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12Wschodnioeuropejskie Czasopismo Naukowe (East European Scientific Journal) #14, 2016 SiSkï
Ivanova N.A.
candidate of pedagogic science, assistant professor of the department offoreign languages, Voronezh Branch of the Russian University of Economics
named after G. V.Plekhanov
Smolina L. V.
senior lecturer of the department offoreign languages, Voronezh Institute of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia
OVERVIEW OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AS A TOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
Summary: The article traces milestones of the information and communication technology development in the field of teaching methods starting upon a global network and information infrastructure formation in Europe and in Russian Federation. The authors give examples of exchange of best practices in teaching foreign languages. The term "E-learning" is refined and its main components are listed. In conclusion the article touches on an issue of reconsidering traditional approaches to the teaching staff training in the context of new educational technology.
Key words: information and communication technologies; teaching practices; e-learning; foreign languages teaching; educational technology; internet.
In the last decade of the twentieth century, the World Wide Web has united the humankind. At the time, a network and information infrastructure in Russia were also formed. An active interpretation and implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) in all areas of human activity have been initiated as a result of this global shift to a new level of communication at the turn of the century.
The term information and communications technologies as we understand it generally refers to software, firmware, and hardware and devices that operate on the basis of microprocessor-based computers, as well as modern tools and translating information systems which operate to collect, produce, accumulate, store, process, communicate and provide access to information resources of local and global computer networks. The prospects of their use in education, among other things, relate to the development of the Internet as a global interactive learning environment. Their technological and pedagogical potential has huge and virtually inexhaustible possibilities, taking into account the constantly innovate. One of the most pronounced trends of today is the pursuit of educational integration, which calls for the formation of a single world educational space.
In the history of humankind, access to information and knowledge has never been so straightforward at a local, regional, national, or global level. Observers have noted that the "Internet is moving away from its original model of cooperative communication based on exchange, and tending towards the logic of a mass broadcasting medium, resulting in a concentration of producers and the progressive disappearance of interactivity. This tendency towards passivity in the use of the new media can, we believe, be counterbalanced effectively in an approach to FLT which encourages cooperative, collaborative procedures, where teachers abandon traditional roles and act more as guides and mentors, exploring the new media them-
selves as learners and thus acting as role models for their learners" [9, p.5].
Authentic foreign environment of the global network and technological capabilities of the Internet have opened vast prospects for their use in the practice of teaching a foreign language and allow teachers around the world to conduct a broad exchange of experiences and to accumulate their innovative pedagogical ideas, methods and technologies. Interesting pedagogical materials can be found on every of multiple educational resources. For example, useful results of pedagogical experiences are collected on the website of Applied Linguistics and Information Educative Technology Laboratory, Novosibirsk State Technical University, at
http://www. itlt.edu.nstu.ru/masterclass articles.php. A wide range of educational portals and resources, as well as teachers' associations can be found at http ://www. itlt. edu. nstu. ru/masterclass_links.php?acti on=show§ion_id=1&subsection_id=2. Tremendously diverse teaching materials for learning English are presented on the educational portal of the British Council at http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/. Of course, the list of resources cannot be complete as the worldwide network is daily updated with new information.
In Europe, the active introduction of ICT in foreign language teaching process started earlier and was faster and more efficient because schools, teachers and students had better technical equipment than in Russia. In the late 90s teachers from France, Germany and Britain developed and implemented in academic activity different innovative methods and approaches such as "Tandem Learning", project methods and teaching websites, as well as various practical recommendations about how to use the authentic virtual environment in classroom. The results are shown in articles and papers of such scholars as M. Rossi, T. Fauvaux, B. Hemling, K. Klepping, A. Martel, D. Rolland, J.-L. Pages,
C.Zoratti et al. and they were regularly published in the international magazine Le français dans le monde for teachers of French. An active accumulation of experience and a intense exchange of educational achievements were carrying out at this period of time.
As a result of such collection of information by the beginning of the new millennium, the developing of new technologies for educational purposes got an explosive growth in different field of teaching.
Many popular courses for teaching foreign languages were completed with materials and electronic resources for learning the target language via the Internet. For instance, well-known French courses Panorama 1 and Reflets; five-level British course Inside Out with weekly updated e-lessons (http://www.insideout.net/elessons); one of the most popular British courses Headway was completed with its electronic version
(www.oup.com/elt/global/products/headway/); the MacMillan publisher offered a lot of diverse e-materials for teachers and students on its website (http://www.macmillanenglish.com/) etc.
Furthermore, different publishing companies published the practical results of teachers' work as books such as How to Use the Internet in ELT (Longman) [5]; Internet 150 activités (Clé International) [7] ; Internet et la classe de langue (Clé International) [6] and many others.
A Global Congress of FLE teachers took place in 2000 in Paris. During the course of the Congress the usage of new information technologies in teaching was placed in the main focus. Specialists summed up the results and made basic conclusions about the revolutionary role of information networks as a factor impacting the creation of so-called Homo Communica-tivus - a person capable of and ready for communication and transferring information from person to person and from generation to generation through digital technology and globalization [10, p.70].
With the introduction of the Bologna process and the idea of a unified educational space in Europe, the concepts of knowledge era and lifelong learning were asserted in the education sector. Lifelong learning was added as a goal of the process in 2001 [2] and is seen by many as key to the continued success of modern society. Note that in this case it is not just about the quality of education, but also about its new social function: to remain in demand and competitive professionals today need constant updating of knowledge and skills. Lifelong learning is designed to help everybody not only to achieve the career goals, but also to fill the need for a personal continuous improvement. Lifelong learning is also considered as a key to the formation of information society which is a society where the creation, distribution, usage, integration and manipulation of information are a significant economic, political, and cultural activity. M. Hilbert shows in his lecture course that the main drivers of such society are digital information and communication technologies, which have resulted in an information explosion and are profoundly changing all aspects of social organization [12].
In the context of lifelong learning based on computer and Internet technologies a new term e-learning was arisen as the employment of technology to aid and enhance learning. The term is considered by many as the only viable solution to the problem of delivering the resources required to facilitate lifelong learning. At the same time every teacher and educational institution tries to introduce this new type of learning in their own manner. During the decades of its developing various and diverse forms and practices were created and tested in the educational sector. It can be simple like students watching a video documentary in class or complex like when an entire university course provided online.
Gizella Dewath considers that e-Learning began decades ago with the introduction of televisions and over-head projectors in classrooms and has advanced to include interactive computer programmes, 3D simulations, video and telephone conferencing and real-time online discussion groups comprised of students from all over the world. As technology advances so does e-learning making the possibilities endless [8].
In this context practitioners, researchers, and policy makers need to have common terms and definitions related to e-learning to guide the ongoing development of the field John Sener tries in his blog to make a set of shared, commonly understood definitions that will facilitate the sharing of research data and professional standards in the field [11]. He distills current practices into seven categories that reflect the variety of applications that predominate in use today:
1) Classroom Course - Course activity is organized around scheduled class meetings.
2) Synchronous Distributed Course—Web-based technologies are used to extend classroom lectures and other activities to students at remote sites in real time.
3) Web-Enhanced Course - Online course activity complements class sessions without reducing the number of required class meetings.
4) Blended (also called Hybrid) Classroom Course - Online activity is mixed with classroom meetings, replacing a significant percentage, but not all required face-to-face instructional activities.
5) Blended (also called Hybrid) Online Course -Most course activity is done online, but there are some required face-to-face instructional activities, such as lectures, discussions, labs, or other in-person learning activities.
6) Online Course - All course activity is done online; there are no required face-to-face sessions within the course and no requirements for on-campus activity.
7) Flexible Mode Course - Offers multiple delivery modes so that students can choose which delivery mode(s) to use for instructional and other learning purposes.
All listed kinds of practices give learners a wide range of possibilities permitting them to:
■ work independently using a personal computer and multimedia tools and devices;
■ get help or advice from the remote (geographically) expert or tutor with the ability to remotely interact with him or her;
■ create a distributed user community (like social networks) to do virtual training activities;
■ have standards and specifications for electronic learning materials and technology, distance learning tools;
■ use and develop educational web resources;
■ get the opportunity at any time to get up-to-date information being available in any part of the world;
■ provide access to education for disabled people.
We would like to highlight in this context that all abovementioned possibilities and forms of work are successfully used in foreign language teaching and offer various opportunities:
a) availability of diverse teaching units, resources and strategies in the field of online learning and teaching foreign languages, which allow to create a considerable variety of more efficient classes and homework increasing the motivation of students;
b) ability to organize autonomic work of students in a new way;
c) performing many kinds of traditional jobs faster than ever (for example, to translate texts with the help of online dictionaries and search engines is three times faster on average).
Modern educational standards stipulate that the basic goal of foreign language learning is to develop students' foreign language communicative competence. The use of ICT is intended to go towards this goal the most effective way. Teachers all over the world make efforts to conceptualize and systematically sum up new impressive and powerful opportunities which have been born during last two decades. For example Australian teachers of the Alliance Française (L'Alliance Française de Sidney) suggested the following "10 golden rules of Internet use at a foreign language lesson" [4], which we present here in an abridged version, supplemented by examples from our teaching practice.
Rule 1. Use the Internet to develop the four speech skills. Information search develops selective or global reading skills; listening to audio/video materials improves the perception of speech; participating in online forums, writing emails, blogging improves writing skills. Numerous media (newspapers, magazines, radio and television) are now available on-line and enable students to obtain information in the target language in various forms and on any subject. Therefore, the teacher's task is to define the problem in relation to the chosen field and formulate questions clearly. For example, a task can be based on reading and understanding newspaper headlines.
When working on the Internet teacher asks students to go to a pre-selected site containing many articles (from a particular magazine or newspaper). At the same time teacher can offer students the following tasks: choose 3-4 titles on a topic of specific interest; try to guess what the article is about; choose the most interesting article and read the full text checking if
your guess was correct. This activity can be done on the basis of news headlines. Students can even create their own newspaper using on-line newspapers titles as an example.
Any learning activities may be combined with speaking; the problem is to suggest interesting topics and learning resources from the Internet that would encourage students to keep an exciting and informative conversation. For example, when studying the culture of the country where the target language is spoken, the teacher can suggest students talking about arts and museums. The topic can be introduced through the following questions:
Have you ever visited museums?
When did you last visit a museum?
What was the main theme of the exposition?
Did you enjoy your visit to the museum and why?
What do you expect from a virtual museum on the Internet?
Then the students are given the task to find on the Internet using search engines: a) certain artists artwork; b) a specific museum; c) a specific genre of arts. They can work individually or in small groups and after completing the search they may be invited to discuss the results. The discussion can take form of a virtual tour of the museum, a description of a picture or a story about an artist.
Internet resources inspire many forms of learning activities for teaching writing, the only delimitation being the teacher's imagination: filling out various forms and questionnaires; expressing opinion on the issue discussed at numerous online forums; request for information in a variety of reference services; exchange of emails and e-cards between the students of one study group; writing emails to teacher explaining the reasons for missing classes etc.
Another fairly common type of ICT-based activities is a report on a given topic in the form of a Power Point presentation that develops effectively not only writing skills but students' general professional skills as well.
To develop listening skills by means of the Internet any form of learning activities can be used including current audio and video materials available to the user at any time. The audio feed may be accompanied or supplemented by textual information accessible on the same website or via search. The text information can be presented under the form of:
- the lyrics of the song the students have listened to;
- the script of an interview or of a radio broadcast;
- biography / filmography of the director of the film the students have seen;
- announcements of TV programs to help with the choice of a program etc.
Internet resources variety enables teachers to offer students a diversity of learning activities targeted at the development of listening and other speech skills. Internet-based activities engage students in an exciting virtual journey into the real world of the target language, discovering its numerous genres, styles,
dialects and forms. Wide range of information on the Internet makes it possible to develop comprehensively all kinds of speech skills in a natural way due to the authenticity and interactivity of the medium.
Rule 2. Integrate Internet-based activities into the process of foreign language teaching. The efficiency effect of information search and reading on the Internet increases when combined with other types of activities. It enables the teacher to create a multidimensional context to achieve teaching objectives.
Rule 3. Immerse your students in a foreign language environment.
Rule 4. Encourage communication between students.
Method 1: Lack of information. In real life, we communicate to exchange information. If you and your friend watched together news bulletin on TV, it is pointless to ask him questions about it, because you share this information. If your friend didn't see the newsreel and you bring him up to date, then real communication takes place and information gap is filled.
Method 2: Work in groups. Teamwork promotes interaction between students. In a team, each student has the opportunity to talk more, and the rhythm of work can be adapted to students of different study levels and temperaments. To optimize the time of speaking for each student and to fill the information gap a teacher can use a "carrousel" technique: students are organized, for example, into 4 groups of 4 students, each group having its task to handle. Then there is an exchange of students from different groups to share information.
Method 3: Time limits for information search. This approach is characterised by a high educational value, but there are always risks that students lost in a huge amount of information, will not be able to structure and take in properly what they read. The solution is to limit the information search time and clearly determine the scope of the search, setting specific targets to the students.
Rule 5. Adjust the tasks to the language level of the students. Internet resources can be used for classroom activities even with elementary level students. It's important to give students Internet-based tasks they would be able to perform at their language level.
Rule 6. Use the visual possibilities offered by the Web. Pictures, images, illustrations, video and animation are related to the text on the screen. The combination of different kinds of information on online page makes it easier to understand the text, because the students can use compensatory strategies for reading or listening comprehension. If a foreign text seems too difficult for students they can get information from the images provided that they are asked open questions. It's important to remember that the difficulty level is determined in the first place not only by the foreign language materials difficulty but by the task the teacher gives to the students.
Rule 7. Give extra assignments to gifted students. The Internet being a flexible learning tool allows a teacher to balance educational inequalities in multilevel classes applying individual approach.
Rule 8. Save your favorite Web pages on the disks. Internet is a constantly changing medium. This is one of its attractive sides, but at the same time it causes difficulties for teachers who would like to save the information if they have developed a classroom activities based on a certain Internet page.
Rule 9. Check the accuracy of the information. The quality of information from some Web resources is far from satisfactory because any person can create a website without being subject to any control. Be careful in selection of resources and give preference to official sites.
Rule 10. Enjoy teaching with the Internet. Motivation is important for teachers no less than for students. Working with Internet sources helps teachers upgrade their teaching skills and get extra motivation and enjoy their work.
We believe that the last rule is particularly important and relevant because of its innovative sense as interested and having fun from their educational activities teachers constitute a core of the learning process which is able to significantly improve its effectiveness.
Obviously, the list of listed above rules which are rather to be called recommendations can be endlessly extended by reason of the wide diversity of the virtual online environment where every teacher would find new ideas and creative forms of possible work. In these conditions, traditional training philosophy has to be completely revised and changed because pedagogic technologies of XIX century still in use nowadays cannot provide a solid base for modern students. An ultimate textbook cannot be used any longer as a base of teaching in such explosive growth of information in the world. Undoubtedly, web-based learning will continue to expand and provide one of the chief resources for language learning in the 21st century.
On the other hand, the modern situation in the educational field has become a serious challenge for teachers. While information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to make a tremendous impact on and transform working life, teachers still often find it difficult to decide how and to what extent such technologies fit in classrooms and other settings of formal schooling. At the same time, we are sure that teachers are a crucial factor and even the most decisive element in successful integration of ICTs following the opinion of Andreas Lund [1, p.27]. Currently, teachers are caught between demands that promote standardization, efficacy, and curriculum goals on the one hand, and demands for creative, future oriented, and innovative use of ICTs on the other. It is important to understand that ICTs do not automatically enhance teaching and learning but transform such practices but inquire better teacher professionalism to embrace technology-intense settings.
List of references:
1. Andreas Lund. Teachers as Agents of Change: ICTs and a Reconsideration of Teacher Ex-pertise// Information and Communication Technologies in the Teaching and Learning of Foreign Languages: State-of-the-Art, Needs and Perspectives. Analytical Survey. P. 27-38.
http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/en/files/321462 7.pdf
2. Anja P. Jakobi & Alessandra Rusconi Lifelong learning in the Bologna process: European developments in higher education Pages 51-65 | Published online: 19 Dec 2008 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305792 0801936977
3. Anthony Fitzpatrick. Information and Communication Technology in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning - an Overview // Information and Communication Technologies in the Teaching and Learning of Foreign Languages: State-of-the-Art, Needs and Perspectives. Analytical Survey. P. 10-26. http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/en/files/321462 7.pdf
4. Comment susciter le désir d'apprendre ? Dix règles d'or pour l'utilisation de l'Internet en classe de FLE. http://www.echo-fle.org/COURSES/DocumentsDidactiques/Internetenc lassedelangue/tabid/116/Default.aspx
5. Dede Teeler, Peta Grey. How to Use the Internet in ELT. - Longman, 2005. - 120c.
6. Elisabeth Louveau, François Mangenot. Internet et la classe de langue. - Clé International, 2006.
7. Giedo Custers, Evelyne Pâquier, Christian Rodier. Internet 150 activités. Niveau intermédiaire. -Clé International, 2004; Giedo Custers, Christian
Rodier. Internet 150 activités. Niveau débutant. - Clé International, 2006.
8. Gizella Dewath. An Introduction to e-Learning. A Study of the Current State of e-Learning in the United Kingdom. http://idp.bl.uk/4DCGI/education/e_learning/index.a4 d
9. Information and Communication Technologies in the Teaching and Learning of Foreign Languages: State-of-the-Art, Needs and Perspectives. Analytical Survey. UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, 2004. http ://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/en/files/321462 7.pdf 2.
10. Jean-Michel Saillant. Enseignement et formation à distance à l'heure de la mondialisation :une nouvelle situation pédagogique // Modernité, diversité, solidarité: Actes du Xe Congrès mondial des professeurs de français. - Paris, 2001. - P. 69-78.
11. John Sener. Updated E-Learning Definitions. Published online on July 7, 2015. URL: http://onlinelearningconsortium.org/updated-e-learning-definitions-2/
12. Martin Hilbert. Digital Technology and Social Change [Open Online Course at the University of California] freely available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR4sQ3f6tW8&li st=PLtj B S CvWCU3 rNm46D3R85 efM0hrzj uAIg
Tolokonnikov S. V.
senior lecturer in the Department SPO Yeletsky branch of ANO IN "Russian new University"
Толоконников Сергей Владимирович
старший преподаватель отделения СПО Елецкий филиал АНО ВО «Российский новый университет»
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT WHEN TEACHING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATIONAL SPACE OF THE UNIVERSITY
ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЕ СТАНОВЛЕНИЕ СТУДЕНТА ПРИ ОБУЧЕНИИ ИНФОРМАЦИОННЫМ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯМ В ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОМ
ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ ВУЗА
Abstract: Disclosed implementation pedagogical conditions conducive to the formation of information-technological competence and the professional development of the student in the process of teaching information technologies in educational space of the University. Theoretical understanding of the problems of research confirms the idea that when constructing a model of information-technological competence of students of economic faculty in the educational space of the University, the main task is to, using unity and integrity of a variety of methods, to ensure the flexibility of the system.
Key words: information technology, educational environment of the University, pedagogical conditions, professional formation.
Аннотация: Раскрыта реализация педагогических условий, способствующий формированию информационно-технологической компетенции и профессиональному становлению студента в процессе обучения информационным технологиям в образовательном пространстве вуза. Теоретическое осмысление проблемы исследования подтверждает мысль о том, что при конструировании модели формирования информационно-технологической компетенции студентов экономического факультета в образовательном пространстве вуза, главная задача состоит в том, чтобы, используя в единстве и целостности разнообразные методы, обеспечить гибкость системы.
Ключевые слова: информационные технологии, образовательное пространство вуза, педагогические условия, профессиональное становление.
