Senior Teacher of English A.V.Yudintseva

Karaganda State Technical University

E-LEARNING RESOURCES BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

Today greater demands are being placed on education systems at all levels to graduate specialists who can apply knowledge in different situations. With the gradual increase in the integration of computer in educational activities, we should consider not only the unique opportunities it brings to learning and learners, but also the benefits and challenges that may be derived from its use.

Features of e-learning include:

1. learning is self-paced and gives students a chance to speed up or slow down as necessary;

2. learning is self-directed, allowing students to choose content and tools appropriate to their differing interests, needs, and skill levels;

3. accommodates multiple learning styles using a variety of delivery methods geared to different learners; more effective for certain learners;

4. designed around the learner;

5. geographical barriers are eliminated, opening up broader education options;

6. 24/7 accessibility makes scheduling easy and allows a greater number of people to attend classes;

7. on-demand access means learning can happen precisely when needed;

8. fosters greater student interaction and collaboration;

9. enhances computer and Internet skills;

10. draws upon hundreds of years of established pedagogical principles;

11. has the attention of every major university in the world, most with their own online degrees, certificates, and individual courses.

One of the e-learning components is multimedia. Multimedia technology is one of the most exciting innovations in the contemporary informational area. The rapid growth of multimedia technology over the last decade has brought fundamental changes to education and entertainment industry. The exponential growth of multimedia technologies and applications has presented society with unprecedented opportunities and challenges. The potential of interactive multimedia in the learning environment is well-recognized world wide, as evidenced by various projects funded by universities, schools, government bodies and private organizations. In the present study, multimedia is used to project positive images and didactic elements of the narratives.

Multimedia technologies can be used to forge stimulating, interactive learning environments and are essential in the creation of e-learning systems which support multiple learning styles as they present a wide range of graphical, textual and aural sources. Studies focused on the effectiveness of this type of education have proven that multimedia learning resources can enhance motivation, attention, comprehension and recall.

Digital educational space offers to students an enhanced level of communication flexibility, multimedia distribution, interactivity and freshness.

Flexibility: Digital resources are produced in separate modules. Thus, the teacher has the option, based on audience feedback, to genuinely respond to the specific interests of the audience by taking control of the presentation.

Multimedia distribution: Digital resources can be put out via multiple media including Internet, Intranet, CD-ROM, DVD, VHS, television, as well as laptop.

Interactivity: Digital resources provide the quiet time in between modules that permit real-life narrative, audience feedback and a respondent flow of new information based upon audience input.

Freshness: Digital resources, because of their computer-generated nature, can be updated easily and quickly. Sometimes in a matter of just hours a material can be refreshed with new video, photos, graphs and audio.

Education involves transference to others of knowledge and values accumulated by humans. It also means the development of skills that allow students to integrate this knowledge and those values into their lives. In education computers can transfer information more efficiently. Therefore computers have taken a major position in the world because they can carry out many tasks more effectively than humans. Computers are either the basic machines or multimedia capability, which they can integrate and direct, and technology connected with computers like communications through modems. Full use of computers will be termed Computerized Education.

Teachers are seldom forced to use computers. Their initial decision to include computers into their instruction has a prerequisite: they must be taught to use computers. Moreover, initial teacher training is not enough. As the Office of Technology Assessment states, "Teachers need continuing training as the technology changes, as new and more effective applications are developed, and as more is learned about learning with technology." Preparing teachers to use computers is a process that is never completed.

Teachers should be competent in educational technology, management, research methodologies and tools, communication skills, and to develop leadership confidence in the use of information and communication technologies to improve the educational process. They have to know the techniques to make good use of modern technologies in the classroom.

The significant thing the heads of the educational establishments should put into practice is to teach educators to develop their own teaching tools which can satisfy all their needs. It will make the process of learning more effective and learner-centered. When you buy a ready-made product you do not use a 100% of the information because there is no interaction with your real educational process.

Therefore they also should be taught how to design, develop and implement new training tools using digital technologies and to increase their understanding of the requirements for quality development of multimedia.

The lack of training is one of the reasons why only a small percentage of the teachers in the nation use computers in their classes. Most uses of computers make teaching more challenging.

Challenge 1: "individualizing lessons"

Students are at different learning levels. Theoretically, when using computers, teachers might assign different students to different parts of lessons depending on the progress of students.

Challenge 2: "monitoring use"

Software writers could build monitoring into lessons. As a simple example, they could program machines to query students when a certain length of time had elapsed without interaction from the student.

Challenge 3: "technical wizard"

In complete computerized education, programmers will arrange for automatic feedback to them of problems. Teachers are not prepared for new roles as computer experts or technical wizards. It is inefficient to put teachers into those positions, because it wastes their time.

With computer instruction, learning possibilities for students can be expanded beyond what is conceivable in present courses. Since classes can be individualized for each student according to interest and ability, many limits will vanish. Students will have the extraordinary resources of constantly developing computer programs. Moreover, as software is being developed, scholars in various fields can join programmers to provide avenues for exceptional learning.

Teachers sometimes improve their classes by incorporating audio-visual materials into their lessons. These programs make use of films, recordings, and video productions to instruct. Many of these displays can compete technically with the media that students see outside the classroom. Audio-video lessons can enhance education. Color, sound, and movement under the total direction of a computer are the components of multimedia. As an educational tool, it can make learning more appealing and more effective than ever previously imagined. It will enable education to compete with the kinds of shows produced for television and theaters. Computers can control multimedia for each student on his or her own screen, and can use and integrate the technology into lessons. Multimedia has all the valuable features of traditional audio-visual technology.

The powerful features of multimedia will be used in many subjects. Multimedia learning, along with the rest of computerized education, will reach its full potential only when computers can understand spoken language better. That capability is now weak, but is improving rapidly. The vast profits that will flow from computerized speech recognition in business will hasten advances in this area. Through plenty of improvements, multimedia can eliminate the many shortcomings of audio-visual materials and present a new learning experience. Coming technical improvements in multimedia will dwarf even today's notable successes. The future will bring not only simple upgrades, but new eras. Learning and retention will improve appreciably for all learners because the material will be presented in an engaging form.

So e-learning is an important consideration in education for several reasons:

1. implemented correctly, it can reduce some of the costs associated with education;

2. it allows schools to educate people they could not previously (e.g. people that work for a living, people geographically dispersed, etc.);

3. many students communicate better in a web based environment than in the traditional classroom; studies have shown that students who would not raise a hand in class will be very active in posting to discussion boards for example.

It has become apparent that our system of education is in need of reconsideration. Modern teaching techniques have proven advantages over the current archaic methods. However, implementing these techniques in our existing education system would be both costly and time consuming. The most efficient way to introduce these new learning techniques is through e-learning. This is the ideal tool with which teachers can reach students of all learning styles.

Educators need to be involved in the production of e-learning tools and content and the systems designers and developers must be more aware of and sensitive to the users needs. In the past e-learning solutions were developed with almost a complete disregard for the quality of the users learning experience which is one of the reasons for so many past failures. Future e-learning facilities must be adaptive to the specific learner’s requirements.

Thus, the introduction of computer technologies creates prerequisites for intensification of the educational process. And allow using in practice the psychological and pedagogical developments to ensure the transition from mechanical learning to mastering the ability to acquire new knowledge independently. Information and communication technologies contribute to the disclosure and development of personal qualities of students.

The use of e-learning recourses in learning is seen as a means to improve accessibility, efficiency and quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services as well as remote exchanges and collaboration. E-learning has become a new paradigm and a new philosophy in education with a mission to serve as a development platform for present-day society based on knowledge.

To enter the ХХI century an educated person is possible only when you know how to apply innovative technologies. For a free orientation in the informational world the modern specialist of any qualification should be able to receive, process and use information through computers, telecommunications and other technological tools.

The need of our society in qualified professionals, using an arsenal of tools and techniques, becomes a leading factor in educational policy. Implementation of this requirement is impossible without the inclusion of the informational component in the training of future specialists in any field of knowledge.

Sourses

1. Norhayati A.M., & Siew P.H. Malaysian Perspective: Designing Interactive Multimedia Learning Environment for Moral Values Education. Educational Technology & Society. – 2004. - №7.

2. U.S.Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, 1988. Power On! New Tools for Teaching and Learning. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, (OTA-SET-379).