ТЕМА 11. THE INTERNET DISTANCE EDUCATION
TASK 1 Read and translate the text, using the dictionary, if necessary. Give a summary of the text in written form.
For the decades universities and colleges have been looking ways of offering courses to students who do not have access to the university campus, usually because of physical distance. The World Wide Web is beginning to see and develop activity in this regard and this activity increases dramatically every year. The Internet offers full university-level courses to all resisted students, complete with real-time seminars and exams and professors’ visiting hours. The Web is extremely flexible and its distance presentations and capabilities are always up-to-date. The students can get the test, audio and video of whatever subject they are willing to have.
Many educational resources already are available through the Web. Libraries are adding their catalogs and universities are posting information about degree programs in the Web. You can find research documents containing information about almost any subject. Before long (soon), travelling to a library to find this information may become a near obsolete venture (out-of-day practice). Instead students can find any information sources they need without leaving their desks.
After human teachers (tutors, educators), the Internet may represent the most important educational resource in the world providing (if) every student has got a computer. This is not the case, unfortunately. The Internet, as it stands now, is an exercise in the expansion of inequality. By and large, the students who have got access to the Internet already have access to well-supported schools, well-paid teachers and well-stocked libraries. Students who do not have access else either. The problem of getting classrooms online is often exacerbated (aggravated, made worse) by the presence of board members, administrators and teachers who don’t recognize that the educational values of computers and online communications far exceed the cost. Web pages can offer access to a world of information about the exchange with other cultures and communities and expert in every field.
The possibilities for education on the Web are amazing. Many college and university classes presently create Web pages for semester class projects. Research papers on many different topics are also available. Even primary school pupils are using the Web to access information and pass along news to other pupils. Exchange students can communicate with their classmates long before they actually arrive at their new school.
There are resources on the Internet designed to help teachers become better teachers – even when they cannot offer their students the benefits of an on-line community. Teachers can use university or college computer sнstems or home computers and individual Internet accounts to educate themselves and then bring the benefits of the Internet to their students by proxy (no доверенности).
There are other Internet applications: scheduling, inter-personal communication, meeting, international conferences and congresses – can be particularly valuable to teachers, students and others with an interest in education. Many Internet and education specific recourses make great inroads into creating information “on demand”. This page can be of special interest to college students or those who are heading for the university.
Task 2 Agree or disagree with the statements. Give your reasons for or against. (in written form)
1.Distance education has a lot of implications. 2. Distance education is very expensive for students studying in the correspondence course of the University. 3. Mathematicians often stress the general educational value of distance education through the Web. 4. Distance education classes are oriented towards mastering skills of professional communication. 5. English is viewed and taught as an actual means of communication among specialists from different countries. 6. Ordinary (rank-and-file) people can afford distance education. 7. Russia’s universities authorities participate in UNESCO congresses. 8. Information technological centres in Russia have access to the Internet. 9. Experts recognize and appreciate new technological achievements. 10. Distance education provides constant teacher-student link. 11. Not only written information from books and scientific articles but oral forms – lectures, discussions, and conferences – are available on the Web channels.
Read the following models. If you disagree with the answer, give your own version.
A) I am a student myself, but I prefer distance education.
B)Isn’t distance education too expensive for Russian students?
A) It is expensive, indeed but it is reasonable for residents in faraway towns, e.g., in Siberia.
B) What does its cost involve? As far as I know, the student ought to have his own personal computer.
A) Who can afford distance education?
B) Only students from well-to-do (very rich) families, that’s for sure. Nevertheless, millions of students all over the world have been studying and the distance education is quite successful.
A) I am a philologist and can take foreign language classes taught in the country where the language is spoken.
B) I am willing to participate in foreign languages classes. Can I?
A) On Internet Relay Chat Server, a number of Chat Channels conduct conversations in a language other than English. These channels are great places for students and teachers to practice their foreign language conversational skills.
B) Chat channels named after a country generally conduct the chat and converse in the native tongue, don’t they? To listen to and master the native language of the country is the dream of all today’s specialists in science and engineering.
A) I can recommend you Internet companies and education-specific resources that are available on the Web: Microsoft, Discovery, Windows 95, Center for Excellence in Education, Educational On-line Sources, Teacher Education, World Lecture Hall.
B) I see. There are advantages, merits, benefits, drawbacks of Internet education that are worth discussing in detail. We must it later.
Task 3 Discussion
Give your own version (in written form)
1. The advantages and disadvantages of distance education.
2. Compare the traditional well-grounded population education and distance education in Russia.
3. Describe the activities of your former schoolmates studying in distance education centres.