What are the research activities with the theme of information technology?

Re-understanding of "theme activity-based teaching" in the new information technology curriculum reform

——Cross-time and space dialogue based on network platform

□/Feng Bohu

Thematic activity-based teaching, as a special teaching form in my country's new basic education curriculum reform, is used to stimulate students' interest, fully mobilize students' enthusiasm and participation, conduct cooperative learning, and develop students' individual characteristics. It is also becoming more and more popular. It is increasingly loved by the majority of primary and secondary school information technology teachers. However, "theme activity-based teaching" is only one of many teaching forms. If it reaches the point of "overflow", problems will inevitably arise! So, how do we correctly understand "theme activity-based teaching"? In order to clarify this issue, we use the method of dialogue across time and space based on the network platform to conduct further in-depth discussion and research on this issue.

1. Regarding the existing problems of "thematic activity-based teaching" in the new information technology curriculum reform

Li Yi (head of the national high school information technology curriculum standard group, professor and doctoral supervisor of Nanjing Normal University): From the recent experience From a personal perspective, thematic activity-based teaching tends to be overrun by stereotypes, as if otherwise it would not be able to reflect the requirements of the new curriculum. The main problem is that while thematic activity-based teaching is close to students' life experience and allows students to actively participate in the problem-solving process, it can easily cause a serious waste of time, reduce the content of classroom knowledge, skills, methods, etc., and students will also I feel that although the information technology courses are fun, I don’t learn much.

Feng Bohu: In my country's primary and secondary education and teaching reforms, "movement" behavior is often prone to occur, which is often referred to as "following the trend." In these "movement"-style "following the trend", what is the meaning of "theme activities"? This must be clarified. Teaching reform is not about "wearing clothes" and should not pay attention to "fashionable colors". As the saying goes: There are methods for teaching, but there is no fixed method. "Theme-based activity teaching" is by no means a universal teaching method that is universally applicable.

Zhang Jiujuan: In the process of implementing thematic teaching, although there have been some successful cases, there are still many problems. There are mainly two manifestations: First, the classroom atmosphere is active, but the classroom teaching is too "life-oriented", with too many theme inquiry activities and a lack of systematic and complete knowledge and content. The reason is that teachers have a superficial understanding of the new curriculum concept and pursue formality and mechanical application, which will inevitably lead to the emptying of the information technology curriculum concept. The second is to instill the content of teaching materials containing the general curriculum concept of information technology into students according to the old method, without exploring or not knowing how to explore, and wandering in confusion and confusion. This is because teachers have not studied the new curriculum in depth enough, the teaching design is not adequate, and they do not know how to properly integrate knowledge and skills with teaching sessions that focus on work needs.

Li Yi: The mistakes we made in our thinking and practice some time ago may have occurred as follows: (1) Past teaching focused too much on the teaching of knowledge and skills, and did not pay attention to the connection with the reality of life, scientific and technological progress, Social development has its drawbacks; (2) Thematic activity-based teaching is conducive to changing this situation, and is particularly good at being close to students' life experience; (3) We must all use thematic activity teaching; (4) At this time, mistakes occurred : Thematic activity-based teaching is a sufficient way to solve the problem that the past courses were divorced from reality, but it is not a necessary way. In other words, it is a sufficient condition, but not a necessary condition.

2. How to correctly understand “theme activity-based teaching” and its characteristics?

Feng Bohu: Through research on relevant literature found online in China Digital Journal, the meaning of "theme activity-based teaching" can be understood in this way: the so-called "activity" here refers to the concept in the sense of curriculum, It includes students' thinking activities, verbal activities and social physical activities; and "theme" means that each activity has an educational and teaching goal and points to a central customer. "Theme activity-based teaching", simply put, refers to designing and conducting teaching around a certain teaching theme and focusing on student activities.

Wanhong: The theme activities are a bit big, so we should do what we can. We have good resources, plenty of time, and a clear theme. You can try it.

Wantha: I think that with the development of theme activity-based teaching, we should no longer blindly follow the trend or simply pursue novelty. We should think deeply. We can analyze some typical lesson cases to find out whether they are successful or not. What are the experiences of successful ones, and what are the lessons of unsuccessful ones? See clearly its true face, and then consider whether to use it or not, and how to use it? Rather than simply affirming or denying it.

Liu Min: Every teaching method has its successes, and flaws are inevitable. Otherwise, there will be only one mode of teaching. Now, the key is not whether the method is good or bad, but how the user uses it. Different teachers will handle different teaching content differently. There should be different teaching methods. They cannot be limited to just one, nor can they be used. Abandon one of them, study the characteristics of theme activity-based teaching, and pay attention to and avoid its shortcomings and deficiencies in teaching.

Zhang Yibing: (1) "Theme-based" teaching has its advantages, but it is not without merit. In particular, the method's spirit of exploring new paths and seeking new horizons is worthy of recognition; (2) "Theme-based" teaching The shortcoming is naturally (it is easy to) "overwhelm the guest" - that is, use your own land to plant other people's fields; (3) The way out for "thematic" teaching is to "use your own land to plant your own fields" - why can't we design What about the exploratory “theme” of “information technology” itself?

Li Yi: In the jungle of any teaching model, the theme activity is just a grass or a tree. Taking it too seriously and using it too much is against the rules. As a side note, it has been proven that themed activities may be more suitable for the primary school level.

Feng Bohu: In order to verify Professor Li Yi’s statement, I searched for articles published in recent years involving activity-based teaching cases on information technology themes (data sourced from China Digital Journal Network): " He has published 8 articles on "Information Technology Education in Primary and Secondary Schools"; one article each on "Information Technology Education" and "Electronic Education in Primary and Secondary Schools". Among them, 5 are from primary school; 4 are from junior high school; and 1 is from high school. If the vision is expanded to other subjects, thematic activity-based teaching is more often used in kindergarten and primary school teaching. There are some in junior middle schools and lower grades, but very few in high schools. I think this must have its own rules that are worthy of analysis.

3. Analysis of typical cases of "theme activity-based teaching"

In order to find out the rules of the application of "theme activity-based teaching", we might as well analyze the typical cases (information technology disciplines) published publicly in recent years.

Case 1: "Changing 'learning' to 'using' to review the past and learn new things - Design of Word advanced editing unit-style theme activities" ("Information Technology Education in Primary and Secondary Schools", Issue 12, 2003). The theme is "I use a computer to run a tabloid" (the specific name is determined by the students). The teaching target is fifth-grade primary school students. ***16 class hours. The content is to use Word to create a "telephone newspaper" with pictures and texts, and to promote it. release.

The author Wang Xiqiang believes that the teaching content of information technology courses can be presented in the form of scattered links, similar to hyperlinks on the Internet. Therefore, this unique feature of information technology should be fully utilized in teaching design. In the teaching process of the text editing course, it is emphasized that while using Word to complete the course tasks, in addition to the cultivation of new knowledge and new skills, appropriate consideration should also be given to combining it with existing knowledge and experience. Focusing on this teaching idea and according to the specific situation of the students, a Word unit-themed activity learning plan is specially formulated.

(Analysis: Since the goal of the "Information Technology" course in primary school is to focus on cultivating students' interest in learning information technology and developing basic information habits, the learning tasks in terms of knowledge and skills are relatively small. Easy, the operational content is carried out in the form of theme activity teaching. Although it takes a long time, it is in line with the characteristics of primary school information technology teaching. )

Case 2: "The joyful experience of theme activity teaching" (" Information Technology Education in Primary and Secondary Schools, Issue 10, 2004). The theme is "Electronic Photo Album Production", and the teaching target is first-year junior high school students. The content of one class is to take pictures with on-site digital cameras and search for resources on the special learning website (pre-designed and produced), using an almost "fool-like" The software - "VideoStudio" is used to create electronic photo albums and train students' information collection, retrieval and processing abilities.

The author Wei Xiaoshan believes that thematic activity-based teaching is conducive to making the teaching content close to students' daily life, allowing students to gain direct experience around certain themes, enhance learning motivation, and develop creative abilities, so it is deeply loved by teachers and students. . His teaching experience after class is: (1) Beyond the textbooks, close to life, and stimulating enthusiasm; (2) Subject penetration, comprehensive application, and cultivation of literacy; (3) Online exploration, opening up time and space, and expanding evaluation. However, due to time constraints, only a rough work can be completed in class. After class, students can continue to modify and improve the work and upload it to the Internet.

(Analysis: Although this lesson is a more successful case of using "theme activity-based teaching" in information technology in junior high schools, from the choice of theme, we can see the difference between the performance of its content and the teaching materials. There is already a certain distance, especially in order to create opportunities for "little photographers to snap up wonderful moments and provide rich photo materials for the production of electronic photo albums later." In the classroom, "teachers and students participate in psychological games together: side effects." "Singing children's songs while performing finger movements" seems a bit funny and artificial. Secondly, the author himself also feels that the time of a class is rushed. I think that if the time of this theme activity is expanded to before and after class, teaching will be better. The effect will be further improved. )

Case 3: "How to grasp the theme inquiry activities" ("Information Technology Education in Primary and Secondary Schools", Issue 4, 2006). In the article, the author Zhang Jiujuan introduced two successful cases of "theme activity-based teaching" of high school information technology that she designed and practiced. It has better solved the performance problem of "theme activity-based teaching" of high school information technology.

The first example is the teaching of the "File Download" section. The author adopts the concept of actively "guiding students' inquiry process" to carry out reasonable teaching design and achieves good results. The method is as follows: clarify the problems and needs → determine the way to download the file → select the appropriate download tool → download the required files correctly → how to improve the efficiency of downloading.

After students have clear ideas and tasks, they can conduct independent exploration according to clues, which not only avoids blind exploration and saves classroom time, but also allows them to naturally understand and explore the value and ideas of technology during the learning process, and cultivate the ability to analyze problems. and problem-solving skills.

The second example is the teaching of the "Search Skills" section. The author breaks down and miniaturizes the "topics" by "setting up periodic small-theme exploration activities", which greatly improves the performance of classroom teaching. The author writes in the article: Many cases are large-scale theme activities, and the teaching of the entire unit is a big activity. I don't appreciate this design. Because in the process of completing this comprehensive task, some techniques and methods appear repeatedly and are simply repeated, but some key issues and some core skills and strategies may not be encountered in this activity, and these issues are very important to students. It is the focus and difficulty of learning.

(Analysis: Thematic activity-based teaching usually takes a long time to implement, and the high school information technology teaching tasks are relatively heavy, so the capacity problem of classroom teaching content will be more prominent. Therefore, break down the themes of thematic activities Or miniaturization will be a new way worth exploring. Teacher Zhang Jiujuan’s successful attempt was also advocated by Professor Li Yi earlier)

4. Several issues that should be clarified in the implementation of "theme activity-based teaching"

From the analysis of the above publicly published teaching cases, most of the "theme activity-based teaching" in the new information technology curriculum reform is suitable for Comprehensive practical content of "Information Technology" in primary schools. Regarding "theme activity-based teaching", although there are also cases where only one class is used, more often it takes one unit or even more than ten classes to complete. Therefore, usually when carrying out "theme activity-based teaching", it is necessary to fully Consider expanding the theme activities in time and space.

There are three ways to generate topics: generated by students; generated by teachers and students at the same time; specified by teachers.

The main theme activity modes include: (1) Theme deepening type. The activities revolve around a theme and are divided into several stages. Through stage learning, the theme is gradually advanced and deepened; (2) Theme radiation style. Focus on a theme and carry out activities related to the theme in content and form. There is little interaction between these activities, and each activity is not necessarily necessary and can be increased or decreased, but there is absolutely no sequence or logical relationship. The difference between the theme radiation type and the theme deepening type is that the theme radiation type requires the activities to be as rich and diverse as possible, as long as they are related to the theme, and there is no need for special combinations and arrangements between activities. There are not necessarily many types of activities with deep themes, but the activities must be able to connect, advance and deepen the theme; (3) Theme decomposition style. Determine a topic and decompose it into several sub-topics. The sub-topics can also be further decomposed into several sub-subtopics to complete it by yourself.

When deciding to adopt "theme activity-based teaching", you must first determine: (1) the activity goals of the theme activities; (2) the content of the theme activities; (3) the learning methods of the theme activities and implementation strategies. Secondly, during the implementation process, attention should be paid to: (1) The value positioning of the activity must be accurate and do not deviate from the theme and goal at will; (2) Pay attention to students' interests and allow students to actively participate in the activity; (3) The process of the activity must be Pay attention to students’ experiences and feelings, pay attention to the depth of experience, and don’t follow formalities.

References:

[1] Theme activity-based teaching has a tendency to spread. How about freezing it temporarily? Please discuss [DB/OL] http://61.155.107.154/ictedu/bbs/showthread.asp?threadid=210

[2] Wang Xiqiang. Change "learning" to "use" to review the past and learn the new - Word Senior editor unit-based theme activity design [J]. Information technology education in primary and secondary schools, 2003 (12)

[3] Wei Xiaoshan. The joyful experience of theme activity-based teaching [J]. Information technology education in primary and secondary schools , 2004 (10)

[4] Zhang Jiujuan. How to grasp the theme inquiry activities [J]. Information technology education in primary and secondary schools, 2006 (4)

[5] Li Jianbo. Theme Application of activity models in chemistry activity classes [J]. Journal of Ningbo University (Education Science Edition), 2001(6)