Újmédia2.0

Az Újmédia definíciója

 Sándor Forgó PhD.: New Media and Learning Efforts

Department of Education and Communication Technology, Institute of Media Informatics,EszterházyKárolyCollege,Eger

Abstract

While traditional instruction requires a broad range of prerequisites including classroom, the presence of the instructor, illustration and presentation materials along with textbooks, in case of e-learning schemes (portable) computer and multimedia-based illustration and presentation materials (text, image, animation, voice and video files)  integrated into an electronics-based curriculum will suffice.
Technological approaches promoted by digitalisation not only exert a substantial impact on basic disciplines, but significantly influence business, public administration, entertainment and different forms of learning. As a result of the convergence of mass and tele-communication forms and the achievements of information science new media-complexes have developed radically changing the surrounding info-comunicational spatial and temporal contexts. Due to the application of respective bilateral technology, erstwhile passive receivers of information evolved into active content providers and educated consumers of information-based products.
Digitalisation, at first revolutionizing spatially restricted content processing and communication via local media, has contributed to the rise of unprecedented network-based communication forms:
These newly developed  areas include:

– the formation of Web-2 based learner-centred knowledge acquisition forms and web communities (e-learning2.0).
– new television technologies utilising a wealth of media information and substantial interactivity. These schemes provide viewers with a new interactive learning experience based on the combination of the personal computer and the television (television learning, interactive learning schemes utilising digital television technology, t-learning)
– the rapid spread of mobile telephones guaranteeing virtually continual availability as regardless of distance, location, or time anyone can make a call or be contacted, facilitated mobile telephone-based knowledge or information acquisition, or m-learning,  (It should be noted that the informal use of mobile phones substantially preceded the formal application, as their use in school-time is still prohibited today.)
– learning schemes performed without spatial or temporal constraints (ubiquitous learning; u-learning) not only help in overcoming geographical distances and scheduling problems, but the ever-increasing availability of such equipment apparatus can promote independent, self-initiated learning or self-training instead of externally compelled knowledge acquisition The ensuing presentation aims to explore the theoretical and practical aspects of the New Media Generation resulting from the convergence and diversification of media technologies and facilitating network multimedia-based, interactive online and mobile solutions incorporating individual and community action.

Keywords: new media, e-learning, distance learning, blended learning,EszterhazyKárolyCollege, LMS, elearning 2.0

From Distance Learning to Networtk based Learning (e-Learning)

The distance learning perspective was introduced inHungaryin the 1990s.   While augmenting oral learning and instruction, distance learning entailing media-supported instruction has always provided an alternative to traditional teaching/ learning locations and times. Such efforts included the correspondence-based educational method of I. Pitman, printed and paper-based educational materials, instruction of the physically disabled via telephone in America, educational programs broadcast via radio and television, mailing video cassettes with educational content,  the instructional use of various telecommunication devices (fax machine, telephone) along with other communication forms.

Distance learning, however, as a fully unique instructional arrangement surpasses educational efforts designed merely to overcome physical distance. The common denominator between such learning schemes is the nature of distance learning as a guided didactic conversation effectively carried on by various media. Consequently, adequate motivation and appropriate learner empowerment methods can promote efficient knowledge acquisition through the use of specially elaborated professional texts or educational materials. After the emergence of programmed instruction schemes media incorporated into various instructional packages became not only an important supplement or auxiliary to independent learning, but acquired a learning management function as well.

Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that during this period (the first half of the 1990s) traditional instructional packages[1], considered as an antecedent of blended learning schemes were already complemented by CD-based texts.

As tompa asserts: simultaneously with the instruction package concept it was incorporated into pedagogical and instructional technology parlance in the mid 1970s […] At that time it meant an assortment of information transmission devices, (slides, film, video, tape, exercise book, models, scale models, plotting board, or student experimental set) integrated separately into the instructional package^[2]

Basically, the traditional paper or electronics-based instructional packages developed in the earlier stages of distance learning closely reflected the criteria of the first three generations of the Schramm categories.

In blended learning schemes supported by the e-learning approach the spatial and temporal boundaries are recreated via digital (off-line, on-line) technology. These devices including the CD-ROM, DVD, and Internet at first fulfilled a complementary function, while today they tend to present an alternative to e-learning schemes.

According to András benedek: The technological background is a significant aspect of the e-learning concept.[…]While Hungary can no way be considered to be outside the international mainstream, the practical and theoretical background of e-learning has not yet yielded a coherent strategy here. ^[3]

Due to electronic learning’s principal function facilitating independent learning, self-guided and self-paced knowledge acquisition becomes essential. Consequently, teachers are required to design learning materials capable of enabling students to autonomous learning in extracurricular settings. At the same time however, in addition to enabling the students to acquire knowledge, attention should be paid to such learning support options as personalised help, tutoring, guiding the learning process, and providing feedback concerning the appropriate level of knowledge-acquisition. Personal communication between student and teacher is facilitated by such well-known aspects of instant message sending services as the MSN and Skype in addition to other IP-based telephoning options.

E-learning development efforts in Hungaryat first relied on project results reflecting the trends and standards accepted by the international informatics community and later methodological experts of distance and traditional education became more significant. The history of e-Learning forums^[4]  inHungary functions as apt demonstration of the evolution of e-Learning from a training tool primarily preferred by the business sector into an increasingly popular teaching approach in public, higher, and adult education.

At first e-learning methods were designed to supersede correspondence and part-time education schemes. The original, top to bottom regular arrangement of the learning process including curriculum development, course management and shared communication gradually gave way to complementary blended learning solutions often deployed in full time programs as well.

The Eszterházy Károly College of Eger, however, was an exception. In 2002 the information management undergraduate degree program.  was approved by the Hungarian Higher Education Accreditation Commission. The program launched in (internal network supported on-line ) e-Learning format determined the respective institutional developmental trends for electronics-based open learning schemes. The training scheme provided a comprehensive Learning Management System including such features as administration capability, curriculum, tests, learning instructions, communication features (forum, e-mail, communicational and group work functions) along with diverse electronic learning services. Furthermore, the on-line electronic curricula including learning guides, self-tests, and various exercises were complemented by the printed version of the respective texts as well.

The increasing popularity and the subsequent wide-spread availability of Internet-based, or web-surface provided services (Web 1.0) not only shaped the business and communication sphere, but resulted in the expansion of learning tools and approaches. Despite the provision of educational materials in a textual, image-based, or multimedia format true interactivity has not been achieved as learners restricted to downloading the respective information were relegated into a passive receiver role. The emergence of learning facilitation programs, such as the Learning Management Systems not only promoted content transmission and administration options, but by establishing a framework for the learning process highlighted the increasing importance of the learner as well.

The rise of Web 2.0 -based electronic communities not only promotes greater participation via the respective open systems, but upgrades the user  from a mere receiver of information into a producer and editor of the given text eventually bringing about the e-Learning 2.0, learner-centred web environments.

This learning format regarding users as a knowledge development community utilises tools connecting network-provided content on a simple web surface. The theoretical background of e-learning Web 2.0 approaches and that of the principal learning theory of the digital era is provided by connectivism.

Today the electronic communities created by Web 2.0 services providing content elaborated, uploaded, shared, and reviewed by the users themselves have significantly impacted e-Learning schemes as well. Digitalization at first revolutionizing content processing and communication via localized media has facilitated the development of user centred web-based learning environments.

E-Learning 2.0 is a learner-centred irregularly arranged learning format in which the resulting learner autonomy and spontaneous knowledge exchange results not in a hierarchical scheme, but brings about a multi-directional, decentralized, multi-channeled approach promoting the creativity of the learner via collaborative knowledge acquisition.

The Concept of New Media

As a result of the wide-spread use of digital technologies superseding traditional, analogue technology-based, unidirectional mass communication formats the NEW MEDIA system developed. This approach not only facilitates bi-directional communication, but fundamentally changes the options for the acquisition, processing, and utilization of knowledge.

“The new media concept[5]  is an umbrella term for a communication approach based on digital network options while incorporating multimedia and interactive media contents in addition to novel individual and community action patterns”

The idea not only includes media convergence resulting from the digital fusion of mass and telecommunication approaches, but entails a certain type of media diversification and the full expansion of the functions of mass communication. Consequently, the concept known as consumer (user) generated content allows anyone possessing appropriate network competences to upload relevant information.

Interactive TeleVision  refers to an interactive learning format facilitated by the use of television, computer technology, and the rise of digital television.

Special mention must be made of the new pedagogical and methodological options provided by mobile, cellular, or handy communication tools not only enriching formal, but informal and non-formal learning schemes. Today these devices perform an  especially important function for disadvantaged  groups possessing  virtually no ICT competence

[..] endangered by exclusion, incapable of integration into the educational system, deprived of an opportunity to participate in traditional training and instruction schemes, perhaps unemployed, underemployed, or even homeless.”[6]

 

Media consumption habits, learning activities and information acquisition behaviour were initially characterised by such terms representing the fusion of education and entertainment as edutainment and infotainment. By now, this concept can be extended into info-instruction, entailing the acquisition of instructional content via info-communication devices.

Today we experience the convergence of various media types. It is not out of the ordinary to listen to the radio or watch the television via the Internet, while we can provide or share content with other users. Modern mass communication devices can optimize the most important channels of direct human communication with an ever-increasing efficiency.

These types of media, however, have always maintained a productive connection with the issues of teaching and learning. Having examined the union (media convergence) and independent proliferation (diversification) of various communication channels both pedagogy and andragogy have to meet the challenge of providing efficient support for the teaching and learning process.

This objective, however, has to be jointly realised by the Hungarian teacher, instructor, and researcher community as the availability of more and at the same time diversely applicable media systems in the field of education and in distance learning as well is a shared concern.

Forgó [et al.]: The road from Little Media via Big Media to Community Media

The primary objective of our empirical research project was the assessment of the
efficiency of the heretofore delivered courses in light of the new learning options. Presently
the respective research results are being processed and following a more sophisticated
statistical analysis the information will be used as starting points for other scholarly
inquiries. Our long term goals also include a comparison of the respective research results
with similar scholarly programs performed in Hungary and in other countries as well.
Finally, we can conclude that the integration of the new methods into the
methodological components of teacher training programs is expected to obtain a strategic
significance. The Eszterházy Károly College adopting such initiatives has proven to be a
pioneer in this field as teaching programs supported by network-based learning are being
continually offered and delivered in order to assure the highest possible standards and
potential perfection of the respective teaching efforts.
Keywords: multimedia, distance and blended learning, WEB 2.0, competence, learning
methods, educational technology

 Az új média fogalomköre

Az utóbbi évtizedben a média és az informatika egyre erősödő integrálódásának lehetünk tanúi. Nemcsak médiakonvergenciáról beszélünk, – mely a tömeg és telekommunikációs technológiák digitális egybefonódásán alapulva jött létre – hanem egyfajta média diverzifikációról mely a tömegkommunikációs médiumok funkcióinak kiteljesedését is jelenti. Például napjainkban – a hálózati kompetenciák birtokában, bárki szolgáltathat tartalmat [consumer (user) generated content].
Korábban az analóg médiával foglalkozó szakmák, napjainkban pedig a digitális feldolgozás is létrehozza a különböző szakterületeket. A hagyományos nyomtatás, a film és a média is különválasztotta a szakmákat. A nyomdász nem volt egyben riporter, az operatőr sem rendező, ill. adásrendező. Posztmodern világunkban kettős tendencia létezik: egyrészt a szakosodás a tömegkommunikációban (big Media), de megjelent az amatőr, ún. civil média (korábban W. SCHRAMM médiaszociológus little Media-ának nevezte), mely az internet révén egyre inkább polgárjogot nyer.
A hagyományos, elsősorban analóg technológián alapuló egyirányú tömegkommunikációs formákat követő digitális technológiák elterjedésével kialakult ÚJ MÉDIA-rendszer – melyben a kommunikáció kétirányúvá válik – révén alapvetően megváltozik a tudáshoz való hozzáférés, fogyasztás és felhasználás lehetősége. Az új média “a digitális hálózati kommunikáció révén létrejövő médiatípus átfogó neve. Az új média fogalma magába foglalja a multimédia és interaktív média jellegű tartalmakat, az újszerű egyéni és közösségi cselekvési formákat egyaránt”. (SZAKADÁT)
• Az új média fogalomkörét jól illusztrálja az alábbi megfogalmazása, miszerint a médiumok három nagy korszaka különböztethető meg: (BAILEY)
• 1870 – 1980 között: a Tömegkommunikációs médiumok (Mass media) (nyomtatott sajtó és elektronikus műsorszórás)
• 1990-es évek: médiumok tömege (Masses of media), melyek digitális kódolásúak,
• 2000-től: a saját média (Me media) (webnaplók)
• Napjaink közösségi médiájában (we Media) (BOWMAN, WILLIS), az interneten ma már különösebb végzettség nélkül lehet valaki operatőr-szerkesztő és egyben interneten publikáló is egy személyben.
• Az Új Média a hálózati multimédiás, interaktív (egyéni és közösségi cselekvési formákon alapuló) online megoldásokon túlmenően a mobiltelefonos (celluláris) és a digitális műsorszórás révén létrejött interaktív televíziózási megoldásokat is magába foglalja. (FORGÓ)
Az Interaktív TeleVízió (iTV) a televízión alapuló tanulás interaktív formájára elterjedt kifejezés, mely a számítógépes technológia és a digitális televíziózás adta lehetőségek révén interaktívvá válik. Külön kiemelendő a mobil (celluláris, handy) kommunikációs eszközök (készség) adta új pedagógia és módszertani lehetőségek, melyek már nemcsak a formális, hanem az informális és non-formális tanulás gazdagításához is hozzájárulnak.
Napjainkban kiemelten fontos szerepet tölthetnek be ezek az – a minimális IKT kompetenciákat átugorván – eszközök azok körében „[…] akiket a társadalmi kirekesztés veszélye fenyeget, akiknek nem sikerült beilleszkedni az oktatási rendszerbe, és akik most sem vesznek részt a tradicionális oktatásban vagy képzésben, esetleg munkanélküliek, képességeiknek nem megfelelő munkakörben dolgoznak, vagy hajléktalanok.” (BENEDEK)
A médiafogyasztás, tanulási tevékenység és információszerzés igénye kezdetben az oktatás és szórakozás határterültén kialakult edutainment (szórakoktatás), illetve és az infotainment (hírakoztatás) kifejezésekkel volt jellemezhető. Napjainkban ez kiterjeszthető az oktatási célú tartalom elsősorban infokommunikációs eszközökkel történő elsajátítására (info-oktatás).
A médiumfajták keveredésének korszakát éljük tehát, amikor hétköznapivá válik, hogy az interneten hallgathatunk rádióműsort, vagy akár televíziózhatunk is – tehetjük ezt akár oly módon, hogy a közösen készítünk a tartalmat vagy megosztjuk az információinkat másokkal. A modern tömegkommunikációs eszközök ma már a közvetlen emberi kommunikáció, leglényegesebb csatornáit egyre tökéletesebben közvetítik a befogadók számára.
Ezeknek a médiumoknak az oktatással, a tanítás-tanulás kérdéseivel külön-külön is eredményes volt a kapcsolata. A különböző területek egymásra találásával (médiakonvergencia) és önálló elterjedésével (diverzifikáció) arra kell választ adni a neveléstudománynak és az andragógiának, hogy, hogyan szolgálhatják hatékonyan az oktató munkát.
Tudomásul kell vennünk azt a tényt, hogy az elektronikus tanulás hálózati alapú új alulról szerveződő paradigmája már több éve jelen van a fiatalok körében. Sürgősen át kell gondolnunk, hogy az új médiarendszer és az e-learning 2.0-ás megoldások mennyiben alkalmasak az élethosszig tartó tanulás társadalmi, oktatáspolitikai kihívásainak megoldásában, segítésében.
Választ kell adnunk arra, hogy a webkettőn alapuló elearning 2.0 –ás alapú tanulási forma– rugalmassága, flexibilitása, szabadon (irreguláris, autonóm) szervezethetősége révén–képezheti e a közeljövőben a neveléstudományi szakmódszertani kutatások alkalmazások főáramát– , vagy egyfajta sarlatánságnak, áltudománynak (gerilla pedagógiának) tekintendő, azt amit nem a pedagógusok hanem a tanítványaik alkotnak meg és tesznek közzé a világhálón.
Ezt a tevékenységet a magyar pedagógus társadalomnak a kutatókkal karöltve kell elvégezni, hiszen a mi érdekünk, hogy a jövőben több és differenciáltan alkalmazható médiarendszereket használhassunk az oktatás minden területén.