Informational Technology in life-long Teacher’s Education

DANIMIR MANDIC

Informatics and didactic

University of Belgrade

Kraljice Natalije 43

SERBIA

IVICA RADOVANOVIC

Informatics and didactic

University of Belgrade

Kraljice Natalije 43

SERBIA

SEFEDIN SEHOVIC

Informatics and didactic

University of Belgrade

Kraljice Natalije 43

SERBIA

danimir.mandic@uf.bg.ac.rs http://www.uf.bg.ac.rs

Abstract: - Development of information technology and constantly innovating educational technology

causes changes in the planning, implementation and organization of teaching. Education, as a rule, slowly

opens the new technologies in relation to production, transport, services. et al. However, young people at

home and out of school live in a technologically rich environment and they expecte changes in education

in accordance with the imperatives of education for 21 century. Permanent teacher’s education in the area

of new technologies becomes necessary. We made a WEB portal for on-line permanent education and

teacher’s experience with the materials are excellent.

Key-Words: - Informational Technology, WEB portal, Education, On-line learning,, Teaching., Distance education

1 Introduction Educational technology is constantly changing and

improving in line with the development of science

and information technology. Traditional teaching

is most often criticized for insufficient activity of

students, inadequate teaching intuition and

dynamism, the impossibility of individualisation

of teaching, lack of continuous feedback on the

achievements of students and others. Intensive

development of telecommunications technology

and computer systems, permanent connection to

the Internet and WEB based learning systems

enabled better use of computer technology in

teaching. Computer based classes provide flexible

organization of activities, lectures and study

materials and a complex evaluation of students.

Teaching is often formalized, verbalized and not

sufficiently visual, reducing knowledge durability

as well as possibility of connecting theory with

real life. Multimedia programmes created for

personal computers offer possibility for making

electronic text books involving text, pictures,

sounds, animations and films, in such a way that

learners can individually proceed in learning

teaching contents, they can return to contents

which are not clear enough to them, they can

receive feedback and additional information in

accordance with their own capabilities and

interests. Interactivity and quality of presented

materials, using multimedia and hypertext, offer

considerably richer contents compared with

teaching carried out in traditional classroom. [5]

2. WEB portal In the last two years we created a Web portal for

the planning, implementation and optimal

Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS International Conference on EDUCATION and EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

ISSN: 1790-5109 259 ISBN: 978-960-474-128-1

organization of teaching and on-line permanent

education. Portal, also, contains materials for

directors and professional associates in order to

facilitate the planning and implementation of their

activities. Portal is located at www.edu-soft.rs

Educational value of didactic media could be

reduced to the conditional proven fact: didactic

media allow faster and better realization of the

objectives and tasks of education, they are an

important prerequisite for modernization and

acceleration methods and forms of teaching, an

important factor for the alignment of teaching with

life, theory with the practice and teaching content

customization features, prior knowledge, needs

and interests of young people and adults, their

important functions in engaging multiple senses,

encouraging and maintaining the attention of

students, develop curiosity and desire for learning,

for active participation in the educational process

and its development.[7] Didactic media can

actively involve students in the process of

preparing, teaching and evaluation of realization.

Didactic media allow individual work of students,

transfer of knowledge and its application in the

work and mastering the techniques of self-

education; important presumption that equitable

engagement of cognitive, emotional and conative

power of personality in teaching and learning, they

are important factor in directing student’s

activities insight stimulate learning, problem

solving and creative activities. In Figure 1 is

shown WEB portal which contains teaching

resources for preparing and teaching in elementary

school. Materials are structured by teaching

subjects in accordance with the objectives and

tasks of the Ministry of Education in Serbia. Portal

contains methodological guidelines, preparing

drafts, worksheets, multimedia and many other

useful materials for teachers, principals and

professional associates. [4]

Fig. 1 WEB portal

Didactic media were created as a result of many

years of studying the essence of their pedagogical

and practical efficiency, and some of them have

applied for years in our schools and have proved

their undeniable value. This gives us the basis for

the claim that it is professionally produced,

diligently selected and skillfully applied, affect the

teaching organizational, contents, methodology

and results. It gives raise to a higher level of

quality, happy teachers and students, and it

realized what was effectively planned goals and

tasks of education in all types of elementary,

middle, and senior high schools. [1]

Basic principles of which starts the process of

implementation of didactic media and use sources

of knowledge can be classified in several

categories of which, it seems, most notably the

following:

a. Applying a means of teaching or the use of

sources of knowledge does not exclude the use of

other means and sources.

b. Some sources of knowledge or didactic media

are more suitable than the others for student

understanding of specific instructional materials or

teaching subjects.

c. Didactic media and sources of knowledge

should be used as an integral part of teaching and

learning.

d. Diligently preparing didactic media (prepared

by the teacher and students) is essential for their

proper and effective use in teaching and learning.

e. Students should be aware of the specific

purpose of teaching resources and feel responsible

to provide a specific time and use in the teaching

process and learning process.

f. Teacher correct use of teaching resources and

students' active monitoring of content is present,

h. Didactic media and sources of knowledge are

used to improve the quality of communication

between teachers and students.

i. Didactic media may have a competitive

advantage gained experience as they are able to

provide information that will be corrected by

experience, modify the time, convincingly given

the dimension of space, show details of processes

and phenomena. All that is important to

understand these phenomena and acquiring quality

Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS International Conference on EDUCATION and EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

ISSN: 1790-5109 260 ISBN: 978-960-474-128-1

knowledge .

J. Materials prepared for teaching and learning

resources are effective if you contribute to the

improvement of learning to the extent that students

understand the connections and relationships

between objects and phenomena of the real world.

k. Didactic teaching medium serves the purpose if

it allows the realization of the objectives of

teaching as well as any other source material.

m. Any didactic power of the media is strong as

much as pedagogical knowledge of teachers who

use it.

In the above portal Edusoft we can choose

materials for teachers:

Fig. 2 Teacher’s materials

Portal contains materials for planning and

teaching, evaluating student work, creative ideas

and examples of teaching practice. In addition to

methodological guidance portal contains a large

number of sketches for preparing classes,

instructions, multimedia presentations and

working papers which are, so far, not published in

the print media. In the menu Directors there are

materials that enable efficient management of

school based on the quality of planning services.

Fig. 3 Portal for directors

In accordance with the director’s functions there

are more than 150 documents: models of the

annual program of work, analytical and planning

documentation, instructional program of the

School Council, examples of monthly, operational

plans of the school etc.

Materials are structured according to the director’s

functions.

3. On-line permanent education

In the on-line seminars there are materials that we

provided for teacher training, permanent education

for managers and professional staff in schools and

the courses are accredited by the Institute for the

Advancement of Education in Serbia.

Fig. 4 On-line courses

The aim of our activity is focused on expanding

the knowledge of participants of the seminar on

the importance of pedagogical possibilities of

implementing new information technology for

innovation, enrichment and improvement work in

primary and secondary schools. Development of

information technology is significantly opposed

paradigms Komensky and traditional ways of

education students, and the Edusoft ensured

through 3 accredited seminars access to prior

knowledge in the field of educational information

technologies.

The first module is prepared for the raising the

technical capability of participants to work on

their computers and the other contemporary

didactic equipment. The main goal is

understanding and practical use of 4 elementary

areas: hardware, Windows operating system, basic

package of user programs and the global network -

Internet.

Second module deals with a innovation knowledge

and skills of participants in the educational

programs. The intention is therefore that the

existing informatics tools could be properly

Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS International Conference on EDUCATION and EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

ISSN: 1790-5109 261 ISBN: 978-960-474-128-1

applied in the planning, implementation,

evaluation and innovation in order to raise

teaching quality and effectiveness of educational

work in schools.

Third module was made to release the creative

beings in the personality of teachers, through the

creation of various educational resources designed

for educational work. It is therefore the creation of

a new climate in which they can take the

maximum advantage of new information

technologies in their work.

In the first module we prepared topics: that users

can lead to:

• Understanding the structure of information

system

•Eelementary concepts: hardware, software,

networks, Internet and existing services,

• Work with the basic Windows user environment,

• Creating and developing the resources needed for

planning and evaluation of the school work.

Analyzing the dissimilarity in the knowledge of

teachers we predicted on-line initial test, which

candidates can test their knowledge so that they

can chose one of the following modules.

Fig. 5 Tests for self-evaluation

Module 1 receives materials for learning and

practicing.

Fig. 6 Motherboard unit

In the hardware resources we described the funct-

ions of computer components, so that teachers can

understand the concept of modern computers. It is

written in understandable language with a large

number of images and presentations.

We provided several tests for self-evaluation,

similar to the initial test.

The second module is created for users who have

basic computer knowledge, to improve existing

pedagogical knowledge about:

• pedagogical effects of the application of new

technologies in the educational process of

students,

• the role, importance and types of new didactic

media.

• multimedia systems, educational software,

electronic classrooms, educational portals.

• acquire practical search and using didactic media

archived on your computer, removable drives,

Internet.

• understand the importance and role of new media

works: the innovation of teaching, promotion and

attainment of their own, deepening cooperation

with parents throughout the community.

The third module is prepared for more advanced

users who have basic computer knowledge, apply

online or have used different media. The third

module offers the possibility of didactic modeling

and shaping the content through new technologies,

emphasizing creativity and creativity of our

teachers. This third module is aimed primarily to

initiate creativity and creative teaching lessons

that will make it different from existing, dynamic

and more interesting for students. Topics that are

planned include a few key things:

• innovative teaching models supported by new

Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS International Conference on EDUCATION and EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

ISSN: 1790-5109 262 ISBN: 978-960-474-128-1

technologies

• introduction to the process of didactic modeling

resources needed for planning, implementation,

evaluation of teaching

• structuring, creation and production of didactic

materials using various sources of information

• Detailed analysis of all the products group of

participants (made during the workshop)

• integration of resources created in the process of

planning, implementation and evaluation of

knowledge

• Presentation of results of work in bilingual

Edusoft on-line journals

All content can be viewed on the portal www.edu-

soft.rs

4 Conclusion

It is necessary to bear in mind the fact that the

media are not didactic omnipotent, that it can

solve all problems of modern teaching. They are a

consequence of inadequate position of educators

and education in society, a relatively modest

investment in raising quality of teaching and still

present weaknesses in the education of teachers.

We can say with sufficient grounds that

pedagogical power of media and sources of

knowledge could be strong as much as the

knowledge, pedagogical education and

commitment of teachers. There are a lot of courses

for teacher’s permanent education.

Dominantly teaching role is replaced by the role of

strategist, organizer and adviser. Constant

interaction between learner and source of

information ensures self-evaluation and constant

following of all learners activities in order to

evaluate learners work in a more complex way.

Information era education, by application of new

technologies, also requires changes in work

organization, teaching ways and methods to

overcome disadvantages of traditional teaching

and raise educational process to a higher, better

quality level. We prepared on-line courses in the

area of educational technology to help teachers in

adequate using new technology. Results are, so

far, very good and teachers are satisfied with the

results of applying new technologies in their work.

References:

[1] Bumbova, A; Gavendova, H;Oulehla, H..:What

Can Multimedia Add to the Optimization of Students'

Study Habits?, 6th WSEAS International Conference

on EDUCATION and EDUCATIONAL

TECHNOLOGY (EDU'07), Venice, 2007.

[2] Mandic, D. Information technology in education, S.

Sarajevo, 2001. pp. 17-19.

[3] Mandic, D.: Didactical and computer supported

innovations in education, Beograd, 2003. pp 36-38.

[4] Mandic, D., Martinovic, D. Visnjic, D.: Informational technology in realization of sports and technique education in

primary schools, 8th WSEAS Int. Conf. on APPLIED

COMPUTER and APPLIED COMPUTATIONAL

SCIENCE (ACACOS '09), China, 2009, pp.466-471.

[5]Mandic, P. Innovation in education, Sarajevo,

1972., pp125-126.

[6] Mikova, E: What Can Multimedia Add to the

Optimization of Students' Study Habits?, What Can

Multimedia Add to the Optimization of Students' Study

Habits?

[7] Pogarcic, I, Ziljak – Vujic, J.: eLearning: Is Time

for eTaxonomy?, 6th WSEAS International

Conference on EDUCATION and

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (EDU'07),

Venice, 2007.

Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS International Conference on EDUCATION and EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

ISSN: 1790-5109 263 ISBN: 978-960-474-128-1