Folk Culture and Education: The Role of Information Technology and Information and Communication Technologies in the Production of Digital Educational Materials

Introduction

This paper presents the implementation of a research applied, for the first time in Greece, as far as we know in the field of folk culture and education, the experimental research with intervention groups (IGs) and control groups (CGs) on a fairly large sample of students (eight Elementary School classes) attempting to compare the effectiveness of digital enriched teaching to the analog enriched teaching. Thus, useful conclusions will be exported about whether multiple media (analog and digital) along with appropriate teaching design, can create enriched teaching situations, in which students will be able to search the context for learning experiences by combining authentic situations and learning within groups. It is a research method, which mainly uses the quantitative but also the qualitative method (observation and open discussion). Regarding the sample selection criteria, Fourth Grade with two separate classes were preferred, while location was also another criterion, schools in urban, semi-urban and rural areas were preferred.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), with multimedia and web applications considered as the spearhead, have years developed a new interactive way of communication (Kalogiannakis & Papadakis, 2007). New digital forms of everyday expression on the Internet are daily being shaped by online behaviors, where women and men can easily use text, video and audio in their informal on-line chat, creating thus new forms of language (Kalogiannakis & Papadakis, 2008; Papadakis, Tousia, & Polychronaki, 2018). Thus, from texting (producing and sending written messages), we were eventually led to viding (making video with the use of montage) (Howard 2016: 50). In recent years communication has evolved and conversations are taking place with the use of avatars in 3D computer-generated environments in which one can be immersed (e.g. second life) (Lanier, Minsky, Fisher & Druin, 1989). Simultaneously, new forms of communication with augmented reality applications are initiated (Vidakis et al., 2019). Such applications integrate the real world, as perceived by the user or through his / her senses, information and material, mainly visual and audio, created by a computer unit (Mustakas, Paliokas, Tsakiris & Tsovaras 2015: 215).

One of the reasons that would facilitate the selection of ebooks in the future, especially in the educational field, is to avoid problems regarding the form and often the incomplete content of a printed text. The disadvantages of a conventional book are: a) rough layout, b) a variety of terms that require the recourse to various dictionaries or glossaries for photographs, drawings and paintings which are located in other pages, c) recourse to references at the end of chapters, d) recourse to references on other books and e) recourse to references of internet links that cannot be directly accessed. The enriched eBooks come to eliminate all the above with a variety of tools that increase the functionality and interactivity of reading. Indicatively some of the characteristics of enriched eBooks are associated respectively with e-book devices:

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  reading and automatic turning of pages

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  touch or mouse selection of photos that are simultaneously magnified

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  transfer to a specific page

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  content’s table view

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  multimedia content (video, video from You tube, sound, recorded speech, animation, illustration)

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  internal and external links

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  full access to embedded Internet browser to navigate on sites related to the book and the work of the student, simultaneously with reading

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  drafting short essays using a rich text editor that can be displayed next to the open eBook

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  appearance of enriched material without the student having to move from the page that he/she reads (Shadowbox),

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  use of bookmarks, attachments, markings, and generally many interventions that students can make up on the printed books

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  search by keywords

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  change font or font size

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  change page color, text and luminance

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  horizontal and vertical display

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  activation or deactivation of alignment and hyphenation (Gasouka, Kapaniaris, Arvanitidou, Foulidi & Raptou, 2013:4177-4178)