Improving the effectiveness of teaching information technology in universities using the method of individualization

The goal of adult education based on the use of modern information technologies is to create a progressively organized information environment based on modern hardware and software with innovative teaching technologies.

Freedom and individuality in education:

New technologies allow for exploration of new areas of learning and thinking. These could support creative learning and innovative teaching and foster individual potential. Computer-based educational techniques and technologies have been considered as useful means for individualization. The different levels of interaction and collaboration characteristic of new technologies facilitate personalization of learning paths and customization of educational services. Namely, the development and implementation of student-centric technologies will highlight a need to shift to student-centered pedagogy and the ownership of learning by learners, a quality that is indispensable for fostering creativity. In other words, digital instruments let learners learn at their own pace, teach skills needed in a modern economy and hold the attention of a generation weaned on gadgets. They can also support personal growth and intellectual maturation of both students and teachers. Adding distance courses and programs to existing services will increase the number of alternatives that students can choose from and therefore increase their freedom in learning. Certainly, students can personalize their own education through their choices. If their alternatives can be expanded, then individualization can be increased. This expansion of alternatives depends on the willingness to provide more individualized and student-centered educational services. New technologies and tools also can enhance communication between students and teachers. As Kami mentions: “They allow each student greater diversity for learning, enhance interactivity between individual students and individual teachers, provide a space for personalized, flexible learning beyond the classroom walls and allow students to live locally whilst learning globally- through the use of external resources accessed via the world wide web.” A large amount of literature deals with comparison of the modalities of electronic education with oral speech, especially with a direct, face-to-face communication, despite the fact that electronic education displays a large number of properties similar to the real world education. Similar to the face-to-face education, electronic education is interactive in nature. The result is that the behavior in electronic education takes on the characteristics of both the documents – the written and the informal education. Regardless of the advantage in terms of the speed of exchange of information virtually and to larger distances, electronic education revealed some additional misconceptions, e.g., the tasks will not be solved faster if set electronically, which is not truly the case. Such platforms require educational policymakers to devise new approaches for learning methods. These technological platforms provide the learners with lots of opportunities, such as what is learnt through an online learning or a combination of face to face with online learning systems. Moreover, in short range we can expect that the learners could learn with software that is customized based on their kind of intelligence and learning methods. Various online applications could be used to enable teachers to become more and more innovative in their teaching styles, as well as students to develop their analytical and creative skills and to learn and think creatively. According to Liar okapis, the advent of virtual environments in higher education has the potential to bring a significant change in the learning experience of learners. Namely, the online learning environment is quite different from a traditional classroom, in which one has limited interaction and almost unlimited access to learning resources. In other words, online courses require participants to take on new and different teaching/learning behaviors, which are quite different from the old ones. Recent research has compared online learning to face-to-face learning qualifications, explored the effectiveness of online instruments such as discussion boards and chat rooms, and addressed evaluating effective online instruction.

A good education system gives students the freedom to recognize their capabilities and individual potentials. In this way, as Forte elaborates, in order to give students the freedom to learn, creating a new classroom atmosphere where thinking, questioning and imagining are encouraged and are not hampered is essential. In this context, education should encourage students to work collaboratively and ask questions creatively about ideas and issues across a range of disciplines. As creative thinkers, they try to imagine and explore alternatives, and to think in a different manner. Such an approach is required for a solid academic foundation and for enhancing their intelligence, including “soft skills” such as understanding, empathy and communication skills. The use of different learning materials and various resources allows students with various principal learning styles to understand information in the most effective way. Learning is fostered by multidimensional interactions between students and teachers. To learn on their own, youth need unlimited time to play, explore, become bored, overcome boredom, discover their own interests, and pursue those interests. It helps students develop their analytical and critical reasoning skills with particular emphasis on exploring and evaluating competing claims and different perspectives. Education leads to greater personal freedom through greater competence, if it becomes organized to consider diverse perspectives. However, as Forte argues, a student’s freedom to learn requires the teacher’s freedom to teach, and these are in a close relationship with each other. In this context, current educational systems need to adopt new methods and strategies that are able to support educational goals and ensure the freedom of learning and teaching.

To achieve the goal of effective adult education, as shown by the study, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: creation of wider opportunities for the use of information technologies in education; concentration of efforts of the teaching staff on the active use of information technologies in teaching; the use of new teaching, illustrating, testing, monitoring programs in teaching university students; formation of the information culture of the teacher and student; increasing the motivation of learning due to computer visualization of the studied objects, phenomena; constant updating of the technical and software of the university; the possibility of teachers choosing modern teaching technologies. Following the set goals and objectives, it is necessary to observe the following principles: consistency, modularity, functionality, openness, standardization, communication. The following functions are inherent in the process of adult education in universities based on modern information technologies: developmental, formative, informational, managerial, prognostic, emotional-motivational, telecommunication.

Purposeful study of the practice of the educational process in universities based on modern information technologies, the results of the study made it possible to identify contradictions characteristic of the implementation of this activity: between modern requirements for the quality and level of knowledge of a modern specialist and the real possibilities of universities in training such specialists, between relatively unlimited learning opportunities in the conditions of modern information technologies and undeveloped psychological and pedagogical foundations, methods of higher professional education in this environment.