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INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES IN THE LIVES OF STUDENTS
А. I. Skrinnik
The use of Internet technologies in the process of a person’s professional development is determined by several factors: (1) the introduction of Internet technology significantly accelerates the transfer of knowledge and the accumulated technological and social experience of mankind. The Web and the underlying Internet were designed to be decentralized, non-hierarchical and fully open so that a user could work with all types of information, on any device, with any software, in any language, independently of others, showing creativity limited only by his/her personal imagination; (2) modern Internet technologies help a person to quickly and successfully adapt to the environment and the social changes that are taking place. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web as an open communication environment that allows several people to work together on one project, and enables consumers to seek advice or a solution to their problem by asking “collective intelligence”; (3) the introduction of Internet technologies in education is an important factor in creating an educational system that meets the requirements of modern society for the process of professional development of a specialist. The Internet, understood as a social and technical system, together with modern digital technologies, is based on the traditional symbol systems and fully contributes to their quantitative complication and qualitative transformation. The creation and use of hypertexts is a natural activity for a human being.
From a psychological point of view, the Internet is a modern landmark of symbolic (semiotic) mediation of activities. Using the World Wide Web hypertext technology ensures the implementation of methods of developmental education; the flexibility of the navigation system enables each of us to construct an individual educational trajectory; openness of materials enables the creation and development of one’s own knowledge base - individual educational space. According to Tim Berners-Lee, it is development of the society [1] and not the technological progress that plays the decisive role in this. These ideas can be also found in the works of L. Vygotsky in the early 30s. In accordance with the provisions of the cultural-historical theory of mental development, increasingly sophisticated signs and semiotic systems contribute to the development and transformation of the higher mental functions of an individual, such as memory and thinking. Problems of development and complexity of the structure of higher mental functions as a result of mastering and application by a person of computers was raised by A. Leontiev, O. Tikhomirov and other scientists.
In accordance with the concept of transformation, mediated by the use of computers, it was found out that under conditions of IT development the structure of higher mental functions is developing and being enriched, in particular, due to the need not only to work with symbolic systems, but also to learn the techniques of their use. The modern stage of research associated with the “psychology of the Internet” in scientific literature is referred to as study of the psychological aspects of the transformation of culture as a whole [2]. According to the basic concepts of Vygotsky, tool mediation is one of the most essential conditions and simultaneous
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characteristics of development of the human psyche. The mechanism of inclusion of already mediated forms of activity into the new systems of mediation is the most important one. The importance of this mechanism is mentioned by M. Cole, an American theorist of cultural-historical psychology [3].
Developing skills for carrying out educational activity through the use of Internet technologies can stimulate not only development of cognitive actions within the framework of traditional activities (implementation of the principle of return effects), but also personal development (generalization of transformations) and the formation of the self-concept [2]. Information search in the hypertext generates a willingness to familiarize one with different points of view and competing theories about the matter of interest, and enables one to make an independent choice in the professional space. In this case, the activity is shown by the user himself/herself, who may at any time leave the hypertext confining himself/herself to studying only one point of view. The transfer of similar skills to work with traditional sources of information promotes personal professional growth of Internet users. Training in navigation in hypertext leads to the transformation of the system of relationship between learners and teachers. The possibility of the virtual presence of a teacher, as an object of online management of the educational activity in the process of training using Internet technologies, is one of the main factors that increase the efficiency of learning. The ability to select individual trends of study of the training material, controlling the rate of its absorption, and deeper adaptation in the intelligent systems of training support, based on the model of a student, actually transform the learning activities of students into self-sustaining cognitive activities.
Student’s willingness and ability to perform tasks of a productive nature requires a certain level of intellectual development and creative elements that depend on the motivation of learning [4]. In connection with this, it’s important to find ways to increase learning motivation, which is a system of goals, needs and motives encouraging students to learn. It is not enough for a future specialist to be competent in the areas of information technology: to possess comprehensive knowledge of the information processes and be able to apply them in a high professional manner within his/her specialty. He/she needs personal qualities that allow him/her to treat information as an absolute value; to evaluate it critically, maintaining the controlled openness in the exchange of information; to resist the manipulation effect of information circulating in the society and to refrain from manipulating others; to understand the power, capabilities and limitations of use of the information technologies; to foresee the consequences of the information effects on the nearest and distant social environment, and be prepared to bear the responsibility for this.
The system of criteria and indicators of informational self-actualization includes: (a) the informational outlook, expressed through the understanding of content and structure of cognitive activity by means of Internet technologies as standards for understanding one’s qualities; (b) attitude to cognitive activity through Internet technologies as a means of achieving a certain level of professional and personal development, which is determined through value orientation and conceptual directives; (c) self-actualization as a specialist with a sufficient professional level of knowledge and skills in the field of working with information
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technologies, expressed in determining the place of the information technology in the general context of people’s lives; (d) consistency of the “self-concept” of a person, which is a condition of the development of a person’s ability for selfdetermination in relation to mutually contradictory judgments of specialists in a specific scientific field, and the ability to get oriented in the information field [4].
Thus, with the inclusion of Internet technologies in education, the development of a future specialist’s information competence takes place, which is an integrative professional and personal quality that reflects the actually achieved level of progress in the use of Internet technologies, and is manifested by the willingness and readiness to use these technologies in one’s professional work.
References
1. Бернерс-Ли Тим, Хендлер Джеймс, Лассила Ора. Семантическая сеть / перевод Евгения Золина, 2004 /оригинал: The Semantic Web. By Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila. Scientific American, 2001.
2. Войскунский А.Е. Психологические исследования деятельности человека в Интернете. -М.: Терра-Можайск, 2000.
3. Коул М., Скрибнер С. Культура и мышление. - М.: Прогресс, 1977.
4. Голицына И. Н. Эффективное управление учебной деятельностью с помощью компьютерных информационных технологий // Educational Technology & Society, 6(2), 2003.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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