The Tourism Industry constitutes one of the most promising service systems, enjoyed by clients from all over the world. Particularly in Cuba today it is the locomotive of the National Economy.
At our Jardines del Rey Tourist Pole, more than 3,300 rooms are currently used in four and five-star hotels. In parallel, different non-hotel products are designed and offered, complementing the infrastructure available to tourists.
The products and tourist facilities articulate in the north of Avila with a rich and diversified ecosystem that exhibits a great variety of natural resources, with particular appeal on its beaches, flora and fauna.
All of the above indicates that tourism workers and professionals and citizens in general must develop an environmental culture that allows achieving a true balance between tourism services and environmental conservation. For this, we propose to develop a self-management model of knowledge for Environmental Education with the students of the Tourism career.
Introduction
Environmental education today is of great importance in the formation of a comprehensive general culture of our society, as we face various problems every day that in some cases we are not prepared to solve and in others there is no conscious responsibility for environmental damage. environment to avoid continuing to affect the health of the planet.
In Cuba, as in no other country, regulations have been issued that, together with the country's education system, strengthen the sustainable development of Cuban society. Today with the development of tourism, the locomotive of the national economy, it is necessary to find a balance between the growth of tourist facilities and products and the conservation of our rich and healthy ecosystems.
Environmental education has diversified and today there are many avenues and alternatives that are used to achieve greater massiveness and effectiveness, also knowing that the accumulation of information related to the subject grows daily, which is why it is necessary to develop individual capacities and collectives to achieve this commitment and promote agile and effective access to available sources of knowledge.
In our work we use the knowledge management method of Vizcaya, perfected by specialists from the CITMA Information Technology and Knowledge Management Division (TIGEC) and at the same time contextualized by us to achieve not only access to knowledge, but an understanding and progressive appropriation until it is socialized and produces the impact that contemporary environmental education demands, starting from diagnosing local environmental problems.
Development
Self-management of learning is based on the Vizcaya knowledge management model, perfected by specialists from the Information Technology and Knowledge Management Division (TIGEC) for knowledge management in the business sector in Cuba.
Developing self-learning to strengthen our comprehensive general culture in the environment as one of the ways to contribute and influence the environment and care for natural resources, particularly tourism, undoubtedly also constitutes the noble purpose of reinforcing environmental education in Self-taught and at the same time facilitate the socialization of the information received through different channels.
Our contribution is to make the self-management of knowledge viable, based on our learning needs, monitoring the availability of the environment, positioning our knowledge in environmental matters, from a strategic diagnosis on individual preparation to face the challenges of the career professional of Lic. Of Tourism and university and neighborhood social life.
The development of the model is validated with students from the Tourism career and in particular we direct our efforts to deepen Environmental Education.
Today the study plan of the Tourism Degree requires harmonizing the conservation of the environment with the efficient exploitation of tourist facilities and also knowing the benefits of nature to incorporate them into the product offered to the client. For this reason, we decided to know and initially define the terms that are related to the environment, and particularly we made a survey of the best known examples of Cuban fauna and specifically of the ecosystems of the Jardines del Rey Tourist Pole.
Based on the topics that are addressed daily in the classroom and in the neighborhood, the students also dedicated important efforts to learning about the causes of current global changes and the main causes of environmental pollution in the city of Morón.
The information collected has been obtained from the sources listed in Fig. 1 and access has been achieved in most cases, with review of documents, through personal contacts, radio and TV, in the process of introduction and to a lesser extent by Internet.
Fig. 1. Articulation of the determination of learning needs and the opportunities that are manifested in the environment.
Once access to the different sources of information was obtained, articles, reports and information about the endemic birds of Cuba were acquired, the 1997 Sabana Camagüey Project Report, interviews with researchers from the Cayo Coco Coastal Ecosystem Research Center and specialists from the CITMA, etc. This information is selected in correspondence with the learning needs defined above, organizing different terms, definitions and word meanings, as well as photos of the best-known birds in Cuba and in Jardines del Rey.
At this time, the knowledge necessary to respond to the challenges of knowledge, imposed by the initial diagnosis, is identified (Fig. 2).
The structuring and processing of information (Fig. 3) contributes to the organization of the information available to guarantee, among other things, easy and flexible access, which in our case is expressed by ordering
definitions, terms, etc. by alphabetical index and classifying the contents by subject, example: ecotourism, protected areas, natural values, Cuban birds, etc. Since then, the understanding of the contents that respond to the learning needs has really begun.
Fig. 2. Access routes to acquire and select the requested information.
Fig. 3. Structuring, processing and added value of the information
The added value (Fig. 3) is achieved by preparing summaries, reviews, databases, etc., in our case we developed a glossary with the environmental terms in upper secondary education and later expanded in correspondence with the interests of the students of the tourism career, with the appropriate and affordable language at this level. Thereafter we declare then that we are appropriating knowledge.
Fig. 4. Storage and search of information and knowledge.
The storage is done in our case by integrating the knowledge by documents, some of them in magnetic support and others in hard copy, creating content systems to facilitate searches with precision (Fig. 4).
Fig. 5. Dissemination and socialization of knowledge.
The dissemination and socialization of knowledge (Fig. 5) was carried out through discussions in the classroom, in the neighborhood. In particular, the work of the Environmental Glossary was circulated to various educational institutions in the province and was presented at the FORUM at different levels until reaching the Relevant Award at the provincial level. All this has brought with it the application and generalization of the work, transmitting in all cases an environmental message, thus completing the self-learning management cycle (Fig. 6) for a conscious environmental education.
Conclusions and recommendations.
1. The knowledge management model used in self-learning is effective in developing environmental education.
2. The model used also allows transit from DNA to the application and socialization of the acquired knowledge.
3. The environmental glossary is one of the results of knowledge management.
4. The use of the designed environmental glossary allowed an approach to the main definitions and meanings of the most used environmental terms, also contextualized at the level of upper secondary education students.
5. The knowledge management model used allows environmental education to continue as other learning needs arise.
6. The knowledge management model used allows these tools to be used in the PDE and especially in conditions of Universalization.
Bibliography.
1. Alvero Frances F. Cervantes Manual Dictionary of the Spanish Language. Havana: Ed. Pueblo and Education, 1978. 932p.
2. Blanca Fernández Armando. Environmental Mission: Agenda 21. Havana: Ed. Gente Nueva, 2000. p. 116-119.
3. González Novo Teresita and García Díaz Ignasio. Cuba: its environment after the half millennium. Legislation-National Environmental Strategy-Foreign Trade-Foreign Investment. Scientific-Technical Editorial. Havana, 1998. p 132.
4. OCEANO interactive self- teaching encyclopedia. / Carlos Gispert… et al. –Barcelona., Spain: Editorial OCEANO, 99.-T 6 and 5.
5. Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. Environmental Law, Havana., 1997.
6. Soto Balbón María Aurora. Proposal for the application of a Knowledge Management model for CITMA entities. Information Technology and Knowledge Management Division (TIGEC). Habana, 2004
7. National System of Protected Areas. 2003-2008 Plan. National Center for Protected Areas. Habana, 2002.
8. Sabana Camaguey Project. GEF / UNDP. Informative series, Havana, 1997.
9. Tabloid of the Environment. Havana City, 2003.
