New media and learning: the influence of new technologies on the transformation of academic education system

Doktorska disertacija Novi mediji i učenje: uticaj novih tehnologija na transformaciju visokog školstva pokreće aktuelna i relevantna pitanja vezana za nove kontekste i metode učenja i podučavanja koje se kao mogućnosti otvaraju u poslednjih tridesetak godina, zahvaljujući pojavi onlajn platformi i Internet okruženja. Kompresija dimenzija prostora i vremena putem otvaranja onlajn prostora komunikacije donelo je značajan potencijal transformacije sistema učenja i podučavanja, što se u području visokog školstva odrazilo pre svega u povećanoj inicijativi za razvoj tehnika i sistema učenja na daljinu i asinhronog učenja. Učenje na daljinu nije invencija čija se pojava vezuje za pojavu onlajn konteksta; različite tehnike učenja na daljinu razvijane uz pomoć tradicionalnih medija – štampanih medija, pošte, telefona i televizije. Paralelno sa time razvijaju se i različite teorije učenja na daljinu, kao i primene tehnologije u procesu učenja koje se pojavljuju kako u pedagoški, tako i u tehnološki orijentisanim teorijama. Međutim, tek sa pojavom razvijenih onlajn platformi, sistem učenja na daljinu dobija zamajac koji rezultira sve većim brojem onlajn kurseva i studijskih programa, kao i sve bržom i intenzivnijom komunikacijom, što temeljno transformiše i sistem visokog školstva, ili bar utiče na njega. Sagledavajući nove mogućnosti koje pomenute promene donose kroz teorijske perspektive iz područja teorije medija, novih medija i onlajn tehnologija, teorije učenja i pedagoški orijentisanih teorija, doktorska disertacija Novi mediji i učenje: uticaj novih tehnologija na transformaciju visokog školstva donosi raspravu koja bi trebalo da rasvetli fenomen učenja na daljinu, kao i nove mogućnosti motivacije učesnika u procesu učenja i podučavanja u onlajn kontekstu, uz dodatne efekte učenja posredstvom igara, simulacija i virtuelnih svetova. Studija slučaja Instituta za digitalne svetove na Univerzitetu Florida priložena je kao primer dobre prakse i idejne konstrukcije primene novomedijskih tehnologija u procesu transformacije visokog školstva u novom kontekstu.Doctoral dissertation New media and learning: the influence of new technologies on the transformation of academic education system opens up a number of actual and relevant issues related to the new contexts and methods od learning and teaching offered in the past thirty years, due to appearance of online and Internet platforms. The compression of dimensions of space and time which has been made possible by the online technologies, brought the significant transformation potential to the processes of learning and teaching, which had a great impact in academic educational system, bringing up the initiatives to develop the techniques and systems of distance and asynchronous learning. Distance learning phenomenon is not an invention strictly tied to the online context. Different techniques of distance learning had been developed through the possibilities offered by traditional media – press, postal service, telephone and television. Parallel to that, different theories of distance learning had been developed too, as well as theories of the application of technology in the education field; nevertheless, it was with the developed online platform that the educational system got the flywheel resulting in growing number of online courses and study programs, as well as in faster and more intensive communicaton, which crucially transformed the academic educational system too, or at least influenced it significantly. Looking at the new possibilities which all the changes mentioned brought and using the theoretical perspectives within the fields of media, new media and online technology theories together with the learning and pedagogically oriented theories, doctoral dissertation New media and learning: the influence of new technologies on the transformation of academic education system opens up a discussion which should shed some light on the distance learning phenomenon, as well as on the new possibilities of motivating participants in this learning process which can be effectively done through gamification, simulations and virtual worlds. The case study of Digital Worlds Intitute of the University of Florida has been given and analyzed as a good example of new media technology involvement in the process of transformation of the academic education system in this new context