Brief Paper: ICT Convergence and Education

In the context of the development of lifelong learning, for the free advancement of man in the educational space, it is necessary to ensure maximum flexibility and a variety of forms of education. Naturally, the provision of this process is impossible without ICT. In accordance with [9], the forms of learning activity can be defined “as mechanisms for streamlining the educational process with respect to the positions of its subjects, their functions, and the completeness of cycles, structural units of training in time.” The search for the right ways to build a common strategy for introducing ICT in the educational process with the purpose of innovative development of quality support and training effectiveness is largely determined by the understanding of decision makers on the variability of the opportunities that are opening up. It should be remembered that the introduction of ICT in training is not so much the process of translating all educational materials into the electronic form, with subsequent delivery to the end user, ie, (information, pedagogic, publishing, etc.), an optimal strategy for managing educational (both electronic and traditional) and human resources for obtaining the final result with the highest possible result quality.

At the present stage of the development of mass support for ICT-based learning, the LMS (Learning Management System) support systems (platforms) play an important role. They support the learning process, provide access to training materials, tests, etc. However, their ubiquitous use almost always happens without due pedagogical design. Thus, it turns out that the lecture as such is replaced by electronic materials from existing textbooks, manuals or guidelines, and all control is reduced to testing. Few of the teachers can answer correctly the question, so how can we teach?

When transitioning to ICT-based learning (especially to distance learning), it is necessary to take into account how ICT will contribute to the development of the “whole system” pedagogical process, and how each component will be created and used.

Let us briefly consider the evolution of the understanding of the term “multimedia”. It is known that in the 60s of the XX century. This term was used to describe extravagant for that time theatrical shows, using different types and forms of information: slides, film, video, audio, lighting effects and live music. In the late 70-ies, this term was used to describe the aggregate means of processing and presentation of video, audio and print information. Over time, the understanding of the term has greatly expanded. To date, the scientific literature uses the following definitions of the term “multimedia”:

Multimedia is the sum of technologies that allow a computer to enter, process, store, transmit and display data types such as text, graphics, animation, digitized still images, video, audio, speech. Multimedia is a modern computer information technology that allows you to combine text, sound, video, graphic and animation in a computer system.

ICT technologies in teaching: mass creation of information, educational and training environments, use of multimedia classes, audiences, interactive video systems, social services and the like.

Multimedia support: a new impetus in the development of multimedia has given the possibilities of the world wide web, technologies for supporting e-learning (in particular, web 2.0, etc.), near-zone communication technologies (in particular, mobile electronic technologies and special means). There is a massive use of ICT to support multimedia in learning.

The main result: orientation to continuous mass education and access to information for all, a clearly expressed innovative vector of development, significant changes in the forms and content of training, the optimal integration of individual and group work, the development of information culture. The web becomes the main distribution medium for SCORM objects. Avalanche-like growth in the number of electronic learning resources, increasing the use of multimedia in the educational process, increasing interest in the development of a fundamental scientific basis in the field of electronic innovative scientific and educational spaces, the activation of global initiatives in the field of support for education, etc.

The justified and effective use of multimedia to support distance learning complements the analytical and computing capabilities of the computer with the ability for a synthetic, imaginative and comprehensive presentation of the academic discipline [13]. Researchers T. Hed and E. Hede in the work “Multimedia effects on learning: Design implications of an integrated model” [14] proposed a model that describes the factors influencing multimedia on learning. The model allows us to lay algorithms for the effectiveness of the educational multimedia resource at the design stage. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the specific characteristics of multimedia, which include: potentially high congestion of perception, structural and semantic complexity, a large amount of information transmitted through training systems of varying complexity. Manipulation of information that is presented in training multimedia is often an integral part of the user’s activities. The design of multimedia should take into account the traditional ways of processing information by people and be based on the psychological and pedagogical principles of students’ perception of information.