5. Information technology in science

Lecture



The profound transformations taking place in our society more sharply bring to the fore the problems of the development of pedagogy, as a science that lays the moral and intellectual foundation of the future. Fruitful development of pedagogical science can occur only under the condition of creative rethinking of the theoretical and practical experience accumulated by it, i.e. in the process of research activities. It is known that pedagogical research is based primarily on specific facts that can only be obtained through experiments, surveys and observations. The current trend in the field of research is to improve the quality and quantity of analysis of information received during the study.

The rapidly developing process of informatization of all spheres of society makes it possible to raise to a new level the organization and quality of research work in pedagogy.

The use of information technology in pedagogical research is one of the most poorly covered in terms of information and requires careful and in-depth development.

According to the approach of Yu.Z. Kouchner, we can conditionally distinguish five stages of constructing the logic of pedagogical research. [12]

The first stage is the accumulation of knowledge and facts:

- problem selection and research topic,

- justification of its relevance, level of elaboration;

- familiarization with the theory and history of the issue and the study of scientific advances in this and related fields;

- the study of the practical experience of educational institutions and the best teachers;

- definition of the object, subject, purpose and objectives of the study.

To review the state of the problem at hand, the young scientist usually went to the library and conducted a literature search on the subject of interest. Often, to find articles (and even more so, conference materials) on the required topics in the collections of large libraries is not an easy job, time consuming and not always giving the desired result.

The study of the existing literature provides an opportunity to find out which sides of the problem are already sufficiently studied, according to which scientific discussions are being conducted, what is outdated, and which questions have not yet been investigated. At this stage, we see several possibilities for using information technology:

1. for literature search :

a) in the electronic catalog of the real library of the university, as well as the order of literature through the internal network of libraries;

b) on the Internet using browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc., various search engines (Yandex.ru, Rambler.ru, Mail.ru, Aport.ru, Google.ru, Metabot.ru, Search.com, Yahoo .com, Lycos.com, etc.).

Today, electronic versions of many Russian newspapers and magazines devoted to issues of upbringing and education, a database of essays, dissertations, term papers and dissertations, encyclopedias, electronic dictionaries, virtual textbooks in some high school subjects for day and distance education are available via the Internet from the Russian-language resources. form of education, information about some important events and activities in the field of pedagogical science and education. Of interest are electronic libraries, such as the Russian State Library www.rsl.ru, the Electronic Library of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences www.philosophy.ru/library, the Scientific Electronic Library www.elibrary.ru, as well as book search systems in electronic libraries www.gpntb .ru, www.sigla.ru. The Internet also provides an opportunity for communication and exchange of views among researchers in forums, such as the Youth Scientific Forum www.mno.ru/forum, also www.scientific.ru, the pedagogical forum http://eureka.ok.club.org .

2. to work with literature in the course of:

• compilation of bibliography - compilation of a list of sources selected for work in connection with the problem under study;

• summarization - a concise presentation of the main content of the work;

• note-taking - maintaining more detailed notes, the basis of which is the selection of the main ideas and positions of the work;

• annotations - a brief record of the total content of books or articles;

• citation - verbatim record of expressions, factual or numerical data contained in the literary source.

Using the text editor MS Word, you can automate all the above operations.

3. for automatic translation of texts using translation software (PROMT XT) using electronic dictionaries (Abby Lingvo 7.0.)

4. storage and accumulation of information .

The teacher-researcher can store and process large amounts of information using CD-, DVD-drives, external magnetic disk drives, Flash-drives

5. to plan the research process.

The Microsoft Outlook management system allows you to store and timely provide information about the timing of an event, conference, meeting, or business correspondence related to the study.

6. communication with leading experts.

It is advisable to communicate with leading experts in the field of interest, to learn about their new achievements. To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with their publications, to know the place of work and the address for correspondence. Information technologies used at this stage: global Internet, mail clients (The Bat!), E-mail, search engines Internet.

The second stage is the stage of theoretical reflection on the facts:

• the choice of methodology - the initial concept, supporting theoretical ideas, provisions;

• hypothesis construction research;

• selection of research methods and development of research methods.

The third stage - experimental work:

• construction of a research hypothesis - a theoretical construction, the truth of which is to be proved;

• organization and conduct of an ascertaining experiment;

• organizing and conducting a clarifying experiment;

• testing the research hypothesis;

• organizing and conducting a formative (control) experiment;

• final testing of the research hypothesis;

• formulation of research findings.

At this stage of the study are applied:

  • empirical methods : pedagogical experiment; observation; introspection; conversation; interview;
  • sociological methods : questioning, sociometry, testing, expert assessments;
  • mathematical methods : registration, ranking, scaling,   indexing, modeling, diagnostics, forecasting.

At the final stage a pedagogical consultation is organized; the study, synthesis and dissemination of mass and advanced educational experience.

Information technologies are used at this stage of research work to record information about the subject and to process the information received.

The recording of pedagogical research data on its experimental stage is usually carried out in the form of a working diary of the researcher, protocols of observations, photographs, film and video documents, phonograms (recordings of conversations, interviews, etc.). Thanks to the development of multimedia technology, a computer can now collect and store not only textual, but also graphic and sound information about research. To do this, use digital photo and video cameras, microphones, as well as appropriate software tools for processing and playback of graphics and sound:

- universal player (Microsoft Media Player);

- audio players (WinAmp, Apollo);

- video players (WinDVD, zplayer);

- programs for viewing images (ACD See, PhotoShop, CorelDraw,);

- a program for creating diagrams, drawings, graphs (Visio), etc.

In addition to fixing textual, sound, and graphic information, today it is possible to use a computer in the process of collecting empirical data. Most often it is used when conducting surveys and testing . Today computer and Internet questionnaire technology has become available. It allows you to significantly improve the level of pedagogical research, cover a larger number of respondents from one or more educational institutions in the same or different areas, as well as reduce labor costs for data processing. One of the possible options for registration of the questionnaire or test is the HTML format. The user gets access to the information provided in the form of the questionnaire, in the usual way for him, using a familiar browser (for example, Internet Explorer). The questionnaire or test itself can be placed both on the Internet and on a server in a school computer class or on a separate computer.

Then, to transfer the results of questioning or testing, the program activates the mail program installed on the computer by default. A letter is automatically generated to the email address of the person interested in receiving the results of the questionnaire. The program automatically generates a text file containing the result of filling in the questionnaire in a special format, and in case of an active connection to the Internet, a connection is made and the data is sent immediately to an email address.

To process quantitative data obtained in the course of questioning, testing, ranking, registration, sociometry, interviews, interviews, observations and pedagogical experiment, mathematical methods are often used using statistical software packages (Statistica, Stadia, SPSS, SyStat).

It is also necessary to note the possibility of using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editor for statistical data processing. This editor allows you to enter these studies into spreadsheets, create formulas, sort, filter, group data, perform quick calculations on a sheet of a table using the "Function Wizard". You can also perform statistical operations with tabular data if a data analysis package is connected to Microsoft Excel.

The Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editor using the built-in diagram wizard also makes it possible to build various graphs and histograms based on the results of statistical data processing, which can later be used at other stages of the study.

Thus, at the stage of collecting and processing data from pedagogical research, a computer can now be considered indispensable. It greatly facilitates the work of the researcher in registering, sorting, storing and processing large amounts of information obtained during the experiment, observation, interviews, interviews, questionnaires and other methods of research work. This allows the researcher to save time, avoid errors in the calculations and make objective and reliable conclusions from the experimental part of the work.

The fourth stage is the analysis and presentation of the results of pedagogical research:

• justification of the final conclusions and practical recommendations;

• scientific report, articles, teaching aids, monographs, books;

• posters, filmstrips, movies, presentations on the research topic.

At the stage of registration of the results of pedagogical research in the form of a thesis, information technologies should also be actively used to prepare scientific reports, articles, teaching aids, monographs, books, posters on the topic of research. In this case, the previously mentioned Microsoft Word text editor and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editor can be used. Programs like Microsoft PhotoShop, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, Visio , etc. are suitable for processing graphic images and making posters.

The fifth stage - promotion and implementation of the research results:

• speeches in departments, councils, seminars, scientific conferences, symposia, etc .;

• publication in the media pedagogical information

  • publications on the Internet.

For speaking at departments, councils, seminars, scientific conferences, symposia, information technologies can be used as a means of presenting graphical and textual information illustrating a report. In this case, you can use the program to create presentations and business graphics Microsoft Power Point . Directly demonstration of the material is carried out using a multimedia projector or a large LCD or CRT monitor . With the help of Microsoft Publisher, it is possible to prepare and print distribution and illustrative material for conference participants: brochures, newsletters, fact sheets, etc.

In addition, today it is possible to publish articles and monographs on the Internet using Front Page, Flash MX, Dream Weaver packages for creating Web pages. Publication on the Internet is by far the fastest way to bring the latest information on the progress and results of pedagogical research to interested parties.

Information technologies can also assist in the creation of educational and educational films, cartoons, programs, social advertising commercials for television, educational computer programs, games, interactive travels, encyclopedias, etc., as a result of research.

Summing up, we can say that the organization and conduct of a single modern pedagogical research today can not do without the use of information technology. Obviously, in the future, with the expansion of computer capabilities for processing information and the development of artificial intelligence, as well as new software, the computer will become not just a multifunctional research tool, but also an active participant in theoretical and experimental work. Perhaps he will be able to formalize and describe the phenomena that were previously considered inaccessible for mathematical processing and analysis; will self-hypothesize, make predictions and make suggestions in the course of the study.


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Information technology in research

Terms: Information technology in research