Problems of Education in the 21st Century

8-15

Authors: Zoltán Balogh, Milan Turčáni

To describe the management of communication between human being and the computer it is appropriate to employ graphic tools in order to describe and formulate the basic rules underlying this interaction. Interaction between student and LMS in the process of teaching and learning is a composite process and it is highly recommended to employ Petri nets for this purpose. The paper aims at presenting the principle of construction of linear and branching learning programmes and their subsequent formulation using Petri nets in education of natural science subjects.

23-29

Authors: Renata Bilbokaite

The modern visualization is created to help in education processes and is oriented to the evaluation of knowledge. It is very important for science education to have perfectly prepared aids that could show invisible phenomena and could foster deeper motivation. The more įmagės there are in education process the better pupils understand and realize information. This article Encloses that visualization was popular in biology lessons and in physics, but teachers did not use computer based visualization and students did not use concept mapping in chemistry classes. Students had similar conditions to learn science in grade 10 and their opinion is generalized in the article.

40-47

Authors: Jardar Cyvin

This study focuses on 8th- 9th grade pupils’ skills in interpreting biological map information. The teaching was done as a project-based cross-subject work, aiming to test map interpreting skills through pre- and post tests. Data was collected from 100 pupils coming from one lower secondary school in a rural area in Mid-Norway. The pupils were divided into two test groups, a “GPS-group/digital map group” and a “Compass/paper map group”. Teaching was carried out in the framework of sociocultural theory, pupils worked in pair-groups, and the learning was seen as a social authentic inquiry based activity. The results indicate that the pupils increased their map interpreting skills, but no difference was found between the two groups using different tools. The conclusion from this study is that the tools, digital or not, did not influence the subject learning if taking into account the importance of making interesting, challenging, authentic, and inquiry based tasks based on sociocultural thinking. The study will be followed up by analysis of a follow-up test 5 months after ending the project, by deeper analysis of the presented tasks; and of analysis of other tasks involving the understanding of map scale and the map coordinate system.

54-58

Authors: Jiří Hrbáček

MyIMLE is a multimedia interactive educational environment which makes possible a direct connection of Flash interactive study supports with real systems connected to users’ computers. This way of using Flash animations is not so widespread nowadays but it brings many advantages which had been offered only by expensive systems until now. There is a possibility of an interconnection of software applications and their control of a real electronic system connected to a computer of a user. A universality of using this solution, an easy way of creating applications and almost no requirements on HW offer a user almost unlimited possibilities of using these systems in creating study supports. The aim of this contribution is to show one of many ways of using these systems – using them together with interactive whiteboards. The principle of controlling a real system and the structure of an interactive animation is demonstrated on the example of an animation “A model of Tsunami – its beginning, behavior and its consequences” connected to a real model of an ocean and a coast. This animation can also work independently as a simulation without a real system connected. The application can run on web, it can be embedded into the working environment of an interactive whiteboard, or it can run as an independent desktop application.

66-73

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas, Violeta Šlekienė, Loreta Ragulienė

The role of ICT in education in whole and particularly in science education is very important topic. It is worth emphasizing that in recent years, a general degree of integrating ICT in the process of teaching has increased in Lithuania as well as in other countries. The growth is characteristic not only at university level but also at other levels of the education system. It is accepted that ICT makes the process of teaching/learning more effective and beneficial whereas the education system starts functioning faster. The development of ICT and the process of globalization determine alteration in the education system as well as in the whole society. The implementation of new technologies in the educational process raises new possibilities for both teacher and learner, enhances education quality and makes the educational process more versatile. On the other hand it is necessary to devote all our efforts to monitor the process of using ICT in general schools. It is necessary to conduct regularly researches of different scale for better understanding of a situation of use ICT in the teaching /learning process. Pilot research Student and Computer-Based Technologies was conducted in October – November, 2009. To collect the required data, an anonymous questionnaire was prepared. Research sample consisted of 211 respondents who were 1st year university students (freshmen). In the majority of cases, the students learn to use computer independently, whereas next comes help provided by friends and family members. It has been established that computer-based technologies are very rarely used during the lessons of other subjects. The respondents think that using computer-based technologies in the classroom during the lessons of sciences has the highest impact on cognitive abilities (knowledge acquisition, self-sufficient studies etc.).

80-88

Authors: Johannes Pernaa, Maija Aksela

This paper presents the first phase of a design research, where four practical work activities within ICT learning environments (concept maps, molecular modeling, animations and videos) were created and evaluated. Materials were designed carefully after the orientation of research literature and Finnish chemistry curriculum by 21 chemistry student teachers during their M.Sc. chemistry education course. Designed materials were peer evaluated before they were presented to 27 teachers and students who made their external evaluation. Research questions of the research were i) What kind of need is there for creating learning environments that connect practical chemistry and ICT?, ii) What kind of features does meaningful practical work through different ICT -learning environments contain? And iii) What kind of effect does practical work through ICT have on chemistry learning according to chemistry teachers and students? Data was gathered by observing and using questionnaires. This study shows that the need for meaningful practical work through ICT -learning environments is substantial. According to the designers and respondents, meaningful characteristics of practical working through ICT are i) cooperative, ii) constructivist, iii) motivating, and iv) time saving and safe, In addition, they should visualize chemical phenomenon and processes at macro and molecular levels. Studied teachers found that ICT gives i) important aid to learning and teaching practical work, ii) it arouses interest and iii) it develops research skills. At the second phase of this research, activities will be developed to more contextual and inquiry-based form and the effect on learning will be examined thoroughly with comprehensive school students.

95-101

Authors: Ján Skalka, Martin Drlík

The online knowledge testing and evaluation pose one of the main parts in the area of distance education. Their greatest problem is plagiarism. The authors deal with the term definition of the plagiarism and go into some important facets of the plagiarism prevention and revelation in details. They analyze actual state of the fight against plagiarism in Slovakia and in other countries. They try to classify the kinds of online testing and evaluation activities that are supported in contemporary LMSs in the second part of the paper. They describe their own experience in plagiarism reducing in computer science e-learning courses. Finally, the authors stress out the important role of plagiarism prevention and bring several methods that could reduce the risk of plagiarism in e-learning.