Using new information and communication technologies in the teaching process.

Rotaru, Ileana ; Drobot, Loredana ; Petrovici, Merima 等

1. INTRODUCTION

The convergence of telecommunication and computer technologies has enabled networking of people regardless of their geographical and temporal differences. The scope of such computer networks has been expanding exponentially since the first extensive computer network, ARPANET. Now its successor, Internet, comprises 1.7 million computers in more than 125 countries); most of them at universities, government agencies and companies. As such computer networks have expanded beyond the small communities of scientific researchers and been applied in a variety of fields such as education and communication through such computer networks is beginning to alter the ways in which people interact with one another in formal and informal ways. The educational field must be prepared in using and applying internet network and educational software. The impact could be considerable, especially when using the new media and the new technologies within the new type of postmodern classroom, the virtual one.

2. COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION (CMC) AND VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

The term, computer-mediated communication (CMC) or computer-based communication, encompasses: computer networks, electronic mail, electronic bulletin boards service (BBS), and computer conferencing. CMC has been fairly well studied in educational settings, as a supplemental to traditional classroom teaching or as a delivery mode of distance education because of its distinct characteristics which make it different from any other media. Levy's opinion that CMC substitutes writing for spoken conversations and extends the domain of writing to cover areas of communication that previously were limited to face-to-face interactions, mail, and the telephone.

CMC, up to now, is mainly limited to textual communication where most of the social cues are stripped off. People only see text on the computer screen in standardized formats which contains no dynamic personal information such as tones of one's voice or indescribable facial expressions. 'Phatic' aspects of the face-to-face conversation are minimal in CMC, which sometimes exacerbates communication anxiety when the sender gets no reply.

The advantage of such text-based communication is that it reduces discriminatory communication patterns based on physical and social cues such as gender, race, socio-economic status, physical features, etc., and enhances the interaction with one another.

As a result, CMC destabilizes existing hierarchies in relationships and reorders communications according to criteria that were previously irrelevant. The text-based communication also augments the interaction with ideas generated through discussions. In CMC, people tend to focus on the message more than the messenger, and the availability of an archived transcript of the proceedings facilitates review of previous comments and discussion, focusing on important ideas and concepts.

Another important aspect of this standardized textual communication is an individual's great control of his/her self image presented to other people. In most cases, the only identity an individual user has is a "handle" name which may be, and most often is expected to be, fictional. Anonymity is complete and identity is fictionalized in the structure of the communication. Communicaters can compose themselves as characters in the process of writing, inventing themselves from their feelings, their needs, their ideas, their desires, their social position, their political views, their economic circumstances, their family situation--their entire humanity.

In one sense, CMC enhances the sense of personal freedom and individualism by reducing the 'existential' engagement of the self in its communications. On the other hand the CMC users are bounded in many ways: first, to the new, computerized system of positioning students in symbolic exchanges; second, by the prior constituting of the self, typically the experience of that self as restricting, evoking the sense of transgression when that self may be concealed or suspended; finally to the language used in the conversation, with all its semantic, ideological and cultural specificity, a specificity which does not diminish when converted into ASCII codes.

CMC is usually asynchronous although there are also some synchronous applications. The advantage of asynchronous communications is that people can read, reply or send messages at their convenience. It is not only a matter of personal convenience; it means communication crosses time as well as space.

CMC builds non-place communities of common interests, affinity, and association (Morioka, 1993; Aoki, 1994). They are called "online communities", "electronic communities", or "virtual communities." Such communities are dynamic; many people come and go at any time in the life of a community. There are two kinds of virtual communities. The first one is the community where members know one another and usually have met face-to-face. CMC (especially electronic mail) is used mainly to maintain their routine communication, discuss issues relevant to the members, or collaborate on some projects. The second category is the community where members do not necessarily know one another, but share common interests, value systems, or goals. CMC (especially BBS and computer conferencing) is used mainly to exchange information and ideas. The major differences of such virtual communities from traditional communities are: 1) the freedom from geographical limitation; 2) the accessibility at one's own convenience; 3) the irretrievability of information/messages; and 4) the limitation of communicative acts to textual messages.

Those communities, however, are not entirely new and completely different from traditional communities. Morioka (1993) argues that those virtual communities are just the geographical expansion of traditional communities in the sense that the members of a community use CMC as a means to discuss and exchange information instead of meeting face-to-face.

In addition to the above mentioned communities, another kind of communities exist in computer networks, which can be called "communities of anonymity" (Morioka, 1993). These communities of anonymity are the communities whose members are anonymous and share virtual spaces for their self-expression which may not be possible in the situation that they have to identify themselves. In such virtual spaces, people play whatever role they want to play, knowing other people are also presenting created images of themselves. In many computer bulletin boards, it is well known that some people use opposite sex's handle names (i.e., a man uses a female name or a woman uses a male name) and play the role of the opposite sex to their own. In such communities, people enjoy the virtual aspects of communication per se.

In summary, there are basically three kinds of virtual communities: 1) the ones totally overlapping with physical communities; 2) the ones overlapping with physical communities to some degree; and 3) the ones totally separated from physical communities.

3. THE SELF-SERVICE MODEL

The development of the new technologies of information and mass-communication has determined the birth of a new concept: "self-service" that covers most of the educational situation which are implying modern electronic media. This paper includes a point of view regarding the changes that takes place from traditional pedagogical model to the new one of so called "self-service" model (Moeglin, 2003). The self-service model represent also an ideal that regards new perspectives as the one that the student chooses his own menu, exploring new systems of validation for his knowledge and abilities, creating a new "learning space". The self-service model may be used for teaching a diversity of sciences from socio-human to engineering ones, though in our opinion founded on several researches, it is more difficult for a student to be its own "master" in choosing and get oriented through different subjects or in the informational boom. There is a close relation between the changing role of the teacher, stipulated by the postmodern pedagogical theorists and the student new one.

This process produces new ways of learning that take place in larger spaces than the traditional classroom; it produces also a "virtualization" of the educative resources and gives birth to concepts and phenomena like "virtual classrooms", "virtual universities" etc. These are the changes that expect us in the educational field. But I agree with what Umberto Eco (1997) said: "Every time when we invent a new technique to spread knowledge, we are afraid that the new one will kill the one before it. It is not like that at all. Gutenberg didn't kill divinity, but he produces Luther. And the photography has liberated the painting from the reproduction compulsions".

4. CONCLUSIONS

In the educational field, new media and virtual communities bring out new questions and different points of view. On one hand we may regard it as a struggle between formal and informal education. On the other hand, we are the witnesses of a large process that takes us as parts in it. We cannot fight against it, but we can provide answers and expectations as citizens of the new "global village" (McLuhan, 2001). In this context, we underlined that virtual space provided by internet and electronic media has become a space where borders of cultural differences are erased. As pointed out in the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2003)--Learning for 21st century society: A report and a mile guide for 21st century skills there is more than a necessity introducing the new forms of communication in the teaching process. By using the CMC communication and the virtual communities, the teaching process along with the learning one, has developed into a different stage of evolution, the postmodern one. In this context the teacher's role become more active in tutoring and suporting students through the informational boom according to their needs and own personal objectives.

5. REFERENCES

Aoki, Kumiko (1994). Virtual Communities in Japan, http//www.uhunix.uhcc. Hawaii Edu

Levy, Pierre (2001). Cyberculture, trad. Robert Bononno, Minneapolis, The University of Minnesota Press;

Miege Bernard (1989). La societe conquise par la communication, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, Grenoble

Moeglin Pierre (2003). Education Industries and the New Media[Industriile educafiei si noile media], Polirom, Iasi

McLuhan, Marshall(1994/2001) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusets and London

Morioka, Mashiro (1993). Conscius communication: the birth of dream navigators, Tokyo, Chikuma Shobo, http//www.mit.edu.org

*** Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2003). Learning for 21st century society: A report and a mile guide for 21st century skills, http://www.21stcenturyskills.org