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THE VIRTUAL EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN A SYSTEM OF LIFELONG PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
M. E. Vaindorf-Sysoeva
In Moscow State Regional University (hereinafter - MGOU) a virtual learning environment was developed and implemented using innovative Internet technologies. Organizationally, it represents a single territorially-distributed system of pedagogical interaction on the basis of traditional and innovative educational spaces.
The problem of increasing the efficiency and quality of an individual’s education remains consistently relevant and its resolution depends directly on the teacher’s professional competence. The teacher should combine a great variety of abilities: to develop in students the desire for creativity and the creative comprehension of knowledge, to teach students to think critically and independently, to be able to fully realize their needs, to increase motivation for the study of the subjects, etc. The modern teacher, regardless of work experience, is not only one who instructs, but a Teacher, who also continuously studies, raises his or her level of methodological expertise, and is ready to innovate. He or she should have perfect command of a computer and actively introduce and systematically use information and communication technologies in his or her pedagogic activity. E-mail, scientific television and videoconferencing, topical chat and scientific forums, news groups and bulletin boards, teachers’ online community, and the resources of a virtual learning environment - all these are becoming essential tools in the teaching and research activities of the modern teacher.
To teach the modern teacher to fluently and consistently use information and communication technology in his or her work is the priority of MGOU’s system for upgrade of qualifications.
Given the difference in approaches to collaboration and training of teachers of different age groups and with different pedagogical experience, especially in the use of information and communication technologies, at the department for Methods of Distance Education and New Educational Technologies MGOU, a creative team of teachers led by the author of the report developed and implemented the organization of a virtual learning environment for training young teachers and teachers with experience in traditional technologies in innovative work. In its basis lies an approach in which the educational program is not limited only to computer literacy, the study of the fundamentals of
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computer science, and insight into the existing educational software resources. The readiness to apply new information and educational technology in the instruction of a subject is formed, just as the ability and skills to independently design and construct thematic courses in a virtual learning environment are worked out with account of their own pedagogical goals and objectives. During this, the following are taken into account in the process of learning: age-related characteristics of learners, the initial level of personal computer skills, teaching experience, etc. A program for the upgrade of qualifications is being formed on the basis of the results obtained.
The innovation in the concept is in the integration of successful traditional techniques and technologies for upgrade of teaching qualifications that were previously unavailable outside of a virtual learning environment (the separation of learner and teacher in space and time, the opportunity for mass education, etc.). The strategic line for development of the concept is targeting instruction of teachers in assimilation of innovation into their professional activities. The research process has revealed patterns for organization of a virtual learning environment for instructing pedagogical staff on innovative activities: (a) the interdependence of the chosen form of education and its subsequent application in professional work; (b) learning based on experience in the field of information and communication technologies (young teachers) or traditional teacher activities (experienced teachers); (c) the integrated use of various sources of information, methods of their implementation, technology use and integration of feedback, and the design of new training systems.
A virtual learning environment is built upon the following approaches: anthropocentric (student-centered), androgogical
(consideration of the characteristics of adult education), systematic (consideration of all the factors of learning in totality), pragmatic (learning in a learning environment), competency building (focus on the formation of competence), the analytical and future (targeted at the professional interests of students and future careers). In the virtual learning environment, levels for teacher training in innovative activity were determined, namely: (a) education, (b) learning (immersion in a virtual learning environment, traditional classes, basic courses, master classes, workshops, modular courses, retraining), (c) evaluation, (r) introduction.
With the aim of implementing the concept, the following technologies used previously in a traditional learning environment were refined and new
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ones were developed and approved for introduction into the practice of upgrade of teacher qualifications: (a) learning in the learning environment (the most important technology that allows a teacher to be taught in the medium of his or her future professional work), (b) training in innovative activity for young teachers and teachers with experience, (c) the technology for teacher training in various programs, (d) the use of the resources of a virtual learning environments in the learning process (digital lectures, online conferences, forums, blogs, etc .) etc.
Organizational and pedagogical conditions for realization of the concept facilitated an increase in effectiveness of the training of the pedagogical staff in innovative activity (application of a virtual learning environment, consideration of the variable and invariant components of the didactic system, and instruction in the learning environment; training dependent on work experience in multi-subject groups).
The predicted result on the basis of the results of the concept implemented in organization of a virtual learning environment is the preparedness of pedagogical staff to innovate at different levels: the reproductive level ("Do as I do”), with the use of professional pedagogical support ("Ask us”) and the ability to solve the challenges of nonstandard content ("Think as we were taught”). The defining essence of a virtual learning environment is that the teacher is there on one side, and the learner on the other, acquiring new skills, the achievement of which is the purpose of the training program. It is namely the professional development of teachers and instructors motivated to implement innovative instruction that is the measure of change in this new qualification added to the qualification of teachers in a traditional system of education.
The teacher’s every step towards improvement and expansion of qualifications involves a further process of improvement and selfimprovement in accordance with the requirements and challenges that announce the development of society and the educational system to the teacher.
References
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2. Вайндорф-Сысоева, М. Е. Информационные пути - новый этап в развитии образования [Текст] / М. Е. Вайндорф-Сысоева // Вестник МГОУ: серия «Открытое образование». - 2006, № 2 (Т. 1). - С. 13-22.
3. Вайндорф-Сысоева, М. Е. Концепция многоуровневой системы подготовки педагогических кадров к инновационной деятельности [Текст]: монография / М. Е. Вайндорф-Сысоева. - М.: Изд-во МГОУ, 2008. - 217 с.
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