Mojca Tomažin, Ekonomska in trgovska šola Brežice, Brežice
In many years of teaching experience in the field of mathematics and informatics at the middle and high school in Brežice, the idea to put the two areas together follows somehow naturally. In fact, I have already made some research regarding the use of information and communication technologies in Slovenian secondary schools and this time I am focusing on the use of e-learning materials in mathematics. The use of quality e-learning enables students to learn without time and space limitations i.e. “Open learning”. In my opinion students still depend on teacher too much, as birds in a cage with an open door, which do not want or do not dare to leave it. It is still quite unexplored, how to teach students to use e-learning materials. As I am intending to actively guide the students in the use of e-learning materials, I wanted to explore the existing situation first. I have a goal, but where are we now? To answer this question, I made a questionnaire on the use of e-learning materials in mathematics for students of all secondary schools of the Posavje region. The online survey, which was made in March, answered to various questions in the field of e-learning materials. Based on the analysis of the answers, I tried to find out: • how well are some e-learning materials known and how many are actually in use among students; • where do they find help when the material is not sufficient (ie. how many »instruction« do they have); • which types of mathematical contents on internet do they prefer; • which media students use to learn mathematics. At the conference I will present the most interesting findings. If I summarize, we are quite at the beginning in using e-learning materials in Slovenian schools. It would be a good idea if all the teachers took some time to explore the most important e-learning material of their subject area and present them to their students. The survey also showed, that the students are not very familiar with e-learning materials. It would be even better, if teachers wouldnt only show sites with e-learning materials, but also give them guidance on how to work with them. To achieve this, we must offer support to teachers in the first place, as the school begins and ends with them.
