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erations. The key is to include a diversity of methods,
modalities, and techniques to address a diversity of
preferences (see table 2) (Levonius, 2015).
As we can see modern learning environment is
more generationally diverse than ever before, and
each generation has its unique perspectives and pref-
erences regarding learning. To accommodate all of
those preferences can be possible by employing sound
instructional methodologies, a variety of modalities,
and solid facilitation techniques thus overcoming
fundamental generational differences and providing
learning experiences that engage and benefit everyone
(Levonius, 2015).
The learning environment is used to be concerned
with information technology, as the technology for
people to work with information. According to this
approach, there are 6 stages of learning environment
development.
It can be noticed the correspondence of 6 stages
of information technology development to a certain
generation of its users (table 3).
Thus, pedagogical technology reflects the tactics
of the implementation of educational technologies
and is based on the knowledge of the regularities of
the functioning of the system ‘Teacher – Environ-
ment – Student’ in certain study conditions (individ-
ual, group, collective, mass, etc.), it shares the com-
mon features and regularities of the educational pro-
cess independently from a particular educational sub-
ject.
D. Charrisony and S. Nipper first used the term
‘generation’ to refer to three stages of e-learning de-
velopment, “historically related to the development of
production, transport and communication technolo-
gies” (Nipper, 1989). Table 4 presents a brief descrip-
tion of three generations of e-learning.
According to table 4, each direction of pedagogy
of distance education is characterized by certain fea-
tures of the social, cognitive component in the process
of distance learning.
The first generation – ‘cognitive behaviourism’ –
emphasizes the need to use the model of distance
learning, the goals of which are clearly defined, for-
mulated and exist separately from the students and
the content of learning. The training material should
be constructed in such a way as to maximize the ef-
fectiveness of the mental activity. This generation
is characterized by the absence of a ‘social’ in the
process of learning. The study is considered an in-
dividual process. A similar emphasis on individual-
ized learning improves students’ autonomy. Prefer-
ably such technologies as radio, television, postal cor-
respondence [periods] are used. The presence of a
teacher in the learning process is extremely limited.
The role of the teacher is mainly in the preparation of
printed material. Later, students could see and hear
the teacher through audio, video, multimedia technol-
ogy.
Instead, ‘constructivism’ as the next generation
comes, the main principles of which are the follow-
ing features:
• new knowledge is built based on prior knowledge;
• distance learning is considered as an active rather
than a passive process;
• language and other social tools play a role in
building knowledge;
• the purpose of cognition and evaluation is a means
of developing students’ abilities to self-assess
knowledge;
• the student is the core of the learning environ-
ment;
• the knowledge acquired in the process of dis-
tance learning must be subjected to discussion by
the community, verification and real use (Nipper,
1989).
The teacher in this case is a mentor, assistant and
partner, and the content of the teaching material be-
comes secondary to the learning process. The teacher
and his experience are still the main sources of knowl-
edge.
The next generation of pedagogy of distance ed-
ucation – ‘connectivism’ – involves unlimited access
to network technologies. According to this approach,
the role of the student is not to remember all the in-
formation, but to be able to find information and ap-
ply knowledge where necessary. For training with the
use of distance learning technologies, students need to
have a high level of information and communication
competence, therefore, the primary task is to prepare
students for learning with the use of special learn-
ing technologies. Teachers and students can collab-
orate in content development, offer ideas for improv-
ing teaching technology. The entire distance learning
process is carried out based on cooperation. However,
this direction is characterized by the lack of pedagog-
ical control, the structuring of educational content.
Anderson and Dron (Anderson and Dron, 2011)
believe that each of the generations has its advantages
and disadvantages. The future generation of distance
learning, according to scientists, will be more subject-
oriented, characterized by an increase in student ac-
tivity in the learning process, learning virtualization.
Generally, e-learning has been used to describe
learning that is supported by technologies through
various types of delivery modes.
The Evolution of the Information and Educational Environment in the Context of the Theory of Generational Development
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