EXPERIENCE OF THE FOURTH-YEAR UNDERGRADUATES IN USING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT)

It is accepted that ICT makes the process of teaching/learning more effective and beneficial whereas the education system starts functioning faster. The development of ICT and the process of globalization determine alteration in the education system as well as in the whole society. The implementation of new technologies in the educational process raises new possibilities for both teacher and learner, enhances education quality and makes the educational process more versatile. A crucial point is that employing ICT must be highly efficient in the process of training would-be teachers of sciences. The students graduated from comprehensive or upper secondary (gymnasium) schools have a broad knowledge of mastering ICT the major part of which are PCs, palmtop computers, mobile phones, different kinds of audio, video and digital players etc. In this case, we encounter a problem of how to properly develop the acquired abilities in the further process of studying. Thus, the object of our research is the ability of the fourth-year undergraduates to use information and communication technologies. The aim of research is to gain information concerning the fourth-year students' opinion on the application of ICT in the process of studies. The research A Student and Information and Communication Technologies was conducted in January – March, 2010. Research sample consisted of 322 respondents who were 4th year university students. To analyze research data, the measures of descriptive statistics (absolute and relative frequencies, popularity/usefulness/necessity indexes) have been applied. The surveyed fourth-year undergraduates have almost unlimited possibilities of using a computer, mobile phone, the Internet and an electronic data storage device - USB flash drive. The students almost daily use the basic functions of the mobile phone (writing SMS, calling). However, calling to other people using a mobile phone and sending SMS are a more frequent occupation of females as male students are tend to search for information on the Internet and send and receive e-mails. Considering all aspects of using information and communication technologies among the surveyed fourth-year students that graduated from city or regional schools, no statistically significant deviation has been noticed.