CC BY
3Central Asian Journal of
Education and Innovation
THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY AND GADGETS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS
Damirova Gulshoda Utkir kizi
Teacher
Tashkent State Pedagogical University named after Nizami, [email protected] https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10644111
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Qabul qilindi: 01-February 2024 yil Ma'qullandi: 05- February 2023 yil Nashr qilindi: 10- February 2023 yil
KEY WORDS
modern technical means of communication, gadget, device, Internet, mobile education, mobile application.
Abstract. This article examines the role of technology and gadgets in the process of teaching and learning in the educational process of the university. The advantages of using gadgets at different stages of students' educational activities are revealed, and attention is also paid to the negative manifestations of modern technologies during classes.
In the modern era of digital devices, the activity of using gadgets in all spheres of human activity is increasing at a rapid pace. The emergence of new technologies on the world stage contributes to the introduction of new technologies into the educational environment [3]. The question arises about the possibility of using modern gadgets that are currently accessible to the general public in the educational process. This article identifies and describes the variability of the use of gadgets in the educational process, evaluates the positive and negative aspects of their use at different stages of teaching a foreign language.
The English word "gadget", a device with many functions, quickly entered the modern lexicon. A direct translation of this word gives the following meanings: "device, contraption, fixture, instrument" [2]. Note that in this article, a "gadget" is defined as a multifunctional portable device designed to improve and make human life easier. The concepts of "gadget" and "device" are not synonymous and interchangeable. "Device" is a device created for a specific purpose [1], "gadget" is a device that has multifunctionality. A. M. Townsend, in his article "Living in a Real-Time City: Mobile Phones and Urban Metabolism," notes that the emergence of the World Wide Web in 1993 completely changed the life of mankind in a short period of time. It all started with mobile phones. They "topped" the list of portable communications media on the global market. This contributed to a fundamental transformation of the human worldview and opened up additional opportunities for unhindered communication at a distance. Then the Internet gradually penetrated into mobile devices, and they no longer performed only one communicative function. It has become possible to find any necessary information using a mobile phone, and also, over time, to calculate the position of a person in the territory of a populated area. After this, navigators built into mobile devices appeared.
The author paid special attention to determining the role and place of smartphones,
the latest mobile communications technologies, in the processes of modern urbanization and town planning. The study also notes that the use of mobile phones and the Internet helps eliminate illiteracy of the population due to its information content and interactivity, and also makes it possible to most effectively use the latest voice recognition technology by people who cannot write and read. At the same time, smartphones have become widely used even in third countries that have never had landline phones before [4].
In J. Godgin's work "Mobile Phone Culture: Mobile Technologies in Everyday Life," the author mentions the function of sending short text messages (SMS function). This feature was originally planned as an additional option. But over time, users showed increased interest in it, which came as a surprise to mobile operators and mobile device manufacturers.
In the above-mentioned article, the author assesses the changes that have occurred in the country and the world with the development of mobile content on smartphones. 2G services are analyzed, namely: various wallpapers for the gadget interface, games, ringtones, applications, etc. With the advent of improved 3G, LTE services, no new and modern innovative changes occurred, but this technology obligated European mobile operators to make huge investments in the development of network infrastructure and in licensing for the provision of 3G, LTE services. Thus, the influence of mobile portable technologies on the economic, patent and marketing spheres, along with the development of remote communication, becomes obvious [2].
The introduction of new technologies could not but affect the educational environment. Education is the most important part of modern humanity and its characteristic feature, on the basis of which an understanding of how developed society is formed. The number of students who cannot imagine the learning process without cutting-edge gadgets is growing all over the world. The use of information tools and gadgets in the learning process increases its intensity and provides additional opportunities to improve the quality of education. Many modern teachers successfully use new gadgets and information tools in their work.
Let us turn to the main opportunities for using information communication tools and technologies in the educational process. These include the following:
- an easy and fast way to obtain information;
- visualization of educational information of various types (virtual and natural objects of study);
- programmed solution of information retrieval and computing problems;
- providing the opportunity to communicate with the teacher at the right time and in several different ways;
- simplification of progress monitoring for the teacher and student;
- instant access to educational materials required as part of the course being studied;
- archival storage of significant amounts of text and graphic information.
With the development of the functionality of mobile devices, an increasing number of students cannot imagine studying at a university without the use of modern gadgets, the use of which has not only positive effects (presence of a touch screen; active interaction; take up little space; use of the wireless network function; the ability to work in a group; not tied to specific place; quick search for the necessary information; you can study without leaving home), but also negative (memory limitations, need to recharge, small screen) aspects [5].
Let us note that, despite the active and fairly successful use of gadgets in the
educational process, for certain students they are a "disservice" and negatively affect the results of their studies. It is advisable to find an answer to the question: why the use of gadgets helps improve the educational level of some students, while hindering others in mastering the curriculum.
University teachers are currently focused on creating educational content on the websites of educational institutions. In particular, on the official website of the Tashkent State Pedagogical University named after Nizami there is an electronic university, where online books, educational materials, and assignments for students' independent work are located. Here, educational programs are also publicly available to develop the necessary competencies of the student in various disciplines, containing tests, assignments, tests, for which it is necessary to use various information and communication learning tools.
Undoubtedly, this gives a huge advantage in the possibility of using electronic materials in the classroom. However, experience shows that students use gadgets to access social networks directly during a lecture or practical lesson, which, of course, negatively affects the learning process. It is necessary to motivate students to obtain quality knowledge and use modern devices to obtain educational information.
Students at our university named a mobile phone (72%) as the most effective gadget for studying, followed by a laptop (41%), and only in third place was a tablet computer (15%). This unpopularity of tablets is most likely due to the prices of high-quality equipment in Uzbekistan, in particular, tablets. These students adapted the mobile phone to the requirements of the educational process. About 90% of our university students said that their portable devices are a valuable assistant in achieving their educational goals. 55% of respondents reported that gadgets help prepare for classes, and some of them expressed a desire to be able to use innovative means of communication and mobile devices during seminars when they need to declare a large amount of information. They are confident that the gadget will improve the quality of their speech in front of an audience, 8% (and this is a lot) admitted that they use their gadgets to "wander" through social networks and entertainment sites during lectures or seminars.
Also, some students at the Tashkent State Pedagogical University named after Nizami openly admitted that they often use their portable devices in class as cheat sheets or to quickly find an answer to a question (57% of respondents). 41% of students use the gadget to work with an electronic textbook. One in ten students (12%) types lectures into their mobile device. 2% of students do not use electronic devices at university.
Eight out of ten students surveyed agreed that with the advent of gadgets, student life has acquired brighter shades. A large number of students write messages every day not only to each other, but also to teachers. 95% of respondents explained that they send an SMS message at least once a day. Others (60%) admitted that they feel dependent on electronic technologies and the Internet.
The Internet is an integral and quite actively used option of a modern gadget. Students know how to correctly and quickly pose questions to Google when solving a particular exam problem, and experienced teachers have developed the skill of distinguishing the work of Google from the work of a student.
Along with the classroom use of gadgets in higher education institutions, we can talk about "mobile learning" (m-learning), that is, the availability of educational resources and
services on portable devices of different formats. Often this software application is developed for a specific operating system. In this case, it is necessary that the Internet operate in 3G or LTE mode, and then all portals, sites and software applications will be available non-stop on any tablet computer, smartphone or laptop. Uninterrupted availability of mobile Internet is the first problem we face for the rapid development of mobile learning in Uzbekistan. If we evaluate the situation with the Internet in Tashkent, we can conclude that it is quite widespread, but the quality of communication and its cost often do not allow its use for working with sufficiently voluminous educational resources [4].
Today, the situation with mobile learning in Tashkent is improving and gaining momentum. Information resources in the educational environment (distance learning system, various educational portals and electronic courses) are adapted to the possibility of using them on portable equipment outside the home. A survey of students at the Tashkent State Pedagogical University named after Nizami confirms this fact, as students' complete assignments, view webinar recordings and use electronic resources of the electronic university in public transport or in a cafe. Personal experience of using mobile Internet in the metro to assess the quality of rating works of students studying remotely on the university portal provided an opportunity to make good use of the time spent daily on routine movement around Tashkent. This can be considered a breakthrough in the use of telecommunications and information technologies.
The situation is more complicated because mobile learning requires the presence of various media components in the course content. For e-learning, some of them will need to be reworked in order to reduce their volume, since in training using a mobile phone, tablet, laptop via the mobile Internet, working with and studying them will be problematic and expensive. Modern students have learned to use various functional mobile applications for learning. But teachers have not yet used their pedagogical potential to study, repeat or expand knowledge on the topics they study. As it turned out, teachers cannot introduce them into the educational process of modern higher education. Let's look at some mobile gadget applications that foreign language teachers can use in practical classes and for extracurricular consolidation, control and assessment of students' knowledge.
The first logical place to start learning a language is a mobile dictionary application. From the student questionnaire, we see that the vast majority (85%) of students often prefer a mobile translator. The remaining 15% resort to using an electronic dictionary. We believe that this is a problem that needs to be combated, since not a single, even the best, electronic translator can replace the "good old" dictionary. Only today it has changed, enriched and become more convenient, having moved into the virtual space. There is a huge selection of dictionaries for mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Having assessed their advantages and disadvantages, we singled out LingvoLive, Aword, LangBook. These dictionaries work without an Internet connection and provide the opportunity to learn and memorize words using interactive flash games. A foreign language teacher can make a list of foreign words that need to be studied by the course program, and students in the application will familiarize themselves with the full list of possible translations of words and every day in an unobtrusive form through the reminder function they will return to memorizing them.
First-year students may be interested in self-learning English language apps. Here we can highlight "English with EWA". This application has the main goal of increasing motivation
to learn a language. It contains films, TV series and books with more than 40,000 popular words, a vocabulary test using the Victoria Institute method. Stories by classical and modern authors can be read in a foreign language from the application with convenient translation of unfamiliar words in one click.
Business English for students is collected in a very convenient and interesting application Bizzwords. This application was developed by English teachers and business people in Ireland, the UK and America and is intended for students and business employees. Offers special thematic complexes by industry for working with words and grammatical structures on the topics "Finance", "Business lunches", "Business writing", etc. Speaking about professional foreign languages and mobile applications that can be integrated into the educational process, it is worth noting that at the moment they do not exist. This deficiency can be compensated by the universities themselves, by teachers of foreign languages who teach professional English to students in legal, economic, financial, psychological, pedagogical and other areas of training.
To summarize, it is worth noting that modern gadgets play an important role both in the field of communication at different levels and in the process of education at a university. With their help, students acquire new information, record lectures, prepare for classes and use mobile learning applications that have a positive impact on the quality of their learning. Along with the positive features of using mobile technology are the negative impacts of gadgets on the learning process. However, taking into account the results of the student survey, as well as our own experience, we concluded that an assessment of the identified pros and cons of using gadgets in the educational process allows us to assert that they have a greater positive impact on the educational process and the development of modern technology.
References:
1. Abdullaev I. N., Nosirov N. B. Mobile learning as a new technology in education // Educational Technology & Society. 2022. T. 14. No. 1. P. 241-252.
2. Goggin G. Cell Phone Culture: Mobile Technology in Everyday Life. Routledge, 2022. Vol. 3.271 p.
3. Sattorov T. Application of modern technical means as a factor in improving the quality of education // Informatics and Education. 2022. No. 9. pp. 125-126.
4. Turopova G.B. The problem of using information technology in teaching social and humanitarian subjects // Teaching history at school. 2022. No. 2. P. 4-8.
5. Townsend A. M. Life in the Real-Time City: Mobile Telephones and Urban Metabolism // Journal of Urban Technology. 2020. Vol. 7. No. 2. P. 85-104.
