Electronic Educational Resources as a means of Forming Digital Competence of Junior Schoolchildren

Background and aim of study:

Nowadays the world is in the process of rapid informatization and digitalization of society in all its spheres. The spread of the coronavirus disease, known as COVID-19, has necessitated acceptance and adaptation to new teaching and learning conditions for educators. Educational institutions are responding to numerous prohibitions and quarantine rules with the transition to distance learning. This boom in distance education together with numerous reforms in Ukrainian education sector take a direction to formation key competences of learners. One of the most powerful sources today is digital technology, namely – digital learning resources, which include the competent use of the latest gadgets. Definitely, Ukrainian education system follows the experience of advanced European countries and implements many programs for the formation and development of digital competence, including at the educational level. The concept of New Ukrainian School provides for the widespread use of ICT by each teacher in their own professional activities, which is an essential way to update and informatize the education system of our country. This process is impossible without the systematic use of electronic educational resources during the educational process in educational institutions. The purpose of the article is to highlight the peculiarities of the use of educational electronic resources by students, future primary school teachers, in the process of studying the academic course Methods of teaching English with the aim of forming digital competence of junior schoolchildren. It is extremely relevant for students, future primary school teacher to acquire systematic knowledge and skills in order to use educational electronic resources during teaching practice and future professional activity at school.

Results:

Creative educators always try to keep up with the latest developments in innovative technologies; however, now humanity needs to generate new knowledge and new ideas to adapt to the current situation on the planet. It requires scientists and researchers to find and create new approaches and solutions for many sectors even those of primary education to make the learning process for children engaging but efficient. By educational electronic resources (EER) we mean information resources that can be presented in the form of text, infographics, audio, video data or combinations thereof, which reflect a particular subject area of education and are aimed at supporting the learning process, formation of knowledge, skills, abilities, and competences. Exploring EER of quick and simultaneous interaction between students and teachers, we use a popular mobile application Pear Deck. With its help, the teacher has the opportunity to simultaneously display images, presentations and videos on students’ smartphones prepared in advance. An exclusive advantage is the possible synchronization with the Google drive when the teacher uses one’s own saved materials (pictures, audios, videos, presentations, etc.) and instantly places them in the Pear Deck resource. The value of this resource for the teacher is in mobility, instant feedback, conducting anonymous surveys, displaying the results individually, etc. Kahoot proved to be another interesting and interactive resource, which integrates a game and testing. This EER is suitable for studying any discipline at any education institution. From our experience of distance learning, it showed its efficiency for tests, independent work, quick surveys, private and group discussions. In the process of the academic course Methods of teaching English students’ attention was also drawn to the use of EER Mentimeter and its wide range of educational opportunities. Just like Pear Deck and Kahoot it helps to organize interaction and feedback with all the participants in the learning process. The students practiced in creating their own content and displaying it on the screen; attempted to find out which topics were difficult and needed closer attention; invited groupmates to participate in the creation of word-clouds on the topic learned and even upcoming lesson planning. In the process of performing the tasks connected with the use of the mentioned EERs the students paid considerable attention to great potential of formation of digital competence alongside with the acquiring material of the subject.

Conclusion:

After analysis of some EER we attempt to conclude that they serve an effective means of forming digital competence of both junior schoolchildren and students, future primary school teachers in the process of learning the academic courses. Being provided with access to the virtual lesson through the QR code students enter it on their own devices, where they have the opportunity to process learning materials. The use of these platforms enables to manage time efficiently, perform quality formative assessment, analyze students’ academic achievements.

DOI and UDC:

UDC: 371.385.1-057.874:005.336.2-028.63 DOI: 10.26697/ijes.2020.2.4

Information about the authors:

Blyznyuk Tetyana Oleksandrivna – Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor at the Department of Pedagogy of Primary Education, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. Research interests: teaching English disciplines, innovative approaches to teaching, digitization of the educational process, modernization of higher pedagogical education and others; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0558-2201.