The pupils are more implicated in the lesson development. They understand the possibilities given by the new technologies after having obtained control over them. They develop their capacities to plan, select, explore, to solve “real” problems in a virtual medium, they can monitor and evaluate their progress guided by teachers, fulfilling the goal of the modern pedagogy: pupil - center of the education and, in the end, they develop new abilities and skills needed in their future adult life.
eContent enables pupils to surpass the limited manual frame by offering recent data, information on a large area, unlimited access to the world culture or unthinkable - only a few years ago – fabulous “trips” like simulations of dangerous experiments, virtual access to the atomic world or to distant galaxy, the satisfaction of discovering rather than learning.
The teachers are faced with a new challenge: they can/must control a huge quantities of information and knowledge but they must learn to manage them, managing the outside resources is becoming more important than one’s own personal memorized/created knowledge. The success comes at the very moment when one’s personal specific didactic strategies are used to manage the resources.
The access to all kinds of resources needed in a specific learning situation and the accentuated implication of the pupils during the lesson through the interactive mode of the eContent lead to more authentic learning situations, the pupil must actively take part to the learning process, he/she is stimulated to constructively think, decide, create.
At the same time the pupils can get information from data banks from different countries; images, descriptions and relevant statistics for the investigated problems, and the Internet communication assure some data or the collaboration to diverse projects. The pupils are taught “to deal” with real conjunctures rather than “learning about” them.
The school units bound in the network assure new interaction models, extending the learning beyond the teacher and the manual. The possibilities of the results presentation and manipulation facilitate the collaboration with other users-pupils or local community members. The possibility of some collaboration projects with school or experts in the local community appears involving the children/young in the society real problems.
And, most important, the flexible structure of the eContent, the global themes, the extreme ease in manipulation transform it in the ideal instrument for teaching in all special kind of situation: pupils in distant or disadvantaged regions, pupils with disabilities all are equal by the quality of teaching.
Nor less important is the eContent potential to sustain the curriculum at school decision.
The usage of eContent determines a holistic approach to education, beginning even with questions about how finalities are elaborated, how the curriculum is conceived, the way in which the pupil interacts with the curriculum, and the mode in which the evaluation of educational process is done. This holistic impact on the learning systems could occur only in the conditions where ICT is used in an educational action based on the fundamental thesis “the pupil actively builds his/her knowledge”, the eContent and the way it can be managed open a substantial path in solving this problem.
Introducing computers into the educational practice occurred almost in parallel with three decades of research in the cognitive sciences field; in this period we extended our understanding about the way learning as a process takes place. Investigations in this domain put in evidence the fact that knowledge isn’t passively received but it is actively built by the pupil, based on previous knowledge, attitudes, and values. Relying on a single information source, i.e. the textbook, limits the knowledge construction possibilities.
eContent came as an answer offering a medium for study instead of a frame.
This fact is easily observed in school with regular children, all over the country; it is even more obvious in special learning units, where ICT includes special supports for pupils with disabilities. Not less important is the support for pupils with over the average intelligence.
Using and managing eContent has become a vital act of preparation for the "knowledge society".
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