Current challenges to the digitalization of higher education in Ukraine

The article examines the peculiarities of digitalization of the educational process of higher education institutions of Ukraine and reveals the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was found that modern world challenges have become a turning point for rapid innovations in the field of education. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique opportunity for the unprepared introduction of digital technologies into the educational process, and with the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the digital format of education became almost the only opportunity to obtain higher education. It is noted that in the conditions of digitization of the educational process, distance education has become more and more widespread, the specialty of which is the provision of educational services through the use of modern information and communication technologies in education. The authors emphasize the advantages of distance learning in higher education institutions of Ukraine, the main ones being: temporal, geographical, psychological, ergonomic ones and others. It is highlighted that the problematic aspects in the process of organizing distance learning are related to: the need for high internal motivation of the student; the problem of quality control of education and academic dishonesty; technical flaws; the problem of student identification; lack of live dialogue with the teacher; lack of digital competences, etc. Based on the analysis of secondary data, the dynamics of processes related to the use of digital distance learning technologies in the conditions of nationwide quarantine are outlined; also analysed are the factors that negatively affect the quality of implementation of digital learning technologies in higher education institutions. It was emphasized that owing to digitalization, the educational process becomes more personalized, mobile, accessible and flexible. The authors analysed the opinions of students, professors and educational management in order to see the chronological development of e-learning all over Ukraine and in a particular city of Ukraine in the period 2020–2022. The general opinion in the dynamics is that the quality of e-learning is improving, however the local trends are that students need to improve self-management skills, they demand more practically-oriented tasks in digital mode which can potentially develop better digital competence to navigate through elaborate e-learning environments and feel more confident in learning as it is

Educational potential of mass media: reality and prospects for e-learning

The article is devoted to educational, informative and cognitive functions of mass media. The paper discusses a modern scope of the use of various media in teaching activities, as well as the need and motivation of public administration students to use the educational potential of the media. The paper outlines didactic prospects of newspaper materials, radio, TV and the Internet. Analysing and discussing mass media materials in practical classes on socio-humanistic sciences boosts students’ cognitive activity and develops general and professional competences

Cloud technologies for training university students of socio-humanitarian specialties and public administration

The article discusses the current state of cloud technologies and examines their in training students on socio-humanitarian and public administration courses. The research deals with the essence, features and functions of «cloud», «cloud computing» and «cloud technologies». It outlines the structure of university cloud-oriented educational environment by defining its components, subjects and objects of architecture. Discussed are the specificity and ways in which to employ cloud tech- nologies to improve the efficiency of training students on socio-humanitarian specialties and public administration. Relying on the analysis of their sociological research and secondary data, the present authors outline the most popular cloud services used in times of forced transition to distance learning mode. The article analyses the existing software products based on the cloud computing system, as well as the advantages and affordances of each of them when applied in the training of students of socio-humanitarian specialties and public administration at universities. The research pinpoints the challenges in university functioning which can be quickly overcome by virtue of cloud technologies

Internet Blogs’ Potential in Education

The paper is devoted to general aspects of an Internet blog as an educational instrument and its prospects in education. The authors touch upon the connection between demographic challenges and the current educational trends, showing the main skills of Generation Z. A blog as a teaching tool can be broken down into a number of categories. The paper also discusses in short a few popular blogging platforms

Blog podróżniczy jako narzędzie dydaktyczne podczas lekcji języka angielskiego jako drugiego (nieojczystego)

Current stage of ICT development necessitates the improvement of teaching tools, skills, and learning outcomes. The article discusses bright educational prospects of travel blogging for students of English as a second language (ESL). The authors suggest a short theoretical overview of research into travel blogosphere’s educational opportunities, while discussing a classification of travel blogs according to the type of sender vs receiver communication. On a wide and modern textual material the article considers such prominent features of travel storytelling as polysemantic vocabulary, compact meaning representation, strategies to present cultural information and verbal creativity which can be of true interest for students of B2 level and above. The readers can also learn about a few forms of activity with travel stories which are individual special sampling with some specific focus (pun, irony, creative instances of word building), presentation of foreign culture by means of English, project work for a small group of enthusiasts, sampling stories by country, by area or by activity, and presenting one concise story to the classroom, as their own post or a paper brochure.Obecny etap rozwoju technologii informacyjno-komunikacyjnych stwarza możliwość doskonalenia narzędzi dydaktycznych, umiejętności i badania efektów uczenia się. Artykuł omawia szerokie perspektywy edukacyjne, jakie daje wykorzystanie blogów podróżniczych podczas lekcji języka angielskiego jako drugiego (nieojczystego) (ESL). Autorki dokonują krótkiego przeglądu teoretycznego badań nad blogosferą podróżniczą i przedstawiają klasyfikację blogów podróżniczych według rodzaju komunikacji między nadawcą a odbiorcą. Na tym materiale tekstowym artykuł rozważa tak znaczące cechy blogów podróżniczych, jak: słownictwo tematyczne, strategie prezentacji informacji kulturowych i językowa kreatywność, które mogą być interesujące dla uczniów realizujących poziom B2 lub wyższy. Autorki przedstawiają również kilka propozycji pracy indywidualnej uczniów z opowieściami podróżniczymi podczas lekcji. Proponowane formy pracy obejmują: ćwiczenia lingwistyczne (gry słowne, ironia, tworzenie słów), prezentację innej kultury za pomocą języka angielskiego, pracę projektową (dla zainteresowanych), napisanie własnego tekstu blogowego lub stworzenie broszury papierowej zawierającej relację podróżniczą z danego kraju

ICT in Higher Education Teaching: Advantages, Problems, and Motives

This paper analyzes some results of a survey for university professors and university management, held by the international research team within the European IRNet Project: International Research Network for study and development of new tools and methods for advanced pedagogical science in the field of ICT instruments, e-learning, and intercultural competences. The survey researched motivation and aims of professors from the Dniprodzerzhinsk State Technical University – official partner of the project. The article reveals professors’ beliefs and preferences about ICT-aided learning as well as it analyzes advantages, problems, and motives of the introduction of ICT in higher education teaching

Discussion Papers on the Topic of More Adequate and Effective ICT Tools Category: Tools for Making Didactic Videos

The article describes some preliminary results of the implementation of Work Package 4 (WP4) “Selection and testing new ICT tools” within a framework of the international research network IRNet and researchers from partner institutions from Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Australia. These results concern analyzing and studying some categories of ICT tools for making didactic videos. The whole package period was divided into several main stages 1-5. The role of multimedia in teaching is considerable since they offer various information presentation formats simultaneously. The advantage of combining text, audio, images, animation, video and hyperlinks lies in the use of both main channels - visual and verbal - for making didactic videos in an efficient way. Features of an effective presentation and examples of computer programs which may be used for this purpose have also been shown in the paper. The authors presented a ranking list based on the quality and quantity assessment of choosing ICT tools, proposed some recommendations of features of good didactic videos and analyzed some mistakes users make most frequently while elaborating didactic videos

Report on the Implementation of WP3 “Analyses and Evaluation of the ICT Level, E-learning and Intercultural Development in Every Participating Country” in the Framework of the IRNet Project

This article, prepared by an international team of authors - researchers from different scientific areas, connected with ICT, e-learning, pedagogy, and other related disciplines - focuses on the objectives and some results of the IRNet international project. In particular, this article describes the research tools, methods and some procedures of the WP3 “Analyses and Evaluation of the ICT Level, E-learning and Intercultural Development in Every Participating Country”: Objec- tives, Tasks, Deliverables, and implementation of research trips. Except that, the article presents more important events, such as (video)conferences, semi- nars, workshops, an e-round table debate; among these events are ICTE2014, DLCC2014, “New Educational Strategies in Modern Information Space,” “High- tech information educational environment,” during which some more important results of the project research were presented. The list of publications includes 32 papers and a manuscript with WP3 results. Researchers from Poland, Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovakia, Portugal, Czech Republic and Australia analysed the results of WP3 in the context of the next stages and Work packages of IRNet project - International Research Network