Статья Pedagogics
статья по английскому языку

The information society: from the pedagogics of teaching to the pedagogics of learning.

Abstract.

This article discusses prospects for the development of the information society and the specific of pedagogics in terms of the information revolution. The author describes the necessity of substitution pedagogics of teaching for pedagogics of learning and divides these two approaches to the pedagogics. As an illustration of a real practical sample of the pedagogics of learning, distance education is being discussed, with the emphasis on students’ individual activities. The distance education researching experience is being described under direction of the contributor from Perm State Technical University.

Man unfailingly steps to the age of information. The value of information economy constantly rises, it accounts for 40-60% in developed countries. This rate is expected to rise on 10-15% towards the end of the century.

According to scientific information, it took 1750 years from the beginning of the Common Era (CE) to double our knowledge. The second doubling happened up to 1900s and at 1950s was the third and the information content increased 8-10 times. It has a tendency to rise exponentially thereafter scope of knowledge. Towards the end of the 20th century, it doubled again and information content increased 30 times.

An information society is a sociological and futurological conception. It is based on the theory that manufacturing and using a lot of different information takes the leading role in social development. The conception of information society refers to the theory of postindustrial society. The authors of this theory were Bzezhinsky, Bell and Toffler. Contemplating social development as “stages changing”, the theory of information society followers bound its advent with domination of the information economy, which comes after agriculture, manufacturing and service. It is believed that capital and labor on which the industrial society based on, substitute for information and knowledge in the information society.

Coming information society afflicts such questions as: Which are the consequences of the information revolution for the human and humanity?  What this kind of society will be look like and are we ready for it? What the human and school should be like in this society? Do we have to change something in the education and mentoring system to prepare our youths for living in such society, and if we do, what the methods are?

The main characteristic of the information society is the economics based on knowledge. In the sequence “data – information – knowledge, we should draw our attention to the process which is responsible for converting information to knowledge. These are education and self-education: the dominant elements of many social groups in information society.

Information society is a “society of education” which means:

1. The high quality education stands for the base of human intelligence rising in all fields;
2.  Educational institutions do not limit the educational system as social system. It extends to the whole social system. Nowadays, learning becomes the leading function for developed countries business and it plays the key role in competitive ability;
3. Education takes the lead in sorting out ecological and economic issues;
4. Education becomes human intelligence providing system;
5. In collaboration with mass-media communication it builds up educative – information high-coverage systems. 

The question of current interest is specific features of education and self-education in information society. The core transformation process, which might be more and more peculiar for last mentioned type of society, is correlation changing from traditional education to self-education. The new media and communication resources are changing principle of organization and functioning of self-education.

Society is witnessing the creation of the brand new pedagogics. Until now, the teacher used to be the core element of education. Today, the student becomes the core and the other basement is to be made. The aim of pedagogics is creation “practical” person who can act effectively in different cases. This aim realization refers to self-orientation, self-learning and critical thinking skills.

The teacher’s place in education is being changed. Extensive using of the computer technologies in all fields changes the teacher’s position in the educational system and the educating process. One of the consequences of information burst is that neither schoolteacher nor college or university teacher can be the source of knowledge. Teacher is not the holder of cutting-age knowledge anymore. High-powered computer systems, integrated into the global network, are providing groundbreaking opportunities of creation. The teacher’s role changes too. The teacher used to act as an information storage holder and distributor. Now he has to transform to the figure, which will manage the learning process of students and control their results. The realization of steadiness of education is being discussed not as learning, but as individual development through learning process and education – related activities out of education field. In no time, the teacher is due to act less as the source of knowledge and more as a manager of self-learning process and informational guide. These transformations involve huge changes in educational system, fast increasing efficiency, material and technical resources, flexibility of social and economic processes in the world.

In the latest third of the XX century, in consequence of new technological resources (first of all, as a result of distribution of the Global network Internet) and based on the idea of open education, high-grade and progressive type of teaching appears – Distance Education (DE).

DE is a method of the learning process managing, based on usage of cutting-edge information and telecommunication technologies, which enable to learn apart without personal cooperation with a teacher. This method can be used for continuous further training (retraining) of specialists and at the University.

DE is a comprehension of methods, forms and tools for cooperation with person during the freestanding but controllable learning particular subject. Distance education has some advantages туче to the traditional educational system; in particular, it is aimed at students’ self-learning. The appearance of the distance education causes changes in teacher’s role and status and the importance of his further training and retraining.

The key role of pedagogics in distance education is the educational paradigm transforming. Before now, the priority of educational system used to be the teacher’s activity. Now, during the information system development, the priority distinctly is on the student’s activity. Therefore, the olden paradigm of education “teacher – the book – the student” does not work. It has been replaced by new paradigm “the student – the book – the teacher”, where the book comes as a traditional “paper” book and as a modern, electronic one. The aim of the teacher in case of distance education is to manage the self-educating process for students, to teach them how to learn without assistance and apply them practically.

It is important to distinguish learning from pedagogics, h.e. how they are being trained and how they learn themselves. Substantially, it is obviously related processes; they are hard to distinguish, as well semantically. Nevertheless, these methods are very different. The choice of the strategy of educational system managing depends on the accent on one of before-mentioned methods.

The indication of differences between learning and teaching, according to contemporary researches includes:

1. If the accent is on the teaching, first of all, the quality and quantity of studying resources are being judged. The starting point of the educational process is a teacher and his teaching skills are the measurement. It is unquestionable that the learning process takes place if only teacher is present. Consequently, the class becomes the basic learning place and the lesson the main method of teaching. In the same way, the bulk, the learning time are being determined. Therefore comes a widespread persuasion that to have our work done better, we only need more resources the lessons, for example. According to this, if we had limited resources, we would work worse. In a great measure, the accent on learning removes such limits. It is obvious that the best resources do not mean the best results. If a teacher turns his attention from entrance to exit we get wide advantages by accumulating students’ resources. Out of the class, the learning continues and there are no restrictions for students to manage it. Students are learning to learn, to make their knowledge without assistance. As a result, we can use higher standards in our courses.
2. Accent on teaching obeys the learning process to the strict schedule structure, it makes irresistible verge between studying courses and students groups. If the accent is on learning, these artificial barriers are being destroyed. The learning can take place anywhere – in the class, out of the class or between the class. The basic idea is the integration of knowledge, taking into account its interdisciplinary nature, free choice with clear determination of what students have to do to resemble the outgoing standards.
3.  The distinction between teaching and learning quoted in the attitude to a student. If the accent is on teaching, a student is passive receptor. It is believed that the teacher knows everything on his subject and student only need to receive the incoming information and represent it on the exam. If the student fails, he is to blame, because he had been taught correctly already. Personal characteristics and learning preferences of the student do not count.

If the accent is on learning, the student is in the center of the whole process and knowledge is being generated as a result of the cooperation of a teacher and a student.