Exploring a new teaching mode based on modern IT

Lina Cao
Xidian University
Xi'an, China

Intelligent, networked, and multimedia IT has had a significant impact on the traditional teaching mode, bringing a new vitality and energy to teaching. This paper discusses ways of overcoming the limitations of conventional approaches to teaching and learning by making it more 'student-oriented' through IT in an effort to promote students' innovativeness and problem-solving ability.

The authors discuss the following questions related to this paradigm shift. How can students be persuaded to no longer view themselves as passive receivers of knowledge but as 'knowledge processors', with the increased interest and innovativeness this produces? How do instructors adjust their roles from simply 'injecting knowledge' to become mentors and motivators of learning activity, a process which benefits them as well as their students? How can IT be best used enrich teaching content, overcome problems in teaching, improve the learning outcomes, enhance interaction between instructors and students, and arouse students' motivation and interest?

This paper then reports on the effects of using IT, including the full application of multimedia in classroom teaching (not just the use of multimedia courseware) to answer students' questions, receive feedback, supply additional teaching references, share resources and encourage collaboration; and to use MATLAB and System View simulation software to demonstrate difficult physical concepts, and get students to design and modify the system's operational parameters, and to observe and analyse simulation results in real time. The authors also report on the problems experienced in using this multimedia and networked teaching mode and suggest some measures for improvement.