Integration of information technology into models of teaching and learning

It will not be possible for the school of tomorrow to escape using new information technologies. It will have inevitably be faced with the challenge of including the use of information technology as an important part relevant for all its stakeholders (teachers and students). The starting point of the research is based on the findings about inadequate use of modern information technology in primary school in all subject areas and in all phases of the learning process. The pre-school and school years are marked by intensive primary forming and understanding conceptual structures in different areas of cognition. It has been proved that the quality of the concept constructed depends on the use of various perception systems. Information technology makes possible the integration of the systems in a way appropriate for the child. Simultaneously it provides opportunities for more intensive subjective comprehension (differentiation and individualization of teaching) for the contents demonstrated, adapted to the capabilities of an individual child regarding the velocity and the quality of comprehending the contents. In line with the requirements of the national curriculum regarding the personal and content integration we wish to introduce the use of information technology in the areas of teaching language, mathematics and music. For each of these areas a specific way of constructing conceptual structures providing the bases for the use and comprehension of textual, mathematical and music languages - and consequently for the development of the child"s cognitive capabilities - is characteristic. The results of the research will shed light on the issues of literacy in its broader sense in the primary school, which also includes a functional use of modern information technologies. One of the objectives of the project is the production of an inter-medially conceived resource kit: the production of interactive internet materials as an upgrading of or in support to the recently produced textbooks in the area of language teaching, mathematics and music. In this way resource kits supported by intermedia will actively develop the child"s information capacity and literacy. The results of the research will be useful for the evaluation of the curricular reform in the above subject areas, in school teaching practice and for the publishers of textbooks supported by modern information technologies.