One of the main priorities of the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of Ostrava is the preparation of future teachers for pre-primary and primary education. The concept of the development of students’ information literacy has been in preparation for several years. The concept assumes that students acquired computer literacy during their previous high school studies.
There are e-learning-supported courses in the LMS Moodle environment prepared for the development of information literacy of students (future teachers) (Oujezdský et al., 2013). The main course is the one entitled Educational Technologies – Tools, which is compulsory for the majority of students. The course is followed by specialized, broadening courses that students attend according their specialty and interest.
Within the scope of the Educational Technologies – Tools course students become acquainted with different types of information – text, image, sound, animations, etc. and learn how to work with them. Through the use of ICT, students learn to process the information and further use it – publish, present, etc. according to the type of particular information:
Image information:
Knowledge: orientation in different types and sizes of an image – photographs, animations, see-through background images, etc.;
Skills: processing and the use of image information – taking pictures, searching and editing of images, work in layers, the use of images in presentations and on websites; Sound information – Skills: sound recording, sound editing, the use of sound in
presentations;
Animations – Skills: searching of an animation, creation of a simple animation, setting the timing and effects, the use of animations in presentations and on websites.
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Brdička argues (Brdička, 2012, p. 38) that educational activities can be divided into activities building knowledge – explanation of subject matter, reading, training, etc. – and activities expressing knowledge. Activities expressing knowledge can be further divided into convergent activities (test, examination, etc.) and divergent activities (all activities aimed at expression and creativity in all sorts of forms – written, visual, product-oriented, etc.). In this regard, activities in the course can be classified as divergent activities leading to the creation of a product – images, videos, presentations, etc.
Within the scope of the Educational Technologies – Tools course, the main form of education is students’ individual work on assigned correspondence tasks. According to Lerner (loosely according to Vohradský et al.), the teaching method can be classified as heuristic, which means that the teacher designs the tasks in a way so they would be demanding for students and some phases of a problem would require individual solving. The tasks are chosen with regard to the skills that students are supposed to acquire in the course, e.g. working in layers, working with the timing and effects in presentations, etc. At the same time, the tasks are formulated generally so they help support and develop students’ imaginativeness, creativity and imagination. For each task students must specify the topic they will work on. This means students are required to think up a suitable story, suitable educational situation, etc. and to have a clear idea of what the plot of the given story will look like, how a situation will develop, the continuity of individual scenes, the characters, animals, things, relations between them, etc. They are supposed to follow this conception and to solve the task using the chosen technologies and suitable software tools.
For instance, when creating a comics story, students start with the formulation of a humorous story they will later elaborate in the comics. They divide the story into eight parts (scenes) according to the requirements of the task. They prepare images for individual characters, animals, and things, and speech bubbles for direct speech of the characters. If the images are to be inserted into the comics, they need to have a see-through background. Students also prepare images of individual scenes. The work on the comics consists of making the eventual product out of the prepared parts. Students learn to work with images in layers, insert them into layers, edit their size, rotation, correct placement of an image in a layer and setting the correct sequence (overlapping) of layers.
There are five similar tasks in the course. The work process is similar. It begins with the preparation of materials needed (texts, images, sound files, etc.). These are then used for a creation of the eventual product.
As far as the organization is concerned, the education process takes place in computer classrooms where students have a chance to work on individual tasks under the supervision of their teachers. Participation in the attendance tutorials is optional, students can work at home. The time allocation of the course is as follows: one semester, 2 hours a week, i.e. 26 hours of full-time education. Usually, no more time is needed for working on the tasks.
The used evaluation methods correspond with the forms and methods of education. The tasks are evaluated continuously in individual solving phases, i.e. the preparation part in individual phases and the whole are evaluated separately. The work is evaluated by points and verbal commentary. The deciding point evaluation is only aimed at mastering and using of the required technologies. Aesthetic level of the eventual product, students’ creativity and imaginativeness are reflected in verbal evaluation, which, however, does not influence student’s overall result in the course.
The Educational Technologies – Tools course takes place regularly in the winter semester of a particular academic year. Nearly 400 students participate in the course every year. The majority of students are women – future kindergarten and primary school teachers.
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Results
349 students (288 women, 61 men) took part in the Educational Technologies – Tools course in the winter semester of the 2013/14 academic year. Every year very little men take part in the course. In this particular academic year almost five times more women than men took part in the course.
The work of students in the course is diverse and stems from the methods and organizational forms of education. Students can be divided into several groups according to the working process they choose for particular tasks:
They understand the work and can do it independently – they find suitable tools and use them according to their previous knowledge, they often work on the tasks outside of school;
They master the work in the course with the help of study materials – following solving instructions, often work on the tasks outside of school, attend the attendance tutorials only when they have a problem;
They are not able to work independently, they make use of the lector, who suggests to them the most suitable solving technique and supervises the mistakes which they are likely to make in the beginnings.
The teaching of the course took place in the LMS Moodle, which records students’ activities in the course – displaying of study materials, submitting of homework, etc. These data help gather information about students’ real work in the course. We will take a look at students’ work in the Educational Technologies – Tools course.
177.255 students’ activities were recorded in the Educational Technologies – Tools course during the winter semester of the 2013/14 academic year. Only 18% (32.112) of them were done in computer classrooms, the remaining activities were done outside of school. On the average, one student did 508 activities in the course.
Course activities can be divided according to which of them are offered to students – study materials, tasks, tests, etc. Activities aimed at correspondence tasks prevail – submitting of homework, evaluation check, etc. These activities make up 36% (64.670) of all course activities. The other 34% (59.651) are activities aimed at displaying of the main aspect of the course. These activities can demonstrate students’ work in the course. However, because their character cannot be determined from the course, we will not be considering them anymore. The remaining activities are aimed at scanning of study materials, testing, communication in the course, etc.
Overall Correspondence
tasks Study materials
1. Introduction 5.525 4 (0%) 5.521 (100%)
2. Movement paths 13.535 7.276 (54%) 6.259 (46%)
3. Comics 23.172 15.378 (66%) 7.794 (34%)
4. Working with sound 15.989 9.453 (59%) 6.536 (41%)
5. Presentation 14.606 10.047 (69%) 4.559 (31%)
6. Websites 28.853 13.755 (48%) 15.098 (52%)
7. Conclusion 2.910 4 (0%) 2.906 (100%)
Overall 104.590 55.917 (53%) 48.673 (47%)
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The number of course activities, which are directly related to the individual chapters (apart from displaying of the main aspect of the course, discussion forums, etc.), was 104.590. 53% of the activities were aimed at correspondence tasks, the remaining activities correspond to working with study materials. The division according to individual study chapters (including the portion of activities aimed at correspondence tasks and study materials, respectively) can be seen in the Tab. 1.
The Tab. 1 shows that the largest number of activities (28.853 – 28%) was done in the sixth chapter dedicated to websites, followed by the chapter dedicated to comics (22% of activities). As expected, the lowest number of activities was recorded in the first and last chapters, respectively. The remaining chapters covered 13-15% of students’ activities (see the Overall column).
A comparison with correspondence tasks activities shows that students spend more time on tasks than study materials. The chapter aimed at the creation of presentations is the one where the least information is needed (only 31% of activities corresponding to working with study materials). This means that it is a revision chapter with the only new part being the topic and the use of a presentation and its sounding. The highest number of study-oriented activities was recorded in the Websites chapter, which can be considered as one of the most demanding chapters; and not only because it is aimed at the creation of websites, but also because it contains working on animations, caricatures, etc.
The Tab. 2 shows the numbers of students’ activities when working on individual chapters of the course in computer classrooms. At the beginning, as much as 43% of the activities are done in computer classrooms. This number gradually decreases to approximately 10% at the end of the course.
Overall In classrooms
1. Introduction 5.525 2.363 (43%)
2. Movement paths 13.535 3.622 (27%)
3. Comics 23.172 4.508 (19%)
4. Working with sound 15.989 2.557 (16%)
5. Presentation 14.606 1.856 (13%)
6. Websites 28.853 4.320 (15%)
7. Conclusion 2.910 265 (9%)
Tab. 2: Number of Course Activities in Computer Classrooms
The real number of students, who regularly attend the classes, does not correspond to the activities recorded in the e-learning environment. Within the scope of full-time education, students often spend the time on solving of the tasks, not on studying. It is because they acquire the needed information from the teacher or from working with their classmates. The proof of this statement can be seen in the Tab. 3 – study materials are hardly used in the classrooms (only 16% of activities). Many redundant activities are not needed in the classrooms – the permanent need of task evaluation, grade evaluation, etc. Students in the classroom know right away if they did the task correctly and that they can correct possible mistakes in the next class. That is why the overall number of activities in computer classrooms is much lower (only 18% - see above).
290 students (83%) fulfilled the requirements of the course at the proper time and obtained the credits. Drawing on past experience, some students did not finish the course because of the interruption or termination of their studies. Some students (approximately 5-10%) will fulfill the requirements in the spring semester.
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Correspondence tasks Study materials
In classrooms 11.768 (21%) 7.723 (16%)
Outside of classrooms 44.151 (79%) 40.948 (84%)
Tab. 3: Number of Activities in Computer Classrooms
Discussion
The Educational Technologies – Tools course has been taking place for many years. Since then, the course has gone through many changes, be it the list of used technologies and the structure of correspondence tasks, or the study support in the form of study materials. The course now contains not only text materials but also images, animations, sound samples, model solutions, etc. However, the experience from the evaluation of correspondence tasks points out mistakes and problems students continue to have. The most frequent problems are: See-through background of images;
Image cropping; Image resolution;
Working with images in layers; Sound recording;
Working with sound;
Transformation points dragging when morphing; Websites publishing.
The main problems are deduced from the analysis of students’ activities recorded by the LMS Moodle e-learning environment. Students do not attend regular classes and thus lose the chance to work under the teacher’s supervision. Working home requires more activity, more intense studying of study materials and it is more time-consuming.
Conclusion
The main goal of the Educational Technologies – Tools course is to contribute to the development of students’ (future teachers’) information literacy. Therefore, the course is aimed not only at the improvement of students’ computer literacy, which they acquired during their high school studies. It is expected that within the scope of the course students will learn to work with all kinds of information and use it to create something new. Education in the course can be considered constructivist-oriented.
Years of experience prove that fulfilling these intentions and expectations is not easy. The constructivist-oriented education principle alone is very demanding for students. Having ideas and being creative is very difficult. However, changing the conception of education seems to be wrong.
A study support of the same name (Nagyová, 2013) has been created to make the work easier for students. In future, we intend to support the education process by using video tutorials and video work instructions, which could replace the teacher who is missing when working on tasks at home. These video instructions will be created with regard to the most frequent problems students encounter.
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The Educational Technologies – Tools course is a suitable preparation for students – future teachers. Considering the requirements of society listed among others in the system of curricular documents (RVP), it would be appropriate if this course was not the only compulsory course from the field of information education. Students should learn to work with ICT with pupils. Moreover, in order for them to be able to use ICT effectively, they should master basic didactic techniques.
Acknowledgements
The study support for the Educational Technologies – Tools course was created with the support of the “Innovation of Education in Informatics Subjects in Study Programs of the University of Ostrava” project; registration number of the project: CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0245. The study support is an appropriate addition to the e-learning teaching of the course.
References
BRDIČKA, B. Vzdělávací technologie 21. století. [online]. Praha: Učitelský spomocník, 2012. [cit. 20140425]. Available from: http://spomocnik.rvp.cz/clanek/16563/
Information literacy. London: CILIP, 2014. [cit. 20140625]. Available from: http://www.cilip. org.uk/cilip/advocacy-awards-and-projects/advocacy-and-campaigns/information-literacy DOSTÁL, J. Informační a počítačová gramotnost – klíčové pojmy informační výchovy. In Infotech 2007 - moderní informační a komunikační technologie ve vzdělávání. Olomouc: Votobia, 2007. s. 60 – 65. ISBN 978-80-7220-301-7. Available from: http://nazornost-ucebni- pomucky.xf.cz/informacni_ gramotnost.pdf
ECDL. Sylaby a moduly. [online]. Praha: ECDL-CZ, 2014. [cit. 20140425]. Available from: http://www.ecdl.cz/ zakladni_moduly.php
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. [online]. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000. [cit. 20140425]. Available from: http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/standards.pdf
Rámcový vzdělávací program pro základní vzdělávání. Praha: Výzkumný ústav pedagogický, 2005. 126 s. ISBN 80-87000-02-1. Available from: http://www.rvp.cz.
MISHRA, P. – KOEHLER, M. J. Thinking Creatively: Teachers as Designers of Technology, Pedagogy and Content (TCPAK). In SITE Conference 2008. San Diego, SITE, 2008.
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NAGYOVÁ, I. Vzdělávací technologie – nástroje. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita v Ostravě, 2013. ISBN 978-80-7464-401-6.
OUJEZDSKÝ, A., SLÍVA, A., BRÁZDA, R. Application of e-Learning for Long-Distance and Full-Time Education. In INTED 2013-7th International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Valencia Spain: 2013, pp. 2458-2462. ISBN: 978-84-616-2661-8. VOHRADSKÝ, J. – HODINÁŘ, J. – ONDREJČÍK, K. – SIMBARTL, P. – ŠTICH, L. – VILD. M. Výukové metody. Plzeň: Západočeská univerzita. 2009.
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RESEARCH-ORIENTED TEACHING OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Aleš Oujezdský, Jan Veřmiřovský
Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Pedagogical Faculty, University of Ostrava, Fráni Šrámka 3, Ostrava-Mariánské Hory, Czech Republic
{ales.oujezdsky; jan.vermirovskykos}@osu.cz
Abstract
Inquiry-based instruction of natural history and technical subjects is important for improving key competencies. These are not only learning and working competencies, but mainly problem-solving competencies. The most important for inquiry-based instruction of natural history and technical subjects is students’ motivation. However, as a result of these subjects being very demanding, the issue of students’ motivation tends to be problematic. Inquiry- based instruction with the use of information and communication technologies enables more illustrative access to natural history subjects. Thanks to the “Windows of Science Wide Open” project, elementary school students will have the opportunity to visit a special laboratory at the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of Ostrava. There they will deal with inquiry-based instruction of natural history and technical subjects. The instruction will use measuring systems connected to computers and programmable robotic systems. Using sensors, students will also measure many electrical and non-electrical quantities.
Keywords
Inquiry-based instruction, measuring system, robotic system, ICT
Introduction
In the majority of cases, elementary school students do not find instruction of natural history and technical subjects attractive (the subjects being mainly physics and chemistry, but also informatics – algorithm development and programming) (Nagyová, 2010). Apart from the fact that these subjects are very demanding, the lack of experiments and special tools that make instruction of these subjects attractive is another reason for their “unpopularity”. However, students can be motivated by the more frequent use of information and communication technologies in these subjects. Generally, students tend to have a positive attitude to the use of ICT although they are familiar with another part of it (students usually use ICT in the form of communication, social networks, and game playing). ICT connected with natural history and technical subjects offers the possibility of inquiry-based instruction. The advantage of such instruction is the modern form of education which enables the incorporation of various teaching methods, the structure of which is not determined by either sequence or diversity. The teacher’s activity is represented by the choice of topics, educational situations; and the student’s activity is aimed at inquiry through which they become acquainted with the world around them (Dostál, 2013).
Within the course of instruction, many physics and chemistry experiments can be carried out with the use of a measuring system connected to a computer. Through the use of sensors connected to a measuring system, physics and chemistry quantities are displayed and evaluated in a computer. Robotic systems can be used in a similar manner (e.g. LEGO MINDSTORMS). The robot can be used not only for the measurement of the basic non- electrical quantities (temperature, lighting, distance, pressure, etc.) in physics experiments,
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but also for instruction of programming when the robot is programmed for tasks aimed at the use of all the available sensors and servomotors.
The “Windows of Science Wide Open” project is intended to introduce inquiry-based instruction of natural history and technical subjects to elementary school students. A