Digital School-How to build an educational system for the future
What is the digital or electronic school?
The basis of the concept of e-schools, its components and classes, and criteria for the success of the digital teacher
What is meant by the concept of digital school?
It is an electronic room used in educational processes based on the Internet, where communication networks and computers are used.
The aim of the digital school is to deliver information and knowledge through digital and electronic tools to students, whether they are inside or outside the school, and it has several characteristics, including:
Achieving the objectives of the education processes, and the educational material is a means for that, not an end.
The transfer of information from the teacher to the learner and the continuous development of curricula and educational programs.
Striving to achieve an education based on understanding the behaviors and characteristics of the student, taking into account the intellectual differences among the learners.
What are the electronic school units?
The e-school consists of several units, including:
Electronic sections: It is a set of activities that the teacher and the learner do together at the same time, but it is not required that they be in one place, and it is similar to the traditional activities, in addition to the electronic course.
Electronic libraries: It is a system that contains a comprehensive database that allows the curator to archive all paper and electronic sources, in addition to websites that provide search and borrowing operations via the Internet.
Electronic laboratories: – It is made up of simulated devices and equipment that allow students to conduct biological and chemical experiments.
Prerequisites for a digital school?
The digital school requirements are represented in the following points:
Personal pages for teachers and learners that contain identifying information about them and necessary to communicate with them.
A school calendar, which is a monthly calendar that is used to set dates for assignments, tests, and meetings as well.
Electronic references that contain websites related to the topics of the electronic course.
An e-mail center to provide the possibility of communication and interaction between the teacher and the learner.
The presence of an electronic guide that provides students with a detailed description of the course components and how to use it, in addition to providing answers to all their inquiries.
Electronic courses
An electronic course is a course that is designed according to computer-based learning materials and activities. It is also an educational content in which multimedia is used in the form of software, whether or not it depends on the Internet.
There are several standards that control course production, the most important and well-known of which is the addie standard, which has received wide popularity and great interest in course and educational content production processes.
Stages of producing digital curricula
The production of e-courses goes through three stages:
First development
At this stage, the ideas developed by educational materials experts and content designers are transformed into a complete educational product, and this is done through the processes of analysis first, then design and translation, which are represented in the following points:-
Analyzing the course and identifying the author’s needs.
Analyzing the personality of the student or learner, in addition to knowing and studying the obstacles to the learning process.
Analysis of the teaching process, which depends on analyzing the educational content and determining the level and types of educational objectives.
Design educational content that meets the specifications of flexibility, interaction and balance.
The content is then translated into a practical application where the page is created and set up.
Secondly, the application
This stage depends on providing support and assistance to the trainees to get to know the new e-learning content better, as they are trained to develop their skills and ability to use the new educational content.
III evaluation
At this stage, the accuracy, quality, and effectiveness of the content is verified. The evaluation stage consists of two stages:
Structural Evaluation: It consists in reviewing and evaluating the electronic course and collecting notes, starting from the first stage of its construction and production.
Statistical evaluation: This is done after the completion of the application, by conducting tests on it.
Virtual classes
A digital school requires digital or virtual classrooms. What are virtual classrooms?
Virtual classrooms, or what is called electronic classrooms, smart classrooms, global information network classes, or digital classes.
It is an environment for direct or indirect education, and this environment can be based on the web and can also be accessed through a portal or based on programs that require downloading and installation.
The teacher was able to explain the lesson in a virtual reality that he chooses to suit the lesson to be explained. He also makes semi-direct contact with his students and sends data to them, and he can make them live with the lesson without being restricted to a specific time or place.
Virtual classes are divided into two main types
Synchronous virtual classrooms
It is just like classrooms, in which the teacher and the student use tools and software linked to a specific time, and these tools include the white board, interactive video, chat rooms, and others.
The virtual classroom, then, is the meeting of the teacher and the students at the same time on the Internet through video conferencing and audio conferencing.
These programs also create synchronous virtual classes and contain many services such as chat rooms, live video and audio broadcasts, participation in programs, whiteboards, and others.
Asynchronous virtual classes
It can be defined as a traditional electronic classroom that takes place through the access of students and teachers to the Internet at different times.
What distinguishes this type is that all students work on the same content, but they do not meet at the same time.
This model of distance education is similar to traditional classes, but with the possibility of giving the opportunity to those who cannot attend to study through virtual classes via the Internet at the time of their choosing, without being restricted to a specific time or place, as it uses asynchronous software and tools such as correspondence. between students, e-mail, and discussion forums.
- Characteristics of virtual classrooms or effective digital classrooms:
- The possibility of direct communication (audio only or video).
- Activate the written conversation feature.
- Activate the private whiteboard.
- Direct participation of systems and applications, between the teacher and the students, or between the students.
- The ability to send and exchange files directly between the teacher and the students.
- Follow-up of the teacher and his communication with each student individually or with all students.
- Possibility of using electronic presentation programs.
- Use educational movie viewing programs.
- The property of displaying specific environments or situations.
- The possibility of directing written questions and voting on them.
- The feature of directing follow-up orders to what the teacher presents to the students.
- The power to allow the student to enter or remove him from the classroom.
- The power to allow speech or not.
- The property of allowing printing or storing data.
- Possibility to record the lecture.
What are the tasks required of the teacher in the digital school?
The tasks of the teacher in the digital school are multiple, perhaps the most important of which are the following:
- Determine the educational objectives that it seeks to achieve with the utmost accuracy and transparency
- Choosing or setting up evaluation methods to measure the extent to which these objectives are being achieved.
- Monitor students’ attendance and academic progress.
- Organizing the learning environment and making it comfortable and cooperative.
- Motivate students to learn and encourage them to engage and participate in classroom activities.
- Assign students to do exercises, activities and projects.
- Ask questions that develop understanding and thinking, and accept answers, no matter how wrong they are.
- Organizing class interaction and discussions between him and his students and between students with each other.
- Providing academic assistance and guidance to students and solving their academic problems.
- Guide students to additional learning resources on the network.
- And what are the tasks of the student in the digital school
As for the student’s tasks in the virtual classes, besides his basic task of commitment and seriousness in learning, there are other tasks that he must follow up.
- See the objectives of the lessons and courses that he seeks to achieve.
- Follow the lessons and focus on them.
- Adhere to the proposed rules of conduct during the stage.
- Doing exercises, activities and projects.
- Ask questions and discussions.
- Participate in discussions and dialogue.
- See additional learning resources on the network.
- compatibility with the chosen classroom environment.