The Values in Educational Carriers of Culture

Transcription

The Values in Educational Carriers of Culture
Elżbieta Perzycka
The Values in Educational Carriers of Culture. Trust
ISBN 978-83-7972-005-7
Elżbieta Perzycka
The Values
in Educational Carriers
of Culture
Trust
Szczecin 2015
Edit
Elżbieta Perzycka
The values in educational carriers of culture.
Trust
Szczecin 2015
Edit by Elżbieta Perzycka
Reviewer Prof. dr hab. Alla Matuszak
Publication funded by the University of Szczecin
under the Project 7 Framework Programme Marie Curie Action,
People nr 318759
Title: Stimulators and Inhibitors of Culture of Trust in Educational Interactions
Assisted by Modern Information and Communication Technology
ISBN 978-83-7972-005-7
Printed by:
wydawnictwo naukowe uniwersytetu szczecińskiego
Wydanie I. Ark. wyd. 8,0. Ark. druk 9,0. Format B5.
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................
7
Chapter I. Trust in textbooks (Zbigniew Talaga) ..................................................................... 11
1.1. Introduction...................................................................................................... 11
1.2. Textbooks in the perspective of trust . ............................................................ 11
1.3. Legal acts and their influence on the trust in textbooks ................................ 14
1.4. Textbooks in the perspective of pedagogical idea . ........................................ 16
1.5. The specificity of academic textbooks ........................................................... 19
1.6. Textbooks in the light of technological developments.................................... 21
1.7. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 23
Chapter II. Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
(Agnieszka Jankowska) . .............................................................................................. 25
2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 25
2.2. Modern discussion about trust – trust today .................................................. 26
2.3. Computers in schools and strategies of building trust in computers ............. 29
2.4. “Human” face of the computer ....................................................................... 34
2.5. Trust in the computer as a teaching aid ......................................................... 36
2.6. The risks of computerization and distrust in computers . .............................. 38
2.7. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 40
Chapter III. Being and Web. Trust in the Internet (Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek) . ................... 43
3.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 43
3.2. Structure of “Being-in-the-Web” . .................................................................. 49
3.3. The acquisition of “digital” competencies for “Being-in-the-Web” ............. 54
3.4. Trust in the “Web” – the result of the wide availability
or “digital” stratification? ............................................................................... 58
3.5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 61
Chapter IV. Interactive whiteboard in education (Barbara Żakowska) ................................. 67
4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 67
4.2. All that matters is trust ................................................................................... 68
4.3. Brain in the digital world ................................................................................ 69
4.4. Time for interactive whiteboard ..................................................................... 70
4.5. The study ........................................................................................................ 70
4.6. Why interactive whiteboard should be used? . ............................................... 72
4.7. The use of the interactive whiteboard with other external devices ............... 76
4.8. How does the use of the interactive whiteboard may look like in practice? 77
4.9. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 82
Chapter V. Guarantees of public trust in video and online games (Sandra Malinowska)..... 87
5.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 87
5.2. Trust as a foundation for the use of the potential
of video and online games .............................................................................. 87
5.3. Historical evolution of video games ............................................................... 90
5.4. Classification of video games . ....................................................................... 92
5.5. Classification of video game rating systems .................................................. 94
5.6. Trust in video and online games
in selected Polish legal system regulations ....................................................100
5.7. XBOX console as an object of trust of a player
in creators and other online game users .........................................................103
5.8. Video and online games as a medium of education .......................................106
5.9. Conclusion ......................................................................................................109
Chapter VI. Trust in educational TV programs
(Agata Draszkiewicz, Magda Piwowarska) ................................................................. 113
6.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................113
6.2. Structuration theory – television as an institution and the company ............115
6.3. Television as a medium of education . ............................................................119
6.4. Television – a threat or opportunity for the development ..............................120
6.5. Trust in educational TV programs .................................................................122
6.6. Analysis of selected educational TV programs
for children of early and middle childhood ....................................................124
6.7. Conclusion ......................................................................................................128
References . .................................................................................................................................. 131
Introduction
This book is intended for all interested in raising awareness of the information society regarding the evolution of a culture of trust in educational interactions. It was created thanks to the project under Marie Curie Action, People
called Stimulators and Inhibitors of Culture of Trust in Educational Interactions
Assisted by Modern Information and Communication Technology, No. 318759
and as a result of many conversations and discussions about trust in digital media
in the context of the following theories: 1) critical and emancipator pedagogy,
2) social constructivism, 3) multimedia learning, 4) curricular and extracurricular
exploration in non-formal education, 5) value pedagogy, 6) pedagogical aspects
of evaluation and 7) pragmatic pedagogy.
Trust of people coming into mutual interactions becomes of significant importance in social development. In this context, Schweer and Thies (2003) developed a theory of interpersonal trust between teachers and students. Their psychological approach assumes that there are no generally known factors that may
predict the development or lack of development of trust in all people in certain
situations. Every person and every situation creates conditions for mutual interaction in the culture of trust or does not allow for them to occur. In any situation
in which we trust or distrust other people, we make certain predictions or assumptions concerning their future behavior. Sociologists say that trust is a kind
of bet on future actions of other people (Sztompka, 2002, p. 310). It is we, our
knowledge and our experiences that determine the trust put in people, situations
and rules (Sztompka, 2013).
In social relations of interaction there are different types of trust with regard
to people: 1) personal trust – in specific individuals (e.g. I trust that a friend that
I invited to my house, will not rob me); 2) positional trust – in specific social roles, positions, regardless of who performs them (e.g. I trust the dentist that he will
fix my teeth); 3) commercial trust – in goods and services (e.g. I trust that I will
not be poisoned if I eat food products with valid ‘best before’ date): 4) technolo-
The values in educational carriers of culture. Trust
gical trust – in technical systems (e.g. I trust that the mail will reach its recipient);
institutional trust – in any institution such as a hospital, bank, school; 5) system
trust – in the entire social and education system (e.g. democracy) and in the economy (e.g. information) (Sztompka, 2002, p. 312).
The source of our trust is rooted in very early childhood. Certainly, it is influenced also by our subsequent experience – even a trustful person can become
distrustful after being disappointed many times in important matters. Much depends on the objects that are trusted. Firstly, the most important is the credibility
of the trust addressee. The next important aspect is the culture that we live in.
There are societies which are dominated by the attitude of trust – the majority of
people living in these societies think, for example, that computers can be provided for use by unattended students in the school hallway (Norway). The dominant
behavior (standard) in such societies is to “trust others, assuming that they are
credible until they prove differently” (Sztompka, 2013, p. 268). If the foundations
of order are disrupted by introducing sudden and fundamental changes, it causes
the sense of danger and anxiety and, consequently, increases caution rather than
trust. It happens that our trust may be at risk. It is not always possible for trust in
people and rules learned at home to be put in other persons, objects or systems.
Therefore, it is better not to trust in new situations. This case includes digital
information carriers and their digital resources. Reliable information increases
the ability to predict and may be the basis for trust, while inaccurate information
disturbs the safety and causes threat, which in turn increases the uncertainty of
being and living.
A very important role in shaping the culture of trust is social capital, which
is a set of (often informal) norms, values and interdependencies, enabling for
more effective joint action. And the following chapters of this book present the
most important values and norms in this matter. It starts by discussing the specifics of formation of trust in the textbooks. Social capital within the meaning
of trust in digital education media is a common good opened to all members of
particular communities. This case concerns the potential of social relations emerging in interactions with digital media. And these include: a computer, interactive
whiteboard, video and online games.
The next chapters were inspired by the papers prepared by researchers on
digital media, who participated in the direct or on-line seminars with doctoral
students (the authors of the chapters in the book) at the University of Szczecin.
Special thanks go at Maria Czerepaniak-Walczak (University of Szczecin), Harald
Introduction
Nilsen (Nesna University College), Jarek Janio (Santa Anna University), Anna
Zembala (Katholische Hochschule NRW, Cologne), Pier Giuseppe Rossi, Flavia Stara (University of Macerata), Tatyana Grebenyuk, Svetlana Konyushenko
(The Immanuel Kant Kant Baltic Federal University), Nisar Ali, Ghulam Mustafa
Khawaja (University of Kashmir).
References
Schweer M., i Thies B. (2003), Vertrauen als Organisationsprinzip: Perspektiven für
komplexe soziale Systeme, Bern, Huber.
Sztompka P. (2007), Zaufanie. Fundament społeczeństwa, Wydawnictwo Znak, Kraków.
Sztompka P. (2002), Socjologia. Analiza społeczeństwa, Wydawnictwo Znak, Kraków.
Chapter I
Trust in textbooks
Zbigniew Talaga
1.1. Introduction
Technological development leads to a sense of uncertainty related to forecasting the effects of this development in social dimension. We need to show
trust in order to actively cope with future (Sztompka, 2007, p. 45), which means
to recognize trust as the foundation of social life. Trust is related to the effects
of people’s work. It is assumed that these effects in the form of produced material objects ensure their safe and predictable using. In the case of services that
we trust, we assume their reliability. The trust in education includes the issue of
using reliable sources of information, as they create the chance of achieving
broadly defined educational goals. It turns out that the development of possibilities to access numerous information resources in an environment of global
computer networks services resulted in the need to pay more attention to their
credibility. On the one hand, there is no possibility of significant restrictions on
freedom in sharing resources. On the other hand, there are no obstacles to set
some rules based on the legal regulations or apply good practices to produce credible information resources. This article presents textbooks that people trust. And
although their meaning changes over time, there is no indication that their role has
been significantly marginalized.
1.2. Textbooks in the perspective of trust
According to the pedagogical dictionary, textbooks are books used in schools
or colleges that present the formal study of a subject in a correct scientific, clear
and structured way (Kupisiewicz, 2009). Textbooks are among the most impor-
Zbigniew Talaga
12
tant teaching resources, deeply rooted in the tradition of education, not only in
Poland. People use textbooks for various reasons. However, the conscious selection of this basic teaching resource is the acceptance of trust as a basic category
for the educational usefulness of the content included therein. Trust is indirectly
included in the concept of a ‘textbook’, although dictionary definitions and the
definitions arising from legal acts do not refer to this category explicitly. Interestingly, legal acts regulating the organization of the education system of kindergartens and schools pay a lot of attention to textbooks. Academic textbooks have
different status, although their meaning is equally important. The issue of trust in
textbooks discussed in this article was influenced by a specific situation: on the
one hand, I am quite experienced as an author of textbooks in computer science
created for the educational system, on the other hand, I am a “consumer” of academic textbooks in my self-study, which I use to write papers that meet scientific
criteria. This situation allowed me not only to see the differences in thinking
about the importance of textbooks, but also to make a critical reflection on their
meaning in a rapidly changing context of education.
Category of trust is of interest to sociology, since it concerns the relationship
between people. Sometimes it is an indirect relationship. Trust in textbooks refers
to the relationship between readers and the author or team of authors. Therefore,
content included in the textbook is the starting point for building this relationship.
Thus, textbooks gather communities that use them. An interesting sociological
aspect becomes building a relationship of trust. Increased interest in trust could
have been observed with the development of Sociology of the Everyday in the
early twenty-first century. The main reason for this popularity lies in the observation that the dynamics of social change had the biggest impact on everyday life
in an era of “late modernity” involving the explosion of technological development. Consequently, an important function in sociological research is assigned
to attributes describing the moral ties in society. Trust refers to the prediction of
human behavior in the future and is inextricably linked to the action. It is a kind
of “bet” that uncertain future actions of other people or functioning of devices
and institutions – will be good for us (Sztompka, 2007, pp. 30–34).
Explanation of this branch of sociology can be found in: Sztompka P., Zaufanie. Fundament społeczeństwa, Wydawnictwo ZNAK, Kraków 2007, pp. 30–34.
Ibidem, p. 32.
Trust in textbooks
13
Trust involves risk, which refers to the possible consequences of the breach
of trust. Trust in textbooks takes into account that using them will be beneficial
for customers. Thus, their content will be accurate, reliable, and will not contain
morally questionable hidden purposes. They have to contain neo-media aspects,
as well as changes of behavioral patterns of generation that grows and develops
in this environment. In addition, the relationship between educational practice
and the theoretical achievements of pedagogical idea and critical reflection on the
need to use and develop pedagogical theories has been diminished. In my opinion,
such a situation in Poland resulted from the imposition of two factors: the need
to make major organizational changes related to regained political freedom, and
on the other hand, the case in which developing ICT-related media environment
created a very specific situation in which the consumption of this development
in education involved students and teachers to the same extent. It was necessary
for some time to pass to evaluate the effects of changes in education, including changes concerning the importance of textbooks, and subject them to critical
reflection. It turned out that in the era of excess of available content education
poses very different challenges than in a situation of limited access to information. Moreover, increasing globalization enabled to realize that there is a need to
develop interaction skills, including the use of virtual environment services available in the global computer networks.
The sociology of education noticed that trust is one of the most important
components of social relationships (Szymański, 2013, p. 111). Trust has become
particularly significant in the development of social media, which on the one hand,
significantly broadened the fields of freedom, allowing to combine the role of the
sender and recipient of information. On the other hand, there occurred a problem
in managing private data, inextricably linked with trust in those entities that process this data and the problem of the credibility of senders. Hence, there is a limited trust in Wikipedia – as a community project to create a conceptual base in
various fields. In response to the ease of access and dissemination of information, there is a noticeable tendency to protect sensitive information, the creation
of which requires a significant intellectual effort and incurring of considerable
financial expenses. This applies, for example, to the results of scientific research,
but also to valuable educational resources in the form of lectures, curricula etc.
The belief that access to the Internet provides sufficient conditions to achieve
satisfaction from finding trustworthy educational resources is an illusion. Hence,
it is difficult to find radical views questioning the need for textbooks. However,
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Zbigniew Talaga
it is possible to see the critical evaluation of many textbooks, although rarely the
subject of this criticism is the problem of a lack of trust in the content of these
textbooks. Since textbooks are an important element rooted in the education system, they should foster the desired directions of organizational change made in
the society. In my opinion, an extremely important aspect is to build a culture of
trust in the society. The opposite of a culture of trust is a culture of distrust. Cultural rules can play a huge role in determining the level at which trust or distrust
are formed in a given society in a particular moment in history (Sztompka, 2007,
p. 225). The significance of textbooks will surely grow, if their content is reliable,
presented in a way that facilitates the perception in a given historical period and
if it shows paths to encourage those using textbooks.
1.3. Legal acts and their influence on the trust in textbooks
Terms used in the title provoke reflection on the effectiveness of the procedures that intend to ensure preservation of properties listed literally in the law
on textbooks. It is not common in the education system to deeply interfere in the
conceptual basis through legal acts. In the case of textbook, this term is extremely
precise and goes far beyond previously cited term provided in the pedagogical
dictionary. Properties of textbooks for general education subjects are listed in section § 2.1 of the Regulation of the Minister of National Education of 8 July 2014 on
textbooks approved for school use (Journal of Laws 2014 item 909). It is worth to
cite some of the properties, which may be used to relatively easy refer to the issue
of trust in the textbooks. The textbook is required to be adapted to a given level
of education, especially in terms of degree of difficulty, form of communication,
proper selection of concepts, names, dates and their explanation. This provision
draws attention to the challenges posed to the authors of textbooks: they are created for a large student population; and it is natural that their educational potential, subject interests and talents differ. This problem is particularly important in
relation to the first three stages of education (primary and secondary schools).
This is intensified by the provision on enabling students with diverse opportunities to acquire skills provided in the core curriculum of general education. Such
provisions lead to the situation, in which textbooks are given a credit of trust, especially since these properties are checked by two independent reviewers-experts
in the particular field and one linguistic reviewer. And the addressee of the trust is
the assessment on the reliability of the potential partner (Sztompka, 2007, p. 153);
Trust in textbooks
15
hence, it is important to publish information on the author or team of authors. The
trust was strengthened by indicating legal conditions that must be met by reviewers. It was decided to shift the responsibility on public bodies which may give
a positive recommendation for those applying to be entered on the list of experts.
As a result, these may be people with recommendation of scientific association,
research institute, research unit of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, higher education institution or the Main Committee
of Science Olympiad, and in the case of persons applying to be entered on the list
of experts compiling the linguistic opinions – also recommendation of the Polish
Language Council of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
It is a right direction to strengthen trust in textbooks by limiting arbitrarily decision-making process on the qualifications of the persons responsible for
checking the quality of textbooks. In addition, names of reviewers, whose opinions enabled to add the book to the list of textbooks, are included in all textbooks. People responsible for errors in textbooks are not only those employed by
a publisher, but also reviewers and – to some degree – recommending institutions.
My experience in creating textbooks leads to one more fact, which promotes
strengthening of trust in the textbooks. Creation of textbooks requires teamwork.
And the law does not impose any formal requirements to the authors. They are
selected by publishers, who make decisions based on their own, internally developed criteria. There are also no formal regulations concerning cooperation
of authors on the editorial part of the work. However, it is possible to specify the
standards followed by the publishers, who take care of their own brand. Minimum
of these standards is based on cooperation of author or team of authors with the
managing editor. The person appointed for cooperation has merit-based competences, allowing not only to find editorial bugs. As learned from my experience
on the creation of a textbook in computer science for advanced learners, which
was published in two volumes, managing editor has a very big influence on the
final form of the textbook.
It is also a standard to make an additional internal linguistic review. Due
to the specific nature of a textbook in computer science for advanced learners,
which involves the need to write a lot of extra programs and present fairly difficult issues related to the creation of algorithms, the contents were subjected to
additional external merit-based and educational review. In summary, the contents
of the textbook are reviewed by at least two experts in the particular subject and
by at least two linguistic experts. Moreover, the cooperation between the author
16
Zbigniew Talaga
or team of authors with the managing editor, and – depending on the needs – the
use of the additional merit review, forms the basis for building trust in textbooks.
However, it must be clear that the trust built on the basis of legal acts does not
guarantee the satisfactory usefulness of the textbook in the teaching process. The
reasons for this may vary – from an unfortunate concept of structuring texts to
the method of presenting issues and aesthetic values. In my opinion, it is equally
important to pay attention to the marketing, because textbooks are subject to market mechanisms. Unfortunately, trust in textbooks was significantly undermined
by marketing activities of questionable moral nature.
1.4. Textbooks in the perspective of pedagogical idea
Creation of textbooks requires a combination of creativity and experience.
In my opinion, the key to write a good textbook is to find interesting pedagogical
perspective, allowing to present content from the core curriculum in a clear and
ordered way. However, it is not possible to indicate universal way to create textbooks. First of all, an author should take into account the specificity of stages of
education and the curriculum for each subject. There is, however, something very
characteristic in the modern approach to education. It can be noticed that the common areas of education in different subjects have become broadened. In teaching
Polish language the attention is drawn to logic and precision of expression, as well
as the ability to properly define the concepts and making conclusions. This means
a common field with selected contents of mathematics and computer science. Anita Gis, in her doctoral dissertation on the Polish language textbooks, pointed to
the properties of these types of textbooks that allow to advise students, as well
as coordinate and order their knowledge about the world (Gis, 2009, p. 22). My
experience in creating textbooks in computer science in the field of primary education of the third stage (Krawczyński, Wolf, Talaga, 2009) and the fourth stage
of education (Krawczyński, Talaga, Wolf, 2012), enable to confirm the changes in
placing computer science in the perspective of education as a subject based solely
on technical rationality, with elements of practical rationality.
Analysis of the provisions of the curriculum encourages to make a reflection on the essence of information processing. In short, computer programs can
be entrusted with the processing of signs and symbols, but their final interpretation is made by a man and his mind. Teachers have a right to expect that the
concept of trust in textbooks includes comprehensive contexts of teaching content
Trust in textbooks
17
in individual subjects. And textbooks are prepared for students. This means that
textbooks do not include direct methodical postulates and that the final shape of
the educational process is made by the teacher. Professional teaching preparation
allows teachers to see the potential opportunities of textbooks and the teaching
material, language used to describe the content, aesthetic values and exercises
included therein. The task of the authors of textbooks is a skillful combination
of these elements into a coherent and interesting whole. Sometimes a simple idea
can be an interesting inspiration to go beyond the behavioral concept of teaching classes. An interesting example is the curriculum of computer science at the
advanced level. It includes a number of interesting and often challenging algorithmic issues. Their interpretation creates interesting opportunities to differentiate
levels of requirements and can be a source of inspiration for ideas characteristic
of constructivist concepts. A representative example of this case may be the writing of fractal patterns in the form of Sierpinski triangle and carpet included in
the core curriculum. Both patterns can be combined to create new triangles and
squares, characterized by self-similarity (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. The concept of the Sierpiński triangle and carpet based pattern
Source: own study.
Therefore, it is possible to open the field to teach classes according to the
constructivist concept – provided that the main goal set by the teacher is to discover the scheme of the next steps of recursion and writing program code that
enables to execute drawing (Talaga, 2011, p. 186). It is also possible to implement
the humanistic concept of the lesson provided that the teacher discusses with
students about the way in which the pattern was made and encourages them to
create other patterns.
It is widely accepted that the textbook is accompanied by methodological
materials directed to the teacher, which are consistent with the concept of the
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Zbigniew Talaga
textbook. It is not a formal obligation, but most publishers attach the curriculum
and methodological guide. The curricula are usually published in electronic form,
with the possibility of making changes aimed at adapting them to the specific
working conditions of the teacher. Methodological guide allows for a wide comment made to the textbook. It includes supplementary materials, explanations of
the educational context, methodical proposals involving additional exercises and
suggestions for how to resolve various problems. An interesting example that
allows to start the discussion about the dimension that goes beyond technical
solving of issues is the example of ‘backtracking’ algorithms. This involves to
show an algorithm that finds a solution by making successive trials and to present
the differences in the way of solving a problem. Figure 2 shows the algorithm of
searching for a path by chess knight on the 5x5 chessboard. The path is indicated
by the subsequent numbers on the board. It turns out that in this case the algorithm will find a solution after 36,213 trials, with the minimum number of 25. The
pace of animation is selected in a way that enables to make an algorithm in tens
of minutes. In addition, there is an available program that allows to complete the
task manually, so there is a real chance to complete the task in less time. Example comes from the electronic version of the textbook in the form of a multibook
(Talaga, 2014, p. 136).
Fig. 2. The concept of the Sierpiński triangle and carpet based pattern
Source: own study.
The meaning of this example goes far beyond the literal provision of the
core curriculum, which requires to familiarize students with various algorithmic
methods. The teacher can direct attention to the unusual properties of the human
Trust in textbooks
19
mind, which is able to find complex solutions, and on the other hand, expose the
weakness of deterministic algorithms. In this way, it is possible to introduce humanistic concept to the lesson, which is based on individualized teaching and dialogue. Methodological guides represent different ideas, depending on pedagogical
knowledge and creativity of the authors. Availability of supplementary materials
containing commentary on how to use the textbooks is a factor in strengthening
trust in the textbooks.
1.5. The specificity of academic textbooks
It is difficult not to notice the need to make comparisons in different areas of
education. However, there is a trap of comparing textbooks without due regard to
the context of their use. It is therefore justified to search for the areas that can be
compared and indicate the differences, for which the comparison does not make
sense. Academic textbooks perform different functions than school textbooks,
because higher education requires much more than just intellectual effort associated with the uneasy achievements resulting from different disciplines. However,
students must have access to the content, which is trustworthy, well-structured, as
well as referred to reliable sources of information. Hence, academic textbooks are
similar to research papers, while school textbooks are rather similar to popular
scientific studies. Academic textbooks include footnotes indicating the primary
source of information, in accordance with the requirements of research papers.
Order and attention to the structure of the presented content is typical for the vast
majority of academic textbooks. An example is a layout of academic textbook in
the sociology of education (Szymański, 2013). Its first chapter contains an explanation about the place of Sociology of Education as a field of knowledge. Sociology has not dealt with the whole of education, but education as a social activity was
a natural aspect of its interest. The textbook includes relevant views of the major
sociology authors, who referred to the education by K. Marx, Max Weber, Florian
Znaniecki and others. The reference to the people, not only by citing the most
relevant thoughts forming the essence of the message, enables to better orient in
the positions selected by other authors. Therefore, an academic textbook becomes
a guide in the particular field of expertise, which is an important, but additional
function. Prepared reader can better understand the subject of sociology of education (p. 22) and understand explanations of concepts and relationships between
them (e.g. between education and socialization – p. 24). The textbook discusses
20
Zbigniew Talaga
the areas of research, theoretical perspectives and terms. An interesting part is
the determination of the relationship with the context of changes in education,
based on an analysis of the social stratification factors (Chapter 2.1), as well as
the analysis of social change and socialization. Subsequent chapters concern the
individual in society and educational institutions. The textbook is summarized
with a chapter that analyzes the relationship between society and education.
Academic textbooks, however, go beyond the linear diagram of the presented content. It cannot be assumed that readers of academic textbooks are only
students or those who take scientific activity. Currently, an observed trend is to
depart from the rigid division of subject knowledge to create new areas of knowledge, using the achievements of different disciplines. Trust based on recognized
scientific achievements of academic textbook authors have additional support in
the form of academic professors, who inspire trust in the first impulse (Sztompka
2007, pp. 105–106). There are also no formal restrictions related to textbooks approved for academic use. It would be a threat to the significant academic freedom,
which is the foundation of the work at universities. In addition, it is respected that
reviews of a textbook are written by at least one specialist in the particular field.
Therefore, academic textbooks are important teaching resources for students. An
interesting aspect is the dilemma on the creation of textbooks in pedagogy, resulting from the vast spectrum of sciences of education and specific emancipatory
pedagogy (Czerepaniak-Walczak, 2006), which consist of rejecting schemes and
rigid framework of curriculum content distribution. The final decision to create
a textbook resulted from the need to provide a comprehensive overview of the
various trends of emancipatory pedagogy (Czerepaniak-Walczak, 2006). In this
way, M. Czerepaniak-Walczak resolved dilemma in favor of the decision to write
academic textbook devoted to the emancipatory pedagogy.
Some academic textbooks are edited by an editorial team, with the highlighted name of the scientific editor (Siemieniecki, 2007; Perzycka, 2007). Paradoxically, academic textbooks have another difficult task: they must deal with
changes of the learning procedure by students accustomed to using the services
available on global computer networks. Young people want to be free to express
themselves. They are accustomed to the multithreading and multitasking. They
accept time sharing to various tasks – similarly to computer processor, which
divides time into different processes. Therefore, question arises about the features of today’s students. Apart from the freedom, which is necessary for them
to live, D. Tapscott distinguished the following features: adaptation of facilities,
Trust in textbooks
21
programs and services to their needs, careful orientation, credibility, cooperation,
entertainment, fast pace, and innovation (Tapscott, 2010, p. 140 ). They are not
willing to analyze longer texts, and undertake to solve problems requiring long
time, patience and inquisitiveness. It turns out that technological progress brings
new problems to education. It is difficult to imagine effective education without
making significant intellectual effort. There is certainly a need to explore new
ideas to encourage young people to a deeper analysis of the longer texts, which is
especially important in the social sciences and humanities. An interesting example is asking problem questions, which require to use textbooks and other sources
of literature. Problems may be formulated directly, e.g. in the question “Which of
the perspectives of relationship between people and society (by Marx or Weber)
has a higher explanatory value? Why?” (Szymański, 2013, p. 193). The question
cannot be answered without knowing the perspectives of relationship between
people and society of the both authors. There can be formulated the problem in
a form that only apparently does not require to possess knowledge e.g. “Provide
the main arguments that justify the thesis that the school plays or can play the
emancipatory role” (Szymański, 2013, p. 194) Without a good insight into the
literary sources, justification of the emancipatory role of educational institutions
will certainly not be detailed. Any good idea enriching the basic function of an
academic textbook, which is to provide reliable, well-structured content, certainly
will not diminish the trust put in academic textbooks.
1.6. Textbooks in the light of technological developments
For many years there have been ongoing discussions about and actions taken
to move the potential of trust put in school and academic textbooks to information
technology. Paradoxically, it is not an easy task. It is worth to mention the main
difficulties to the widespread use of electronic versions of textbooks, because
some of them are not noticed. And these include technical and mental difficulties
of students and teachers. The technical sphere considers equipment e.g. laptops,
tablets, smartphones and readers in the form of e-books. Careful analysis can
be applied to specify properties that inhibit the widespread use of these devices.
Laptops allow for a wide range of services and enable to run applications available
in commonly used operating systems. However, they are quite heavy, expensive
(it is not just the cost of equipment) and energy-consuming, which is not without
significance. Few people realize that the energy consumption of computers and
22
Zbigniew Talaga
other IT devices constitutes a major part in the bills for electricity consumption,
especially due to the fact that it is assumed that school have computer labs, projectors and interactive whiteboards. Tablets seem to be a more interesting solution.
Unfortunately, limitations in this case are also significant. The level of energy
consumption and the size of the screen are still not satisfactory. However, it is
possible to accept tablets with screen size roughly corresponding to the size of
the page in classical textbooks. Another limitation is the difficulty in designing
applications, strongly dependent on the choice of technology. Smartphones are
not acceptable because of too small screen. And the possibility of zooming in the
screen does not solve the problem. So far, there have been no confirmed warnings
of the medical community, although it is a matter of time, as working on a small
screen for a few hours is certainly not ergonomic.
There is one more difficult issue to resolve. It concerns building a successful business model. There is a strong fear of unauthorized use of the electronic
version of the textbook. And still there are no effective solutions to this problem.
A promising solution is the use of multibooks that replace the computer presentation with the views of subsequent book pages. Example view of the textbook
pages is shown in Fig. 1.
Sample page of the multibook to the textbook approved for school use
Fig. 3.
Source: Multibook for teachers published by Wydawnictwo Szkolne PWN to the second volume
of the textbook in computer science for advanced learners.
The figure shows a view of textbook pages 130–131 Talaga. Z., Informatyka nie tylko dla
uczniów tom II, zakres rozszerzony [The second volume of the textbook in computer science for
advanced learner], Approval No. 395/2/2014, Wydawnictwo Szkolne PWN, Warszawa 2014, p. 136.
Trust in textbooks
23
On the page margins there can be seen additional features enabling to zoom
in the parts of the page, exercises, and the possibility of opening additional program explaining the issue (Talaga, 2014, p. 130). Undoubtedly, multibooks are
interesting tools, which create attractive possibilities for teaching classes. However, they do not exhaust the possibility of a different approach to textbook electronisation.
1.7. Conclusion
The part of this paper devoted to the importance of the category of trust
in relation to textbooks is important for several reasons. Textbooks are used by
a significant population of learners in organized forms of education in many countries. Moreover, the development of information technologies has not diminished
the importance of textbooks and the validity of trust has become the primary
ground, which guarantees the need to create them. And trust can be strengthened
by skillful use of achievements of pedagogical sciences, which is especially important in the development of textbooks.
References
Czerepaniak-Walczak M. (2006), Pedagogika emancypacyjna. Rozwój krytyczne świadomości człowieka, Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne, Gdańsk.
Gis A. (2009), Obraz szkoły w podręcznikach języka polskiego (1999–2004) The doctoral
dissertation written under the supervision of Prof. dr hab. Antoni Smuszkiewicz,
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology,
Poznań.
Krawczyński E., Talaga Z., Wilk M. (2012), Informatyka nie tylko dla uczniów – podręcznik, zakres podstawowy, Approval No. 414/2012, Wydawnictwo Szkolne PWN,
Warszawa.
Krawczyński E., Wilk M., Talaga Z. (2009), Informatyka nie tylko dla uczniów. Podręcznik, zakres podstawowy, gimnazjum, Approval No. 172/2009, Wydawnictwo
Szkolne PWN, Warszawa.
Kupisiewicz Cz., Kupisiewicz M. (2009), Słownik Pedagogiczny, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa.
Perzycka E. (2007), Edukacja medialna dla nauczycieli, Wydawnictwo Centrum Doradzwa i Doskonalenia Nauczycieli, Szczecin.
Sztompka P. (2007), Zaufanie. Fundament społeczeństwa, Wydawnictwo Znak, Kraków.
Szymański M.J. (2013), Socjologia edukacji, Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls”, Kraków.
24
Zbigniew Talaga
Talaga Z. (2011), Informatyka nie tylko dla uczniów, zakres rozszerzony, t. I (Approval
No. 395/1/2011), Wydawnictwo Szkolne PWN, Warszawa.
Talaga Z. (2014), Informatyka nie tylko dla uczniów, zakres rozszerzony, t. II, (Approval
No. 395/2/2014), Wydawnictwo Szkolne PWN, Warszawa.
Tapscott D. (2010), Cyfrowa dorosłość. Jak pokolenie sieci zmienia nasz świat., translated by Cypryański P., Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne Sp. z o.o, Warszawa.
Author’s note
Zbigniew Talaga – PhD in Social Science, the discipline of pedagogy. In 2015 he defended his doctoral thesis entitled “The emancipatory potential of general education in computer science curriculum in secondary school. Author and co-author of textbooks in computer science. Long-term teaching practice as a teacher of computer science, counsellor,
inspector and director of upper-secondary school. Currently, Headmaster of the Complex
of Architecture Schools No. 1 in Poznan. E-mail: Talaga.Zbigniew@gmail.com).
Chapter II
Trust in the computer
– selected contexts, expectations and doubts
Agnieszka Jankowska
2.1. Introduction
The computer, in the past reserved for military specialists and academic
scientists, with time became accessible to everyone. It influenced also education, although – as evidenced by more than 30-year history of the computer in
education – trust in this device, as a teaching aid, has been built slowly with the
teachers being encouraged to use this medium by arguments that it is worth to
facilitate the process of teaching with the latest technology. At the beginning, the
attractiveness of computers in schools resulted from its novelty; with time there
were more and more numerous educational possibilities of its use. Nowadays,
computer is used at all stages of education and in all subjects, as well as while
providing psychological and pedagogical assistance for students with specific
learning difficulties. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, computer
became a common and necessary educational and technological teaching aid used
for the organization and conduct of the educational process, while setting new
standards of education.
Can this transition from the accidental to general use of computer in education be associated with the process of building trust in the latest technology? Can
we talk about trust in computer – an electronic device that controls and manages
the operation of other devices? Finally, how can we interpret trust in the computer
as a technological teaching aid in the perspective of technological trust; and what
we know about the causes and circumstances of distrust of teachers in computers?
Agnieszka Jankowska
26
This chapter is an attempt to illustrate the computer support of the educational process in the perspective of trust, which is the sine qua non of modern societies, and in the perspective of technological trust, which is one of the varieties of
trust. In particular, this chapter presents the theoretical and practical conditions
of the process of building trust in the computer in education, as well as the causes
and circumstances of distrust of teachers in this medium.
2.2. Modern discussion about trust – trust today
The specificity of life in the “late modernity” (Giddens, 2012), in the time
of “risk society” (Beck, 2004) – despite the prevailing belief in the crisis of trust
– causes the situation in which people are more than ever willing to trust. Trust
is directed at people and their activities, procedures and practices, equipment
and technical systems, products and services (Sztompka, 2007, p. 103–149). It is
directly related to the shift of responsibility for the future from the fate to human
subjectivity, because as stated by Piotr Sztompka:
“We need to show trust to actively and constructively deal with the future:
politicians must trust in the efficacy and approval for their proposed strategies, educators must trust in the ability of their students, inventors must trust
in the reliability and usability of their new products, and ordinary people have
to trust in all those who engage in «representational activities», by «acting
on their behalf» in the political, economic, technical, scientific areas etc.”
(Sztompka, 2007, pp. 45–46).
Moreover, ubiquitous individualization does not exclude trust; individuality and specialization of roles, functions, professions, which implies cooperation
and even interdependence of individuals, groups and communities, increase the
need for trust in the reliability of others – trust, which is “a necessary condition
for cooperation” (Misztal, after: Sztompka, 2007, p. 46). Life of the “risk society”
(Beck, 2004) also requires increased resources of trust necessary to meet new
threats and dangers, which are created by ourselves. Technization and technologization of new areas of the environment and social life make life less predictable;
and the negative effects of the development of civilization and technology begin
to chase its undeniable benefits. Therefore, trust appears to be an element of social life that allows to deal with what is unpredictable, uncertain, yet unknown.
Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
27
The world that we live in creates limitless opportunities in all areas of activity. “The greater the opportunities available to people, the less predictable their decisions” (Sztompka, 2007, p. 47). This applies both to their own decisions as well
as to those taken with respect to others. In such a situation, we often make choices
based solely on trust, which again makes it the basic category of our actions.
The globality and complexity of the modern world often makes it incomprehensible not only for the average person, but also for experts. Opacity and
complexity of the institutional, organizational and technical systems make people
trust in the complicated reality of the twenty-first century by making trust – consciously or not – a strategy to deal with heterogeneity and enigmatic nature of the
social environment.
Trust also turns out to be necessary in the event of an increasing anonymity of persons whose activities influence our functioning. The complexity of the
world prevents us to know, check or control the actions of all those people, who
have an impact on the social order. Therefore, more often we can only trust in “the
effectiveness, responsibility and good will of anonymous «strangers»” (Sztompka, 2007, p. 48), who influence our existence and well-being, and whose actions
we are not able to condition, control or monitor.
And strangers? Can we function effectively in a pluralistic world without
trusting strangers that we meet everywhere? According to P. Sztompka “trust
becomes an essential resource to cope with the presence of strangers” (Sztompka,
2007, p. 49).
In 1979, Luhmann (after Sztompka, 2007, p. 51) analyzed the problem of
trust, pointing to its relationship with the increasing complexity, uncertainty and
risk characteristic of modern society. Thus, he revised thinking about trust by
claiming that it has one of the constitutive features of modernity, the sine qua non
of the modern world.
Trust is perceived in different aspects and dimensions: as an attitude, quality
of relationships, the attribute of social and individual field, and cultural resource
used by the people. Sztompka (2007, pp. 49–51) argues that trust is: an important
dimension of political culture; an important aspect of civil society; an important
but hidden dimension of cultural capital; an essential component of social capital;
component of civilization competence, e.g. a precondition of willingness to
use new technologies [emphasized by A.J.]; associated with the post-materialistic
values.
28
Agnieszka Jankowska
Therefore, the question is: what is this trust in the postmodern world?
Sztompka (2007, p. 69) defines it as “a basic strategy for dealing with uncertainty and inability to control the future”, which makes trust the only possible way
to adapt to a multi-dimensional, unknown and unpredictable reality. As further
stated by Sztompka, trust is “a bet taken on the uncertain future actions of other
people” (Sztompka, 2007, pp. 69–70). This bet consists of not only a belief as to
the behavior of others in the future, but also putting this belief into practice, that is
the specific action taken on the basis of this belief, because as emphasized by this
author “trust is the concept of the activist discourse” ( Sztompka, 2007, p. 71).
“Trust refers to the actions of others” (Sztompka, 2007, p. 70, emphasized
by A.J.), although not always directly. “Interpersonal trust” (Sztompka, 2007,
p. 104) or personal trust (in individual persons that we deal with directly) is considered by some authors as paradigmatic, and trust in other recipients or objects
is treated as a derivative of the basic trust. Nevertheless, even these other objects
of trust “always refer to some people, who are trusted at the end. Sometimes we
know them directly, in person, but we can also imagine them, have some information about them, know something about them based on the reports of others, etc.”
(Sztompka, 2007, p. 104).
The road from interpersonal trust to trust in abstract objects of social, organizational, institutional and technical nature involves “concentric circles”
(Sztompka, 2007, p. 104) that extend from the interpersonal relationships with
close people (family), through trust in people we know and “members of the community that we know only indirectly” (Sztompka, 2007, p. 104), to the “abstract
systems” that involve “absent others – people we have never seen or met, but
whose actions have a direct impact on the course of our life” (Giddens, 2009,
p. 122).
Due to the topic taken in this chapter, an interesting category of trusted objects are “technical systems” (Sztompka, 2007) called by Giddens (2008, 2009)
“expert systems” or “abstract systems”. Expert systems are “systems of technical
performance or professional expert knowledge, which are the basis for organization of large areas of physical and social environments that we live in today” (Giddens, 2008, p. 20). These involve telecommunication systems, water supply systems and electrical systems, transportation systems, air traffic control systems,
computer network, public security systems, etc. that are controlled by computer,
which manages the work of other devices.
Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
29
Principles and workings of the expert systems are not clear for everyone; and
although they are seen as something natural, normal user finds them really ambiguous – though he may not realize it. The ubiquity of abstract systems provides
us with a smooth movement into technological world, and trust in them – “technological trust” (Sztompka, 2007, p. 109) – should be considered an important,
though rarely realized, variety of trust.
The primary form of trust – in people and their actions – lies both in the
personal trust as well as institutional, consumer and technological one. Trust in
abstract systems, which can be reduced to trust in the computer as a device managing operation of other devices, also comes down to personal trust. “In the
case of technological trust, we trust those who designed the expert systems, those
who support them, and those who control their functioning” (Sztompka, 2007,
p. 111), expecting efficiency and reliability of the equipment and technical systems (Sztompka, p. 148).
In this chapter it is assumed that trust in the computer is one of the types of
technological trust, and its specificity is presented in the following chapters.
2.3. Computers in schools and strategies of building trust in computers
Development of computers, and in fact the entire computer infrastructure
that enables efficient fulfillment of the tasks – also those not connected with computing, but with control, advising, diagnostics, monitoring, measurement, etc. –
led to the situation in which the computer entered into all areas of human activity
(Zieliński, 2008, p. 63), including education. Despite the concerns of skeptics
of computerization, this electronic device not only did not stop the intellectual
development of a man, but in fact strengthened him in discovering the mysteries
of the world. And in education it did not replace the teacher in his professional
role, but expanded and made more attractive teaching and educational activities
undertaken by the teacher.
The origins of the use of computers in education in Poland were not too
impressive. The first attempts to introduce information technology in schools has
been made in the seventies of the last century in the cities, which had and made
computer resources and computing centers available to students. Intensification
of computerization of education took place in the late eighties and early nineties
of the 20th century, when high schools, and then elementary schools, introduced
a new optional subject called “Elements of computer science”. On the one hand,
30
Agnieszka Jankowska
these organizationally and technically difficult times of school informatization
led to curiosity and enthusiasm of teachers in taking on new challenges, but on
the other hand, to their dislike and distrust in the unknown. That dichotomy was
intensified by the fact that at that time computers in schools were something rare.
Their popularization was not increased by their high price, reliability, and what
is most important – there was an opinion that “yes – scientific research can be
conducted with the use of digital machines (called like this at that time) in teaching, but it cannot be put into practice” (Tadeusiewicz, 2011, p. 11). Even when
computers were available in schools, they aroused fear and distrust of teachers
and school authorities, and “taking care” of their technical condition made them
kept away from potential users.
A crucial aspect for the progress in thinking about the use of the computer
in education was a change of school staff attitude to computer technology. Tanaś
(1997, p. 39) associates it with a reduction in the cost of hardware, reduction of
its dimensions, the increase in its reliability and ease of use. Not without significance was also the computerization of further areas of contemporary social
and economic life and, therefore causing a need to educate students in the field
of programming, applications and the role of computers. Tanaś (1997, p. 39) also
highlights an important aspect for the change in the attitude of teachers to computers, which is the enthusiasm of young teachers attracted by the new possibilities offered by technical equipment, but also the opportunism of those who sought
to gain the qualifications in times of financial problems and a decline in employment in education. One of the significant factors affecting the attitude of educational staff to computerization of the teaching-learning process was a role of some
of the teachers responsible for the purchase of computer equipment for the school,
or those responsible for the computer lab. Kelman (after Tanaś, 1997, p. 40) recognizes that at that time schools faced the so-called bending effect – none of the
schools wanted to “trail behind” in the computerization process, although only
a few understood the purpose of using purchased equipment.
From the perspective of technological trust, promoting the computerization
of education was associated with an increase in trust in this complex and sophisticated technical equipment, which turned out to be as useful as safe, efficient and
easy to use.
Today, computers are common in education, although trust in them has been
built slowly. We, as a society, needed many years before we understood that the
computer is not only a new device, which should be taught in schools as part of
Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
31
the “Computer science”, but also that it is the device that can teach itself. Meanwhile, we have learned about computer and trusted that it can help in improving
educational achievements of pupils, hoping for a spectacular success, while making it responsible for any failure. We moved from distrust to trust by radically
changing our thinking about its educational values. However, recent concepts
of the computer use in education demonstrate its power to support the teaching-learning process by seeing the effectiveness of the process in the course of
teaching methodology, not only in the accompanying technology. However, in
the twentieth-first century children have contact with computers from an early
age, computer science in schools is compulsory, and computer-aided teaching
techniques (e-learning, blended learning) have been tested and approved for formal education. This condition can be considered as an acceptance and trust in
the educational use of computers, in processuality of computerization by seeing
a strategy of building trust in the computer.
* * *
Uslaner (2008, p. 183), recognizing the trust as a moral value, distinguishes
normative and strategic trust. Normative trust is a generalized trust in people,
which arises from the conviction that “the world is full of good will and good
people” (Uslaner, 2008, p. 190). It is a general view of human nature, in which
there is no place for forecasting the behavior of others, and relativism of trust.
Even if others turn out to be untrustworthy, “moral values make us behave as if
we could trust them” (Uslaner, 2008, 186). Normative trust is the foundation of
civil society – we trust people we do not know and who may be different from us.
Only then it is possible to interact with others and to take collective action for the
common good.
Strategic trust is revealed in dealing with individuals and depends on the
available information on these individuals and personal experience gained in
dealing with them. Trusting other person is basically a risky decision, because we
would not be talking about trust if everyone were absolutely moral. It results not
so much from a negative perception of the world, but from the uncertainty (Uslaner, 2008, p. 190). It is built slowly as we gain knowledge of the actions of others.
We still anticipate and forecast the behavior of the other person, and our behavior
towards this person is a result of how he or she complies with this trust.
Agnieszka Jankowska
32
Although strategic trust concerns people who know each other, and by its
nature technological trust seems to correspond to the normative trust, in the computerization of the educational process I see a generalized strategy of building
trust in the computer as a teaching aid.
New things usually arise resistance and resentment. This also – as pointed
out earlier – applies to computers. Such an attitude can be associated with indirect
distrust in designers of computers, but may also result from a lack of computer
skills or a different vision of the organization of the education process. In order
to deal with this distrust or mistrust we often make a strategy, which results in
trust. It seems that building trust in the computer involves such a strategy, which
is shown in Fig. 1:
Externally
reasonable
expectation
of trust
in computers
Reluctance,
aversion to
what is new,
distrust,
mistrust
Understanding
computers in
the course
of observation,
experience,
reflection
Trust
in computers
Doubting
(search for
new solutions,
criticism)
Fig. 1. The strategy of building trust in computers
This strategy applies to the trust built individually by each user of the computer; however, the observed generality of this phenomenon allows for claiming
that trust in the technical teaching aid – a computer – was also built in stages.
Introduction of computers to education (as any new thing, innovation,
change) was accompanied by external expectation of acceptance and internalization of the technological support of education. Proponents of the computerization
of teaching and educational decision-makers justified and legitimized it with the
introduction of the computer science to schools. Reaction of the teaching staff
was not surprising – aversion to what is new, fears, anxiety, distrust slowed down
the use of computers in the classroom. Only general (not just at school) access
By P. Sztompka (2007, pp. 72–73) distrust is understood as the “mirror image of trust”;
it is a “bet” taken on the future negative actions of other people, which raises defensive action.
Mistrust is a neutral situation, when we do not show neither trust nor distrust; we simply do not
have the opinion about the other person.
This refers to the social environment, such as education authorities, advocates of the
information society, futurists foreseeing globalism of computerized societies, but also the enthusiasts attracted by the computer possibilities.
Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
33
to computers encouraged teachers. Gaining competence in using this medium,
as well as experience and observation of its efficiency, allowed teachers to build
trust in the computer. Entrusting the efficiency and effectiveness of the device
made it possible to use the computer in education in a conscious, deliberate, and
involved manner. It was not, however, the last step to build trust in the computer.
Sense of security that accompanies us when we operate in a familiar and predictable environment has been disturbed by new technologies introduced into education (laptops, notebooks, ultrabooks, tablets, iPads), giving rise to doubt about
the existing solutions and inspiring to look for new ways to expand teaching and
educational actions and make them more attractive. Trust in the computer has
made it easy to use other new electronic items appearing in our environment, by
no longer feeling the compulsion, fears and anxieties, but trust in their technological and educational performance, and above all, in our own skills.
The strategy of building trust in computers is thus supported with the two
observed and described above phenomena. Firstly, these are trust-building stages
that can be extracted, which lead from unconscious incompetence of teachers to
their unconscious competence. Secondly, the process of building trust in computers was supported by the knowledge acquired during the experience of computerization; and the subsequent stages of this trust were the result of acquired skills
and internalized attitudes toward computers in education. Thus, we can say that
trust in computers refers to strategic trust, although the last stage of this strategy
(doubt – the search for new solutions, criticism) announces change in the nature of
this trust. The fact that the acquired computer skills can be easily moved to other
electronic media in search of alternative and innovative teaching and educational
solution proves that in the second decade of the twenty-first century trust in the
computer is a normative trust. Trust in the computer is no longer negotiated and
conditioned by the trust in their efficiency and reliability. We do not doubt the
good intentions of the designers of computers, we are not afraid of the technical
potential of computers and we trust in our own ability to support them. We assume an attitude of generalized trust in computers – trust, which turns out to be
the norm for dealing with and functioning in the technological world.
While characterizing the normative and strategic trust E.M. Uslaner does
not link these two types of trust, but somehow assigns them to two opposite or
It covers the four stages of competence also called stages of learning new skills: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence and unconscious competence.
34
Agnieszka Jankowska
ders of social functioning – collective and individual order. On the basis of considerations as to the nature and stages of building trust in the computer, it can
be believed that in some cases (e.g. when there is a new tool, a medium and/or
technological innovation) normative trust is a consequence of the strategic trust,
and these both types of trust exist as extremities of one continuum. It is difficult
to speak of generalized trust in the computer without previous trust built on positive experiences in the use of the computer. It can be even believed that – in this
case – strategic trust was necessary to build normative trust.
2.4. “Human” face of the computer
Computer as a “machine for processing, storage and transportation of information” (Gawrysiak, 2010, p. 31) does more and more for us and instead of us, and
without our direct intervention. Although it does not provide any work itself, it
controls and monitors the work of associated devices in all area of our lives. Using
this tool (as opposed to treating the computer as a machine, Bolter, 2005) requires
skills that allow a user to “transform the world in his own way” (Bolter, 2005,
p. 360). Despite the technological complexity of the computer, its operation is
relatively simple, which favors its creative use. Moreover, the hierarchical structure of the computer allows for creative work at any stage of its technological detailed nature, without going into the nuances of lower-level operations. Therefore,
the computer can become for everyone a means of expression and creative tool
that sorts, organizes and carries out the work of the programmer (Bolter, 2005,
p. 364).
The computer is a tool, which as every other tool, is developed and used by
a man. Therefore, the question is who is the recipient of this trust in the computer?
Who or what do we trust when we speak of technological trust? Finally, what do
we expect while taking the challenge of trusting the computer and its software?
Trust in the computer can be seen at least in a few contexts, as a trust in:
− actions of experts: computer scientists, programmers, electronic engineers who develop and operate computers,
− technical performance, reliability and efficiency of computers,
− open knowledge resources provided by the computers,
− one’s own computer skills.
Trust always refers to the actions taken by the people. In the case of trust in
the computer, it is addressed at experts who design, develop, operate and control
Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
35
its operation. This is an indirect trust, however, it is difficult to imagine that the
assignment of tasks to the computer, which are often essential to our lives, could
not involve trust in its constructors. Moreover, trust must be a part of work of
computer scientists and programmers. This type of trust is necessary for cooperation and accumulation, which are the essence (but not only) of computerization.
Achievements of some experts are not possible without the earlier achievements
of others. And all of this leads to the increased development of this technology.
Trust in technical reliability and efficiency of computers is an example of
technological trust that we put not really in experts, but in their expertise – its
authenticity and accuracy. This trust is partly related to the “faith” (Giddens,
2008, p. 21), which in turn is based on the positive experience of the operation of
“expert systems”.
Trust in the open knowledge resources provided by the computer can be
reduced to the activities of all the people who create and reproduce the information in the global virtual reality. This, but also the universality and accessibility
of electronic knowledge systems, results in the trust in the reliability and veracity
of the “open” information. Knowledge that it is impossible to capture in whole
channels of cognitive process including public information available in the “network”.
Trust in one’s own competence enables us to use a computer efficiently and
effectively; this is an inner conviction of the rightness of undertaken actions connected with learning and improving computer skills. It is entrusting one’s own
knowledge and skills, the consequence of which is working with the computer.
Who directs their trust in the computer? In the information society – everybody; in the education community – teachers, students, parents, administration
staff, who are the participants of each educational process. Do they direct their
trust in strangers hidden behind the computer technology? Not always consciously, but yes they do. Does the risk taken in connection with trusting a computer
satisfies the education community? In my opinion our attitude towards the introduction of this medium into education moves from strategy to standard, although
it is a slow process. I have the impression that the current young generation of
teachers no longer has fears and doubts about the use of computers in education.
I suppose that the issue of mistrust or distrust in computers is, and it seems that it
will always be considered only in terms of history, a stage of the process of getting to the currently obvious computerization of education.
36
Agnieszka Jankowska
2.5. Trust in the computer as a teaching aid
The computer at school, and in fact its skillful use in the teaching-learning
process, still arouses strong emotions. Still there are many people, who do not
see the benefits and advantages of this technical teaching aid, and yet there are
reliable arguments for the computer in education in the literature. The factors that
have a direct impact on building trust in the computer are awareness and experience of the positives and benefits from the computer-aided educational processes.
What promotes this process are also technical computer skills and attitude of
openness to what is new in the mobile reality of the twenty-first century.
The last decades were marked by the spread of computerization in education. Computer with relevant information technology and appropriate software
has been applied in the educational process, educational and psychological research, in the diagnostics, prevention and treatment, as well as in the organization
and management of education. This modern medium can be a scientific lab, training equipment, aid for supporting administration or testing, or just a typewriter
and counting machine (Tanaś, 1997, p. 97). Computers are also helpful in the
implementation of specific school tasks, such as “inspiring cognitive interests,
developing creative abilities, or such actions as: editing school magazines, copying text and graphics materials (using a scanner), recording and processing sound
files with music composed by students, preparing school exhibitions, networking
and direct communication between students from distant places, independent of
the country of residence etc.” (Tanaś, 1997, p. 73).
Modern computers are multimedia devices, an inherent feature of which is
the simultaneous presentation and utilization of a static image, sound, hypertext,
dynamic image (video) and animation (Siemieniecki after: Piecuch, 2004, p. 697).
This fact is particularly important in a situation where we know that the largest
percentage of learning about the reality is made by the visual channel (approx.
80%) and auditory channel (approx. 11%) (Zaczyński, 1990, p. 125). Therefore,
the computer is a device that could use in parallel in the learning process these
two most important ways for sending information. Moreover, the computer has
the ability of interactive influence on the user, which puts it the forefront of technical teaching aids.
Audiovisuality and interactivity of the computer put it among the modern
teaching devices: interactive whiteboard, projector, document camera, digital
camera, camcorder or tablet. All of these items are an essential component of the
Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
37
educational process, as they affect the senses, which support students in direct
or indirect understanding of reality. Studies show (Siemieniecki after: Piecuch,
2004 p. 698) that multimedia message is more effective than the traditional message as the teaching effectiveness is higher by 56%, understanding of the subject
increases by 50–60%, there are less misunderstandings in the transmission of
knowledge by 20–40%, time saving is significant – 38–70%, the pace of learning
is faster by 60%, and the knowledge acquired is bigger by 25–50%.
But what makes the computer an attractive teaching aid, which really supports the teaching-learning process? Aleksander Piecuch notes that:
“Computer, being a technical device, performs a specific algorithm; it is not
emotional; it is patient and forgiving; it does not comment on wrong answers,
but skillfully refers to information that may facilitate the understanding of the
problem. Selected sequences of operations can be repeated infinitely many
times. Furthermore, it gives the possibility of implementing teaching content
according to the user’s needs and interests (non-linearity in the presentation
of the teaching content), and at a pace that suits the learner” (Piecuch, 2004,
p. 698).
The use of a computer and educational software gives the child the conditions for high individualization of the learning process, consolidation of knowledge and gaining skills. Thanks to its interactive nature, the computer attracts
and focuses students’ attention to the educational process, provides a sense of
active participation in the learning process and control over transferred or possible to obtain information.
Theory and practice show that the use of computer develops perseverance,
patience, perception, manual skills, reflexes and divisibility of attention. Computer-based lessons increase motivation to learn, awake new interests and creative
activity, develop memory and self-reliance (Beksińska, 2006, p. 61). These skills
are essential for the effectiveness of self-education necessary for the proper functioning in a dynamically changing world.
A computer is only a teaching aid, but it is a very important device “to facilitate the implementation of major, long-range objectives of education, which
at the same time is necessary to achieve the operational objectives related to the
ability to support the equipment and selected software or – more generally – the
use of information technology in a variety of applications” (Morbitzer, 2002,
pp. 343–344). Therefore, the computer is “a tool to obtain the necessary informa-
38
Agnieszka Jankowska
tion, and the teacher (...) is a guide to the vast fields of knowledge provided by
the machine” (Lewoc, 1993, p. 26). The possibility of using the computer in the
learning process is limited only by teacher’s creativity and the availability of
educational software.
The advantages of using the computer in education seem to be undeniable,
and thus building trust in this teaching aid is related mainly to “becoming familiar” with the computer, acquiring competence in using it and creative application
of its features. Trust in the computer seems to increase with the transition to the
next steps in the development of computer skills and becoming aware of its beneficial use in the teaching process. However, this is not a process devoid of doubt,
because even this process involves abuses and negative phenomena.
2.6. The risks of computerization and distrust in computers
The period of increased computerization of many areas of life, including
education, which was initiated with the introduction and popularization of microcomputers, still continues. Alongside the undeniable advantages of the use of
computers in education, there are also many risks associated with its improper use,
especially by children and adolescents. Computer games make it hard for children
to get away from the computer, which can lead to addiction. Furthermore, easy
access to information in the “network” may hinder the teaching process – the
child accustomed to acquiring information and knowledge quickly does not want
to be systematic in using textbooks. It also decreases the desire to read books
and newspapers in paper versions. A common phenomenon is also downloading
ready papers from the Internet and plagiarizing. It is also said that modern media
make us stupid, and some people say that the computer will eventually destroy
our civilization turning people into specific robots. Nevertheless, computerization process cannot be stopped, as there are more benefits than risks.
Many teachers welcomed the introduction of computers into education with
enthusiasm by hoping to improve the quality of education. This had a direct relationship with the fascination of young people with this new teaching aid. However, time revealed numerous and varied concerns of teachers in relation to this
tool.
The literature and educational practice refers to the permanent problem ...
With what? Endangered safe (because known) foundation of teaching activities?
Resistance to what is new? Concerns in relation to one’s own incompetence? Dis-
Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
39
belief in the effectiveness of media education? Finally, the lack of trust in the
computer and accompanying devices? It is difficult to define the source of the
teachers’ resistance to the technological support of education. As the cause of this
phenomenon Wasiołka (2009, p. 11) indicates i.a.:
− lack of compatibility between the equipment and teaching content,
− often complicated interface of devices, not meeting user expectations,
− stress that accompanies the work with the new, unfamiliar technology.
Morbitzer (2000, pp. 303–305) lists three groups of reasons for not meeting
the expectations and hopes associated with the use of computers in education:
1. Methodological reasons:
− belief that the mere presence of a computer will improve the quality of
education,
− basing on old technology,
− attempt to program a man as a computer.
2. Psychological reasons:
− fear of the computer (computerphobia),
− general reluctance to apply the technical teaching aids,
− fetishism of equipment (in many schools the equipment is a source of
pride, presented at various meetings and visits, but it is not necessarily
used to serve students and teachers in exploring new knowledge).
3. Technical barriers:
− imperfect picture and sound,
− too low speed of certain applications,
− deficiencies of dialogue between the user and a computer.
Is it possible to trust the efficiency, reliability and effectiveness of a computer with so many obstacles of using it? Can we trust the new technology and
expect our work to improve if we feel stressed while using it? May uncertainty
about the reliable operation and effectiveness of the computer result in commitment to the use of this equipment? These questions seem to be rhetorical, and the
answer clearly negative. Attitude towards what is new for us supported by bad
experiences builds distrust and distance. Teachers with such attitudes often do
not take risks and prefer to use proven, reliable, analog methods of working with
students.
Distrust in computer is intensified by the fact that the introduction of computers into education has not produced the expected results. Hopes to improve
the effectiveness of education proved to be false, because “the effectiveness of
40
Agnieszka Jankowska
computer-assisted learning process is determined not by the computer itself, but
mainly by the teaching resources presented with its help, and – most importantly
– teaching methodology of the teacher and learner” (Morbitzer, 2000, p. 303).
Skeptical arguments, however, that the computer will completely replace the
school teacher are unjustified. Digital media and professional software increasingly used in schools are not intended to limit the role of the teacher or to replace
him, but to comprehensively assist the teacher in his work by making the teaching
process more accessible and attractive to the student.
Despite still observed reluctance of teachers to master modern tools like
a computer (and thus peripherals such as multimedia projector, camera, camcorder), it is more often used as a didactic tool at all school subjects. It should be
realized that by adjusting the form and type of media (in this case, the computer-aided media) to the perceptive abilities of students, taking into account that
they are accustomed to use multi-channel and media coverage every day, we let
them develop many skills and abilities that students can use in everyday life to
explore, understand, experience and transform reality.
The world that we live in is a modern world, which gives us hundred times
more possibilities of safe and satisfying life than any of the pre-modern systems.
However, a modern world also brings unknown threats and risks that we have to
deal with (Beck, 2004). Trust, also in the computer as a technical teaching aid,
is the basis for the optimal functioning in the “risk society” (Beck, 2004). But
not everyone is open to what is new in education and willing to trust in the new
educational technology. If we assume that the computer in education is a threat to
the safety or detrimental to the interests of the students, teachers, management,
administration, etc., then it is not surprising that some people distrust in computers.
2.7. Conclusion
Computer – more than any other tool – defines the turn of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries by being successfully applied in the formal and informal
forms of education. Absolutely practical and efficient, in education it especially
supports the teaching process, but not only. It also plays an important role in
supporting the development of children and young people, equalizing their educational opportunities and removing dysfunctions disturbing the process of education.
Trust in the computer – selected contexts, expectations and doubts
41
Computer and peripherals are already a common sight at school. Slightly
worse is the case of systematic and purely educational use of this equipment.
Teachers are still reluctant to use a computer and projector while implementing
teaching content; however, it has become a standard to use these devices in the
organization of school celebrations and events.
For the widespread use of the computer in education, it is necessary to trust
this tool. Information technology implemented in schools, and the ubiquity of
digital media will finally encourage all teachers and educators with computer
skills of both the technical and methodological nature. These skills, which are
fundamental to the use of media in education, may also be one of the stages of
building trust in computers among the teachers, who still lack this trust.
Trust in the computer as a technical teaching aid is interpersonal trust addressed at developers of computers and educational software. It is also intrapersonal trust in one’s own abilities and skills. And finally, it is technological trust in
the reliability and efficiency of the electronic device.
It is worth to deepen the knowledge about the nature of trust in the computer,
not only as a technical teaching aid, but also as a tool that activates the creative
potential of the people and inspires easily trust among youngest generations.
References
Beck U. (2004), Społeczeństwo ryzyka. W drodze do innej nowoczesności, przeł.
P. Cieśla, wyd. 2, „Scholar”, Warszawa.
Beksińska E. (2006), Komputer w nauczaniu przedmiotowym, Edukacja i Dialog, nr 10.
Bolter J.D. (2005), Komputer: maszyna i narzędzie, [in:] Nowe media w komunikacji społecznej w XX wieku. Antologia, (ed.) M. Hopfinger, Oficyna Naukowa, Warszawa.
Gawrysiak M. (2010), Odtwarzanie czy rozumienie? O komputerze, komputacji i komputacjonalizmie w dydaktyce, [in:] Technologie informacyjne w warsztacie nauczyciela, (ed.) J. Migdałek, W. Folta, Księgarnia Akademicka, Kraków.
Giddens A. (2008), Konsekwencje nowoczesności, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków.
Giddens A. (2012), Nowoczesność i tożsamość. „Ja” i społeczeństwo w epoce późnej nowoczesności, translation by A. Szulżycka, wyd. 2, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN,
Warszawa.
Giddens A. (2009), Życie w społeczeństwie posttradycyjnym, [in:] Modernizacja refleksyjna. Polityka, tradycja i estetyka w porządku społecznym nowoczesności, (eds.)
U. Beck, A. Giddens, P. Lash, translation by J. Konieczny, Wydawnictwo Naukowe
PWN, Warszawa.
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Agnieszka Jankowska
Lewoc L. (1993), Informatyka w szkole. Poradnik dyrektora i nauczyciela, Vulcan,
Wrocław.
Morbitzer J. (2000), Refleksje nt. metodyki wykorzystywania komputerów w edukacji,
[in:] Technologia informacyjna w zmieniającej się edukacji. Materiały z konferencji naukowej Ciechocinek 1999, (eds.) B. Siemieniecki, A. Skarbińska, J. Sykulski,
Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wyższej Szkoły Suwalsko-Mazurskiej, Ciechocinek–Toruń–Suwałki.
Morbitzer J. (2002), Edukacja wspierana komputerowo – nowe dylematy, Życie Szkoły,
nr 6.
Piecuch A. (2004), Komputerowe programy dydaktyczne, [in:] Encyklopedia pedagogiczna XXI wieku, T. 3, (ed.) T. Pilch, Wydawnictwo Akademickie „Żak”, Warszawa.
Sztompka P. (2007), Zaufanie. Fundament społeczeństwa, Wydawnictwo Znak, Kraków.
Tadeusiewicz R. (2011), Wielorakość wcieleń i ról komputera w szkole, [in:] Technologie informacyjne w warsztacie nauczyciela. Nowe wyzwania edukacyjne, (eds.)
J. Migdałek, A. Stolińska, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Pedagogicznego,
Kraków.
Tanaś M. (1997), Edukacyjne zastosowania komputerów, „Żak”, Warszawa.
Uslaner E.M. (2008), Zaufanie strategiczne i zaufanie normatywne, [in:] Socjologia codzienności, (ed.) P. Sztompka, M. Bogunia-Borowska, Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy Znak, Kraków.
Wasiołka P. (2009), Nowoczesne pomoce dydaktyczne w pracy nauczyciela, Dyrektor
Szkoły, nr 4, dodatek Nowe Technologie w Szkole.
Zaczyński W.P. (1990), Uczenie się przez przeżywanie, Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, Warszawa.
Zieliński J.P. (2008), Informatyczne przesłanki do powstania społeczeństwa informacyjnego, [in:] Społeczeństwo informacyjne, (ed.) J. Papińska-Kacperek, Wydawnictwo
Naukowe PWN, Warszawa.
Author’s note
Agnieszka Jankowska – PhD student at the Institute of Pedagogy, University of Szczecin. Teacher, librarian, oligophrenopedagogue, employment counselor. Her research activity is focused on the problems of pedeutology, but also on the popularization of reading
among children and adolescents and activation of people with intellectual disabilities.
Currently, her research interests focus on teacher reflection. Contact: jaga33@poczta.
onet.pl
Chapter III
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
3.1. Introduction
The economic, political and social progress puts new social
groups and classes of people in the center of social life,
making changes in the culture and values much easier.
Thomas Hobbes
The modern world, immersed in the interference of cultures, social mobility,
economic integration, open labor markets and free movement of capital, turned
into the Global Village (McLuhan, 2001; Wellman, Hampton, 1999, pp. 648–654),
making the social world a single place (Robertson, 1990, p. 395).
Thanks to modern information and communication technologies (ICT), mobile network and the Internet with its offer including e-mail service, FTP file
transfer, Instant Messenger e.g. Skype, social e.g. Facebook and Twitter, we can
not only keep in touch with family and friends, but also use it for tele-working
or distance learning. ICT based mainly on data transmission via satellite, fiber
and the Internet, open direct access to global knowledge and information to all of
its participants. Therefore, ICT created endless opportunities for learning, thus
creating a modern education through the implementation of innovations in its
A term coined by Marshall McLuhan in his book of 1962 entitled “The Gutenberg Ga-
laxy”.
The term ‘participants’ is used in this article in order to emphasize that Being-in-theWeb does not involve being only the passive users – recipients of the message, but at the same time,
being the creators and participants of this Web.
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
44
structure based on modern digital technologies. By creating the term “post-industrial society”, Daniel Bell found that there should be formulated also other terms
to determine its pro-cybernetic nature, and above all, its cognitive-developmental
nature, providing terms that today, in a special yet accurate way reflect the need
of “becoming”. These terms are: “knowledge society”, “information society” and
“professional society” (Bell, 1974, pp. 36–37). And education plays a vital role in
the process of “becoming” as nowadays the Internet has become not only a social
space, but most of all E-learning space.
Report to U N E S C O of the International Commission on Education for
the Twenty-first Century edited and chaired by Jacques Delors, presents the context of the role of education in relation to the four pillars of education, which is
a priority for the development of modern society. I identify this fact directly with
the need for awakening in every human a person-in-action – “becoming” a person
aware of genuine and active “being-in-the-world” 10. The report says that the four
pillars important to each of us include: learning to know, learning to do, learning
to live together and learning to “be” (Delors, 1998). As I assume, they are also
connected with E-learning11, as they become theses significantly corresponding
to the criticism by Emmanuel Mounier of the expansiveness of the consumer
civilization, as well as the existentialist emphasizing “the primacy of the person”.
And awakening the need for openness of “I” to the other person is not common
today, especially in the virtual world. We know that the “real” experience of our
The term ‘E-learning’ used in this article relates to the definition stating that it is
a “modern form of education based on distance learning, without leaving home, at times convenient for the learner; using digital aids and electronic media, such as television, CDs, audio
and video tapes, telephone, fax, computer and the Internet, and recently also mobile phones. It
involves using technology to manage, design, develop, deliver, select, support and expand all kinds
of learning; it applies to all forms of acquisition and transfer of knowledge, skills and abilities”
(Papińska-Kacperek 2008).
10
This paper directly refers to the concept of “Da-sein” as the subject existence coined by
Martin Heidegger in his book entitled: “Being and Time” Sein und Zeit (Heidegger 1994) – hence
the title of this article – Being and Web.
11
At the same time I recognize that it is a collection of processes directly related to both
learning and teaching that takes place both in the “Internet Network” and outside through modern information and communication technologies. It is an interactive process of learning, which
enables the achievement of goals and tasks set in the relationship between teacher and pupil, as
well as between pupils, using multimedia resources and tools.
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
45
own “Da-sein” 12 and other-I – the person – inspires the awakening of mutual trust.
Therefore, especially in an era of almost constant presence in the “Web”, there is
a need for educating in the sense that “I” – as indicated by Emmanuel Mounier –
a person – in my subjectivity – “am from the beginning a movement towards
something else. The person does not exist for itself, but for something else“
(Granat 1959, p. 29), and that something else is always not-I.
Formal education, already being to a large extent multimedia education, is
constantly subject to the introduction of new technological system and Internet
“Web”. It happens in almost all of its segments and almost at all levels, making it
more accessible and also more complex.
Teachers are systematically encouraged – through training, equipping them
with the necessary tools and procedures – to use the potential of information technology in teaching, in all forms of education, training and self-education, as well
as the methodology of teaching (Siemieniecki, 2007, p. 11). However, this requires
them to acquire “digital” literacy13 – but not understood strictly in the category of
technical competence, but also communication competence – dialogue, and above
all, moral competence in order to build mutual trust in “Being-in-the-Web”.
In education, the Internet has become a complex multimedia teaching aid,
which is designed to optimize the process of teaching and learning (Okoń, 2003).
Nowadays, “Web” becomes an interactive educational medium and valuable intellectual tool taking part also in the process of self-education (Skrzydlewski,
1990; Strykowski, 2002). Its usefulness for education has three major dimensions:
it supports the school education, facilitates the production of teaching resources
“Da-sein – as emphasized by Heidegger – “(...) understands oneself always on the basis
of one’s existence, one’s own ability to be or not to be oneself” (Heidegger, 1994, p. 18).
13
Therefore “digital” literacy is identified here directly with its dual dimension including
both technical competence and practical-moral competence (Ref. Kwaśnica 2003). Both the technical competence that Robert Kwaśnica recognized in the form of the acquisition of skills by the
teacher that are the basis for his action – along with its particular set of applications, and therefore
the possibility of the use of multimedia and ICT technologies to create curricula and implement
teaching content. They contain: – Postulatory (normative) competencies, which include a capacity for selecting and endorsing instrumentally defined goals; – Methodical competencies, which
result from a conscious observance of rules or from creative action based on the rules which define
the optimal sequencing of activities; – Execution competencies, which comprise a skillful selection of means and a creation of conditions which promote the attainment of the set goals. (Ref. Ibid,
s. 298–302). These, together with the practical-moral competencies, indicating the model to use
them by the teacher, can directly translate to initiate the construction of a model of conduct, i.a.
the acquisition of competence of Being-in-the-Web by the students.
12
46
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
and enables learning through the Internet, or is only an aid to the process with its
participation.
The presence of information technology contributes to the wide variety of
educational models at the level of self-education, and supports students in the
process of interaction – co-learning. Therefore, the Internet network is not only
a virtual learning platform based on one-sided communication. On the contrary,
it is characterized by full interactivity based on synchronicity and asynchronicity
in receiving messages. Thus, participation in the “Web” is not a direct instruction, but allows for, encourages and affects communication in constant dialogue
with others, thereby initiating the collective cooperation, while maintaining the
creative individualism of its participants. And although they are mass recipients,
at the same time, they are also the creators, co-founders and decision-makers of
the content published in the “Web”.
Internet “Web” provides access to the diversity of educational materials, the
availability of which – in digital form – is growing. They are modified, enriched
and updated by individual participants, who are co-users and co-creators of the
whole Internet Network. Thus, it becomes the space for the process of learning
and teaching that occurs online. Despite this fact, “Web” still arouses anxiety
and doubt by creating a barrier of distrust among parents and teachers, as well
as among some politicians – legislators, who enforce law related to E-learning.
As pointed out by Tomasz Goban-Klas in the publication „Społeczeństwo informacyjne. Szanse, zagrożenia, wyzwania” [Information Society. Opportunities,
threats and challenges] (Goban-Klas, 1999), many teachers, as well as researchers
in various fields and journalists show clearly skeptical, and sometimes very negative opinion of “Being-in-the-Web” of the digital generation. This author highlights ten most frequently issues raised in connection with the representatives of
digital generation:
– they are more stupid than the previous generation of their age,
– they are Internet addicts, lacking social skills with no time for sports and
healthy lifestyle,
– they were spoiled by parents and therefore they lost their orientation in the
world and are afraid to choose their own way of life,
– they do not have a sense of shame,
– they steal – infringe intellectual property rights, download music, songs,
exchange everything they can using peer-to-peer network with a lack of
respect for copyright,
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
47
– they are Internet bullies,
– they are hyperactive,
– they do not have the work ethic and they will only be employees,
– this is the latest manifestation of a narcissistic “me”,
– they “don’t give a damn”.
Distrust is mainly the result of the risks arising from the questionable or
quite low value of online content and immoral actions that lead to resentment
and disapproval among many educators, parents and politicians. These risks also
have a negative influence on the skillful use of the “Web” by hiding its important
educational role and educational values.
Many teachers distrust due to the growing demand for E-learning accessibility, sometimes becoming only the shimmering proposals appearing on digital
platforms – educational courses, training, and even studies. Their accessibility,
and ease of completion is sometimes perceived only as online diploma trading.
And this practice increases distrust in other proposals. Similarly, although of
a different nature, distrust and even fear is inspired in the case of more popular,
especially among the younger generation, but also more and more seniors, blended
learning14, often perceived by pessimists and conservatives as the end of formal
education. However, these and other E-learning proposals implemented together
with the acquisition of already mentioned technical competencies and practicalmoral competencies by teachers and students, can turn into proposals that are
beneficial for education – they can support general education rather than competing with it. To make this possible, the education system needs consistent modifications of both methods and awareness of its subjects. Realizing the actual need
for cooperation between traditionalism and modernity, contributes in a real way
to the development of a knowledge society. Therefore, while developing the general educational system, it can address the challenges and needs of today “digital
generation” – generation, which significantly differs from its parents and teachers – representatives of the “still” analog generation – with new patterns of communication. Growing generation “is” and not “becomes” the digital generation
that grows in the “Web” and is characterized by a completely different paradigm
14
The term “blended learning” covers at least three aspects of learning and teaching, according to which it is: the educational process combining traditional – face to face – forms with
online activities; it is also a combination of both the media and the tools that are used in different
learning environments, as well as a combination of a variety of teaching methods and approaches,
regardless of the technology used (Ref. Whitelock, Jelfs 2003, pp. 99–100).
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
48
defined by Heidegger as “Being-in-the-World” (Ger. In-der-Welt-sein). Paradigm,
in which the life-world15 (Ger. Lebenswelt) is described by different hierarchies of
values ​​and, therefore, it should be understood and taught in order to find oneself
in a common dialogue. This situation arouses the need to build mutual trust in the
relations between teacher-student, student-parent, and teacher-parent. This trust
should be based on the technical competencies relating to the acquisition of skills
in using ICT, but also practical-moral competencies – those that relate specifically
to the real actions of the subject in the “Web” – “being”16 in it.
It seems possible to achieve trust through educating the growing generation about critical learning about oneself and surrounding life-world17, but mainly
through the awakening of a person with self-awareness of the real “being” with
the other “not-I” in the virtual world, by showing both the consequent threats but
also values of “Being-in-the-Web”. This can also refer to the life-long learning of
adults – raising both their professional qualifications and, therefore, the acquisition of digital literacy, and inspiring them to self-learning and moral self-awareness of “Being-in-the-Web”.
Life-world is understood here – by Habermas – as a personal symbolic space, together
with the surrounding material objects, with which the subject forms the structure of interrelationships and interactions in everyday existence. (Habermas 1999). Life-world category can be used
to show the relationship between the context of human action and its rationalization processes.
(Czerepaniak-Walczak 2006, p. 102).
16
Being-in-the-world means the approach towards the world – in this case the virtual
world. It is the consciousness of the world by being in the world – concern, care and be oneself. By
stressing in this article the need for real self-awareness training, and therefore a physical presence
in this only apparently virtual world, I assume the theory by Heidegger that the approach towards
Being-in-the-Web (...) should be considered as a fundamental existence and determined on the
basis of its structure” (Heidegger 1994, pp. 187 and 190–191).
17
Maria Czerepaniak-Walczak in her article on the life-world as a category of teaching
(Czerepaniak-Walczak 2011, p. 160) emphasizes that the life-world is the territory of the human
activity and a place to continue, update, and construct new elements. She writes that it is constituted – after Habermas – in the form of global knowledge intersubjectively shared by its members
(Habermas, 2002, p. 636). Participation in this world is based on the interpretation of the situation
(one’s own position, configuration of the elements and relations between them) and implementation of some action plans in this situation. By citing Schütz and Luckmann, Jürgen Habermas
writes that the life-world should be understood to the extent to which it is necessary to work in
it and be able to interact with it (Habermas 2006, p. 226). The life-world understood in this way
covers conditions for the discovery and use of the paths “to help people in critical perception and
interpretation of reality, which oppresses them” (Bourdieu 2006, p. 228).
15
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
49
Considerations undertaken in this part refer to the three essential – in my
opinion – areas to build trust in the Internet. The first is focused around purely
sociological aspect of social structure; however, my intention is to try to outline
educational context of the structure – the introduction or preparation of a student
to the conscious and real “Being-in-the-Web” by indicating associated profits and
privileges, while inducing awareness of possible threats by initiating skills of
critical assessment of the subjective Da-sein – “being” in the social environment
of virtual reality. The second focuses on skills and actions to acquire them, which
I particularly emphasize in this article. The third focus on the trust based on the
possibility of its building based on creating real access to the “Web”. The second
and third areas are supported with the current CBOS, GUS and GIODO survey
reports and involve the analysis of their parts, which refer to the topic of this article. However, all of these areas are analyzed in terms of the definition of trust
by Piotr Sztompka, where “trust is a very important resource of an individual,
group or the whole society; a specific form of social capital” (Sztompka, 2012,
pp. 533–540).
3.2. Structure of “Being-in-the-Web”
In his considerations on idle talk, Martin Heidegger states that in the Web
the Other is “there in terms of what they have heard about him,
what they say and know about him”.
(Heidegger, 1994, p. 175)
By initiating a variety of phenomena, ICT emerged a completely new field of
social reality played out in “cyberspace”. Space in which this society – by Manuel
Castells – is called the “network society” (Castells, 2000)18, the space for communication and action, where interaction takes place online in the virtual “Web”.
And this Web, especially today – as a result of the complexities of its structure,
and through its unpredictability – becomes intriguing both from the psychologi-
18
Author locates its origins in the 70s of last century, which was the time for the creation
of “... new technological paradigm, organized around information technology; a specific segment
of American society developing in interaction with the global economy and the global geopolitics
in the form of a system of new production, communication, management and life” (Castells, 2008,
p. 23).
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
50
cal and social dimension. This raises the need to make deeper and wider research
and analysis on this issue.
Therefore, it seems that the “Web” gives a whole new dimension to the theory of social action. In this context, I shall refer to the three concepts proposed
by Talcott Parsons, who stresses that: 1) action occurs when actor seeks goals
in situations; 2) action is the relation of an actor and a situation; 3) action is the
distribution of energy in time and space, subject to definite constraints (Parsons,
Shills, 1953).
“Web” has become a phenomenon in itself, but most of all, its uniqueness
is formed from the point of view of a subjective (personal)19 phenomenon20 of
“being” and acting in it. Phenomena that occur in the virtual “Web”, as the result
of a direct intervention of the subject in its virtual space and in the dimension
of personal “action”, although being a real existence, should be recognized – as
proposed by Roland Robertson – in the category of the set of “processes that organize a common world” (Cynarski, 2003, p. 17), because “Web” already produces
natural “common environment to all the inhabitants of the globe” (Ghai, 1997,
p. 26). Diversity of collective actions, but also subjective and creative activities
in the form of taking positions, creating ideas and new innovations, which are
present in this environment, requires the development of responsible “personal
The subjective (personalistic) approach is adopted in accordance with the Dictionary of
New Humanism, where personalism is “... a philosophical theory that understands a man with his
freedom as a master and spiritual value, [in:] http://www.humanisten.ch/woerterbuch/ [accessed
on 30.12.2014].
Especially contemporary approach to personalism (subjectivism) – close to the creative nature of
the modern man and to the need of finding oneself – own identity among others-I, while creating
and developing oneself and not giving up the presence of others, and without departing from the
need to be in the community – can be found at Walt Whitman, who wrote that if we think about
the essence of civilization – what is its purpose with religions, arts, education, etc., would not this
be just an extremely rich, diverse, full of splendor Personalism? Everything leads to that, because
this where the democracy goes. Literature, music, national aesthetics are so important primarily
because they offer some role models (...) by seeing the call, which always demands excellence,
maturity, by considering, developing and instilling attitudes of what is best in man, and which
consists of the new aesthetics of the future” (Flewelling 2004, p. 95) (Flewelling 2004, s. 95).
20
This shall be put in words of Martin Heidegger, who claims that “... what is understood
phenomenologically by the term phenomena (...) can be illustrated when we say that what already
shows itself in appearances prior to and always accompanying what we commonly understand as
phenomena, though unthematically, can be brought thematically to self-showing. What thus shows
itself in itself (...) are the phenomena of phenomenology.” Heidegger, Being and Time, PWN,
Warszawa 1994, p. 45.
19
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
51
style” based on the assumption of trusting other-I; being based on openness in
the dialogue, which – according to McLuhan – is inevitable in the global village
(Ref. McLuhan, 2001, p. 369–370).
The new situation, based on the course of interaction and action in a virtual
world of “Web”, requires the production of communication rationality (Habermas, 1999), language – an authentic, conscious and responsible “Being-in-theWeb”, which according to Jürgen Habermas, constitute a “medium agreement”
that we would trust in “some” way. Of significant importance becomes a practical
interest associated with it, which – with the communication rationality – have
a direct effect on the sphere of social interaction (Czerepaniak-Walczak, 2006;
Szahaj, 2008; Witkowski, 1990). It is the emancipatory interest realized both in
subjective terms of ”becoming” of a person – liberating from the imposed and
unconsciously adopted content for the benefit of making critical, conscious and
“real” choice, and “becoming” of the community realized in the collective transgressions in order to arouse “the integration of thinking and acting, which aims
to create conditions of conscious, self-achieved maturity in the various spheres of
the individual and collective development” (Czerepaniak-Walczak, 2006, p. 64).
Assuming by Sztompka that social structure is a “hidden network of permanent and regular links [created by Internet users – author’s note] between the
components of the reality [which are the direct actions in the “Web” – posts on
forums, portals, Instagram etc., the presentation of “I” on Facebook, online shopping, as well as playing network games – author’s note], which has a significant
impact on the course of the observed phenomena (Sztompka, 2007, p. 172) [interacting through direct physical effects and consequences of these actions: e.g. theft
of copyrighted works, fraud, suicide as a result of intimidation and harassment,
and a form of ideological self-destruction 21, murder resulting from agitation and
incitement, racism, religious fanaticism, as well as many others – author’s note],
I shall conclude that it is a complex, yet an integrated whole, consisting of four
basic dimensions which determine its analytical character:
21
Suicide become public protest against: hostile behavior, imposing own will, the use of
physical and psychological oppression, lack of consent to existential self-slavery of own being
– imprisonment in own body, especially among young people who not only want to exist in the
public space, but to reflect a deep, contributing to self-destruction grieve toward the life-world.
Sometimes, Being-in-the-Web is transformed into being-towards-death. According to Heidegger,
referential background for this mood is nothingness (nonbeing).
52
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
– interactive dimension of the Web typical for and related to a particular
group of targeted and focused actions,
– ideal dimension based on the group of ideas, beliefs, views and visions
related and spread within the community, which outlines and formulates
collective and subjective awareness by determining concrete actions,
– normative dimension – subject to completely different forms in the Web,
which includes external, objectified and requiring social facts indicating
what should be done, defined as a group of norms, values and institutions, requiring special care in terms of education, especially regarding
conscious “Being-in-the-Web” and the related moral competencies,
– the dimension of diverse and related interests of varied access to
goods that are considered socially desirable, including: knowledge, prestige, wealth, power, but also the emerging inequalities of the above
goods (Sztompka, 2007, pp. 173–175).
The Internet has contributed to the radical change in the way of understanding time and space (Giddens, 1990, p. 64) by extending their physical (virtual
memory) and mental (much expanded field of real influence of subjective action)
boundaries. Thus, being and time (Sein und Zeit) in the “Web” gained a new
dimension – the subjective existence of “Being-in-the-Web” (In-der-Netzwerksein). Heidegger’s existence of “Being-in-the-World” (Heidegger, 1994) is now
located in anonymity, with physical impact on the world by increasing the potential of this impact.
Currently, not just taking actions in the Web, but “being” in it can liberate
from the conformism and one-sidedness, because it enables “to be eccentric”.
This is because the conditions shaped by the impact of digital technology – as
stated by Marshall McLuhan – “promote bigger diversity; respond to a lack of
continuity and divisions than former mechanical and unified society “(McLuhan,
2001, pp. 369–370). Achievement and expansion of the autonomous personal freedom become clearer and more attractive in the Web than in the real “Being-in-theWorld”. And this freedom is based on choice, decision-making, influence/impact,
creating, co-creating, shaping, deforming and building, but also triggering destructive power. Thus, it is based on “autonomous” and “self-determined” existence. The question is, whether this existence refers to “self-consciousness” of
actions taken not only for oneself but also for others and for the world by opening
to mutual trust in the creative dimension of “being”? It seems that this freedom
should be based mainly on self-direction skills, being responsible for the actions
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
53
directed against another person. The existence of “Being-in-the-Web” should be
understood as an internal “freedom, human person and artwork, which are the basis for ‘my’ sense of the world from the very beginning” (Berdyaev, 1993, p. 59).
It seems to me that the achievement of subjective fields of freedom becomes
possible in three most important dimensions of “Being-in-the-Web”. The first of
these dimensions is located in the sphere of culture and science. It creates the possibility of conscious – subjective and collective – discovering oneself and achieving one’s own goals in the reality of “being” offered by the Web. The Web is the
place for the creation of thinking collectives, which aim to create and co-create
the surrounding reality. These subjects want to have a joint and real impact on the
culture, social issues, politics and the economy. Digital platforms enable integration, which makes possible an in-depth analysis of reality based on the exchange
of opinions on actions taken by politicians, local government leaders – people
who were chosen to represent our interests. Finally, the Web can be used to show
– using a wider forum – own initiatives, both those relating to the affairs of individuals, as well as those influencing social issues by creating and contributing to
civic criticism – thus affecting the “becoming” of civil society.
Internet Web supports lifelong – permanent education22. Thus, it enables
direct contact with science, not only for the younger generation, but also for
adults and seniors. The second dimension is the economic sphere, allowing to
make a deliberate choice, resulting from selection and the ability to use one’s
own self-creation of services and trade. The third dimension is almost unlimited
range of integration of subjects. At the same time these dimensions, especially
their diversity, make “Being-in-the-Web” a very fluid phenomenon of ambiguous intentions, which makes the same “Web” a source of real threats, and even
a place for different types of crime and abuse. The reality in the Web becomes,
as said by Zygmunt Bauman, “ambiguous and more chaotic” than the real “Being-in-the-World”. (Bauman, 1995, pp. 11–14). Thus, it requires a systematic and
consistent development of trust in the subject – “person”, as well as a community of people – the Web community, because trust, as emphasized by Francis
Fukuyama is “... the expectation of the certain community about the fair, mutual,
repetitive behavior based on generally accepted standards by some members of
22
Zygmunt Wiatrowski understands it as “... the general educational processes occurring
during the entire period of human life, and therefore, the lifetime processes carried out in all possible organizational and program forms in all situations of interpersonal relations” (Wiatrowski,
2005, p. 356).
54
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
such a community”(Fukuyama, 1997, p 40). Therefore, an important task faced
by modern education is not so much educating by equipping with the technical
competencies, but above all, by encouraging self-development in the acquisition
and nurturing moral competencies, especially in relation to the growing net generation.
3.3. The acquisition of “digital” competencies for “Being-in-the-Web”
Our most important goal is peace.
The second goal is for nobody to be hungry,
The third is a relatively full employment.
The fourth is, of course, education.
Karl Popper
In accordance with the presented survey reports conducted by CBOS,
GUS and GIODO, the fastest group in acquiring “digital” competencies are the
youngest. It should be emphasized that these are largely technical competencies,
consisting of excellent skills in browsing a virtual reality system, as well as knowledge of the software.
In his book „Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your
World” (Tapscott, 2010), Don Tapscott indicates eight specific and – in his opinion
– very positive features of the net generation. These are: freedom, customization,
scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed and innovation. This happens despite the most common factors determining “Being-in-the-Web”, namely
“diverse and related interests” or differential access to goods. In other words, this
means the possibility of using the Web in schools and other educational institutions, as well as during extracurricular activities and at home.
Most often, it turns out that the children and young people use the Web,
which is available at home. Less popular are Internet cafes that have become very
popular in the late nineties. Nowadays, it has become fashionable to use smartphones, iPhones and tablets, which enable the mobility and intimacy of “Beingin-the-Web” almost anywhere.
Today, digital generation is shaped by the habits acquired through ICT, especially if we talk about mobility in access to knowledge. And it results in the
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
55
growing phenomenon of customization23, which is the adaptation of the creator/
agent to the customer needs – in our context to the need of adapting education to
the needs of the growing digital generation. Taking into account the implementation of models of education based on the availability of wider Web sources of
knowledge contained in the E-libraries, Don Tapscott emphasizes that it is worth
to consider the use of the strengths of digital generation in education.
Fig. 1. Where children and young people use the Internet
Source: GIODO 201424.
Fig. 2. Reasons for using the Internet by children and youth
Source: GIODO 2014.
According to the Polish Language Dictionary, the term “customization” means to adapt
something to meet customer needs – personalization, [in:] http://sjp.pl/kastomizacja [accessed on:
12.12.2014].
24
GIODO’s survey under the project: “The perception of issues related to data protection
and privacy of children and youth”. Surveys aimed at children and young people representing two
age groups: children aged 11–12, which corresponds to the 5th grade of elementary school, and
young people aged 15–16, which corresponds to the 3rd grade of junior high school.
23
56
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
Among the youth “Web” is the space which they can use mainly for entertainment. Acquisition of technical competencies supports simultaneous acquisition of practical-moral competencies through active “Being-in-the-Web”. Their
acquisition is associated with the realization of the need of coexistence with the
other – social and interpersonal interaction. This need is realized by the possibility of showing emotions, feelings against another, sharing ideas, and therefore
sharing these feelings with others – compassion.
In Heideggerian – virtual, although quite realistic – “Being-in-the-Web”,
of significant importance become practical-moral competence of teachers highlighted by Robert Kwaśnica (Kwaśnica, 2003, pp. 298–302 ), namely:
– interpretation competencies, which include the ability to understand
the world. Only through these competencies the world is understood as
a reality that requires constant interpretation and extraction of its meaning – to discover and understand one’s own existence,
– moral competencies, which are seen as the ability of moral reflection – of
my actions and actions of others in the world,
– communication competencies, seen as the ability to have a dialogue not
only with others but also with the self, which is of a special dimension
referring to the perception of each other in a pseudo virtual world – “Being-in-the-Web”.
The teacher supplies students with these competencies – either intentionally
or unintentionally – by constantly using them during the learning process. Thus,
teaching based on the above competencies translates itself both to the process of
acquiring them by students, as well as using them in their “Being-in-the-Web”.
It should be emphasized that competence is always a subjective category; “it
always belongs to someone, a person, it is different from the standards, formulas,
rules or values (Ziółkowski, 1996), it differs by “[...] the beliefs of the person,
the need to use this skill” (Nowacki, 1995; Baraniak, 1998, p. 23). Competence,
as noted by Maria Dudzikowa, is defined by cognitive structure consisting of
specific capabilities, powered by knowledge and experience, built on a set of
beliefs that – in the particular situation – these capabilities should and can be
used to initiate and carry out tasks efficiently in order to achieve changes
consistent with one’s own desired standards in own personality and behavior”
(Dudzikowa, 1993) [emphasized by J.N.G.].
This approach to competence is particularly important in the case of understanding freedom resulting from “Being-in-the-Web”, and therefore indepen-
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
57
dent and critical overview of the sphere of conscious selection of teaching models
and space and time to use them, not only by the young generation, but also by
adults and seniors. Acquisition of emancipatory competencies is treated in this
case at the same level as the ability “to negate the existing conditions for acting”
(Witkowski, 1984, p. 33), which is the ability of (individual/collective) subject
expressed in perceiving and understanding the restrictions [...] for achieving new
rights and fields of freedom and their responsible use to improve ourselves and
our environment” (Czerepaniak-Walczak, 2006, s. 130). Therefore, it is worth to
modernize and adapt the capabilities of the “Web” to create models of education
involving the interaction with it using software, applications and other proposals directly at school and outside of it. Such action can effectively lead to the
increase of trust both in the subject and the communities – collectives of thought
and action, and therefore – as emphasized by Piotr Sztompka – it can “release and
mobilize human subjectivity, inspire openness, creativity, innovation activities,
[...] and facilitate cooperation” (Sztompka, 2012, pp. 527, 533) [J.N.G.]. At the
same time, they refer to the objectives pursued by modern education found in the
Report of the International Commission on Education entitled: “Learning to be”,
including:
– preparation of people for the changes,
– show people how to accept them and benefit from them,
– create a dynamic, non-conformist, non-conservative frame of mind”.
In my opinion, at the same time they are directed towards promoting lifelong
education 25 supporting active “Being-in-the-World” of adults. Today, E-learning
enables their full participation in the labor market and active social life. On the
one hand, it is related to the need for the continuous improvement of professional
qualifications forced by the rules of free labor market, and on the other hand,
with the need to give Da-sein the meaning of life by allowing adults – seniors,
who are of retirement age, to have or continue intellectual activity. E-learning and
access to the “Web” sometimes becomes a gateway to continue to function
through active “Being-in-the-World” of seniors. They sometimes find the me25
According to Ryszard Wroczyński, lifelong education is primarily a phenomenon related to the necessity of continuous modification of education and keeping up with developments in
science and technology. This understanding of continuing professional education is associated
with equipping a man with dispositions that determine the willingness and ability to continue learning. And these two aspects – ability to keep up with the progress and modification of
acquired skills – are the essence of lifelong education (Wroczyński 1976, p. 130).
58
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
aning of life and self-esteem by being able to acquire knowledge in the E-library,
being able to establish and run their own blogs, as well as visit and participate
in social networking – sharing them with others. After all, the meaning of life26
becomes full when we work together for the change to happen, along with the
progress that contributes to the development of society and its culture, art, science, and especially education.
3.4. Trust in the “Web” – the result of the wide availability
or “digital” stratification?
Digital stratification is understood here as a personal and socioeconomic set
of constraints in the availability of the “Web”. It consists of both a lack of technological infrastructure – hardware and software – of the Internet in schools and
other educational and extracurricular institutions, as well as a stable infrastructure in the form of organizational solutions, which is the basis for the implementation and operation of information systems. This situation can have many layers.
It may be due to a personal aversion – e.g. the headmaster does not trust the
“Web”, or due to economic constraints because of the lack of funds or omissions
in obtaining them for this purpose and many others. This translates into a lack of
a change to acquire, both by students and teachers, of “digital” literacy, which can
certainly be considered today as social exclusion that Anthony Giddens refers “to
a situation in which individuals are deprived of the opportunity of full participation in society” (Giddens, 2006, pp. 346, 738).
In 2014 the Internet was regularly used by 62.8% of adult Poles. Trust declared in this medium increased slightly compared to 2013, when it was trusted
by 56% of respondents. There is, however, a noticeable increase in the availability
of the “Web” in comparison with the previous year.
26
The meaning of life results from Da-sein because – according to Heidegger
– Only Da-sein has meaning (...) Meaning is an existential of Da-sein, not a property
which is attached to beings (...) “Meaning is that wherein the intelligibility of something maintains itself. What can be articulated in disclosure that understands we call meaning (...) Meaning, structured by fore-having, fore-sight, and fore-conception, is the
upon which of the project in terms of which something becomes intelligible as something (...) Thus only Da-sein can be meaningful or meaningless /.../” (Heidegger, 1994,
p. 2015).
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
59
Fig. 3. Internet access in households (%)
Source: GUS 2013.
Stating that globalization is intensifying social relations at global level,
Anthony Giddens has placed it in the category of the group of processes that often
cause conflicts and contribute to the emergence of new forms of social stratification (Giddens, 2003, p. 18). A study conducted in the last two years suggests that
the “digital” stratification that occurred between rural and urban areas is gradually decreasing as a result of the availability of the “Web”. However, Internet
users in Poland are still more often those, who are the residents of cities rather
than rural areas.
Fig. 4. Internet users by the size of the place of residence
CBOS 2014.
Source:
However, it seems that the most important factors, which significantly affect
the level of trust in the Internet, include age and education of the respondents.
They have a direct impact on the declared use of the “Web”, while loss of trust
and use of the Internet is reflected with increasing age.
18–24
96
25–34
94
35–44
80
45–54
55
55–64
65 and up
42
19
Fig. 5. Internet users by the age groups
Source: CBOS 2014.
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
60
Trust in the Internet through the use of “Web” is declared by almost all
adults with higher education and more than two-thirds with secondary education.
The smallest percentages of respondents, who trust in the Internet, are those with
primary education.
Fig. 6. Internet users by education
Source: CBOS 2014.
The presence of Internet users in the socio-occupational groups largely correlates with the above variables, and thus it is based on a similar relationship. The
Internet is used very often in professions, which require the completion of higher
education and, therefore, the need to use a computer. However, it is less frequently
used among manual workers, especially among farmers.
The vast majority, constituting as much as 95% of Internet users, use the
search engines. More than three-quarters of respondents use e-mail by sending
e-mails with attachments. The smallest number of Internet users declared they
create or own websites.
Respondents declare “Being-in-the-Web” of about 12 hours a week, which is
an average of two hours a day. This time is also dependent on age. The youngest
tend to be in the Web longer than the other age groups, which is confirmed by the
previously indicated willingness to take activity in the Web, also connected with
the need to increase the “digital” literacy.
“Being-in-the-Web” has become a synonym of “Being-in-the-World” – freedom – “being mobile” and “being trendy”. Nowadays, the Internet is a tool for
work, education and entertainment by creating a platform for sharing information, social contacts and trade. Still, almost 40% of Poles do not have access to the
Internet, therefore being deprived of “Being-in-the-Web”.
Being and Web. Trust in the Internet
61
Fig. 7. Reasons for the lack of Internet access at home in 2013 (%)
Source: GUS 2013.
It is mainly caused by inequality – stratification – resulting from access to
ICT, which has been described as the “digital divide” (Pietrowicz, 2003). Previously the “Web was mainly the domain of private life, while centralized and
hierarchical structures were reserved for authorities and production”. And today,
we can use ICT, including the “Web”, by actually being in it. We can use it for
more complex collective projects by contributing to the organization, strengthening and further development of the global economy.
The whole world that we live in has become a “digital” world. Therefore, it
should be emphasized that the new source of inequality – a “digital divide”, revealed in a lack of access to the Web, applies to the existing social divisions and
greatly enlarges them (Ibid, p. 256). As a result of the potential lack of technological infrastructure, or occurring economic or institutional barriers in the access
to “Being-in-the-Web”, both individual subjects as well as entire communities
are not included in the online global world and are pushed into the “black hole
of information capitalism” (Castells, 2000). In an era when information becomes
a commodity, “digital divide” begins to be a threat for both the excluded and the
whole economy. And increase of trust by providing Internet access to all people
improves competitiveness and also helps to increase cooperation without the constant proving of credibility and reliability” (Sztompka, 2012, pp. 533–540).
3.5. Conclusion
Expansive nature of modern ICT, including access to the Internet, implies
a subjective “Being-in-the-Web” to adopt styles of being in and outside of the
“Web”, as well as different types of interests and passions, by immersing the subjective existence in the Web, “liquid modernity” that defines and at the same time
62
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek
determines the rhythm of work, education and leisure. “Being-in-the-Web”, also
became unlimited; it became a synonym of freedom.
Fig. 8. Trust in new technologies. Declarations of respondents concerning the use of the
Internet
Source: CBOS 2014.
As determined by Zygmunt Bauman due to the transition from the era of
“predetermined reference groups” to the era of “universal comparisons and combinations”, everyone in the “Web” has virtually endless possibilities for making
a choice. “Being” has taken on the nature of “Being-in-the-Supermarket”, where
you can just choose your identity (Bauman, 2006, p. 52–53). Therefore, it becomes important to constantly initiate an approach based on taking responsibility
by any person for oneself and for the new space and modern social reality offered
by the Internet network, but above all, for the other-I. Through the acquisition of
practical-moral competencies, we are able to create both “now” and the common
“tomorrow”. And we create, only when we grow and understand the rules that
govern changes (Cooper, 2000, s. 270). The level of social trust will grow with the
growth of technical competencies, but also practical-moral competencies, both in
the growing generation already immersed in ICT, but also among teachers using
the media to expand the content and forms of education. Therefore, “Being-inthe-Web” will become a universal space of mutual acceptance.
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Author’s note
Jerzy Norbert Grzegorek – a sociologist and educator, PhD student at the Institute
of Pedagogy, University of Szczecin, writing his dissertation under the supervision of
dr hab. Anna Murawska, Prof. of the University of Szczecin in the Department of Education Theory. His research interests include: social pedagogy, sociology, ethnic, culture animation. Major publications: “The Romani – cultural perceptions of other ethnic
groups”, “The Romani Minority in West Pomeranian Region” (2007), “The problem
of identification in the majority society” (2007), “Where does the tradition of power
end. Gypsy Rights and the Romani Reality” (2008). Author of numerous research articles i.a. “Sociological portrait of Poles living in Romania”, “Sociological portrait of Poles
living in Zaolzie”, “Creative teacher towards education for creativity in liquid modernity
– the challenges of contemporary art education”, “Other in the education for creativity
– dancer with physical disabilities”, “The Artist – a teacher as “a creator” of education
for creativity”.
Chapter IV
Interactive whiteboard in education
Barbara Żakowska
4.1. Introduction
In today technologically revolutionized times, it has to be stated that laptops,
desktops, notebooks, iPads and the Internet have not only become the essential
part of everyday life, but also education. This is due to the fact that the teacher,
the man directly responsible for the learning process, uses a variety of different
teaching aids as part of the lesson to attract the attention of the student. It also
provides an overview of the different types of work and acquisition of information. Moreover, the teacher, who wants to remain in line with the developing
world, trust it and trust himself, while being understandable for and by students,
must continually improve to expand his competences and meet the student in the
computer world.
Interactive whiteboard, as a technological teaching aid, which gradually invades the school space, can become an everyday tool in education. Until it happens, those, who use this device – in this case, the teacher and the student – must
pass an inevitable way. Firstly, these two actors must be motivated to work with
an interactive whiteboard. The teacher and the student must see the meaning in
using this teaching aid. Secondly, they must take risks associated with the use of
the interactive whiteboard. Technological equipment can uniquely enhance educational activities and encourage all members to the creative activity. However,
there is concern that this equipment can also disrupt the work or be used by the
teacher in a wrong way i.e. as a linear, traditional aid. Thus, the role of the teacher
in working with technological equipment, and in this case with an interactive
whiteboard, is to trust this teaching aid and its possibilities. Then the potential of
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interactive whiteboard will be used in an appropriate manner with the advantages
bringing success in education.
4.2. All that matters is trust
Trust is a timeless social rule. In an interview for Laboratorium Więzi (2008),
Sztompka highlights the fact that “trust is the value of a normative nature. In
a society or other smaller communities trusting others is considered as a good
thing and – what correlates to that – it is good to fulfill our obligations and fulfill
the expectations of other people ... Cultural beliefs are shaped in the talks, but
also in the literature and the media, which creates a climate of trust, or the opposite – the climate of cynicism and distrust.” The professor points out that trust
becomes a “rule of conduct”, “initial plan”, which is created in relationships with
people, organizations and institutions. It is natural to think that the other person
will be competent; we expect him to meet our requirements and to do what he
should. And only very simple forms of human cooperation are possible without
trust as it is necessary to increase the potential of the social system over the elementary forms of activity (Luchmann, 1979, 1988).
In the literature, trust is connected with the risks (Sztompka, 1999; Luchmann, 1988). It should be agreed that the trust is a risky investment – you have to
take the risk to trust. Trust is based on the relationship between risk and action,
where the two values are required at the same time. Action is defined in relation to the risk as an external (prospective) possibility, but the risk is also inherent in the action undertaken and exists only if one makes decisions that could
lead to unfortunate consequences while trusting this action (Luchmann, 1988,
pp. 97–100). Sztompka accurately defines trust as a bet on the future actions of
others. This means that when deciding on taking actions in unpredictable or uncertain situations, we take risks, gamble with the life, we take bets on the future,
we expect the conduct of others (Sztompka 1999, p. 25).
In further considerations on trust going beyond the area of human relations,
the question arises whether and how trust is created, trust e.g. in technological
equipment. It seems that everyone who has ever seen the use of computer systems or directly experienced work with technological equipment suffered frustration and anger because “the computer does not do what it should” or “does
not work according to our wish”. Working with technological equipment definitely requires trust, reliability and motivation. Silverstone (2006, p. 1 in Clarke,
Interactive whiteboard in education
69
Hardstone, Hartswood, Procter, Rouncefield) states that trust is linear and that
by learning to trust in others we learn to trust in things. Similarly, by learning
to trust in material things, we learn to trust in abstract things. In conclusion, the
trust is achieved and maintained in everyday life and consistency of the language
with experience.
4.3. Brain in the digital world
Spitzer (2007), a German psychiatrist and neuroscientist conducting research in the field of neurodidactics, stresses that the teacher’s work place is the
student’s brain. Scientists conducting research on the brain (Spitzer 2007; Fields,
2012) in the context of the learning process show that the modern school does not
support the natural processes of learning and does not help to develop individual
abilities of students, as it forgets about innate artistic abilities and capabilities of
the human brain. Neurodidactics addresses this problem by aiming to provide all
members of the school community with knowledge about learning and memorizing processes (Żylińska 2013, p. 16). According to these scientists, knowledge
of the structure of the brain, its functions and characteristics is the starting point
for changing schools, or even creating them from scratch. The teachers at the new
school must follow the world and meet in a place that will be close and familiar
to students’ brains27. Nowadays, students are not the same as students a decade
ago. They have a completely different view of the world by spending their lives
surrounded by computers, television, mobile phones, digital data media, etc. Each
of these stimuli causes the children, students to carry out mental processes in
a completely different way than their predecessors, which also changed their
brains in a physical meaning (Prensky 2001, p. 1). Therefore, it is necessary to
take into account new didactic solutions in the teaching-learning process. In this
context, it is beneficial to use technological aids that can support brain-friendly
teaching and learning process. However, new technologies must be treated with
care and used skillfully, so that students feel as active subjects and participants in
the learning process, not just neutral observers of using equipment that they know
more than half of their lives.
27
In her publication M. Żylińska (2013, p. 166) presents the problem of the maladaptation
of the school system and teachers to the requirements of the modern world by saying that „modern
students in „yesterday” schools are prepared by „yesterday” teachers to solve problems of tomorrow.”
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4.4. Time for interactive whiteboard
It may seem that the board has always been the primary teaching aid at
school. Some students and teachers still remember using a blackboard and
a chalk. It is hard to imagine that the first blackboard was used in 1801 by Baron,
an instructor at the Military Academy in West Point US in order to conduct math
class (http://farbadotablic.pl/?page_id=153).
The history of the board has more than 200 years. Previously, teachers did
not have a teaching aid, which could visualize the problem and encourage discussion is such an easy and accessible way. The twenty-first century welcomed
whiteboards with colored markers, which were not much different from their prototype. Teachers found it very useful as it was easy in using and cleaning.
Unquestionably, board had a great influence on the development of teaching
for the past 200 years. Traditional blackboard was a revolution in teaching and became a symbol associated with the school and education. Potential replacement of
the traditional black and whiteboards may soon become interactive whiteboard,
which has been available on the market for over 20 years. In Poland, this teaching
aid is gaining popularity and is more and more often used as a medium to diversify and maintain the attractiveness of the lesson.
Interactive whiteboard is a medium interacting with a computer and a multimedia projector. Its great advantage is the ability to control the software by touch
(hand) as well as a special marker (Rożniatowski). Interactive whiteboard, in contrast to other technological innovations that the teacher adapts to the conditions
and situations in the classroom, was created mainly for educational purposes to
support the work of teachers.
Based on the experience, I can say that the interactive whiteboard is one of
the factors that can have a positive impact on student achievement, provided that
the teacher will use it effectively. Skillful use of the whiteboard means using it
in with a balanced frequency, but also in various ways, not limited to the simple
presentation of material.
4.5. The study
The study on the use of the interactive whiteboard in education has not been
extensive so far (Nodzyńska, 2007; Perzycka, 2013). This is related primarily to
the short history of this teaching aid, but also little experience of teachers. The results of the study primarily concern student’s achievements in the areas of teach-
Interactive whiteboard in education
71
ing and education (Kopp, 2012, p. 10). For the US Kathleen Kopp presents statistics that show a slight difference in favor of the use of the interactive whiteboard
while learning English. However, the same author presents the results of research
comparing student achievement in mathematics. Students, who used interactive
whiteboard during a math class came out significantly better than those who were
taught in the traditional way.
Key aspects also involve skills of a teacher and his experience in working
with an interactive whiteboard. The greater the variety of interactive exercises
e.g. visualizing concepts and processes, solving problems, manipulating numbers,
graphs, and tables of data, as well as games, but also regular use and the freedom
of working with the whiteboard, the greater the chance of a better outcome (Kopp,
2012, p. 11). Scientists conducting study on the use of the interactive whiteboard
mentions many of the benefits of creating lessons with the use of this medium.
For example, Miller, Glover and Averis (2004, p. 23) characterize options of using interactive whiteboard that promote interaction between the teacher, student
and material. Interactive whiteboard can be used to perform many activities. The
authors distinguish e.g. drag and drop; hide and reveal; color, shading and highlighting of e.g. a text; matching equivalent terms; movement or animation; and
immediate feedback. Moreover, in her report Bridget Somekh states that “the
data includes consistent conclusion that the length of time in which students were
taught with the use of interactive whiteboards is the main factor of progress”
(Somekh, 2007, p. 3). According to statistics from 2005 in the UK, which is
a leader in the use of interactive whiteboards for educational purposes, 94% of
primary schools had at least one interactive whiteboard, 50% of schools had six
or more such whiteboards, and 82% of schools had regular access to the Internet
(Becta, 2007, p. 14–15). A study conducted in 2005 by Becta (British Educational
Communications and Technology Agency) indisputably shown that regular and
long-term use of the interactive whiteboard in school has a significant impact on
the rate of progress in education (Becta, 2007, p. 4).
In 2009, Robert Marzano conducted a study, which involved 85 teachers and
170 classes. Teachers conducted several lessons using the interactive whiteboard,
and the same content was also taught to another group of students without the use
of the whiteboard. The results shown that the use of the interactive whiteboard
had a positive impact on students, as they gained 16 percentage points more (Marzano, 2009, p. 80). Edwards, Hartnell and Martin (2002, pp. 30–33) explain that
the use of interactive games and activities is not only beneficial to the satisfaction
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of learning, but also improves the performance of students and the correctness
of their answers. The research by Knight, Pennant and Piggott (2005, pp. 11–15)
was also successful for the interactive whiteboard. These authors point out that
the use of the interactive whiteboard has a positive effect on self-esteem of students, their motivation and regain of confidence. The efficient and effective use
of the whiteboard by the teacher creates student-oriented education situation resulting in improved student behavior in the classroom. The reality shows that the
involved and interested student causes fewer behavior problems. Scientists have
found that the use of the interactive whiteboard changes the ratio of presentations
and explanations in favor of interaction, experience and student activity. Finally,
the student does not focus so much on the teacher and is interested in the content
itself and the desire to use it (Kopp, 2012, p. 18). Report prepared by Futurelab,
a British organization to promote new technology in education, points out the advantages and disadvantages of using this tool for learning in different educational
situations, but also mentions the characteristic “theatrical tension” in the course
of using the interactive whiteboard that enhances student involvement in using
this particular device (Rudd, 2007, p. 2).
4.6. Why interactive whiteboard should be used?
Many teachers and users of interactive whiteboard can be satisfied with the
use of this medium in the learning process because it has had many advantages.
The first great advantage of the interactive whiteboard is the fact that it enables to satisfy different learning styles, and thus appeal to different types of learners. Visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic learner can equally benefit from its properties. The ability to use video and film to visualize the problem
supports visual learners in the learning process. The combination of music and
image will be conducive to auditory learners, and the option to interact with the
whiteboard through touch and movement will support kinesthetic learner (Morgan, 2010, pp. 4–5). During lesson planning the teacher pays attention not only to
the type of learning styles of his students, but also to their different types of intelligence. Gardner (1993, p. 15) distinguished seven types of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, kinesthetic, visual-spatial, interpersonal and
intrapersonal. Each of them consists of different features. Visual learners have
a linguistic intelligence as they are interested in different content presentation
than auditory learners with logical – mathematical intelligence. With such a range
Interactive whiteboard in education
73
of diversity of students, the whiteboard may be useful to meet such great demands.
In addition, researchers confirmed that the use of the interactive whiteboard
in education allows to prepare activities for a group of students diverse in terms
of knowledge and skills. For example, it is possible to divide the whiteboard into
three different areas diverse in terms of difficulty. Each of them will be directed
to another group of students to further develop their skills and knowledge. The
effect of this action will be simultaneous operation of all students, despite the different requirements and needs of the whole class (Levy, 2002, p. 15). Moreover,
the interactive whiteboard has no age restrictions. It does not require users to have
writing skills, or use the keyboard. Therefore, the recipients of this medium may
include not only pupils with these skills, but also children in the preschool and
early school age and students with disabilities. More and more studies and reports
on the use of the interactive whiteboard show significant benefits using this tool
for the learning process especially in the younger elementary school classes and
among students with learning disabilities. A wide range of UK studies shows that
teachers in primary schools consider interactive whiteboards to be positive and
supportive teaching aid in the group of students with special educational needs
(Goodison, 2002, pp. 282–295). It is worth emphasizing the fact that the interactive whiteboard enables to introduce the outside world to the classroom with ease
and clarity, so that students feel more natural context of the teaching content
(Rudd, 2007, p. 4).
Theoretically, the interactive whiteboard can cause activation of the students
and the introduction of a specific interaction in the classroom. Furthermore, a variety of its usability motivates students to take action and increase concentration.
But the question arises to what extent the technological equipment used in the
educational process, including an interactive whiteboard, is able to provide an interesting lesson that will both delight and interest the student, but also achieve the
goal of education. Obviously, much depends on the teaching methods applied by
the teacher in his work, but also his skills in dealing with technological devices.
Studies show that the amount of time spent on the use of the interactive whiteboard, but also using it in an innovative way, trying new solutions and thereby
increasing confidence in using the interactive whiteboard in the classroom, has
a positive effect on learning and teaching process (Moss, Jewitt, Levaăiç, Armstrong, Cardini, Castle, 2007, p. 23).
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Barbara Żakowska
Futurelab report indicates three stages in the use of the interactive whiteboard. The first one is called the introduction and is associated with the wider
presentation of the material, where the interactive whiteboard supports the teaching method chosen by the teacher. At this stage students are passive and do not
take an active part in the use of the whiteboard. The second stage consists of
integrating the whiteboard with the curriculum and the school mission. Generally
speaking, technological devices become a natural part of the educational process
by supporting the individual subjects and their learning objectives as the students
use technological aids mainly to gain knowledge. The last stage is the transformation, where the technology is the value and creates the whole with the teaching
process. The teacher gives the students the opportunity to use a variety of sources,
also those technological, to support seeking answers to the questions. A student
is placed on a road full of different signs and technological aids. His task is to
construct knowledge by integration (Rudd, 2007, p. 5). This raises the question,
also posed in the above report, if and when there is the transition from the level
of introduction to the level of transformation. Probably this is related to many
factors, among others, to educational ethos of the school and the methods used
by teachers at school. Perhaps there are such schools that will always be more focused on centrally controlled teaching monitored by the teacher, and in this case,
the interactive whiteboard will be used only at the level of introduction.
Interactive whiteboard is a unique technological invention of the twentyfirst century. It may also prove to be the most significant change in the quality
of learning in the last decade (Higgins, Beauchamp, Miller, 2007, pp. 213–225).
However, the enthusiasm and admiration of this teaching aid should be balanced
with the technological risks posed by the use of the interactive whiteboard. In
fact, the above studies are only a slight example of how this aid may be beneficial
in education. Undoubtedly, it is the element that makes the lesson more attractive.
Certainly in the first moments students are more interested in the material presented with the use of the interactive whiteboard. Along with the teachers, they
are more motivated to work and probably this may bring them more satisfaction
from learning, but still not a great amount of research can confirm that in all
cases the use of interactive whiteboard causes better educational performance of
students.
In addition, there is a discussion about the meaning of the term “interactivity”. Does the use of the interactive whiteboard always involve this interaction?
What does interactive whiteboard mean? It happens that the term of the white-
Interactive whiteboard in education
75
board is wrongly conceived and automatically assigned interactive operation during lessons. However, the mere use of the word “interactive whiteboard” is not
equivalent to the above term. The study conducted by a group of researchers
from the University of London in 2007 shows that interactivity in the context of
working with an interactive whiteboard is understood in three different ways.
Firstly, there is the technical interactivity, which focuses on the interaction of
technological opportunities available on the whiteboard. The second way is the
physical interactivity, which involves the physical movement of the student to
the whiteboard and manipulating elements placed on the screen. The last way is
called conceptual interaction, as it is focused on interaction, exploration and creation of concepts and ideas with the use of the interactive whiteboard. The way of
understanding interactivity depends on already mentioned teaching practice of
the teacher, but also on the requirements of the particular subject, and even individual lesson topics. Moreover, of particular importance may become cognitive
skills of students, the availability of a variety of external devices and time (Moss,
Jewitt, Levaăiç, Armstrong, Cardini, Castle, 2007, p. 40).
Furthermore, teachers must be professionally trained and motivated to effectively use interactive whiteboard. The basic feature of interactive whiteboard is to
present selected material, although it is not its final objective. Interactive whiteboard can be used to make a number of activities such as sorting, highlighting,
changing, adding, joining, etc. The main mistake made by teachers when using
the whiteboard is limiting to the first feature, namely the presentation of the material. As a result, interactive whiteboard does not perform its function and rapidly
loses its attractiveness. Therefore, it is important for the teacher to undergo the
appropriate training to work with interactive whiteboard and to remember about
its various features that can be used when developing lessons with this technological invention.
The obvious limitation is the dependence of the interactive whiteboard from
the power supply and the computer. Moreover, interactive whiteboards come in
a great variety of prices. The cheapest whiteboard may cost about 1700 PLN,
while the most expensive 355 103,00 PLN (http://www.ceneo.pl/Tablice_interaktywne;0112-1.htm). Thus, interactive whiteboard is not a universal teaching aid
that could be used in underdeveloped countries, but also in some countries of the
European Union.
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Barbara Żakowska
4.7. The use of the interactive whiteboard with other external devices
External device most often associated with an interactive whiteboard is an
electronic pen. 64% of surveyed teachers use a pen that allows to manipulate
items appearing on the screen of the whiteboard. Moreover, teachers more often
declare the use of other external devices while working with the interactive whiteboard. A common medium in this case is the Internet. It is used by more than 80%
of teachers, and without a doubt it is helpful in creating lesson. It allows, inter
alia, to browse websites related to the topic. The use of interactive whiteboard
also requires to use a computer or laptop and speakers. Materials to be used in the
classroom together with the interactive whiteboard are stored on the hard drives
of computers or portable memories, therefore, essential equipment such as a computer should be adapted for use with an interactive whiteboard and available at the
workplace (Moss, Jewitt, Levaăiç, Armstrong, Cardini, Castle, 2007, p. 28).
There are also less popular devices, and the studies show that they are much
less frequently used. However, they should not be forgotten. It is worth to look at
these devices, as they may allow to create such a situation in which interaction
in the lesson will stop to be technical interaction, and become the conceptual
interaction.
The first of these devices are visualizers. They can be called microscopes
that allow to watch selected item on the screen from a very close perspective.
Such a presentation of the material to the class promotes understanding of the
new content and provokes the discussion. In addition, it allows not only for zooming in to the microscopic size, but also for selecting interesting items on the screen
or assigning data to these items. Another device cooperating with an interactive
whiteboard is Interactive Wireless Tablet. It allows to connect to the interactive
whiteboard from any place, which supports the conceptual interaction by moving
the teachers from the front to the side. The tablet can be also easily used by students by using options of writing, highlighting, making animation, connecting to
the intranet, etc. Wireless mouse have similar features that enable to manipulate
elements on the interactive whiteboard from any place in the classroom. It also
favors students who have concerns or feel anxious when standing at the whiteboard. The teacher and students can work interactively with the whiteboard while
remaining in their seats. Another external device interworking with an interactive
whiteboard is a scanner. This often forgotten device in teaching can significantly
affect the attractiveness of the lesson. It allows, among others, for direct presenta-
Interactive whiteboard in education
77
tion of the students’ work on the interactive whiteboard, image manipulation and
assigning notes to the selected part of the image (Moss, Jewitt, Levaăiç, Armstrong, Cardini, Castle, 2007, p. 29)
In summary, many external devices work with an interactive whiteboard by
making a lesson more attractive and at the same time increasing the potential of
the whiteboard itself. Definitely a positive aspect of the use of external devices is
moving the role of the teacher from the front to the side, and thus creating a situation of reduced dominant method of providing and describing information by the
teacher. This results in students’ control of the education process by using technological resources and interactive whiteboard, which increases their autonomy.
Disadvantages that can be assigned to each technological device include i.a. difficulty in starting, connecting and correlating all devices. Moreover, it may appear
burdensome to make organizational preparation for the lesson with technological
devices and interactive whiteboard. It is worth to note that the whiteboard is often
placed in one of the classrooms with no scanner or a microscope connected permanently. As a result, the teacher needs more time to prepare and test the usefulness of selected equipment.
4.8. How does the use of the interactive whiteboard may look like in practice?
Interactive whiteboard is more and more often mentioned in the process of
teaching and learning as a source to enable the teacher to perform activities to
enrich and make lesson more attractive. Proper use of the interactive whiteboard
as a daily ritual, or once a week in the computer rooms, may positively affect the
activity of students during class and strengthen their motivation to engage and
achieve set goals. This teaching aid also helps the teacher to create conditions, in
which the subject taught as a part of the school curriculum is more attractive to
students (Carpenter, Mawer, Audain, 2011, p. 4).
Teachers are supported by publishing houses, which publish educational books with ideas to carry out activities related to, among others, interactive
whiteboard. In my experience and workplace I have come across the publishing
house Scholastic, which offers many books that promote the work with interactive whiteboard in teaching science as well as the humanities. There are also
books including software for interactive whiteboard that can be used in universal
Barbara Żakowska
78
educational situations28. Moreover, many books include ready lesson plans, goals,
methods of using interactive whiteboard and other necessary aids that will be
used during the selected lessons. It is also important that there is the ability to
create boards for the interactive whiteboards using the supplied software. When
the teacher becomes convinced and certain that this is a useful teaching aid and
finds his own place in this type of learning and teaching process, he can begin to
create new and more innovative solutions.
Based on the experience gained, I shall describe a lesson plan created on the
basis of IPC international program29 and a set of lessons with the use of interactive whiteboard. The lesson was conducted in the second grade of the elementary
school. At the beginning it is worth noting that the IPC program does not give
a “recipe” for a lesson. It defines the objectives that the teacher should achieve
through the creation of educational situations. In addition, it is helpful to prepare
lessons with the use of the websites and book sources referred to in this program,
which provide a lot of information on the discussed issue. However, the program
does not list textbooks or workbooks. Thus, the program gives the teacher an open
space; it does not impose solutions or limit ideas, but requires work, flexibility
and creativity.
Ideas from various book sources, websites and from colleagues led to the
creation of a lesson, which is evaluated every year in terms of group dynamics, engagement and interests of the students. The lesson unit lasts 80 minutes,
and classes are scheduled to be conducted at the turn of September and October.
At that time, a teacher is conducting the lesson about the topic “What’s on the
menu?”. The scope of the material covers such issues as: healthy nutrition, growing of plants and breeding of animals and the factors conducive to plant growing,
breeding, the origin of food, farm life, etc.
Carpenter S., Mawer K., Audain J., Science Lessons for the Smart Board. Motivating
Lessons That Teach Key Science Topics, New York 2011, Scholastic; Schaefer L.M., Writing lessons for the Interactive Whiteboard. 20 Whiteboard-Ready Writing Samples and Mini-Lessons
That Show You How to Teach the Elements of Strong Writing, New York 2011, Scholastic; Jacobson J., Raymer D., 50 Graphic Organizers for the Interactive Whiteboard. Whiteboard-Ready
Graphic Organizers for Reading, Writing, Math, and More-to Make Learning Engaging and Interactive, New York 2010, Scholastic.
29
This is a program used in British schools as well as in many parts of the entire globe. It is
based on different themes, which relate to everyday life. This is a practical approach to the learning process. Children work mainly with the use of projects and actions; much emphasis is placed
on the student and teacher creativity, as well as direct knowledge of the world around.
28
Interactive whiteboard in education
79
This lesson plan includes planting seeds, plant growth and conditions that
the seed needs to become a fine vegetable.
Lesson Plan
Grade: second grade of the elementary school
Teacher: Barbara Żakowska
Topic: Planting the seeds
Goal:
Student:
– Plants a seed
– Prepares the tools to plant a seed
– Recognizes different seeds
– Lists the components of the plant
– Prepares the appropriate conditions for the plant
– Uses the magnifying glass
–Works in a team
– Uses the vocabulary associated with plants
– Uses the technological equipment
Materials: soil for planting flowers 20 l, small pots (one for a pair), vegetable
seeds, protective mat, plastic spoons, camera, interactive whiteboard, flowerpot with a flower (plant),
Interactive whiteboard tools: teacher’s laptop, microscope connected to the interactive whiteboard, tablets configured with the whiteboard and connected to
the Internet.
Methods of work:
problem method: brainstorming, discussion
practical method: exercise
Form of work: work in pairs, group work, individual work
Barbara Żakowska
80
Table 1. Lesson structure
Stage
Activities
1
2
1. Introduction
The students sit on the carpet. The
teacher shows the grown plant in a pot.
Students describe in words how the
plant looks like. The teacher divides the
students into pairs and asks the question:
“Where did the plant in the pot come
from?”. Students are asked to explain
in pairs how it happened that the plant
grown in a pot. Their task is to provide
the most detailed explanations, e.g. if
the student suggests that a plant grown
from seed, he should explain the origins
of the seed. After a few minutes the
teacher summarizes work in pairs by
asking individual students about what
they have learned about the plant from
their partner.
2. How does The teacher introduces children to the
the plant
problem of plant growth and cycle of its
grow?
life. To do that he uses the book by
S. Godwin, “A seed in need. A First
Look at the Plant Cycle”. The teacher or
the students begin to read and show stages of the plant growth. While reading
there are summarizing questions e.g.:
Where does the plant life begin? Why
does the plant need roots? Etc.
3. Planting Students are divided into pairs and learn
seeds
about the different vegetable seeds. Each
pair receives a different seed. Students
use magnifying glass to examine the
structure of the seed. At the same time
the teacher uses interactive whiteboard and a microscope to show an enlarged structure of each of the seeds.
Students come up to the board, write
the name of the seeds and match them
with vegetables.
Students sit around the mat in pairs.
Having learnt about the growth of plants
and the necessary conditions that the
plant should obtain from the environment, students prepare for planting
seeds.
Time
3
Form
of work
4
Notes
5
15 min
Work in
pairs, group
work
Teacher watching
students’ work from
the side. He listens
and joins the pairs,
notes down significant ideas. Students
can change places to
feel more comfortable
during a discussion.
10 min
Group work
The students learn
about vocabulary of
the plant structure for
the first time. This
vocabulary will be
consolidated during
next lessons.
10 min
This requires interactive whiteboard
with microscope
connected.
20 min
The teacher prepares
a protective mat that
is placed on the floor.
The teacher prepares
flashcards with
magnets.
81
Interactive whiteboard in education
1
2
In order to improve the process of planting, a teacher with students systematizes the process of planting the seeds by
using flashcards with the following steps
illustrating the planting of a seed.
Each pair has access to tools: pots, soil,
spoons or garden spade.
Once the task is completed, students sign
their pot and decide where the plant will
grow.
Then students sit on the carpet. The
teacher initiates a conversation in which
students try to predict how the plant will
look like tomorrow, at the end of the
week and next week.
The teacher asks the question: What
made you put your pots with seeds in
such places? What does the seed need
to grow?
4. WorStudents receive interactive tablets
king with connected to the Internet and configinteractive ured with an interactive whiteboard. On
whiteboard tablets, students are introduced to the
using tablets website http://www.topmarks.co.uk/interactive.aspx?cat=64 where they will
perform a particular task. GROWING
PLANTS and GROWING PLANTS 2.
At the beginning the students perform
the tasks individually. Then the teacher
appoints a person, who through the use
of interactive whiteboard will grow
the plant creating the right conditions.
Interactive game is available at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/growing_plants.shtml
5. Summary The students sit on the carpet. The
teacher shows the same plant in a pot,
which initiated the lesson. The teacher
asks the question: How did the life of
this plant begin? What made it grown
so beautifully? What would happen if
we put the plant e.g. in the closet for
a few days?
3
4
5
The teacher takes
photos.
20 min
Using interactive whiteboard, tablet and the
Internet. It is necessary to provide tablets
for each student.
5 min
Interactive whiteboard and other technological equipment were an important element supporting the teaching process in the above lesson. However, the
equipment did not serve a major role. It were the students, who worked and experienced in practice how to plant a seed. They were learning through observation,
practice and discussion. The ability to work in pairs, predict processes and use
82
Barbara Żakowska
technological equipment gained during this lesson will allow students to work
independently on the next lessons. Interactive whiteboard allowed for an in-depth
examination of the structure of the seeds, as well as visualization of the process
of plant growth through an interactive game. External equipment configured with
an interactive whiteboard enabled students to work individually, but at any time
the teacher could preview the work of the student and ask him to perform tasks
on a wider screen. The student did not have to stand at the interactive whiteboard,
but he could complete the exercise from the comfort of his chair.
4.9. Conclusion
Invariably, the role of the teacher is difficult. In every generation teacher
faces many system, teaching and educational problems. Nowadays, the role of the
teacher is also ambiguous as he stands at the crossroads of the two worlds. The
first world is where the leader stands in the middle of the class and prepares students for tests and assesses student performance. On the other hand, there is the
world of developing technology. It is a place of teaching and learning with quite
different roles of the members of the educational community. Teacher stands on
the side, becomes a roadmap for the student to become an explorer controlling
the way in which he acquires knowledge and uses it in practice. The interaction
becomes possible.
This does not mean that the first world is old-fashioned and does not involve
technological developments. Of course, the teacher uses interactive whiteboard;
however, he does not change his educational habits. He does not use interactive
whiteboard to move his person away and give a chance to students to interact
with each other, content or external devices. The teacher does not allow for the
autonomy of the students, perhaps because he does not have such autonomy himself. As a result, it is difficult to create a conceptual interaction even with the
available technological.
Is it possible to say that one of the worlds is better or more efficient? This
question can only be answered by the research comparing e.g. learning outcomes.
Maybe both of these directions are good and it is possible to reconcile the two
worlds. It is certainly a great challenge for education and each teacher. It is very
important for the student to be placed in the center, to be autonomous and controlling and to provide interactions between him and the outside world at the highest
Interactive whiteboard in education
83
level. This, however, requires the teacher to see the chance, space and freedom in
using innovative solutions or to change his teaching practice.
Interactive whiteboard may become a base for working in interactive environment. Due to the high potential of this tool, probably in the near future it will
become even more recognized teaching aid in supporting student achievement,
but also in making lessons more attractive. The mere use of the interactive whiteboard, or other technological aid, does not guarantee high results in teaching, but
with the rational use, it can only have a positive impact on the learning process
(Marzano, 2009, p. 81).
References:
Carpenter p., Mawer K., Audain J. (2011), Science Lessons for the Smart Board. Motivating Lessons That Teach Key Science Topics, Scholastic, New York.
Clarke K., Hardstone G., Hartswood M, ProcterR., Rouncefield M. (2006), Trust and
Organisational work, [in:] Trust in Technology: A Socio-Technical Perspective,
(eds.) C.K, Hardstone, G., Rouncefield, M., Sommerville, Springer, Netherlands.
Edwards J.A., Hartnell M., Martin R. (2002), Interactive whiteboards: Some lessons from
the classroom, „Micromath” 18 (2).
Fields R. Douglas (2012), Drugi mózg. Rewolucja w nauce i medycynie, Prószyński
i S-ka, Warszawa.
Gardner H. (1993), Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligence, New York.
Goodison T.A. (2002), Learning with ICT at primary level – pupils perception, Journal of
Computer Assisted Learning, [in:] Bell M.A., Why Use an Interactive Whiteboard?
A Bakers Dozen Reasons!, Teachers.Net Gazette, Vol. 3, No. 1.
Higgins p., Beauchamp G., Miller D. (2007), Reviewing the literature on interactive
whiteboards, Learning, Media and technology 32 (3).
Knight P., Pennant J., Piggott J. (2005), The power of the interactive whiteboard, „Micromath” 21 (2).
Kopp K. (2012), Using Interactive Whiteboards in the Classroom, Huntington Beach.
Levy P. (2002), Interactive whiteboards in learning and teaching in two Sheffield
schools. A developmental study, Department of Information Studies, University
of Sheffield.
Luhmann N. (1979), Trust and Power, John Wiley, Chichester.
Luhmann N. (1988), Familiarity, Confidence, Trust: Problems and Alternatives, in Diego Gambetta, [in] Trust: Making and Breaking of Cooperative Relations, Oxford,
Blackwell, 94–107.
84
Barbara Żakowska
Marzano R. (2009), Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards, Educational Leadership,
No. 3.
Moss G., Jewitt C., Levaăiç R., Armstrong V., Cardini A., Castle F. (2007), The Interactive Whiteboards, Pedagogy and Pupil Performance Evaluation: An Evaluation of
the Schools Whiteboard Expansion (SWE) Project: London Challenge. Institute of
Education, University of London/ DfES: London.
Nodzyńska M. (2007), Wyniki badań nad atrakcyjnością zajęć prowadzonych przy zastosowaniu tablicy interaktywnej. Wykorzystanie technologii informatycznych
w akademickiej dydaktyce chemii, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków.
Perzycka E. (2013), Trust the Interactive Board in Educational and Didactic Processes, [in:]
ICT in Educational Design. Processes, Materials, Resources, Vol. 3, (ed.) E., Baron-Polańczyk, Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego, Zielona Góra.
Spitzer M. (2007), Jak uczy się mózg, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa.
Sztompka P. (1999), Trust: A Sociological Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Żylińska M. (2013), Neurodydaktyka, Nauczanie i uczenie się przyjazne mózgowi, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń.
Websites
Miller D., Glover, D. and Averis, D. (2004) Matching technology and pedagogy in teaching mathematics: understanding fractions using a ‘virtual manipulative’ fraction
wall. Paper 99 presented at BERA http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/ed/iaw/docs/BER
A%20Paper%20Sep%202004.pdf, [accessed on 15.08.2013].
Morgan H. (2010), Teaching with the Interactive Whiteboard: An Engaging Way To Provide Instruction, Focus on Elementary.
Prensky M. (2001), Digital Natives Digital Immigrants, http://www.marcprensky.com/
writing/Prensky%20%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20%20Part1.pdf [accessed on: 18.11.2014].
Tablice interaktywne [Interactive whiteboards] http://www.ceneo.pl/Tablice_interaktywne;0112-1.htm, [accessed on 10.08.2013].
Rożniatowski p., Tablica interaktywna w edukacji, http://www.tablica.wodip.opole.pl/,
[accessed on 15.08.2013].
Interview with Prof. Piotr Sztompka, Kultura zaufania, WIĘŹ 2008 No. 2-3. http://laboratorium.wiez.pl/teksty.php?kultura_zaufania [accessed on: 18.11.2014].
Plants and Animals http://www.topmarks.co.uk/interactive.aspx?cat=64 [accessed on:
12.10.2013].
Growing Plants http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/growing_plants.
shtml [accessed on: 12.10.2013].
Interactive whiteboard in education
85
Reports
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) (2007), Interactive
whiteboards significantly affect teaching and learning, United Kingdom.
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) (2007), Evaluation of the Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion Project, United Kingdom.
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/*/http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/, accessed on:
10.08.2014.
Somekh B. (2007), Report to the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Manchester.
Rudd T. (2007), Interactive whiteboards in the classroom, http://archive.futurelab.org.
uk/resources/documents/other/whiteboards_report.pdf, on 15.08.2014.
Author’s note
Barbara Żakowska – PhD student, third year of studies, Institute of Pedagogy, University of Szczecin, the teacher of early education in the International School in Szczecin,
head teacher of the second grade students. E-mail: b@zakowski.eu
Chapter V
Guarantees of public trust in video and online games
Sandra Malinowska
5.1. Introduction
The modern world is determined with a significant technological progress
certainly materialized by digital media, including i.a. video and online games,
which are used by people in various aspects of life, e.g. entertainment, education
or even business. The concept of the game can be defined as rule-based formal
system of diverse and countable result, where the different results are assigned to
different values, the player takes effort to influence the result and feels attached to
it, and where the consequences of actions are optional and subject to negotiation
(Juul, 2010, p. 45). Despite the multifaceted use of video and online games, this
digital medium is very often portrayed to the public primarily as a threat for the
development and functioning of children and youth, and even adults. The creation
of this type may contribute to the decrease of the sense of security in terms of the
use of this category of goods, and thus decrease of the trust of potential users. At
the same time, the question could, and should arise as to what factors determine
the social trust or its lack in the above mentioned types of games. And this paper
attempts to answer this question.
5.2. Trust as a foundation for the use of the potential of video
and online games
As stipulated by Sztompka, trust is an assumption (belief and action based
on this belief) that uncertain future actions of other people or the operation of
equipment or institutions will be good for us. (Sztompka, 2007, p. 99). Such definition of trust shows that there may be various recipients of trust, including:
88
Sandra Malinowska
– another person – a specific, active human being with whom we establish
a direct relationship,
– social roles that are not identified with a specific person, which can inspire trust e.g. professions of public trust such as a teacher, doctor, lawyer,
etc.,
– social groups – e.g. the trust of superior in his own employees,
– institutions and organizations – e.g. trust in the educational institutions,
law enforcement agencies,
– technical systems (“expert systems”, “abstract systems”) – including, in
particular, ICT networks, water supply systems, electrical systems, transportation systems etc.,
– purchased and used products and tools,
– political system, social system,
– expecting credibility of every man (trust in strangers) (Ibidem, pp. 103–111).
It should be considered, which of these categories of recipients (objects) are
suitable to classify video games. In my opinion, it would be appropriate to refer
this type of digital media to each of the presented types of recipients. It should
be recognized that the phrase “trust in computer games” includes mutual trust of
a man in another person (parent, child-user, the creator of the game, legislators),
as well as trust in this person’s activity in relation to the game, its selection, usage,
and the relevant legal regulations which guarantee security for each party. It is
also appropriate to refer it to social roles, when a parent having parental authority
makes sure that his child makes the right choices that are not dangerous, and thus
keeps his best to ensure that the child has access to content (including those contained in video games) that is appropriate for him. In terms of the third group of
recipients, the trust can be seen in the context of relations in the team working on
the creation and launching of a new game. For these considerations, an essential
aspect is also public trust in authorities and institutions, which should ensure the
appropriate classification, rating and consumer access to the use of video games.
Undoubtedly, important is also trust in technical systems, for which we could
indicate ICT system (the Internet), which currently gives virtually unlimited access to customers of all ages to different varieties of video or online games. It is
also necessary to notice consumer trust, accompanying the man when choosing
a video game, in e.g. its quality. In the analyzed context, a questionable aspect can
be the system trust. It seems reasonable mainly due to the fact that it is associated
with the qualities of a democratic state of law, even in relation to freedom, human
89
Guarantees of public trust in video and online games
and civil rights, among which one can point freedom of choice, the opportunity
to decide for themselves, or the rules of social intercourse, which can also refer to
the users and creators of video games. The greatest threat of these categories of
recipients I see in “trust in strangers”, because blind trust in another participant
of virtual world, who is often unknown in the real world, can be disastrous and
pose a huge threat, especially to children and adolescents.
For the purposes of these considerations, the following model of factors and
relationships that determine public trust in video games as a digital medium was
adopted.
Relevant
legislation
PARENT
LEGISLATOR
Compliance
with regulations
Mutual
trust
Guarantees for
creator’s rights
protection
COMPLIANCE
WITH LAWS
CHILD’S SECURITY
GUARANTEE
Adaptation of the game
content to the requirements
The implementation of
appropriate ratings, protection
CHILD
CREATOR
Compliance with creator’s
recommendations
Fig. 1. The process of trust in video games
Source: own study.
90
Sandra Malinowska
5.3. Historical evolution of video games
The subject of video games requires to analyze their modifications since the
moment they have been created to this day. There is no doubt that these changes
occurred not only extensively but also at a very fast pace.
In the literature the first phase of the evolution of video games is called “prehistory”. At that time the game project was created as the result of experiments
conducted on contemporary machines. The first one, which at the same time is
considered to be the prototype of video games, was created by Tomas Goldshmit
and Estle Ray, in which CRT served as a display. The game was about simulating
the flight of the projectile pictured as a green dot, where the user could change
its flight path and speed using additional equipment. Another project of this period was a video program created in 1952, which included simple elements of
video graphics and object analogous to Tic Tac Toe. Just two years later in Los
Angeles, developers using IBM 701 created a video program, which simulated
gambling card game Black Jack. Another significant moment in the context of
the evolution of video games was the game Tennis for Two created by William
H. Higginbotham, which used oscilloscope as a display and two controllers with
red buttons – pressing these buttons forced the movement on the screen similar
to hitting a tennis ball. This was a breakthrough mainly due to the fact that this
game enabled to use the game with a partner – opponent, and therefore to compete, and also because this game was available to a wider audience. A decade
later, the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, using a prototype of
PDP-1 computer, created a video game Spacewar!, which had an advanced level
of graphics and completely fictional gameplay (Bomba, 2014, pp. 107–112). The
first video game console was created in 1969 and its creator was Baer. It was
characterized by the fact that after being connected to the TV, it enabled the user
to play games in the comfort of his own household. Its final version was presented
three years later under the name Odyssey. Although the console has not been as
successful as it was predicted, it contributed to the creation of the game Pong by
Atari, which achieved commercial success. Thanks to the continued success and
continuous development, in 1977 Atari produced Atari VCS, which was a home
video game console (Wąsowska, 2013, p. 9).
The next period of evolution in the development of computer games dates
back to the 80s, referred to as the time of miracles. After many successes of Atari,
in the initial phase of this period the leader in the market of video games has be-
Guarantees of public trust in video and online games
91
come Nintendo company – at the beginning through their arcade games. In 1984,
the company has created a Nintendo console, which achieved great success along
with platform games of i.a. Mario Bros Series (Ibidem, p. 10). An important moment in this period was also the production of ZX 80 and ZX 81 Series computers
by Creed Sinclair and game Hobbit with over one million copies sold worldwide
(Mańkowski, 2010, p. 98.).
The third important period in the development of video games is the 90s.
It should be emphasized that this was a time of political transformation, so that
in Poland increased widespread availability of home computers, game consoles,
as well as video games. Obviously, it did not relate to the technological innovations dominant in the west (IBM, PC and Amiga), but to the older models, such
as Commodore 64, Atari 65 XL/XE or Pegasus console. The first Polish video
game was e.g. Puszka Pandory (Pandora’s Box) by M. Borkowski. In the first
half of the nineties there were also created i.a.: labyrinth game Misja (Mission),
platform game Fred, puzzle game Lasermania, karate game Franko or platform
game Janosik. At that time an important factor that contributed to the awareness
of Poles about video games were also magazines, the contents of which were
devoted to issues concerning this form entertainment – Bajtek and Top Secret.
A valuable aspect was also the use of a first person perspective in games, allowing the perception of the virtual world from the perspective of the hero (e.g. in the
Ultima Underworld). Moreover, this technique combined with the contemporary
3D technology has allowed for the creation of game genre called First Person
Shooters, which is shooting from a first person perspective (e.g. Wolfenstain). An
important aspect that needs to be highlighted is that in this decade the producers
noticed the role of women-player, which was particularly evident in the Tomb
Raider and Doom. This issue is particularly important in the context of contemporary popular gender issues. Tremendous growth could also be seen among the
emerging new models of game consoles, which were created by Nintendo and
Sony, as well as in the intense development of network games – MUD (e.g. MirrorWorld, MUD2) and SMOG (Bomba, 2014, pp. 140–157).
The final stage of the historical evolution of video and online games that I
would like to point out is the twenty-first century, and especially its first de-cade.
It was the time of a great development of the Internet that began the decade before,
which is still a space that has not been completely explored to date. In this period,
the users-players were greatly interested in the online game World of Warcraft. It
was also the time of creation of browser games – abbreviated BBMMOG – that
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do not require high-tech computer equipment (Ibidem, p. 159). However, in my
mind the main determinant of today situation was the creation of video and online
games that forced players to be creative, allowed them to take certain decisions
and implement their own ideas, which to a large extent determined the game.
These games include e.g. Sim City and its next versions, as well as the simulation
of life in The Sims by Will Wright (Ibidem, p. 166). Moreover, this decade faced
the development of new game consoles that were produced to interest and pay attention of potential players, which can be still observed.
5.4. Classification of video games
Due their wide range, video games are undoubtedly digital media that include a lot of types. In order to create a specific classification of video games, it
is necessary to adopt the criteria that will allow to make appropriate division. In
particular these criteria should include: realism of the game, its real-time, subject
matter, as well as the perspective from which we observe the course of action
(Noga, 2008, p. 21).
Due to the multiplicity of video games available for the recipient, we can
distinguish a variety of their categories. The first typology, which is worth noting,
distinguishes eight categories of games presented in Fig. 2.
Another example of the classification of video games is a catalogue mentioned in Biblia komputerowego gracza [The Bible of a computer player], including the following categories: shooting, platform games, labyrinth, fighting games,
sports games, car racing simulators, adventure, role-playing, war games, economic games and 3D shooting (Gawrysiak, Mankowski, Chański, 1998, p. 351).
These classifications represent a variety of video (online) games that a person can play at any time in a convenient place without restrictions of a geographical nature. However, it should be noted that presented typologies are not closed,
which means that they do not exhaust the catalog of games. Along with the continuous technological progress it gives the creators a chance to surprise potential
buyers with new games. It is therefore important to isolate the category, which
is one of the fundamental elements that determine the variety prevailing on the
consumer market, which is the goal of the game. Among these, we can indicate,
e.g. requirement – cutting down trees in order to move forward or clearing the
game field in shooting games, or solving the combat problem with all elements
located on the same board or combined boards in platform games (Gawrysiak
Mankowski, Uchański, 1998, pp. 13, 33).
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5.5. Classification of video game rating systems
The creation of social trust in digital media, such as video games, is undoubtedly influenced by the use of rating systems concerning both the content
contained in these products, as well as age of customers for whom they are intended. Implementation of standardized rating systems is a guarantee not only
for the players, but also for parents and legal guardians of younger players, that
the content of the game expressed in the appropriate classification symbols is
adequate for a given stage of human development.
The first video game rating system, which is worth noting, is the Pan European Game Information, hereinafter referred to as PEGI, which is a rating system
that aims to show the age categories of users of specific video games, as well as
to pay attention to their content. This system was developed by the Interactive
Software Federation of Europe and its origins date back to the year 2003. This
system is used in thirty countries, which are located in the territorial area of Europe (www.pegi.info.pl, accessed on 11.01.2015).
PEGI rating system should be considered as dichotomous system. On the
one hand, it includes an age rating, on the other, content description. The first of
the categories is the rating including the following five symbols, Tab. 1.
Table 1.Gams pegi symbol
Rating
Pegi symbol
Requirements of the game rated
with this symbol
1
2
3
PEGI 3
– Contains content suitable for all ages
– Does not contain sounds, images that can scare
a child
– May contain violence in a cartoon context
– Does not make a child identify a hero with
real characters, who should be the product of
fantasy
– Does not contain bad language
PEGI 7
– Rating designed for PEGI 3 category recipients,
but containing elements which may be frightening
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1
2
3
PEGI 12
– Contains more realistic violence towards
fantasy characters or unrealistic violence to
people, animals
– Allows a certain degree of nudity
– Contains mild coarse language, not related to
the issue of sex
PEGI 16
– Contains realistic-looking violence and sexual reference
PEGI 18
– Contains far-reaching violence, causing
disgust and\or its specific types
Source: own study based on www.pegi.info.pl.
It should be emphasized that the primary objective of this rating system is to
protect the minors, rather than outline the skills needed to use a video game, or
the game’s level of difficulty (www.spidor.pl, accessed on 17.01.2015).
The second part of PEGI rating includes icons, which are white symbols on
a black background, which are designed to describe the content of a specific video
game. They also constitute a kind of justification for the age restrictions applied
to the selected video games. The PEGI rating includes the following content descriptors:
Discrimination
Source: www.pegi.info.pl.
Icon
Content
descriptor
Gambling
Drugs
Sex
Fear
Violence
Bad
language
Online
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This rating concerns the issues, which are important from the point of view
of the proper development of the human being as a social unit. It refers both to the
negative emotions, that include fear, as well as indicate the behavior considered
as deviant – gambling, drug abuse, sexual disorders or violence. Psychologists
often raise that the experience of this kind of feelings and experiences influence
the development of the human personality, and thus the whole future life, as emotions are described as the changes in the degree of excitement, which may either
interfere in motivating the behavior or facilitate it. It is assumed, however, that
they are highly complex conditions not only in children, but also in adults (Tuner,
1999, p. 203).
Therefore, it should be considered reasonable to postulate restricted access
to video games that contain content that may adversely affect the minor player.
One such threat that has been highlighted in the PEGI rating is violence. The
variety of media, including those digital ones, makes the child contact with the
images of violence almost every day, and their total elimination seems impossible, primarily due to the aforementioned diversity of sources of its presentation.
However, the issue of violence is especially seen in the context of video games,
because it involves a direct fascination of a child, which raises concerns of parents. Paradoxically, video games sensitize us to the problem of more conscious
perception of violence (Feibel, 2006, p. 17).
It is also important to highlight risks associated with the problem of civilization addiction. One of them – gambling, is considered as one of the oldest forms
of entertainment of people, an example of which may be betting known already
in the antiquity (Meyer, p. 268). Today, the risks associated with pathological
gambling are significant, because of the wide range of this type of entertainment.
Despite the relevant legislation, minors also have access to the slot machines,
purchase coupons and primarily gamble online. Therefore, appropriate rating systems can be a valuable clue for parents who have a chance to make sure that their
children do not play games that despite their virtual character can carry a real
threat in the form of potential addiction.
PEGI rating system also relates to the aspect of discrimination, which is one
of the problems of the twenty-first century society. It should be noted that the issue of non-discrimination was highlighted both in acts of domestic law, as well as
the Community law. In terms of the Polish law, there is the regulation contained
in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which says that no one shall be discriminated against in political, social or economic life for any reason whatsoever.
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(Art. 32, Constitution of the Republic of Poland). In the EU law, there is the regulation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union saying that
any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, color, ethnic or social
origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual
orientation shall be prohibited. (Art. 21, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of
the European Union, EU Official Gazette C 83/389). The regulation is valuable
primarily due to the fact that the Charter of Fundamental Rights is a hard law act
– mandatory in the EU Member States, which means that it is obligatory for these
states to follow the cited regulation. Unfortunately, there are a lot of examples of
discrimination occurring in the virtual world. One of them can be found in the
multiplayer game – World of Warcraft. Aspect of discrimination concerns mainly
racial issues, manifested in the limited access to this game to users who do not
speak English at a certain level – this is verified on the basis of a short statement
made in that language by the player applying for admission to the guild (Gabor,
Leszczyńska, 2013, p. 289). Therefore, it should be noted that including this aspect among the PEGI rating symbols allows both to draw attention of children
and youth to issues of discrimination due to the different qualities of humanity, as
well as to control the availability of this kind of content to children.
It should be also noted that due to the significant development of online
services, also in terms of the availability of games of small size, there has also
been introduced additional PEGI OK rating (Fig. 3), which is placed on portals
and Web sites containing such games. PEGI OK informs the recipient, and especially the parents of minors, that the game does not contain inappropriate content,
and thus that it is suitable for people of all ages. This rating symbol has significant impact on trust of those for whom it is a reliable source of information,
which at the same time guarantees the safety of the child, as the administrators of
web sources shall meet uniform requirements. The basic requirements is to make
a declaration to PEGI that a particular game does not contain any material that
requires a formal rating and rate such game with specific labels in terms of the
age and content (www.pegi.pl, accessed on 17.01.2015).
Due to the great and permanent development and diversity of video and
online games, as well as in order to strengthen the trust of parents towards this
rating system, PEGI has introduced PEGI ONLINE logo, which indicates whether
a specific type of game can be played online, and whether the particular game
or website is subject to suitable controls to protect children and youth (www.
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pegionline.eu/pl/index/id/169, accessed on 20.01.2015). PEGI ONLINE logo may
appear on the packaging of the game if sold on a CD/DVD or on the game website
itself.
Fig. 3 PEGI OK symbol
Fig. 4 PEGI ONLINE logo
Source: http://www.pegi.info/pl/index/id/1462.
Source: http://www.pegionline.eu/pl/index/id/173.
Another worth noting video game rating system is the Entertainment Software Rating Board (hereinafter referred to as ESRB). This rating system is
used primarily in the United States and composes of three parts (www.esrb.org,
accessed on 01.19.2015):
1. Age rating
User
age
Early
childhood
All age
groups
Aged 10+
Aged 13+
Aged 17+
Aged 18+
Rating
pending
Icon
Source: www.esrb.org.
2. Content descriptors, which in particular refer to alcoholic beverages, depictions of blood, cartoon violence, references to profanity etc.
3. Interactive elements in the game:
Icon
Meaning
Indicates that personal
information provided
by the user is shared
with third parties
Source: www.esrb.org.
Includes the ability
to display the user’s
location
Indicates possible exposure to unfiltered/uncensored user-generated
content
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Comparison of the PEGI and ESRB rating systems shows that their fundamental assumptions are similar – standardization of symbols indicating user
age and characterizing the content of these games. However, the PEGI system is
more detailed, especially in terms of clear specification of the player age starting from 3+ to adults. The American system does not provide the minimum age
for players younger than 10, although this system allows games with such rating
to include contents with certain elements of violence. PEGI classification seems
to be more reliable in terms of temporary derogations regarding the age of the
individual users showed on the symbols, as at first the age groups change every
4, 5 and 4 years, and closer to the adulthood, every 2 years. This allows for precise
determination of content for a particular age group, while recognizing the important elements in the specified period of human development. ESRB system does
not provide initial age of the player, and the following age groups change every
3, 4, and 1 year. In addition, it provides for a wider range of game content, than
the one contained in the PEGI system; however, both of these systems specify
similar negative effects of certain content. Therefore, it can be considered that the
PEGI system is more precise and clear in reference to aspects related primarily to
the adolescence, which is a unique period in every person’s life and thus requires
special attention and protection.
5.6. Trust in video and online games in selected Polish legal system regulations
An interesting aspect related to the subject of this discussion is the issue of
legal regulations related to the use of video and online games as a digital medium.
In this respect the foundations of the guarantee of trust in the Polish legal system
are the regulations contained in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of
2 April 1997. In the Basic Law the legislator stated that the inherent and inalienable dignity of the person shall constitute a source of freedoms and rights of persons and citizens. It shall be inviolable. The respect and protection thereof shall
be the obligation of public authorities. (Art. 30 of the Constitution of the Republic
of Poland). At the same time the legislator remarked that freedom of the person
shall receive legal protection, and also imposed an obligation to respect the rights
and freedoms of others. (Ibidem, Art. 31). It is also important that the legislator
provided (exceptionally) for the possibility of limiting freedom rights in order to
protect other constitutional values (Sarnecki, 2008, p. 91).
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It is, therefore, worth to examine a matter of freedom in relation to the use
of video and online games by minors in the context of PEGI age rating. The primary task of rating system is to protect the availability of content relevant to the
user age. In some countries that respect this rating system, it is reflected in the
legal system (e.g. in the UK), which is associated primarily with the fact that it is
unlawful to sale the game to a person who does not meet the age requirements.
Therefore, the seller is required to control the age of buyers. Moreover, in case of
violation of applicable laws and the sale of games with PEGI 12, 16 and 18 logos
to those who do not meet the criterion of age, the legislator provides penalties
imposed on the seller that include fines and even imprisonment (www.sprawygeneralne.brpo. gov.pl, accessed on 18.01.2015). Such legal guarantees certainly
constitute a factor determining the trust of parents as to the fact that their children
may buy only those games that are appropriate to their stage of development. And
how does this issue look in Poland?
Unfortunately, despite noticing the lack of adequate legislation in this regard, inter alia, by the Ombudsman and Polish Members of Parliament (in the
form of Parliamentary questions), the PEGI rating system is still only an indication and suggestion for a child and his parents and legal guardians. Moreover, also
the sellers, who often want to control the age of children buying computer games,
have no legal rights to do that. And though in response to the Parliamentary questions No. 22710 Secretary of State pointed out that many shops control buyers in
accordance with PEGI ratings, these activities are not based on any adequate legal
regulation. Currently, the refusal to sell a product is permitted only if the act has
the features of the prohibited act under Art. 256 § 1 and 2 of the Criminal Code
(www.sejm.gov.pl, accessed on 6.01.2015). Therefore, it would seem appropriate
to implement regulations similar to those implemented for the sale of tobacco
and alcohol to persons under eighteen. In my opinion, sellers who care about the
minors and want to protect them from buying the game, which is not good for
them according to the PEGI classification adopted in Poland, should draw attention to the issue of the lack of legal capacity of minors under 13 years old (and
those under plenary guardianship) in accordance with Art. 12 of the Civil Code.
The legal capacity means the ability to acquire rights and obligations in the area
of civil law by one’s own activities, and more precisely, by making declarations
of will (Ziemianin, 2003, p. 79). In the context of this discussion, the lack of this
ability means the necessity to acquire the consent of a parent or legal guardian
to purchase the game. However, it should be mentioned that when a natural per-
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son becomes 13 (or when it is a person under partial guardianship), this person
obtains a limited legal capacity (Art. 15 of the CC), which in my opinion, is connected with the possibility of purchasing a computer game as it can be considered
a general contract concluded for current matters of everyday life. And the range
of these matters depends, inter alia, on age and the bigger admissibility of concluding contracts by minors (Osajda, 2013, p. 378).
In this context it should be noted that the child is under parental authority until it reaches the age of majority. It creates obligations and rights of both
the parent and the minor. Parents are not only responsible for taking care of the
child and his property, but also to educate him, while respecting his dignity and
rights. Minors, however, are obliged to respect their parents. The regulations also
recommend that, in situations where a child can make his own decisions and declarations of will, he should listen to the opinion of parents and follow the advice
and tips that are formulated for his good (Art. 95 § 1 and 2 of the Family Code,
Journal of laws 1964 No. 9 item 59, as amended). I am convinced that these recommendations of parents may also apply to certain types of game content used
by their child. However, the problem may occur when liberal parents give the
child complete freedom in terms of access to the games.
Widely understood social trust towards video games should also be considered from the perspective of their creators, who need legal guarantees to be
protected against violations of their copyright. A fundamental act in this regard
is the Act of February 4, 1994 on copyright and related rights. On the basis of
Art. 1 of this Act, which states that the object of copyright shall be any manifestation of creative activity of individual nature, established in any form, irrespective
of its value, purpose or form of expression (work), it should be noted that when
a particular video (online) game meets all the conditions indicated in this Article
to call it a work, then it is protected under the cited Act. (Wąsowska, 2013, p. 39).
It should also be mentioned that under Art. 9 of the above Act, a video game can
be classified as a work of joint authorship, which is primarily due to the fact that
the creators of the various components of a video game as a whole often work
and act together, and the final shape of their work forms a new quality (Ibidem,
p. 40).
The above selected legal issues are undoubtedly the foundation of trust of
the various actors involved in the creation, selection and use of video games. It
is therefore appropriate for the legislator to gradually eliminate loopholes in this
field, so that citizens have a solid basis for using digital media (including video
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103
games) with due diligence and caution – trust them, while being aware of legal
guarantees that protect them in dangerous situations, or when certain rights and
freedoms, which are the quality of each individual, are violated.
5.7. XBOX console as an object of trust of a player in creators
and other online game users
Continuous technological progress applies also to the games, which are an
important part of the network society. One of the indicators of the evolution in
this area is the emergence on the consumer market of constantly new and – in
the assumption of their creators – better game consoles. A console can be defined as a device which makes it possible to connect hardware and software
of multiple media and their functions (B. Siemieniecki, Pedagogika medialna,
nr 1, 2007, p. 165). Dominant and the most-popular and trusted consoles are Microsoft XBOX (44, 3%) and Sony PlayStation (41.8%). Among the various rankings of popularity, which were published online in January 2015, the most popular models include: Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft XBOX ONE, Microsoft XBOX
360 and Sony PlayStation 3 (www.webranking.pl/56-konsole.html, http://logicpoint.pl/jaka-konsola-do-gier/, accessed on 21.01.2015).
These consoles are a valuable source of entertainment and education for
their users. Consoles manufactured by Microsoft, inter alia XBOX 360 and its
upgraded version XBOX One, are multi-functional devices, which can be seen as
products tailored to the individual needs of each user. They guarantee not only
access to a variety of games, but also allow the use of other digital media. At the
same time, one of the sine qua non conditions for effective use of the possibilities offered by these consoles is access to the Internet, which allows not only to
play online games, but also to watch TV and use applications such as Skype or
YouTube. Moreover, this kind of consoles allows users to choose the preferred
form of entertainment available for this device using Bing search engine. In addition, they are capable of opening two windows at the same time, and thus, for
example, use the communicator, while watching the game or a TV program
(www.xbox.com/pl-PL/xbox-one, accessed on 01.22.2015). Thus, one can express
the belief that these consoles are consistent with the needs of the modern network
generation, which is characterized by multitasking – the ability to perform several tasks simultaneously (Żylińska, 2013, p. 185).
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It should be emphasized that multitasking can be considered as a constitutive
feature of digital natives, for whom this ability is not associated with greater difficulties. However, specific and significant restrictions in this regard have digital
immigrants (parents, teachers), who over the years have become accustomed to
the prevailing linear order of things, while also recognizing the hazards that may
be associated with multitasking, including increased incidence of stressful situations or reduced ability to focus (Ibidem, pp. 185–187). Thus, also in mutual
relations “digital natives vs. digital immigrants” and their individual perception
of certain elements of everyday life, there can be seen incompatibility, which can
condition their relationship, as well as trust or its lack to a variety of media (including video/online games) and their usage.
In the context of these considerations, an important aspect becomes the innovative nature of the game, which creates its new quality as a digital medium. It
is expressed primarily in the cloud gaming, which is characterized in particular
by the possibility to choose opponents for a specific player, who will be adequate
for his current needs and skills. In addition, the multifunctional character of
console, and thus the possibility of using other digital media, enables to manage
time while selecting participants for multiplayer games. An important function in
the context of interpersonal relationships is the system that allows the selection
of players who impede the course of the game. It should be mentioned that the
creators of cloud technologies, taking into account the constant rush and varying
amounts of free time of potential players, enable them to resume the game exactly
at the time when it was stopped, or even to continue the game using a shadow,
which learns a particular player’s style in order to replace him in a situation when
he cannot continue to play due to the obligations, but he does not want to interrupt
the game (www.xbox.com/pl-PL/xbox-one/multiplayer, accessed on 01.22.2015).
It is also noteworthy that thanks to the numerous accessories the XBOX
consoles allow for the extremely diverse participation in the game. One of these
special accessories is Kinect sensor. It is a motion sensor that allows users to play
games by using their bodies as controllers, but also to control both the TV, and
the console using voice commands. However, particular attention in this regard
should be paid to the aspect of the movement, which is an indispensable element
of Kinect games. The mass media constantly raise the issue of absenteeism of
students in physical education classes, which is primarily explained with their
low attractiveness. Application of the new Kinect technology is some hope for
increasing physical activity of children, teenagers, and even adults, as this type
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of games include, among others, activities connected with dancing and doing
sports (www.kinectgry.pl/, accessed on 22.01.2015). Therefore, they constitute an
attribute in promoting health education.
In the context of trust in the games played on XBOX, it is necessary to
note that manufacturers of consoles take numerous actions to support parents in
exercising control over the content of games that their children may potentially
access. One of the solutions already adopted by the manufacturers is the use of the
aforementioned age rating, in particular PEGI rating system.
Source: Own study based on www.marketplace.xbox.com/pl-PL/Games/Xbox360Games, accessed on 23.01.2015.
It should be noted that the largest number of XBOX games include those
suitable for people who are at least eighteen years old, thus it should be considered
necessary to use age ratings.
The identified XBOX 360 games primary include games related to action
and adventure (408), shooting (195), as well as sports and entertainment (157).
There are very few games classified as educational games – only 3. However, it
can be assumed that educational elements are also featured in games included in
other thematic categories (marketplace.xbox.com/pl-PL/Games/Xbox360Games,
accessed on 01/11/2015).
Another safeguard proposal implemented by the manufacturers is the possibility of using the parental control, which means an appropriate adjustment of
access to games, TV programs and movies for each family member. Modification of settings also includes the ability to determine by the parents the category
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of games that their child can play, as well as to determine the allowable time
spent on this form of entertainment both during the day and throughout the week.
A significant impact on the growth of trust of parents in games may also be the
fact that they were given the possibility to: indicate whether the child can use the
Internet when using XBOX; determine the people authorized to see the user profile; accept friend request sent and received by a minor (www.support.xbox.com/
pl-PL/xbox-360/security/xbox-live-parental-control, accessed on 01.22.2015).
Although these features relate to the operation of the unit in the virtual
world, they are an opportunity for parents to exercise real care over their child.
5.8. Video and online games as a medium of education
Digital media, including video games, are a typical element for network generation in their perception of the world in which they operate every day. D. Tapscott specifies that modern technologies are like air for the members of this social
category (Tapscott, 2010, p. 62). The obviousness of their occurrence and use
means that they are used in various aspects of life – also in education. As noted
by M. Spitzer, it has been a well-known fact that children learn while playing
all kinds of games. Therefore, the question is not whether video games have an
impact on a child’s development in general, but whether it is positive or negative
impact (Spitzer, 2013, p. 163). And for such a question we cannot give a definite
answer. Type of this impact is conditioned with various factors, primarily those
connected to the child’s background, which are associated with the utilization
of video games by a child. In this regard a huge role is assigned to parents and
teachers, who can (could) use the undoubted potential of video games from the
early stages of child education by shaping their own digital skills. K. Solich states
that video games teach the child both perception and attention. The author cites
the results of research of e.g. American scientists, which shows that children between 3 and 5 years old using a computer 3 to 4 times a week (mainly through
educational programs) were not only better prepared for school, but also showed
higher language skills than their peers, who did not use a computer (K. Solich,
Zabawy komputerowe w procesie alfabetyzacji, Racibórz 2014, p. 45). It should
also be noted that the video and online games favor gaining new information
(Braun Gałkowska, Ulfik-Jaworska, 2000, p. 76), which is one of the core values
for human functioning in the information society. Once again this confirms the
Guarantees of public trust in video and online games
107
thesis of educational value of video games, although for the player-child it is still
perceived primarily as a form of entertainment.
Unfortunately, parents often deny the educational value of video games, seeing them only as a threat to their children. They do not see that video game or
other digital media are only an object that a person can use for specific purposes,
which can have a positive or negative impact on his personality. The issue of the
significant role of a parent should be also referred to the negative impact of the
console games played by children on their academic performance, mainly due
to the fact that they spend 34% less time on homework than their peers (Spitzer,
2013, 163). As rightly stated by M. Spitzer, the reasons for this can be seen also in
the fact that students, who have problems with learning and experience difficulty
in school, use the console to escape from problems or just forget about troubles at
school (ibid.). E. Perzycka also draws attention to the fact that parents give children too much freedom for the time spent at the computer and the way they spend
it. The author also notes that the excess stimuli, stress and pressure of doing the
tasks of adults show that the child is only a child with his developing psyche, and
the lack of a clear balance between excitatory and inhibitory processes. While
taking different online challenges at home by themselves, young people become
anxious, excited, nervous, sad and introvert (Perzycka, 2009, p. 21). It is, therefore, important to notice huge responsibility of the parents and legal guardians
in the process of teaching minor children this digital world. Perhaps it would be
valuable for parents to change from the position of censor and passive observer
to the role of a trustee, companion, and even a guide who will explore and use
the potential of video games together with the child while remembering about the
possible risks.
It should be also noted that with the evolution of video games and their online development, of great interest has become multiplayer games, which not only
relate to the competition, but also learning cooperation in a group, the result of
which is to achieve the objective, as well as to recognize and eliminate errors.
Games of this type not only enhance interpersonal relationships, but also develop
creative thinking in children and adolescents by modifying the course of each
game, or even create custom avatars with certain abilities that can perform given
tasks and overcome obstacles present in the virtual world (Ibidem, pp. 118–119).
Educational character of video and network games is also expressed in the
preparation of minor users to perform certain social roles and professions. Undoubtedly, this task rests primarily with parents and educators that the child en-
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counters in his daily life, although they can use games as an interesting supplement. An example of this approach can be seen, e.g. in the context of simulation
games, such as the successful The Sims – called life simulation – that allows its
users to create both the individual characters, as well as to organize their daily
lives in the virtual world, the elements of which are similar to the situations existing in reality, including growing up, the first relationships, starting a family or
finding a job. This computer game highlights both the prized values as well as
certain social roles (www.gry-online.pl, accessed on 21.0.2015). It is also important that as open-ended simulation The Sims game does not present some possible
outcomes as better than others (J. Juul, op.cit., p. 59). This game does not have
well-defined goals that the player should achieve, so that he has a real opportunity
to develop creativity and learn about different aspects of the virtual world.
Legislator also saw the value of the use of video games in education by including in the objectives of the core curriculum for junior high school and high
school students the use of educational games to expand their knowledge and skills
in various fields and to develop their interests. It is, therefore, appropriate for the
teachers-digital immigrants to trust games and see their potential, while taking
advantage of their values in the course of teaching (Core curriculum to general
teaching for junior high schools and high schools, Journal of Laws of 2012, item
977, pp. 185 and 188).
Seeing video and online games as digital media of educational nature should
also be considered in terms of therapeutic interventions. Their special value can
be seen, among others, in the fact that they are based on the emotional involvement of the player and his curiosity, and encourage him to make efforts without
any pressure from the outside (Braun Gałkowska, Ulfik-Jaworska, Zabawa w zabijanie, Warsaw 2000, p. 76). It should be emphasized that in the case of therapeutic interventions, it is necessary for the therapist to clarify the rules of the game
and the proper way to perform certain tasks so that the game brings progress in
working with patients.
An example of the therapeutic use of educational games can be computer
games used in speech therapy. One of the proposals in this category is a program
Loguś-Speech therapy computer game, the use of which supports learning the
correct pronunciation of vowels and words primarily in children and adolescents.
The program consists of parts Patrzę i mówię- głoski (I look and say phones),
and Patrzę i mówię- wyrazy (I look and say words), which include two categories
of games Głoska-Labiogram (Phone-Labiogram) and Labiogram-Głoska (Labio-
Guarantees of public trust in video and online games
109
gram-Phone), and Wyraz-Labiogram (Word-Labiogram) and Labiogram-Wyraz
(Labiogram-Word). They are based on the identification of images presenting
a specific phone or typing presented words, while in the second version on choosing the appropriate shape of lips for a particular phone or a sequence of images
forming the word (www.rabinek.pl/logus-komputerowe-gry-logopedyczne-adegnet, accessed on 25.01.2015).
Without a doubt, this form of therapeutic work is very attractive for young
patients who are digital natives, which can be a powerful incentive to achieve
positive results. At the same time, this may increase the trust of parents (therapists, educators, etc.) in video and online games due to their beneficial effects on
the progress made by the child.
5.9. Conclusion
Currently, network society cannot image everyday life without digital media. Their usage and frequency of this usage has changed over the centuries, until
today, when digital media are used at almost every level of human functioning as
a unit, as well as a member of a social group (both in the real and virtual world).
One of the categories of these media are video and online games, which are of
interest to people from all age generations, regardless of social background. Due
to the significant impact of this type of media on the existence of a man, it is reasonable to discuss aspects that determine trust in them. The discussion assumes
that the trust is subject to the mutual relations between the four categories of actors: parent – child (user) – legislator – creator (manufacturer). The foundations of
the guarantee of trust in video (online) games are the regulations contained in the
system, both at the national and Community level. They relate primarily to protect
the minor against the threats that he may experience while playing these types of
games, in particular by ensuring the parents that their child is safe, as well as to
protect game creators against acts violating their copyrights. An important factor
influencing the analyzed type of trust is mutual relationship between parent and
child. It should be remembered that despite the fact that the video game, or other
digital media, is widely available for children and young people, these are parents
or legal guardians who can have a real impact on their use by minors. For this purpose, however, it is necessary to establish the correct relationships and manifest
positive parental attitudes based on trust. In my opinion, video and online games
have a huge informative, educational and social potential, and trusting this type
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Sandra Malinowska
of medium is primarily conditioned by the trust in another human being. It is also
worth noting that video games are a tool created by people for people; and this
tool is subject to legal regulations. The games are neither good nor bad as their
value is contained in how they are used and received by people.
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Krupski i S-ka, Warszawa.
Feibel T. (2006), Zabójca w dziecinnym pokoju. Przemoc i gry komputerowe, Wydawnictwo Pax, Warszawa.
Gabor P., Leszczyńska P. (2013), Prawa jednostki w wirtualnych światach, [in:] Prawo
w wirtualnych światach, (ed.) K. Grzybczyk, Wydawnictwo Difin, Warszawa.
Gawrysiak P., Mańkowski P., Chański A. (1998), Biblia komputerowego gracza,
Wydawnictwo Iskry, Warszawa.
Juul J. (2010), Gra, gracz, świat: w poszukiwaniu sedna growości, [in:] Światy z pikseli.
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Meyer R. (2003), Psychopatologia. Jeden przypadek wiele teorii, Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Pedagogiczne, Gdańsk.
Noga H. (2008), Wychowawcze aspekty „rewolucji informatycznej”, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Pedagogicznej, Kraków.
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Perzycka E. (2009), Pedagogika informacyjna. Przestrzenie edukacji medialnej,
Wydawnictwo ZAPOL, Szczecin.
Sarnecki P. (2008), Prawo konstytucyjne RP, Wydawnictwo C.H. Beck, Warszawa.
Siemieniecki B. (2007), Pedagogika medialna, nr 1, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN,
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Solich K. (2014), Zabawy komputerowe w procesie alfabetyzacji, Wydawnictwo
Państwowej Wyższej Szkoły Zawodowej, Racibórz.
Spitzer M. (2013), Cyfrowa demencja, Wydawnictwo Dobra Literatura, Słupsk.
Sztompka P. (2007), Zaufanie. Fundament społeczeństwa, Wydawnictwo Znak,
Kraków.
Tapscott D. (2010), Cyfrowa dorosłość, Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne,
Warszawa.
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Tuner J.S., Helms D.B. (1999), Rozwój człowieka, Wydawnictwo Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, Warszawa.
Wąsowska M. (2013), Umowa o stworzenie gry komputerowej [in:] Prawo w wirtualnych
światach, (ed.) K. Grzybczyk, Wydawnictwo Difin, Warszawa.
Wąsowska M. (2013), Historia gier wideo i gier komputerowych, [in:] Prawo w wirtualnych światach, (ed.) K. Grzybczyk, Wydawnictwo Difin, Warszawa.
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powinniśmy, SPiDOR, Warszawa.
Ziemianin B. (2003), Prawo cywilne. Część ogólna, Wydawnictwo „Ars boni et aequi”,
Poznań.
Żylińska M. (2013), Neurodydaktyka, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja
Kopernika, Toruń.
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Legal Acts
Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997, Journal of Laws 1997 No. 78
item 483.
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, EU Official Gazette, C 83/389,
www.eur-lex.europa.eu.
Act of 25 February 1964 Family and Guardianship Code, Journal of Laws 1964 No. 9
item 59 as amended.
Act of 23 April 1964 Civil Cod, Journal of Laws 1964 No. 16 item 93 as amended.
Act of 4 February 1994 on Copyright and Related Rights, Journal of Laws 1994 No. 24
item 83 as amended.
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Sandra Malinowska
Act of 6 June 1997 Criminal Code, Journal of Laws 1997 No. 88 item 553 as amended.
Rozporządzenie Ministra Edukacji Narodowej z dnia 27 sierpnia 2012 w sprawie podstawy programowej wychowania przedszkolnego oraz kształcenia ogólnego w poszczególnych typach szkół, [Regulation of the Minister of National Education of
27 August 2012 on the core curriculum for pre-schools and other types of schools],
Annex No. 4, Journal of Laws z 2012, item 977.
Author’s note
Sandr Malinowska is a PhD student at the Institute of Pedagogy, University of Szczecin.
She completed a Master’s degree in law and pedagogy. Her research interests include in
particular issues related to media pedagogy, neurodidactics and cybercrime. Contact:
sandra.malinowska1989@wp.pl.
Chapter VI
Trust in educational TV programs
Agata Draszkiewicz, Magda Piwowarska
6.1. Introduction
Trust is the element that determines a specified property of the human life.
It is obvious in dealing with people, objects and institutions. Therefore, can we
talk about trust in television? Can television be trustworthy, and if so, to what
extent?
The aim of this paper is to present trust in television as “institutional system” and in order to do that, it is necessary to clarify the basic concepts included
in this paper starting from the term ‘trust’.
The main method of searching for definitions is browsing dictionaries
and encyclopedias. Therefore, according to PWN Polish Language Dictionary,
trust is the belief that a person or institution is trustworthy; the belief that one’s
words, information, etc. are true; the belief that one has some skills and can use
them accordingly (http://sjp;pwn.pl/haslo.php?id=2544487). Thus, we have trust
identified with trust in information and abilities, directed not only in relation to
a person but also to the institution. Can trust manifest itself only in relation to the
effects of actions? It is not enough for the research paper to refer only to dictionaries and encyclopedias, therefore, our search for the clarification of the term
‘trust’ is directed to the sociology of the social sciences, which focuses on the
study of social processes, as well as to the sociologist A. Giddens and his social
structuration theory, on the basis of which trust in television is presented as “institutional system”.
According to Giddens, trust is the belief that people generally and in all
circumstances refrain from breaking the rules, and trust in institutions: their
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Agata Draszkiewicz, Magda Piwowarska
solidity, durability, reliability, and efficiency (Giddens, 2006, p. 27). Therefore,
we have trust as a guarantee that a man guards the respect for the principles and
trust in the institution.
The search for an explanation of the term ‘trust’ led us to the point where we
can say that the trust consists of many elements that need to coexist and interact.
Therefore, in this paper trust is considered as the belief that people and institutions – having specific opportunities – will operate according to principles based
on solidity, durability, reliability and efficiency.
The concept of “television” is a very broad term, which consists of many
types e.g. there is educational, open, cable, satellite, cassette or closed-circuit
television (Okoń, 2004, pp. 414–415). The word ‘television’ comes from the
Greek tele – far and Latin visio – vision, and refers to the distant transmission of
moving images and sounds through electromagnetic waves and receiving them
via TV set (Okoń, 2004, p. 413). Therefore, TV is a kind of transmitter of variety
of information. Technological developments have also affected television, leading to the implementation of changes that influence many of its functions. The
role and form of television have also changed with the development of modern
communication technologies. Television has many dimensions, and at the same
time, it is the space for the social life (Bogunia-Borowska, 2012, p. 12). The many
aspects of television mean that it can also be seen and treated as diverse structure.
Television phenomenon can rely on the fact that it can be treated as a “medium”
(Bogunia-Borowska, 2012, p. 16), which is constantly subject to change, as the
“institution” (Braun, 2008, p. 222), which deals with the preparation and broadcasting of television programs, as well as the “company” (Braun, 2008, p. 219),
performing the role of the employer.
Television as a “medium” is one of the largest medium of communication,
which at high speed and attractiveness of information is able to reach a large
number of recipients (Zieliński, 2006, p. 186). Moreover, according to J. Braun
the public television has been designed as a kind of institution of civil society,
rooted in the democratic institutional system of the state at the same time (Braun,
2008, p. 222), and thus becoming the institution.
The concept of television as a “company” has been analyzed by P. Bourdieu.
He argues that television is a dynamic social and active structure, which is full of
a variety of relationships (Bourdieu, 2009, p. 71). Television is also a big employer
of artists and the source of funding cultural projects (Braun, 2008, p. 219).
Trust in educational TV programs
115
The concept of “institutional system” is very broad, and its clear and
accurate explanation requires to divide it into two separate terms: “system” and
“institutional”. Dictionary definition indicates that the system is the organizing principle of something, the general rules applied in any field (Sobol, 2003,
p. 1065). Thus, the system is identified with the set of rules and guidelines for the
operation of certain actions. The “institutional” means the same as having the
character of the institution (Sobol, 2003, p. 479). The combination of these two
concepts may indicate that the institution operates on the basis of specific standards and rules of its functioning.
Given the above definitions and the aim of this paper, which is to show trust
in television as “institutional system”, our considerations shall refer to A. Giddens’ structuration theory that allows to indicate trust in television.
6.2. Structuration theory – television as an institution and the company
According to Giddens’ structuration theory, the main subject of research in
social sciences is neither an individual agent’s experience, nor any social whole,
but social practices ordered in time and space (Giddens, 2003, p. 40). This view
is certainly reasonable, because experience of an agent – subject becomes fixed
and begins to repeat as a result of repeated situations.
The aim of Giddens in creating structuration theory was to describe the
production of customary practices as a combined result of the power of system
structures and individual achievements (Elliott, 2011, pp. 151–152), where customary practices mean the creation of active operations based on experience of
individuals and existing structures.
Structuration is the process of creating and processing structures in social
practice (Sobol, 2003, p. 900), where the process mean the conduct according to
the sequence of stages of planned activities. It can be assumed that the structuration process is continuous and can be carried out according to specific stages.
Structuration theory is a process in which the active subjects carry out observations of social reality (Kolasa, 1995, pp. 17–18). It is an action, in which the
world is not only changed by the individual, but where the world can change the
individual (Giddens, 2008, p. 735). The basic property is the ability to transform
existing structures that – according to Giddens – include: rules, resources and
institutional systems (Kolasa, 1995, pp. 17–18).
116
Fig. 1. Structuration theory
Agata Draszkiewicz, Magda Piwowarska
Source: own study based on A. Giddens, Socjologia 2008, s. 735, [in:] A. Kolasa, Socjologia historyczna. Problemy przedsięwzięcia interdyscyplinarnego, pp. 17–18.
Therefore, the question is: what are the rules, resources and institutional systems as a structure? Rules mean a way to differentiate access to social, cultural
and practical resources (Elliot, 2011, p. 155), which is a method by which it is
possible to access a variety of sources.
Polish Language Dictionary says that resources are a certain amount of
something collected to be used in the future (sjp.pwn.pl/słownik/2544125/zasób).
The analysis of “institutional system” made in the first part of this paper allows
to conclude that the “institutional system” is the system relating to the functioning of institutions according to specific rules. Since the aim of this paper is to
show trust in television as “institutional system”, therefore, considerations on the
structuration theory shall refer to television as “institutional system”. The subject
of this discussion is television as a “medium”, “company”, and “institution” in
the light of key adjectives that make up the definition of trust (Giddens, 2006,
p. 27), i.e. solidity, durability, reliability and efficiency. Television as an institution is mainly reflected by the fact that it is an institution based on a foundation of
independence and autonomy (Braun, 2008, p. 219) Moreover, it cannot abandon
the fulfillment of its goals, hence the choice of programs should not be random
(Nieduziak, 2006, p . 219). It is an institution, a priority of which should be to
choose the appropriate programming. Keywords for television as an institution
include independence and autonomy in the selection of programs that lead to independence in decision making. Can it also be a source of trust in television as an
institution? These assumptions bring the need to address the definition of institution, which is the establishment of a public nature, dealing with specific range of
Trust in educational TV programs
117
issues and operating in any field (Sobol, 2003, p. 479). And public – available – is
one of the most important elements that constitute institution.
The issue of institution in relation to trust is analyzed by P. Sztompka, who
points out that in the case of television as a public institution, we can talk about institutional trust (Sztompka, 2012, p. 312); trust in complex organizational entities,
involving numerous communities of anonymous participants (Sztompka, 2012,
p. 312). In order to show the “institutional trust” in television as an institution, we
refer again to adjectives of trust (Giddens, 2006, p. 27), i.e. the solidity, durability,
reliability and efficiency.
Solidity of television as an institution is manifested mainly in digitization,
which is giving information the digital form (sjp.pwn.pl/słownik/2555141/digitalizacja) and the beginning of not only a new form, but also a new life of television
(Bogunia-Borowska, 2012, p. 38). Therefore, we talk about trust in television as
a solid institution based on the fact that as an institution it meets all the technological changes in search of the new viewer.
Durability of television as an institution indicates that the characteristic feature of television is its large territorial coverage and the ability to reach people
of different age, education or origin (different cultural backgrounds) (Zieliński,
2006, p. 189), which enables to acquire new recipients.
Reliability of television as an institution is reflected in the fact that it is
a public institution (Braun, 2008, p. 222), so the institution of civil society (Braun,
2008, p. 222) fulfilling the mission in the particular field.
The effectiveness of television as an institution is manifested by the fact
that the coexistence of particular media is the most important determinant of
the existence of the whole media system. Television is an important part of this
system, and continues to play a major role in it (Bogunia-Borowska, 2012,
p. 37). Therefore, we can talk about the fact that television is commercial due to
its adaptation to the conditions prevailing in the market economy. The discussion
on the trust in television as an institution based on the key concepts covered by
trust indicate that television as an institution can inspire trust, which is proved by
its constant development.
Television as a company mainly concerns the status of television and its
transformation processes that are associated with the dominant phenomena referring to its content (Bogunia-Borowska, 2012, p. 11). Thus, there are defined
roles, which govern all of the processes occurring in television as the company.
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Agata Draszkiewicz, Magda Piwowarska
Basic terms for television as a company are: status and process in the transformation, which indicate the responsibility for the changes made and awareness
of the continuous development. But can they be a source of trust in television
as a company? Our discussion is directed to the company itself, which is an official registered name of an industrial, commercial or other type of a company,
under which entitled persons conduct business activity (Sobol, 2003, p. 343). The
company, which is a workplace, is one of the key terms, which indicate the company as an employer. The issue of institution in relation to trust is analyzed by
P. Sztompka, who points out that in the case of television as a company – employer, we can talk about commercial trust that is directed to the goods, brand,
company, originating from a particular country – trust which only indirectly
refers to its creations (Sztompka, 2012, p. 312). In order to show the “commercial
trust” in television as a company, once again we shall refer to key adjectives of
the term ‘trust’ (Giddens, 2006, p. 27), i.e. the solidity, durability, reliability and
efficiency.
Solidity of television as a company is reflected in the fact that it involves
a dynamic form of change on many aspects of its operation [...] by adapting to
the social, cultural and technological transformation of the modern world (Bogunia-Borowska, 2012, p. 11). Therefore, we talk about trust in television as
a solid company based on the fact that it introduces changes in order to meet the
expectations of the recipient.
Durability of television as a company indicates that television is a descendant of photography and cinema in the area of the world recording; it is a relative of electronic computer techniques (Gołębiewska, 2003, p. 183), which may
indicate that it has been operating on the market for many years.
Reliability of television as a company is reflected in the fact that public television cannot resign from fulfilling its goals (Gołębiewska, 2003, p. 184), as this
affects its development.
The effectiveness of television as a company is manifested in the fact that
as a consequence of the emergence of extensive media system, television has
been transformed significantly in terms of abilities exhibited every day (Bogunia-Borowska, 2012, p. 47). Thus, we can assume that the occurrence of television on
many levels means that it is a source of income. The analysis of trust in television
as a company based on the key terms of the system indicates that television as
a company can be a subject of trust.
Trust in educational TV programs
119
6.3. Television as a medium of education
Television is one of the most significant media in the world affecting people’s lives. It provides an important resource of news and entertainment, affects
the sense of beauty, elegance and taste. It also has a significant impact on the
ge-nerally accepted standards and principles functioning in society (Zieliński,
2006, p. 186). It is a technology for recording image and sound of reality experienced by everyone using currently available technical developments (Nieduziak, 2006, p. 218). Therefore, one should ask a question: whether television can
have an impact on the fact that the sound heard and image perceived will be
a major source of information, will affect our tastes, and as a consequence will be
a source of trust? In order to answer this question, television can be seen as a technical system, because technological breakthrough and technological readiness
of television to deal with new challenges has a huge impact on its functioning in
everyday life, the content it broadcasts and its cultural and social significance
(Bogunia-Borowska, 2012, p. 11). This is an important element of television, because it affects its future and the ability to make changes in broadcasting content
and maintaining a high position in the market.
The issue of technical systems in relation to trust is analyzed by P. Sztompka,
who points out that in this case we can talk about technological trust (Sztompka,
2012, p. 312) in a variety of complex technical systems (transport, telecommunications, energy, IT), which are becoming more and more necessary infrastructure of our daily lives (Sztompka, 2012, p. 312). In order to show the “technological trust” in television as a medium, once again we shall refer to key adjectives of
the term ‘trust’ (Giddens, 2006, p. 27), i.e. the solidity, durability, reliability and
efficiency.
Solidity of television as a medium is mainly reflected in the fact that television is widespread, with a wide range of impact; it has high density of information at the time; it deeply involves the recipient in its operation, and engages him
intellectually and emotionally (Zieliński, 2006, p. 188). Therefore, we talk about
trust in television as a solid medium based on its ongoing commitment and concern for the recipient.
Durability of television as a medium indicates that the television is dynamically transformed under the influence of stimuli and challenges of new media [...].
It is located in the process of evolutionary change involving the digital transmis-
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Agata Draszkiewicz, Magda Piwowarska
sion (Bogunia-Borowska, 2012, p. 37), and thus it is a guarantee of continuous
development and progress.
Reliability of television as a medium manifests itself in search of new technologies in terms of quality and standards of broadcast information [...]. Access
to the digital television signal is a stimulus for further development of the television, as well as for the co-existence with other media (Bogunia-Borowska, 2012,
p. 40)
The effectiveness of television as a medium manifests itself in providing information about the world, expanding horizons and raising the aspirations of the
people; encouraging people to discussions on the development of the country and
the formation of social norms [...], shaping of the tastes and preferences (Gajda,
1982, p. 23). Thus, the effectiveness of television is shown as a constant striving
to fulfill its role and proving that it is appropriate for it.
This analysis of trust in television as a medium based on its key terms indicates that thy may be used as determinants to show that trust in television as
a medium can exist and can take various forms. In addition, Giddens shows that
there is the trust in various abstract systems (Giddens, 1994, p. 27) included in
the technical systems, and that contemporary trust in them is necessary in life
(Giddens, 1994, p. 27).
6.4. Television – a threat or opportunity for the development
As already mentioned, television is one of the mass media. Receiving its
message takes the form of a parallel education, i.e. education that is carried out
outside of school. It includes the realization of one’s own interests, participation in
sports, arts and recreation activities, as well as spending time in formal and informal groups, and using modern information technology and receiving the message
of mass media (Izdebska, 1995, p. 11). Television as a form of communication is
very attractive to receivers by not forcing them to take any activity (Gajda, 2004,
p. 147). We just turn on the TV and do not need to work with it interactively, as
in the case of a computer. Although in Poland and in other countries people may
use interactive television, it does not force them to think. In addition, it is associated with relax and entertainment, which further lulls our vigilance to what it
teaches and how it inspires. Television broadcast makes learning easy, pleasant
and mostly unconscious. And while adults can realize this mechanism, children
find it more difficult. The media shapes different artificial world in which people
Trust in educational TV programs
121
are young, beautiful, and whose problems can most often solve a new purchase.
Children learn involuntary, while watching television. Most often, they do not
learn from programs specially produced for this purpose, but from the content
included in advertising, news programs, music videos, TV series and other. And
it is worth noting that the television is the medium that children may experience
from an early age, because its usage does not require to learn complex skills, and
even a few month old babies can turn on the TV. According to Lemish, television broadcast is similar in some cultures. It is certainly dependent on the political situation in the country and freedom of speech. It shapes our perception of
reality, influences the perception of ourselves; the image of beauty promoted by
television of slim, tall girls has an impact on eating disorders among teenagers
(Lamish, 2008, p. 117). Also in our culture television shows the life and problems
of US citizens, and this country is shown as rich and brutal – perfect background
for action thrillers (Lamish, 2008, p. 126).
Another aspect is the construction of gender roles – women as those who
do the housework, do not participate in the public sphere, are delicate and emotional; television also highlights their sexuality. On the other hand, men are presented as those, who are involved in work, strong and independent (Lamish, 2008,
pp. 103–107). Therefore, it is important to develop the ability to discuss with
information provided by the media (Cudowska, 2005, p. 180).
Parents wishing for their child to benefit from time spent in front of the TV
should know what programs are valuable and talk about them with their children.
Meanwhile, many adults leave children alone with the TV. The excessive watching is the result of a lack of interest of parents, the difficult situation in the family
or failures at school. In problem situations a child can escape to the unreal world
for a few hours a day (Gajda, 2004, p. 147). However, even if the parents sit in
front of TV and talk about the program together with their children, where they
can learn about the suitability of broadcast content from? It is known that not all
animated movies are suitable for children. Many of them include violence or show
behaviors the imitation of which may be dangerous for children. When it comes to
educational values, parents can analyze the values presented by the characters of
the program. But what about the stimulation of intellectual development? Therefore, it is worth to pay attention to educational television.
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6.5. Trust in educational TV programs
This paper on educational programs for children was inspired by the book
Children and Media: A Global Perspective by Daphne Lemish, a professor at the
University of Illinois. The author describes chosen TV programs and presents the
results of research on their reception. She also cites theories of language used by
television as a communication tool. This book is a collection of research results
conducted in different countries on many aspects of television. Learning through
television is one of the many aspects of the impact of mass media on our daily
lives. The author of the above book analyzes e.g. Sesame Street and Teletubbies,
which were also showed in Poland. This paper refers to the arguments included
in this book and tries to analyze two other programs in a similar way: Bear in the
Big Blue House and Mini Mini Abecadło [Mini Mini Alphabet].
In the United States, educational TV programs have gained rapid popularity
in the 50s. Their production and broadcast were increased in order to increase
knowledge and improve skills necessary for the people of this country to be competitive in comparison to other countries after World War II. Deficiencies in these
areas were explained with a shortage of teachers, their low level of education
and outdated curricula (Lamish, 2008, p. 165). Therefore, the potential of television was used as a means of communication for the purpose of education. People
recognized its universality and free nature as assets contributing to allow children learning at home. Therefore, it can be concluded that television – created to
disseminate certain information – may also serve as a tool to provide access to
education.
In her publication Lemish draws attention to the language of television, or
more precisely to the way and form of television broadcast. It is this feature that
makes television such a specific medium, not only in terms of education. The
language used by the television is also a component of its potential. This language
is audiovisual; therefore even the youngest children show interest in it. Being
a viewer does not require to master particular skills – for example, being a reader
requires to learn to read, preferably with understanding. People find it easier to
remember what they have learned from television, than for example from the
book or the radio. While watching TV, people see and hear, and in accordance
with the theory of “double coding”, such a reception is the fastest and guarantees most durable memorization of the acquired information (Lamish, 2008,
pp. 158–160).
Trust in educational TV programs
123
It is well known that television has a negative effect on human behavior. Imitating aggressive behavior, reinforcing stereotypes about particular social groups
or imitating the behavior of cartoon characters that have a different result than
in the reality prove that this form of communication teaches us something effectively, but the question is what does it teach, and whether viewers are aware
of it. Watching television is often accompanied by automatic assimilation of its
content. Television is a medium that is associated more with entertainment than
education. However, the use of audio-visual language also brings some limitations. It is difficult to use it to convey the importance of abstract concepts as the
language used in television is concrete. TV programs, especially those unambitious ones, wean us from the use of the imagination and critical thinking. This is
one of the alarming signals concerning trust in educational nature of television
(Lamish, 2008, p. 159).
Trust in someone is the belief that a person will behave so as not to harm
anybody. It is reasonable to expect favorable actions taken by partners in the social interaction or relations. In this second sense, we can talk about the different
types of trust: institutional, commercial, personal, primary, positional, system,
technological, and generalized trust (Hejnicka-Bezwińska, 2008, p. 518).
In the context of trust in educational programs we can talk about institutional
trust, which P. Sztompka defines as trust directed towards the great organizations
and, indirectly, towards the masses of anonymous officers and representatives of
such organizations and their different social roles (Sztompka, pp. 326–327). This
type of trust can be chosen due to the nature of television as an institution. We
trust or not a certain TV channel – for example, because of the programs that
it shows. Institutions are also companies producing educational programs. One
should also consider what is the difference between learning while watching educational programs, and learning in the classroom. Teachers on television are those
colorful, unique characters, and at school it is a teacher who not only demands,
but usually does not entertain students. Watching TV program does not require
from children more than just turning on the TV and optionally answering the
questions asked by the hosts; and these answers are not compulsory and verified
afterwards; the host just provides the correct answer. Does watching TV have
a positive effect on a child’s education at school? Or maybe it accustoms children
to being in the center of attention, to faster and surprising action, which usually
cannot be found on a regular lesson?
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6.6. Analysis of selected educational TV programs for children of early
and middle childhood
Another aspect of directing trust towards educational programs is their intended and actual effect, which is the mastering of the content and skills presented in the program by children. As a model educational program, which is most
beneficial to watch, Lemish recognizes “Sesame Street” produced by non-profit
organization – Sesame Workshop. From the beginning, its producers wanted to
reduce educational inequalities between school children from poor families and
from wealthy and middle-class families. The organization was founded in the
60s under the name Children’s Television Workshop, when approximately 97% of
the houses had at least one television and preschool children watched television
on average 27 hours a week. At the same time, the results of research conducted
at that time showed that children, who are ready to start school, learn more efficiently and get better grades than those who are not prepared for it. And preparation for school was different due to the financial situation (http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Sesame_Workshop#cite_note-2 [access 2.07.2014]. One of the principles
that guided the founders and employees of Sesame Workshop was a collaboration
of experts from various fields that make up the educational programs: psychology, pedagogy, television producers (Lemish, 2008, pp. 170–171). While creating a program, they jointly determine what are the educational needs of children,
including those relating to the development of critical thinking. Due to its positive
effects on children’s cognitive development sphere, its popularity and interculturalism, the reception of “Sesame Street” is subject to scientific research. Episodes
of “Sesame Street ...” always fit in one of the areas: learning to read, learning to
count, healthy lifestyle, emotional development and understanding and respecting
children’s rights. Currently episodes are showed in more than 150 countries and
are adapted to current events in the country and the important aspects of culture
(http://www.sesameworkshop.org/ accessed on 2.07.2015). An example could be
the presence of soldiers in episodes showed in the United States during the war in
Iraq, and “Shalom Sesame”, which takes place in the Jewish community (http://
www.shalomesesame.org/ accessed on 3.07.2015). The effectiveness of “Sesame
Street” episodes is the result of the on-going research on their reception. They
are a kind of action research, the results of which are subject to reflection, and
used to introduce certain changes to the next episodes, so that children can learn
even more while watching them. The results allowed the authors to determine the
Trust in educational TV programs
125
rules of the program, which should form the basis for the creation of every episode. Firstly, each episode must be focused around a specific purpose and include
a form of communication and production techniques that are attractive for children. The program should focus not only on the cognitive development, but also
on the emotional sphere of the audience. Children should be at the center of attention in every episode, and the subject should be close to them. It is necessary to
repeat and reinforce the information. Children must be able to observe the model
behavior to achieve a certain objective, which can be imitated by them. Singing
songs, reading aloud, painting, speaking and doing exercises should encourage
children to active participation (Lemish, 2008, p. 172).
At this point, it is worth to analyze one of “Sesame Street” episodes, the target of which is to teach children to recognize lower and upper case letter “C” and
teach them two ways of pronouncing it. At the beginning the letter “C” – due to
its shape – is compared to the unfolded fan. The fan is folded and unfolded in the
rhythm of the music with the letter “C” showed in the background. Then we see
the children dancing to the song about the letter “C” and two ways of pronouncing it (in English). At the end of the song all children lie on the floor to form an
upper case letter “C”. Then on the screen appears the first character-puppet Murray, who interviews children on the street about pronouncing “C” sound. Later,
we see a mini documentary about the “worms in space”, which form in the air the
letter “C” with their bodies thanks to the lack of gravity. Another element is the
song about a cookie by Cookie Monster, in which he compares the different types
of cookies and moon to the letter “C”. Again we see a street interview with the
children. This time, Murray asks about what words begin with the letter “C”; his
clothes serve as a hint. Children show objects that Murray wears, with the name
of the object appearing on the screen. In this way, children can see a graphic form
of the word beginning with the letter “C”, hear its pronunciation and associate
it with a particular object. Then Cookie Monster reappears, this time in a funny
scene with another character. Again he repeats that the letter “C” is the first letter
of the word “cookie”. Every time he pronounces this word, its graphical notation
appears on the screen with the first letter “C” marked. Finally, Cookie Monster
cannot stop thinking about cookies and eats the letter “C”, which is standing on
the platform during the dialogue of two puppets. In about a five-minute program
children have the opportunity to see the letter “C” many times, in different forms.
It is also often pronounced both in isolation and out loud. In addition, all classes
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Agata Draszkiewicz, Magda Piwowarska
are taught by colorful and funny characters; the plot changes quite quickly, so that
the children do not have time to get bored.
One of the most watched television stations for children is Mini Mini channel
(4.4% of audience share among children aged 4–15). It is one of the few TV stations that show several educational programs one day. The results of a study conducted by TNS OBOP in 2008 indicate that most children watch TV Polsat, then
TVP1, TVN and TVP 2. The next channels for children include Disney Channel
and Jetix. The sixth most viewed channel is Mini Mini Plus (Press report of TNS
OBOP http://obop-arch.tnsglobal.pl/centrum/archiwum_raportow/2009/2009-06/
wid/6389 accessed on: 11.07.2014). A publicly available channel of a similar nature has been recently created and is called TVP ABC.
Mini Mini Plus program schedule includes several original programs created specifically for the needs of this station. These include: Dzieciaki Minimini
(Minimini Kids), MiniEncykolepdia (MiniEncyclopedia), Miniabecadło (MiniAlphabet), Minicyferki (MiniNumbers), Minikolory (MiniColours), Minikształty
(MiniShapes), Czytanki Rybki MiniMini (Readings of MiniMini Fish). We shall
analyze the program also aimed at learning to recognize letters Miniabecadło.
The program is short and lasts about three minutes; its formula is similar for each
letter. MiniMini Fish is accompanied by a child and together they invent words
starting with the particular letter. The program begins by showing the letter on
the screen. Then, Fish recites a poem about the letter, the child shows in the air
how to write it using a hand, and then together they say words beginning with
this letter. Unfortunately, instead of words children can see on the screen only
uppercase letter and images symbolizing words beginning with a specific letter.
The creators should take the opportunity that the children watch the program.
They should maximize the potential of TV and allow children to see the letters in
the word. In the episode about the letter “G” a girl demonstrates how to write it
– and she is doing it correctly, but the children see a mirror image of that letter, so
it does not teach them anything.
Cognitive development of the child is very important, but educational programs also teach certain behaviors and attitudes. Indeed, there are the four functions of television: educational-cognitive, information, compensatory and entertainment-leisure (Andrzejewska, 2007, p. 11). Educational programs meet all four
of them to a lesser or greater extent.
One of the programs that mainly fulfill educational function, as well as three
other functions is Bear in the Big Blue House. The action of each episode is one
Trust in educational TV programs
127
day in the life of the Bear and his friends from a big blue house. After opening the
door, Bear invites viewers inside his home and addresses them directly throughout the program, unless he is talking to other characters. Bear is a role model
for children. He is patient, helpful, kind, shows interest in others. In the episode
about aid, he is sick. All his friends immediately recognize that there is something
wrong with him and recall how he helped them when they had a problem. So,
they decide to help him to recover. Therefore, children can see that helping and
being kind to others brings benefits in the form of devoted friends. In the episode
characters sing a few songs that always have a message consistent with a topic,
for example with love, taking care of younger children, curiosity in exploring the
world, courage etc. Focusing on one topic helps children in understanding certain
behaviors. Constant idea of the program is also helpful in this regard.
Another analyzed program are Teletubbies. The program is aimed at children between the ages of 9 to 36 months and it was produced at the request of
the BBC by Ragdoll from the UK, specifically by film producer Anne Wood
and psychologist Andrew Davenport. The show aired between 1997–2001 (http://
www.ragdoll.co.uk/ accessed on 17.07.2014). Each episode shows the adventures
of four Teletubbies, fairy-tale characters that look, walk and communicate like
children in early childhood. They live in a shared underground house in which
there are various technical devices. When they go for a walk in the meadow, they
always meet interesting people, objects or phenomena. For older children there
is a specially prepared part, when the screen located on one of the Teletubbies
plays a short film in which the main role is played by the older children. The program has become popular in many countries around the world due to promoting
multiculturalism. The appearance of each of Teletubbies is similar to the appearance of the citizen from another continent. The advantage of this show is that it
is interesting for 0–3 year old children and activates them. Moreover, each episode shows a variety of content designed to help the child in exploring the world,
e.g. the seasons, weather phenomena or types of musical instruments. Teletubbies are surrounded by objects, which are well known to children. The program
is relaxing; it shows the world as a good and beautiful place. The downside of the
program is its verbal layer. Teletubbies communicate in a language similar to the
one used by the recipients of the program, which may reinforce this pattern of
communication and not inspire to learn the pronunciation of new words (Lemish,
2008, pp. 175–177).
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Agata Draszkiewicz, Magda Piwowarska
6.7. Conclusion
Considerations on trust in television as an institutional system by explaining
the basic concepts, referring to the structuration theory by Giddens and indicating the TV as one of the elements of the structure (institutional system), enable
to claim that television can inspire trust. As the medium it can inspire trust in the
technical systems and by addressing new technologies it meets the expectations
of the recipient. Moreover, as an institution that serves a public role it achieves its
goals by adjusting the appropriate programming, and it becomes one of the central points of culture. Television as a company can also inspire trust by realizing
assumptions of media institution and being a reliable company.
It is worth to consider TV functions in the context of trust in television as
a medium, company and institution by considering trust in its products – educational programs for children. Since television broadcast has a various impact
on our daily lives, it is important for us to be aware of those who create it (what
kind of specialists), how does it operate as a company, and finally ask ourselves
whether we trust it as a medium? Hence, two first features compose the third one.
Television uses its own language and creates both opportunities and threats for
the development of its recipients. However, television is the medium that is part
of everyday life also of children; it is a window to the world, to other cultures, to
places that the viewer may never visit. It entertains and inspires to many interesting conversations with the family and others. Although the results of numerous
studies (Lemish, 2008) carried out in different countries show a negative effect of
television on our perception of the world and ourselves, still many people find it
difficult to imagine the daily functioning without it. A difficult task for parents is
to control TV shows watched by children. Certainly it is necessary for parent to
control it, due to the fact that many programs are filled with violence and do not
contain ambitious content. On the other hand, each parent has individual criteria
for determining whether the program is worth watching or not. In order to control the content of educational programs for children, a parent could use advice
of others – professional reviews written by educators and psychologists. In such
a situation, children would certainly benefit more from the potential of television as one of the stimulators for their development. Rather than isolate from
the negative influence of the mass media, parents should choose from their wide
range of most valuable offer. Educational TV programs provide children with the
opportunity to learn almost without the help of teachers and parents. However, as
Trust in educational TV programs
129
previously mentioned, assistance from adults allows for a more complete understanding of the content raised in the program by children. And these are primarily
the parents that should stimulate the development of the child by enabling him or
her to watch programs with positive impact.
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Agata Draszkiewicz is a PhD student at the Institute of Pedagogy, University of Szczecin and a teacher in the Public Kindergarten No. 51 in Szczecin.
Contact: agata.draszkiewicz@gmail.com
Magda Piwowarska is a PhD student at the Institute of Pedagogy, University of Szczecin
and a teacher in a Day Care Center at the Primary School in Przecław.
Contact: m.piwowarska321@gmail.com
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Elżbieta Perzycka
The Values in Educational Carriers of Culture. Trust
ISBN 978-83-7972-005-7
Elżbieta Perzycka
The Values
in Educational Carriers
of Culture
Trust
Szczecin 2015