Media education and mathematics

1. Media education andmathematics Alla Stolyarevska The Eastern-Ukrainian Branch of the International Solomon University, Kharkov, Ukraine © Stolyarevska A., 2007

2. Abstract • We consider the usage of the computer technologies at education as a part of media education. • The computer technologies are a set of methods directed on delivering, processing and storage of the information by means of computer. • The concrete methodical recommendations with using the computer technologies are developed at studying a course of higher mathematics in the International Solomon University.

3. About International Solomon University • The Eastern-Ukrainian Branch of ISU provides preparation of the students on specialty "Software of automated systems". • The grounds of studying are the plates of classical mathematics. • One of the new directions in studying connects with the mathematical packages. We apply the mathematical package Derive. • The process of training provides an active students’ mastering the material of the course of higher mathematics. The study of mathematics on the basis of mathematical packages we classify as a deductive method that specifies the general way of the decision of different problems. The methods of training on the basis of mathematical packages are realized through the inclusion of the system of laboratory works. They are directed on formation of the generalized conceptual receptions on the basis of stimulation of cognitive activity.

4. Media education – an agent of change • Education in general is of high significance in an information society. Life-long learning replaces traditional education and curricula. • Education is a process from heteronomy to autonomy. This requires a critical approach to oneself and to society. Through media education students can develop these skills. • Now we can use the following terms: media education, media literacy education, and media literacy. Media literacy is seen as outcome of media education. Some also differentiate between media education and media literacy education. Media education is at times divided into two components consisting of education through media and education about media.

5. UNESCOdefinition • According to the definition of UNESCO media education “deals with all communication media and includes the printed word and graphics, the sound, the still as well as the moving image, delivered on any kind of technology”. Media education enables people to gain understanding of the communication media used in their society and the way they operate and to acquire skills in using these media to communicate with others. Media education ensures that people learn how to • analyze, critically reflect upon and create media texts; • identify the sources of media texts, their political, social, commercial and/or cultural interests, and their contexts; • interpret the messages and values offered by the media; • select appropriate media for communicating their own messages or stories and for reaching their intended audience; • gain, or demand access to media for both reception and production”. UNESCO (1999) “Educating for the Media and the Digital Age” http://www.elearningeuropa.info/doc.php?ing=1&id=595&docIng=1 (with date of 01/09/04).

6. Different works • Lemke J.L., 1997, “Metamedia literacy: transforming meanings and media”: all literacy is a multimedia literacy. You can never make meaning with language alone, there must always be a visual or vocal realization of linguistic signs that also carries non-linguistic meaning. • According to him all semiotics is multimedia semiotics, and all literacy is multimedia literacy. The most defining characteristic of new multimedia documents with their hypermedia structure and interactivity is to determine a modality of presenting information that differs from the traditional documents.

7. Different works • Gutierres M.A., 2003, “Multimedia Authoring as a Fundamental Principle of Literacy and Teacher Training in the Information Age”:Multimedia literacy is not an addition to alphabetic or audiovisual literacy, rather it integrates them while contributing characteristics of its own derived from interactivity, namely those of interpretation and association. On one hand it produces the convergence of languages and media, and on the other it substantially changes the context and conditions of reception/absorption.

8. Mathematics Education Library • This book offers a new conceptual framework for reflecting on the role of information and communication technology in mathematics education. • The authors - Borba and Villarreal - provide examples from research conducted at the level of basic and university-level education, developed by their research group based in Brazil, and discuss their findings in the light of the relevant literature. Arguing that different media reorganize mathematical thinking in different ways, they discuss how computers, writing and speech transform education at an epistemological as well as a political level.

9. The pedagogical approach • Modeling and experimentation in the book are seen as pedagogical approaches which are in harmony with changes brought about by the presence of information and communication technology in educational settings. • Examples of research about on-line mathematics education courses, and Internet used in regular mathematics courses, are presented and discussed at a theoretical level. In this book, mathematical knowledge is seen as developed by collectives of humans-with-media. • The authors propose that knowledge is never constructed solely by humans, but by collectives of humans and technologies of intelligence. Theoretical discussion developed in the book, together with new examples, shed new light on discussions regarding visualization, experimentation and multiple representations in mathematics education.

10. Mathematics’ studying • Mathematics continues to grow, spreading into new fields and creating new applications, in its open-ended search for patterns. Several factors – the growth of technology, increased applications, impact of computers, and expansion of mathematics itself - have combined in the past century to extend greatly both the scope and the application of the mathematical sciences. The changes must be reflected in the schools if our students are to be well prepared for tomorrow's world. • Mathematics is a language and science of patterns. As a language of patterns, mathematics is a means for describing the world in which we live. In its symbols and vocabulary, the language of mathematics is a universal means of communication about relationships and patterns.

11. An education in mathematics • To be well informed as adults and to have access to desirable jobs, students today require an education in mathematics that goes far beyond what was needed by students in the past. • All students must develop and sharpen their skills, deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts and processes, and hone their problem-solving, reasoning, and communication abilities while using mathematics to make sense of, and to solve, compelling problems. • All students need a deep understanding of mathematics; for this to occur, rigorous mathematical content must be reorganized, taught, and assessed in a problem-solving environment.

12. A computer education approach • While studying mathematics we propose a computer education approach based on students and teachers as multimedia authors as an alternative to the norm, which is to think of learners as users of general purpose programs. • Our approach relates computers to alphabetic and audiovisual languages and is more congruent with the world of multimedia communication in which the modern day individual will have to perform. • That’s why in the scientific teacher training we propose to include learning the operation of equipment and such software as the mathematical packages, however these subjects must be approached with predetermined objectives, with the intent of using them as tools, and with an idea of what we want to do with those tools. In this way will we prevent the means becoming the ends. • In addition to this scientific training common to other professionals, the educator needs educational training about ICTs, to analyze their potential as educational resources, and the advantages and disadvantages of new media in teaching.

13. Computer &Textbook • Such approach allows coming to such form of education at which the computer and the textbook are in parallel used in educational process • Advantages of this form: it combines successfully the basic property of the textbook - availability and the basic property of a computer – a high quality of presentation of information. • According to it the students perform in searches of the educational information either to a computer, or to the textbook at their desire, i.e. at work on a computer they can use the textbook, and at reading the textbook - to address to the computer information. • The skills of the user, the certain level of knowledge in the basic subjects allow the student to use a computer as the basic means of training. At absence of similar skills prime means of training will be traditional, and the skills connected to application of a computer to students should be got in parallel with the studying the basic subject.

14. The using ICTs is effective • The similar form of training puts on the qualitatively higher level all process of training which basic components become the contents of training, activity of teaching and learning. • The contents of the course of higher mathematics act now as one of the basic sources of knowledge and stimulate the students’ cognitive interest. Activity of the learning receives a direction on formation of skills to acquire new knowledge and to apply them in various situations. • Use of system Derive lifts cognitive independence of students on a creative level. To the teacher which activity is directed not simply on the control of knowledge and skills trained, and requirements grow by diagnostics of their activity, rendering of the duly help by the qualified actions, elimination of were outlined difficulties in knowledge and application of knowledge. • The analysis of philosophical and pedagogical bases of using ICTs has shown, that their introduction as a method of training is capable to increase qualitatively all components of process of training to mathematics.

15. The scientific conference

16. Conclusion • Generalizing the received results, we came to a conclusion, that, since the first course, it is necessary to apply new computer technologies which are ICTs, in teaching mathematics at studying theoretical bases and for the decision of mathematical problems, combining various forms of the audience works with independent activity of students.