. “Students at the Open University in Great Britain who have not been able to understand a text or solve a problem by themselves have sent calls for help to “everyone.” (Bates, 2005). One of the important features here is the speed, as those questions were mostly answered within eight or less hours. There is a great possibility for the students to discuss their problems with other students, with their tutors and counselors. They are free to work with bulletin board, following their constant updates and posts. On the one hand in this way students are made independent, on the other hand – they feel constantly involved and are really interested in the process, which would normally guarantee only positive results of the whole education process.

Computer conferencing, as well as virtual seminars, are successful modern practices, which are applied more often for greater involvement of the students. These seminars are appreciated first of all for the way, how they transform receptive students into active participants, defining their aims and reaching those aims individually. “A particularly attractive form of self-directed and self-responsible learning can be achieved if a knowledge building community can be established in which several students communicate via a central computer.” (Bates, 2005). Thus these students have the chance to work individually, with consequent exchange of the information and knowledge gained with each other. Joint discussion and individual contributions are of the highest importance for the educational process. Supporters of non-application of computer technologies for learning purposes often argue that students are inclined to use their computers and Internet not for educational purposes, rather for entertainment, thus worsening their situation with learning. Certainly such situations are really not rare, but they hardly depend upon application of digital learning, on the contrary, introduction of digital learning could contribute to students’ realization of the major purposes of the modern technologies. At the same time it is necessary to consider the interests of those students, who due to various reasons are not able to be involved into usual university studies, and for them distance learning could be a good option.

Based upon the briefly discussed possibilities and advantages of implementation of digital learning, it is possible to note that in spite of the fact that this system is still new to most teachers, students and educational institutions, thus there is risk of appearance of some difficulties during the process of its assimilation with generally accepted system of learning and teaching, it is unwise to underestimate the sufficient positive changes, which could be brought by digital learning. Some of the critics argued about the financial side of the questions, as normally any change of the applied systems and schemes inevitably leads to financial investments. Still those financial investments would fore sure be justified by the huge number of new opportunities for both heteronomous and autonomous learning, for the future of our educational system and consequently for the university students.

 

References:

Bates, A. W. (2005). Technology, Open Learning and Distance Education. London: Routledge.

Break Through to Innovation in Digital Learning. April 23, 2013 http://chronicle.com/article/Break-Through-to-Innovation-in/138747/

Caswell, C. (2014). We must regulate how we use technology to learn. Old Gold and Black, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem NC

Costa J., P. (2012). Digital Learning for All, Now. Low-cost opportunities to increase digital learning in schools almost immediately. Published by the National Association of Secondar y School  Principals

Haake, M., J., Pfister, H.R. (2010). Scripting a distance –learning university course: Do students benefit from scripted collaboration? International Society of the Learning Sciences, Inc.; Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Palma, Y. (2011) “Distance learning in Belize: a benefit for youths and adults.” Distance Learning 8.2.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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