(681)THE INNOVATION OF TEACHING USING CITS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES. THE USE OF WEBQUESTS AND FORUMS

摘要

The new information and communication technologies have irrupted into multiple aspects of our lives,university education among them.This paper presents an experience in teaching innovation using CITs, within the framework of thesubject of Microeconomics, taught at the Cadiz University Faculty of Economics and Business Studiesduring the second year of the Diploma in Business Studies throughout the academic years 2009/2010and 2010/2011.The tools used, above all, and in this case, the virtual ones; present a series of characteristics andrequirements which make them optimal for application to a specific context in the classroom, type ofeducation, or subject. The mistake should not be made of wanting to apply or adapt all the tools theeducator knows to a specific subject, but to find those which are suitable in accordance with theirspecificities. To this end, it is necessary to know, a priori, their principal characteristics, uses,advantages, disadvantages, etc.In this work we are dealing specifically with two of these tools, which promote the innovation ofteaching and the teaching-learning process followed by the European Higher Education Area:webquests and forums.Both present numerous advantages for student and teacher alike, such as the development of thestudents' problem solving ability, the increase of their critical thinking and the ability to draw their ownconclusions and develop individual thought, the motivation to learn, the active and social constructionof knowledge or allowing the teacher to surprise the students with a new and different vision,organisation and philosophy of work or permit him to combine his creative ability with an immensewealth of IT resources, among many others. Obviously, certain disadvantages can be observed intheir use or, to put it another way, when they are used in a way not in keeping with the end for whichthey are designed or their use is abused, which is where the teacher plays a special and importantrole as limiter and supervisor of the correct use of each CIT.In order to put Microeconomics into practice correctly the students need to have a series ofbackground knowledge, skills and abilities in order to work correctly with the subject being dealt withhere. To facilitate the student’s teaching-learning process and help him to acquire and/or develop theabilities necessary to pass Microeconomics, the teachers have the inserted into the design of theVirtual Campus: webquests and forums.The results obtained by the implementation of these tools in the subject of Microeconomics at theCadiz Faculty of Economics and Business Studies during the last two academic years, although weonly have the data corresponding to the first academic year (2009/10)due to the fact that the last onehas still not come to an end, are quite positive, both as regards the number of accesses, the numberof messages in the forums, the acceptance of the tools, etc. and as regards the improvement of thequality of education represented by the achievement of aspects such as: a better atmosphere in theclassroom, a learning process combined with the process of the personal development of the studentas a mature individual with the ability to deal with his obligations and an education adapted in formand content to the new requirements of technological and social evolution.In short, all the above mentioned entails a transformation of learning strategy and a rupture withtraditional structure, involving both a change in the mentality of the teaching staff (who does not now consider the student to be an "auditorium" but an "active participant" in the teaching-learning process)as in that of the student (who conceives a new way of learning, or self-learning).