Research on the Method of the Integration of Information Technology and Courses
SHAOCHUN ZHONG, YONGJUN JING, YONGJIANG ZHONG, JINAN LI
Institute of Ideal Information Technology,
Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China
Abstract
This paper researches and discusses the key problem about Integration of Information Technology and Courses. The writers discuss the orientation of Integration of Information Technology and Courses, the actuality and the problem that exists now and should be resolved. Then, we bring forward that we should start to research Integration of Information Technology and Courses from the process of learning and teaching, and also discuss aims, methods, and rules about the resource and software to be build. At last, we give some advices about Integration of Information Technology and Courses.
Keywords: Integration of information technology and courses (IITC), educational resource, educational software
1. Introduction
1.1. What’s IITC
IITC inherits excellent educational mode and implements resource sharing through applying the advantage of information technology and integrating brightness of excellent teachers and experts. Simultaneity, IITC can construct teaching and learning environment, improve the process and method of teaching and learning and resolve all kinds of difficulties during the course of teaching and learning that traditional method can not resolve, and improve quality and efficiency. For example the difficulties on teacher oneself improving, researching, training, preparing for lessons, teaching, tutoring students, communicating with students, evaluating and so on. The difficulties on student self-study, cooperation study, and training, researching, practicing and communicating with teachers, improving thinking ability and study ability for life and so on. So the precondition of information technology and courses is that teachers must hold subject skeleton.
1.2. Why to Research on IITC
Current education innovation needs develop the research on IITC. Now the direction of educational innovation is to build new educational process that bases on teacher dominant and student main body and cultivate student’s innovation spirit and practical ability. Current education meets more difficulties.
For example the contradiction between individual need of student and single teaching mode, wide needs for educational content and the limitations of student activity space, knowledge abstraction and immediate experience indigence, comprehensive development and unilateralism of educational functions, need for improving dynamic teacher ability and time limitation of training and so on. The difficulties are prominent obstacle during the course of current educational innovation while it is difficult for traditional method to conquer it.
Information technology has advantages on resolving the all difficulties during the course of teaching. Structure, dynamics, visualization, diversity of educational content is propitious to optimize cognitive course to improve quality and efficiency. Abundant resources can meet all kinds of needs of students. Various educational modalities can make students better to develop on taking in, communication and self-study. Virtual reality expands the cognize space-time scope and so on. So to develop research and application can actively promote current educational innovation [2, 3, 4, 5].
1.3. What’s Problem to be Understood
To develop IITC, you must understand the problems as follow [1, 7]:
l The problem about the new curricula innovation
Which problem exists in the current educational innovation job? Why to go on the new curricula innovation? Which relation is there between teaching material and curricula criterion? During the course of the new curricula innovation, isn’t it that we have teaching materials enough? What else to do if it’s not? What is the most important task during the new curricula innovation? Which kind of teaching and learning process is reasonable, efficient and standard? Which difficulty exists in if we use traditional education method to finish new curricula innovation?
l The problem about building teacher group and teaching and learning mode
Which ability and diathesis do on-the-job teachers lack? Which difference is there between different type teachers? Which content does the teachers training need? Contemporary teachers should master what kinds of quality? Which aspects should be cultivated of teacher in active service? How to improve the ability of teachers and the quality and efficiency of education by doing the research? Which one is the most efficient teachers training form aim at different teachers? The integrated quality of students should be included? And how to cultivate? The end target of education is to make students mast all kinds of abilities, obtain information and improve integrated quality. Thus how to finish the plan? How may kinds of researched study process in different subjects? Which content is fit for the pattern of researched study? How to instruct students to go on the researched study for the teachers?
l Question of IITC’s mode
How many kinds of educational environment can be constructed by information technology? How many kinds of educational mode in different information environment? How many kinds of difficulty and solution in educational process in information environment? How to develop and design about software and resource? How many teachers training modes in information environment? How many information sharing methods in information environment? How many inheriting ways of excellent educational mode? How to develop distance education, communication, instruction and reply by using network, and how many modes? How to build the interactive website facing to the students and teachers? And which is the main questions? How many kinds of subject network modes? Which environment is fit for network courses? How to develop the training, testing and instruction in information environment? How to build the subject, school and local area resources? How to develop the special subject learning website? Which step will be selected in the development of education information process?
1.4. Present Conditions in China and Others
In the research and application of IITC, most of schools in China fixed position are not clear and unscientific, lacked the consideration from the whole. The devotion in the hardware is big, but the usage of them is small. They lack the guarantees system of system application and the valid teacher training system. The resources are mostly the medium of teaching materials. They lack the educational resources integrated from the different aspects of multi-subjects, multi-levels, multi-methods and multi-educational technologies according to the new course criterion.
In most developed countries, such as USA, Canada, England etc. primary and junior high schools have no union teaching materials and only have course criterion. The related teaching resources are organized by the teachers themselves. On the market, most software aim at the concrete problem or training. Majority of the software are form of game. Because the quality of teachers and students are good in these countries, the based-character teaching is developed well. The educational software is in the lead’s level. However, the following reasons are that the educational software in developed countries cannot be applied in China, difference of culture, course criterion and teaching materials [6, 2, 7, 8].
2. The Basic Ways of IITC
2.1. The Basic Instruct Thought of IITC
The key point of IITC is how to use the information method to solve the difficulties in educational process. IITC must be started at the educational process, then to develop the research and application, facing to the educational objective of new curricula innovation. There are many difficulties in finishing the education objective by traditional education method. Which difficulty can be solved by information technology? How to solve, what are the results and how to apply?
2.2. IITC Must Start at the Searching of Education Difficulties
IITC must start at the educational process. Firstly it starts at process of students study, analysis the difficulties of learning or the channels of catching information. After that, come to analysis the latent difficulties in educational process.
l Problems maybe exist in teaching process
At present, during the course of teaching and learning, there are quite a lot of problems including teaching orientation, teachers’ qualifications, teaching process, reaching mode, teaching environment and so on.
The problem in teaching orientation is that its main aim lay in teaching knowledge. The essence of the education is to make people being trained have capabilities, to make students be able-person. Students try their best to be such a person that they wish to be and are able to be. So the main aim of the education is to help students train capabilities. We must know that knowledge is only the basic rules, methods and basic conceptions which are contained in all kinds of capabilities. If we organize knowledge systematically and make students learn it in term of its systematic, students will not understand why they learn it and they won’t have interest in it.
The problem in teachers’ qualification mainly lay in subject qualification, knowledge ken and appetency which are in different grade. In subject qualification, teachers maybe have no global idea about the knowledge of the inherent system, cause and effect, rules of solving problems and classifying. They maybe have no capability to resolve the idiographic problems. The teachers’ difference in it mainly represents whether they can arrange correct teaching and learning process dynamically. To do this better, the key is that whether teachers can master the subject as a whole, whether they can understand clearly both landscape and portrait. As a good teacher, he is also able to train an excellent student even if he has no teaching material because he has basic subject capabilities.
The problem exits in teaching mode and teaching process. The first factor is that we don’t know its cause and effect, we don’t know why it is and we don’t know its logicality. The second is that there is no idea that is systemic, seriate, and variational and many subjects crossing. The third is the teaching process which is illegitimate and students have few chances to say. For example, some teachers teach the students the definition of the rational number directly in class: Both integer and fraction are called rational number. Of course, students will ask why the two are called rational number after they have learned integer, fraction and the difference between them. When we ask some teachers who are teaching at school these questions, we get some answers. Some are that it is only a definition in the new course criterion without reasons. Some are that I’ve never thought about it. Some are that it maybe likes the definition of human being. Others thought its aim is to make difference with irrational number, and so on. But we think students can’t accept these explanations. If they don’t know the reasons, students will not have interest in it. It is not logic to explain a new conception with one unknown conception. We think that in order to answer why to import the conception of rational number. We should tell them clearly why they learn math and what they should learn. Without saying that why learning math, all of us know this. But we can’t speak clearly what learned from math at all. It is very important for numeric calculation that a group of numeric and the calculation rules about them. Arithmetic is the most valuable rules. For integer addition, subtraction and multiplication are sure to be closed. But division is not sure to be closed, such as the result of 8 dividing by 2 is an integer and the result of 8 dividing by 3 is a fraction, not an integer. The result of fraction with arithmetic is maybe fraction or integer. Thus we can see that arithmetic is closed when operands include fraction and integer. So we import a new conception: rational number. Supposing the view is true, if teachers don’t know this, how they can teach it to students? How students will be interested in it?
There are many questions in the teaching method, for example, lacking the necessary environment, equipment and useable teaching resources.
2.3. IITC Should Exert the Advantage of Information Technology
IITC should be executed on the basis of using the advantage of information technology. Information technology has the evidence predominance in teaching and learning, included: alternating, using dependently, changing stillness to movement, changing abstract into visualization, changing microcosmic to general, virtuality, simulating, real-time, abundance, dynamic recording, fast transmitting, zero-distance, exhibiting in the process. It can also build the basic environment for teaching and studying, inspire the students interesting, mobilize learning enthusiasm of the student, integrate brightness of everyone and inherit the experiences and methods of the excellence teachers and experts.
2.4. IITC can Build the Necessary Environment as possible as soon and Solve the Difficulties in the Teaching and Learning
IITC should take the full advantage of information technology and establish a new type teaching process in which teacher take as the leader and students as the subject. We should arrange the appropriate process to meet the student learning process, and build environment which can mobilize the channel of the student getting the information, and build the studying system based on the capability, and bring up the capability of science studying and learning for life, and improve the process and method of teaching and learning, and improve the teacher’s subject diathesis. For example, the seed germinating in the biology, we state that a seed will germinate under the condition of the appropriate temperature, humidity, air and a period of time.
Using the Information Technology, through the network and the campus’ network, aiming at different phase in teaching and learning, we can construct following some environment for students and teachers at different school and house. Such as self-study, cooperation study, researched study, explored study, and the intercommunion system between teachers and students, the evaluating system and the feedback system, and tutorship and exercitation about high school and college entrance examination, the intercommunion and discussion among teachers and sharing resources. We can develop a lot of teaching and learning methods in different environment. For example based on network, ordinary, experiment, activity and distance learning lesson and so on. But we should select the right method aiming to vary teaching and learning methods, and shouldn’t select ill-suited teaching and learning methods for popular. For example, there are some farfetched instances in the current network lessons in the computer classrooms. Once, we listened to a network lesson which discussed the subject about the Hongkong in a grade six, the discussing content and theme is very good. The teacher prepared some kinds of materials from Internet, and made students speak through reading them. By the arrangement, students should collect the resources, but they do not because they have not time. After the class, we asked the teacher whether this class may be completed in a class that has a projection machine. The teacher said, certainly, but it is not a network class. In fact, all the classes are not right in the network environment. We select network environment because it needs, we may select it in the following instance: student collecting and selecting content, interacting with computer independently, and intercommunications between teacher and students and among students by the network, evaluation, feedback and so on.
3. The Development and Method of Resource and Software
3.1. Which Kind of Resource and Software should be Developed
Resource and software should be developed based on the different objects. They are the teacher, the student, and both the teacher and the student. There are some different systems, for example teaching material system, common resource system, subject basic supporting system, high school and college entrance examination system. In these systems, the building of teaching material system should be constructed based on the different edition. In the process of development, through analyzing the teacher and students’ difficulties in the teaching and learning process, we should study and develop these resources and software which can solve the difficulties. Building the common resources system should think over the classify exhibition between the matter and ideology modality. For example the metagalaxy, the earth, the animal, the plant, the human, the matter and every side of society, the culture, science, technology and philosophy and so on. The building of basic supporting system will be developed by the different sort, and incarnate the basic subject diathesis. High school and college entrance examination system should connect knowledge system with methods of solving questions and consequence, it also should provide a lots training patterns.
3.2. The Development Principle of Resources and Software
During the process of the integrated development of resources and software, we need notice the basic principles as following: systematically study the subject process types, process, and the existed difficulty; mainly emphasize on the improvement of the process and method and solve the problem. We should inspire the students to explore the ways of acquiring information at the maximum degree, cultivate the subject science capability of the students at the same time, cultivate the comprehensive capability of the students, and stimulate the study interest of the students at the maximum. Facing the different need of the different actor, we mainly emphasize the main part of the process, at the same time, fully consider IITC of the different courses and strengthen the cultivation of logic thinking and emphasize the application of the visualization. So we need choose the proper information methods, during the course of IITC, step by step, integrate the whole nation wisdom, based on the courses’ basic system construction, and construct according to the different subject course. We should embody the main tutor function of the teacher, the main entity of the students, that is to say , the act of the teacher is to organize, tutor, institution, promotion, environment creation, the task of the teacher is to explain the knowledge(prepare for the lesson, teach ,communicate ,discuss, train), the demonstrate the application, create environment, instruct the practice of the students, the act of the students is a constructor , the center of the teaching process, the task of them is to study, train, practice.
3.3. The Development Ways of the Resources and Software
The construction methods of resources and software are to search, buy, self-development, cooperation development, use the tool to make, the concrete ways are to make the teaching material media according to the need of teacher, rectify the process of the teaching and learning, solve the teaching difficulty, we should develop the subject course making tool on the basis of systematically analyzing the course system., finding out the basic resources database, serial common content, edit, handle content and so on. For example, the mathematics plane figure edit, the solid figure edit, inequation computation, erect computation, statistics and so on.
4. Some Suggestions about the IITC’s Research
We should specially notice the questions as following during the course of the IITC’s research.: systematically study the subject course types., the process of the teaching and learning, and the existed difficulty, inspire the students to explore the ways to acquire information; we should recognize that it is not enough to only depend on the media of the educational material and what the teachers need, we should systematically study the subject courses teaching difficulty, fully get the idea of the superiority of the information technology, choose the proper information methods to solve the subject courses difficulty, and be conscious of such a fact that educational information can’t be realized by only buy educational software, it should be finished during the process by IITC of the array of the teachers, education experts, information technology experts. We should study the teaching and learning schema and the construction methods of the resources and software facing different subject courses at every kind of the environment, Strengthen the cultivation of logic thinking and emphasize the application of the visualization., emphasize the scheme of the cooperation study in the internet environment and the study of the relevant resources and software, especially the resources and software supporting the students to help each other, to communicate reciprocally, emphasize the capability cultivation of the teacher grasping the teaching difficulty of the subject course, IITC’s capability of teacher applying the information teaching methods to solve the teaching difficulty of the subject courses, thus stimulate the development of the education radically.
Acknowledgement
Our research is supported the National Torch Key Program Foundation of China, and Hong-kong K C Wang Education Foundation.
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