Since the beginning of civilisation
both men and women have joined up with other human beings in order to form
social groups or organisations according to their interests, needs and
behavioural patterns in relation to certain standards and values that lead them
to the achievement of a specific goal or objective. Until recently there were
geographical borders that limited the spatial and temporal context in which
social interaction took place. However with the development of ICTs, such
boundaries have been erased. It has enabled many people around the world to
know each other in a dynamic environment that promotes cultural exchange.
Under such conditions of human
development, countless communicative exchanges that generate new ways to
create, distribute, and manipulate information, emerge every day; processes
that empower people to share their particular view or understanding of the
world. Therefore, audio-visual and interactive media have allowed the
re-conceptualization of cultural identity and civic participation. That is why
teaching and learning processes need to be integrated with the digital tools
that ICTs offer in order to bring about changes that improve educational system
through communication of knowledge which is constructed by students and
teachers when experiencing things and reflecting on them. In this regard, David
de Ugarte says: “Information, technology, and creativity became increasingly
important for production value.”
Thus, it can be said that the integration
of ICT into classroom teaching involves the formation of human beings who are
able to use their knowledge to create, either new or improved, products and
services that assert their cultural identity and give meaning to those new ways
of communication.
The events or conditions described
above find their support in the development of a new digital society, the
information society. Consequently, traditional educational paradigms have
changed and there are new ways of carrying out teaching and learning processes.
On this subject, UNESCO (2003) says:
By breaking through the constraints of space and time, ICTs
can in principle allow learning anywhere and at any time, making them a
supremely powerful lever for educational change. For many educational experts,
new digital technologies are making a learning revolution possible by enabling
children to become more active and independent learners through the newfound
opportunities for collaborating on projects across frontiers and cultures,
learning from one another, and accessing a wide range of information. In
parallel, they are changing the role of the teacher, from that of an exclusive
fount of knowledge to a guide helping students navigate through new
information, inquire, make choices and solve problems. ICTs are also regarded
as crucial to bringing about more democratic access to educational resources.
(p. 27)
The goal
of education, from this point of view, is not only to re-create, modify,
distribute and manipulate facts and events that occur in reality but also to
develop both basic thought processes (observation, attention, perception,
imagination and creativity) and complex thought processes (conceptualization,
comprehension, analysis, evaluation, synthesis, generalization, judgment,
reasoning). In this way, students will be sure about how to interpret
information and the way it fits into any cultural, economic, political and
social context. As a result of those processes, students are able to transform
information into resources in order to take effective action. Then we move from
an information society to a knowledge society. In this connection, UNESCO
(2014) states:
Societies whose citizens have
high levels of skills and experience, and the capacity to absorb and use
information to develop new products and services, are more likely to succeed in
a world of increasing technological complexity. Knowledge Societies are better
equipped to achieve the social equity, economic prosperity and environmental
sustainability, which are the three core objectives of sustainable development
and which also underpin the fulfilment of human rights. Knowledge is also of
central importance for the sciences, and in social and cultural life, enriching
human experience and contributing to intercultural dialogue and international harmony.
(p. 18).
By
knowledge is meant, according to Webster's Dictionary, "the fact or
condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or
association." When a student incorporates new information into his
previously existing structures or schema (assimilation) he modifies an existing
schema or creates new schemas to deal with a new object or situation
(accommodation). Through these processes of adjusting these mental structures
(schemata) to cope with the environment (adaptation), a student develops his
skills and abilities to evaluate, use and share information. When talking about
digital environment, it must be taken into account that knowledge transfer
requires the development of skills needed for understanding which application
or virtual network (formal or informal) can be used to preserve knowledge,
making it available to other users in such a way as to facilitate the creation
of new products or services geared towards innovation.
When teachers and students make
those things happen to get successful outcomes, innovative processes are
achieved and new capabilities are generated so as to be part of
competitiveness, which, as an intellectual and theoretical concept is still
incomplete. One of these skills is digital competence. According to, Redecker,
Ala-Mutka, Bacigalupo, Ferrari and Punie (2009):
Digital competence does not only comprise practical
computer skills, but “involves the confident and critical use of Information
Society Technology (IST) for work, leisure and communication”. In particular,
individuals should be enabled to use IST to support critical thinking,
creativity, and innovation. They need to develop a critical and reflective
attitude towards available information, a responsible use of the interactive
media, and an interest in engaging in communities and networks for cultural,
social and/or professional purposes. Furthermore, they should “be aware of
issues around the validity and reliability of information available and of the
legal and ethical principles involved in the interactive use of IST”. (p. 25)
Today it is easier for anyone to
create, upload and share information with Web 2.0 technologies because people
are more connected than ever. Therefore these new forms of communication and
obtaining information help people to understand the importance of learning a
foreign language; moreover it improves personal and professional skills. When
teaching and learning a foreign language through the use of ICT, co-operative
and collaborative procedures are developed in a very constructive atmosphere
that is open to continuous changes because knowledge is viewed as a dynamic
process in constant change. In this connection, Kumar and Tammelin (2008)
states:
A second important benefit derived from the use of ICT in a
language classroom is based on the opportunities it affords for cooperation and
collaboration with one’s peers. Language teachers all over the world are
introducing myriads of ICT-enhanced language learning projects, including
simulations, between their students and groups in other countries, thus
widening the language learning perspective into that of learning about the
cultural context of the language being used. Previously, students or classes
would write letters or later even e-mails to each other. Today, using ICT they
can ‘skype’ or chat online, where they can not only write to each other in
real-time, but also see each other and speak to each other online. Students are
thus able to write, read, speak, listen, and react to a conversation using ICT
as part of the language learning process. They are motivated to communicate and
collaborate with peers to produce common products, for instance, wikis. (p. 5).
Then, when any human being manages
adequate actions in order to access the necessary or relevant data, they are
developing their specific skills so that they make sense of new information. In
so doing, they become familiarised with the knowledge they gain through
experience or association and develop intellectual capital. Pedagogical
condition that is essential in any school. In other words, it means that when
knowledge is communicated, students can well demonstrates the understanding of
someone or something, such as facts or information and provides school with a
competitive advantage over others.
When teaching and learning
processes are supplied with adequate resources, collaborative learning
processes are allowed. As a result of that, it is no longer about knowing what
to learn and how to learn it but also to know where to find the necessary, relevant
knowledge to learn. In this respect, Vittorio Midoro says:
In the knowledge society, literacy should take into account
new needs and available technologies. Two new interrelated levels are built on
the foundations of traditional literacy:
1) The capacity to operate in the world of digital
documents, to tackle tasks and solve problems. As in a literate society, it is
important to know how to read and write, but in the knowledge society it is
also important to know how to produce and use digital documents.
2) The capacity to participate in the process of knowledge
building. As in a literate society, it is important to be able to listen and
speak but in the knowledge society it is also important to access, share and
collaboratively produce knowledge. (p. 19)
It is in this context that it is
developed the concept of web 2.0 as a social phenomenon that allows surfers of
any virtual community use different applications and platforms to publish any
content. However, people not only use these digital tools to publish contents
but also to create virtual environments where they can interact digitally in
order to let everybody make significant contributions that enrich their web
browsing experience. So, when a teacher decides to use Web 2.0 applications in
the classroom, it is not enough to use any of them (forums, microblogging,
social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, wikis), he has to make
students develop their digital competence to generate or publish content, to
share it with other web users and to participate in a great digital
conversation. It is for these reasons that Yun-Jo An and Kevin Williams (2010)
say:
The new Web 2.0 culture encourages students to reuse and
remix resources as well as create new knowledge. Students take an active role in
learning, rather than passively receiving information from instructors. Web 2.0
has the potential to create more interactive and powerful learning environments
in which learners become knowledge creators, producers, editors, and evaluators
(Richardson, 2009). Downes (2005), who coined the term “e-learning 2.0,”
described the evolution of online learning application from a
“content-consumption tool, where learning is delivered,” to a
“content-authoring tool, where learning is created.”
From this perspective, the use of
digital tools in education constitutes a strategy that generates innovative
processes; teaching and learning are reconceptualised in order to motivate
students to generate changes and transform their environment, at all levels: personal,
training or labour level. This has to happen, because students, as subjects who
learn, are immerse in a material and symbolic culture. Many things they do
carry symbolic meaning when looking for solutions to the problems they face
every day as a result of their human development processes (biological,
cognitive, moral, psychological, social). This is of great importance, because
Those who access Web 2.0 sites are not simply consumers (as
they were of Web 1.0 sites), but they are prosumers (Ritzer, Dean, and Jurgenson 2012)
of those sites, both producing and consuming the content… The prosumer is
prominent on all the major sites (Facebook, Myspace, Wikipedia, Second Life,
Flickr, eBay, Amazon), as well as blogs and many others aspects of the
internet. Instead of simply and passively reading new stories written by others
on Yahoo! or The New York Times website, more of us will be both creating blogs
and reading, as well as commenting on, blogs written by others. Instead of
merely watching videos created for the major TV networks, we will produce and
watch the videos on Youtube. Rather than gazing at pictures produced by
professional photographers, will download our on photos on Flickr while
examining those downloaded by others. (Ritzer 2015:
92).
We can say
that knowledge of new digital applications developed from the technological
concept of Web 2.0 involves the development of digital skills so that all
participants in the educational process, proactively and autonomously, learn to
draw advantage of the extraordinary potential of Internet as a source of
information, resources, teaching methods, collaboration and constant
encouragement.
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