Information technologies are developing at a breathtaking speed. Sadly, Internet is scarcely used in Ukrainian education. Meanwhile, it is quite popular with young people. Often students use the Internet to learn a lot more than a textbook can contain, and sometimes teach teachers themselves. What is left for teachers, then? Keeping abreast with students!
Today, the priorities are changing, and the usual dichotomy “I am the teacher, you are the student” is replaced with a postulate “We are friends.” The teacher’s prestige is gained not only due to the command of the subject, but also due to erudition, talent, and ability to enthrall the students with universal knowledge and use of advanced technologies.
Wishing to get his students interested in his subject, one of the history teachers in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, Yaroslav Bakhmatiuk, started developing computer programs based on the themes of his lessons. He wasn’t discouraged by his lack of programming experience.
In two months he wrote his first virtual project lesson in history for grade 7, on the topic “Medieval Castles and Their Inhabitants.” The teacher saw that such virtual lessons can become the basis of education in the future. His lesson delighted not only students, but also the forum of innovative teachers Partnership in Education. Bakhmatiuk is now to represent our country at the European contest for innovative teachers, which will be held in Cape Town in October this year.
The Day’s journalist also visited a presentation of the innovative lesson.
A NEW STYLE
The innovative lesson starts with a film made on a topic from the curriculum. The teacher makes a thematic selection of pictures, records the soundtrack, and adds relevant illustrations. In giving his lesson, Bakhmatiuk demonstrated all his creativity. Like a true animator, he created illustrations, dubbing the cartoon background with his story.
The lesson is recorded on a disc, and assigned for home viewing as homework. The material is presented in such a way that a student can learn the information by himself. In class, the video is reproduced on a sheet.
The lesson begins with a photo presentation of a medieval castle to the accompaniment of classical music. On the foreground, the teacher placed a photo of himself clad in medieval armor. He stands on one knee holding a coat of arms and a flag in his hands. The flag is decorated with the inscription, “Presentation for students of grade 7.”
The teacher is convinced that humor works very well in the classroom, and even the students in the back will look up to see why everyone else is laughing. Thus, he gets the student’s attention focused on the next part of the lesson.
After announcing the topic of the lesson, the teacher hands out tests. The level of correct answers given during his virtual story allows the teacher to eva-luate the students’ knowledge. Meanwhile, a new slide appears on the monitor: against the background of a castle there are three topics: “Excursion to castles (construction, defense, conquests),” “Life of a knight,” “Treatment of a woman in the Middle Ages.” The audience chooses the latter. A story begins. The teacher’s digitally recorded voice recites: “Religious pre-judice made women the main reason of the fall from grace.”
The comment is accompanied by a relevant illustration: “Banishment from the Garden of Eden,” a fragment of one of Michelangelo’s murals. “As a source of sin, women were bereft of any rights,” the voice continues describing what is going on on the screen, “those that are particularly willful, or simply beautiful, are burned at the stake.
“During the time of crusades, the situation of women in noble families of Europe somewhat improved. The epoch demanded heroic deeds, and therefore woman came to the foreground as a personification of a sublime goal, worthy to fight for with all the selflessness knights were capable of.”
The students watch the lesson like an exciting cartoon. One has to do justice to the author: the images are not overloaded with unnecessary details, their fragments are clear and simple in composition. The teacher aspires to render the spirit of the epoch and therefore chooses the illustrations of bare stone interiors of the castle, and “dresses” his characters in medieval fashions.
“The tradition to prolong certain elements in clothes came to absurdity,” says the comment on the next slide, showing an image of a medieval dandy. The tips of his boots are so long that they have to be tied to the knees, otherwise the boots are not functional. This is something exotic for the children of today, it is readily perceived by them and sends their imagination reeling, stimulating them to create images and think.
The entire lesson is built in such a way as to engage not only memory, but also sight and hearing, into the perception of new material, thus promoting emotional perception.
Covering a large amount of material in course of a lesson, the teacher dwells on the most important features of the Middle Ages. Thus, during the class the children can see troubadours and minstrels on the screen. They played a great role in establishing the cult of a noble or unattainable, pure women. The troubadours adopted and glorified respect and love for women in their songs, thus fostering courtly culture.
This fragment of the lesson ends with reflections and comparison with modern times. The test includes a relevant question, “Is there any correspondence between the modern respectful treatment of woman and the medieval cult of the Fair Lady? If so, what is it?” And indeed, the students have some intellectual challenges.
BECOMING A KNIGHT
After the presentation of the new material, the teacher suggests fixing the new knowledge in an exciting way — to play a virtual educational game, “The Keys of Fort Bard.” The game is designed in such a way that one cannot proceed further unless a correct answer is given.
The teacher divides the class into two teams. The student next to the screen is the captain. He or she consults the team, but makes his or her own independent decisions. The team that made a mistake yields to the rivals. The one that is the first to get to the finish is the winner.
“To get into a medieval castle, one has to have a perfect command of medieval terms and notions, so that not to attract attention and betray oneself as an alien,” explains the teacher.
Again, a program is launched. The first task in the game is to find the entrance to the castle. The slide shows the massive architecture of a fortress, and it is very hard to spot the entrance. It is not without some difficulty that the captain finds an inconspicuous gate and touches it on the screen. Thus he finds himself in front of the gates to the castle.
In the next slide the captain is met by the guards who demand a pass (the variants pop out on the screen): a passport, a coat of arms, or a letter of introduction. The teams are deep in thought. A passport in the Middle Ages? This thought only provokes a smile. A letter of introduction would seem more realistic, but it is a common knowledge that few people could read or write back then. However, every knight had his own coat of arms — so we choose this option. Bingo!
The captain failed the third stage because he didn’t know how the main entrance gate worked. His mistake is accompanied by another slide: against the background of the inner yard of the fortress there is a character tied to a stake with a pile of firewood under his feet — that is, so to speak, our captain who pleads from the screen, “Oh please let me go! I’ll study history more, I promise!” And with a smile, one team yields to the other.
At the end of the class, the teacher gives out home assignment. He tells the students to draw a picture on the topic or create a model of what they have seen, e.g., a mini replica of the medieval costume, or prepare their own presentation on the Middle Ages. The teacher is happy to see the brave ones who flock together and develop entire presentation programs, like the one they have just seen in class.
The next stage in studying the topic, according to the teacher’s design, is a field trip: going on a real-life tour of Ukrainian castles. Fortunately, there are quite a few of them in western Ukraine.
THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION IS IN PEDAGOGICAL UNITY
Bakhmatiuk believes that a teacher’s goal is to teach children to think. Therefore, he offers permanent experiments and sees the future of education in a free access to high-quality, interesting Internet lessons.
In the innovator’s opinion, the first task for teachers must at last become the development of web classes, since they do not exist in Ukraine yet.
“My experience at the European forum allows me to say that our teachers are engaged in different activities than our European counterparts. We have to create the educational content on our own: presentations, curricula, tests, while in Europe educators merely apply the ready-made solutions in class.
“However, I realize what country I live in, so I suggest an intermediate option — to join the efforts of the best educators and web designers in order to create a truly strong, innovative educational program.”
