Information and communication technologies in schools: a ...

course, the number of actively participating students cannot be too big, but they
do not all need to be in the same place.
For the teacher, the digitized lecture has other advantages. First of all, the lecture
can be transmitted online (synchronously with the real event) to many places
at once. Feedback is possible in the form of written notes sent by students. The
teacher can show on screen the face of a student who has asked a relevant question.
Other students asking questions that might be anticipated can receive standard
answers generated by assistants or automatically.
The second option is to distribute a recorded lecture in canned form, recorded
on DVD or videotape, or via the Internet. The advantages of these media are:
• mass distribution, multiplied audience;
• better quality text accompanied by pictures, and additional readings;
and
• availability anytime, anywhere, at a learner’s convenience.
ICT (printing and recording) make a considerable difference in delivering
lectures. Nevertheless, certain advantages of new technologies can also be considered
disadvantages. For example, the requirement to meet face-to-face at lectures
at a given time is a discipline that organizes the process of learning.
Sometimes, it is a welcome discipline for a professor! On the part of students, the
obligation to make written notes provides additional support for concentration
and memorizing through kinaesthetic activity and provokes online re-thinking of
the content.
In some regions and communities, many people already receive general education
by means of radio or magnetic recordings. Sometimes even a combination
of radio transmission or playing a record and simultaneous face-to-face tutoring
is used to good effect in general education. Many people learn foreign languages
while driving and listening to audiotapes. The next step is TV and videotapes.
These add something to the traditional lecture: you can see lecturers at their best
time of the day, the voice is clear, the face is close, and so on. Eventually, we arrive
at the HDTV and DVD era, with its picture-in-picture format.
Is it possible to learn using combinations of the abovementioned media?
The answer is yes. Is it helpful to add to lecture text materials and video-audio
records? Again, yes. In other words, the traditional lecture is not dying. It is in
danger of becoming more interesting.
ICT in Learning and Teaching
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