Introduction
The beginnings of this century, full of new technical scientific advances, as well as the great educational revolution that Cuba is currently carrying out, aimed at the training of teachers and students and more recently the Universalization of higher education, do not only mean the adoption of new methods and styles of teaching and methodological work (although they include them) but something more transcendent that has penetrated the pedagogical conceptions that sustain professional training in our country.
The use of different computer products is a necessary option for today's University professors and students, as it facilitates access, management of information and knowledge available through digital documents, where different contents of subjects, tables, diagrams, articles are inserted, among others, which will lead to an increase in their professional performance and consequently in the educational work they carry out in the comprehensive training and learning of future professionals.
Precisely, the social impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) touches schools and universities very closely, promoting changes in traditional ways of teaching and learning. These have led to the emergence of a new type of society, the so-called information society, which is, above all, a training society, as it claims to train its members in the knowledge and ability to exploit current and future technologies. You cannot understand today's world without a minimum of computer culture.
The proposal of the website aimed at the teaching-methodological preparation of professors and students at the university is very important in this context, as it will contribute to the integration of ICT into teaching, research and the radical transformation of management and organization of the curriculum, also in the remodeling of the role of the teacher in the direction of the educational teaching process with the consequent renewal of their teaching-methodological strategies.
In this way, the introduction of the new Information and Communication Technologies in developed and underdeveloped countries has been in very different ways, thus in the first world countries, concentrated, bringing marked differences through overwhelming financial and technological power, perpetuating thus dominance over the rest of the developing world.
According to González Plana, I. specialist in this subject, he argues that this reality leads to a concept that was introduced in parallel to that of Electronic Government, the digital divide, the separation between people (communities, states, countries) who use the new technologies of information as a regular part of their daily life and those who do not have access to it and, even if they do, do not know how to use it. (González. 2005: 3).
According to González Plana, I. "Computerization in Cuban society is the orderly and massive application of technologies in all sectors, through their rational and appropriate use in order to achieve better efficiency and effectiveness and, therefore, greater generation of wealth and the increase in the quality of life of our citizens ”. (González. 2005: 4).
In this sense, the concept of ICT prioritizes their social and collective use, which is why it involves many State institutions with the purpose of promoting in a harmonious and orderly way the introduction of these technologies in the segments of social, economic and social life. politics of the nation.
The first computers were introduced in Cuba in Higher Education centers. Back then they were few, today every ten university students have a machine. The networks that interrelate the different universities and other advantages offered by new technologies are no longer a chimera for our future professionals.
And it is precisely in this environment that the Universalization of the University (2002-2003) arises and with this new process, the Municipal University Venues, where the need for timely and efficient preparation is evidenced to guarantee the quality of teaching with new methods and styles, taking into account all the advances in information and communication technologies in the country, in light of all the transformations that are carried out at each of the different levels of education.
Development
The integration of ICT into teaching, research and university management itself constitutes one of the elements of the new professional training environment with the greatest visible expression and which has unquestionably caused transformations in all the processes related to professional training.
The results of the observations carried out allow to conclude that the teachers the optimal preparation for the orientation of the independent studies to the students, listing among other causes:
• Actions are not carried out regularly in subject groups aimed at preparing the teacher for the orientation of independent studies carried out with students.
- Weak preparation in the use of ICT. Insufficient time for self-preparation for teaching. New conceptions aimed at methodological preparation with the use of ICTs that support the development of methodological, demonstrative, open classes and other types of training for teachers are not implemented.
Theoretical, methodological, psychopedagogical considerations for the use of ICTs; the teaching-methodological preparation of students at the university.
Modern scientific development is characterized by the increasing use of the methods of one science, in the specific field of another. As a consequence of this accelerated progress, technology and informatics constitute a valuable support for scientific progress, which are used by science in general.
In this endeavor, one of the fundamental keys to success is making learning a natural and permanent process for students and teachers. "It is necessary to learn to use new technologies and use them to learn."
1.1 Contemporary pedagogical trends in current Cuban education.
The use of ICT in the transformations of Cuban education is today a palpable reality. Rethinking its production, pedagogical utility, rethinking the roles of educators and students, the pedagogical relationships in the teaching-learning process and in the production of these media, is increasingly recurrent and necessary.
For our part, there has certainly been a persistence in research (González, AP, points out that ICT in the broadest sense is ¨…. The set of processes and products derived from new tools (hardware and software), supports of information in communication channels related to the storage, processing and digitized transmission of information… We also agree that they are computers, peripherals, the programs that they support and the networks that interconnect them and that they are tools of vital importance, relevance in our education, they provide us with spaces for communication between the subjects of the process (González. 1996: 12).
1.1.1 Educational technologies.
Educational technology, as a contemporary pedagogical trend, has reached a notable diffusion in our days, especially due to the emphasis on its immediate advantages and a highly technical and assertive language. The center of his interest is to develop a "technology of instruction" similar to the concept of technology of material production; therefore, the attention is directed to the methods and means rather than to the contents..
The origins of educational technology can be found in programmed teaching, with the idea of increasing the efficiency of the direction of the teaching process. Its creation is attributed to Burrhus Frederik Skinner professor at Harvard University in 1954.
Skinner's works are part of the psychological trend called behaviorism. Behaviorism, a variant of philosophical pragmatism and psychological functionalism that emerged in the early twentieth century in the United States, proposed founding psychology as an objective science and moving it away from traditional speculative currents. He declared as an object of study, behavior, the only observable phenomenon - and therefore scientifically measurable - of the human psyche, thus avoiding considering the internal states of man: it is the principle of the "black box", unapproachable for scientific research; Only the influences (the stimuli) and their results (the individual's responses) can be observed.
For the followers of this current, learning is basically the fixation of a repertoire of stimuli from the environment and their connected responses, and its most elementary model is the ER (stimulus-response) scheme. Two forms of connection were distinguished: the first is the answer or classical conditioning, in which an initially neutral stimulus that does not provoke responses, acquires the quality of provoking it, by temporal association (simultaneity) with another vital stimulus. In this case, the individual learns to offer responses to neutral stimuli by their association with their effective stimulus: an adequate response indicates the identification of the conditioning stimulus.
This psychological model of learning served as the basis for programmed teaching, the first expression of educational technology whose representative was Skinner himself. Its antecedent is teaching machines. It is admitted that the first works in this regard were carried out by Sydney L. Pressey of Ohio University. The first reference to a teaching machine was made by Pressey in an article published in the School and Society in 1926.
The concept of educational technology has been defined from different points of view, and with different scopes. The criteria of the authors in recent years have varied and there is no true consensus about the term.
Educational technology is initially developed in the search to give teaching a more scientific basis and make education more productive; efficiency in the know-how with an adequate dosage and programming of teaching.
Its importance has been attributed to the fact that through a good organization, scientifically conceived, resources can be rationalized so that the teaching process is as efficient as possible.
The influence of ICT in educational processes has been such that many current pedagogical trends have had to rethink their conceptions for the assimilation of these media, such as constructivism, cognitivism, educational technology, etc.
In the context of this pedagogical tendency of Skiner, according to Acosta Navarro, ME (2005: 6), learning becomes or results, in its essence, a consequence of the fixation of sequences of stimuli or signals carrying information from the environment where the learner is found, as well as the responses associated or connected with such repertoires.
The conditions necessary to favor the preparation of university professors to face changes in response to this trend are given by:
• A conception of starting educational technology that makes it possible to assume a dialectical, critical and innovative position that allows us at this level of education to transform the learning subject, social reality and ourselves.
• That in vocational training work with the teaching aids and technological resources in general is guaranteed, from the academic point of view, in relation to the practice in school and in educational research.
• Another condition, the conception of a systemic approach in the selection, design and use of teaching aids.
• Guarantee a permanent training and retraining system for the teacher (includes technology and information technology as a tool for the former).
• Consider educational technology, not only as that practice with the use of more or less sophisticated technical resources, but above all as a position in the face of professionalism in which even the technological resource may not be present, which allows us to rise to a performance effective and committed of our main function: the education of the human being.
Verónica Canfux has presented in this regard (Canfux. 1996: 10). “Educational technology is developed in the search to provide teaching with a more scientific base and make education more productive; efficiency in the know-how with an adequate dosage and programming of teaching. It starts from the premise that from a good scientifically conceived organization, resources can be rationalized so that the teaching process is as efficient as possible. ”
1.1.2 The historical-cultural approach.
The contemporary pedagogical tendencies that are reflected in this research are based on the cultural-historical approach of Vigoski and his followers.
At the starting point of the historical-cultural approach of Pedagogy, teaching is given a guiding character in relation to the psychic development of the individual and considers it precisely as the source and guiding thread of such psychological development and this, in turn, of the acquisition of the necessary and essential knowledge for an educational pattern in correspondence with the interests of society and of the individual himself as a personality in his evolutionary movement and development within it under specific historical conditions.
This conception represents, in practice, a great advantage since thanks to it the different modes or types of vital activity can function, ultimately, as functional organs of human activity, or what is the same, raises the possibility of realization of any type of activity in the course of life, which manifests the extraordinary capacity and recovery through compensation.
All the elements addressed in each trend, allow to affirm the need to prepare teachers and students in light of contemporary pedagogical trends with new methods and styles that allow an efficient use of new technologies.
1.2 The teaching-methodological work in the new university.
The projection of work with its goals must attend to the changes that occur in the new model of university teacher performance.
The gradual expansion of enrollment in the municipal headquarters has required the massive incorporation of teachers, professors and other professionals of the territory to the teaching work, which makes the preparation of these personnel a priority in order to guarantee the quality of teaching that They teach as university professors at SUM.
Taking into account this participation of teachers in the training of future professionals, adequate planning of the different pedagogical activities is necessary to raise the level of preparation for the exercise of their functions.
In this sense, it reflects on the important role of methodological work as a planned and dynamic activity that requires flexibility and capacity to face changes and their implementation at different levels of education. Its essential components are: Diagnosis, system of visits to classes (joint methodological training and inspections), teacher-methodological preparation and self-preparation of teachers.
1.2.1 The role of the main teacher.
The teaching-methodological preparation is a pedagogical activity that promotes among the teaching staff the study of different documents, the development of science nowadays and socialist pedagogy, it also contributes to deepening their theoretical and practical bases and also enables the analysis, discussion and creative contribution of the teaching staff.
It is made up of all the activities that are carried out systematically by the teaching staff to achieve the improvement and deepening of their knowledge, the strengthening and development of their creative skills and the elevation of their level of preparation for the exercise of their functions. They use advanced pedagogical experiences, introduction of research results and the advances experienced by contemporary socialist pedagogical science.
The teaching-methodological preparation meets the development needs of the teacher to carry out their pedagogical activity. It is planned taking into account the results of the diagnosis of students and teachers and the aspirations for the work stage. It is a response both to common needs and to the problems that some teachers and students present. (Collective of authors. 2007: 53).
The activities carried out must be characterized by demonstration, modeling (with possibilities for debate) and reflection, all skills that encourage the creativity of teachers and students.
It is important to take into account the three directions in which the teaching-methodological preparation is carried out, these are: The political-ideological preparation, (the teacher acquires and consolidates the correct ways and methods that allow him to guide the learning of his students of so that they acquire information and scientific approaches about the world, which constitute a solid base for their ideological formation). The theoretical scientific preparation (the mastery of the concrete content of the subject or subjects taught is deepened, at the highest possible level and with the correct approach) and the pedagogical-methodological preparation (the teacher constantly exceeds himself to master all the theory, methods and procedures that guide the correct treatment of general situations of teaching-educational work,as well as the ways to creatively apply them in each particular case.
While the teacher of the municipal headquarters has the basic function of conducting the face-to-face academic activities and the orientation and control of the independent work associated with them, of the students in the municipal university headquarters, adjusting the didactic strategies designed to the particular characteristics of their students.
In this scenario, the teacher of the central headquarters has as one of his missions the advice of the methodological preparation of the teaching staff of the municipal university headquarters for their teaching performance, while the teacher of these headquarters executes directly under this advice the curricular development.
The new learning environments.
In the new learning environments, the teachers of the municipal headquarters must direct their didactic strategies with an approach focused on the learning process, taking as an essential axis the direction of their independent work based on the characteristics of the students that they train and become true stimulators of creativity, critical and logical thinking, as well as mediators between knowledge, information and students.
This leads to the development of new teaching styles that give a more complete response to new pedagogical approaches with a high degree of integration in ICT and audiovisual media in said process, which requires constant renewal of the university and brings an expansion very significant information and knowledge available to each teacher and student.
Nowadays, with the development of technologies, multimedia, Web pages, Web sites, educational software are produced to access various information and contribute to the general and comprehensive preparation required by the new times.
The development of the website in order to prepare the teachers and students of the municipal headquarters of the Humanities careers aimed at the orientation of independent studies and extra-educational activities, constitutes a new option that contributes to the successful development of this activity in the headquarters and adequate preparation of the professors and students in training who will carry them out in the periods planned for this purpose.
1.3 The Websites. Theoretical considerations for use in a learning environment.
According to Glossary (1998). Practical encyclopedia of computer science application Windows 98¨. HTML, Web site (In English, Web site), “computer that publishes documents (called 'web pages') on the World Wide Web (www). These documents are made up of text, multimedia elements (graphics, sound, digital video…) and links (pointers with the address of other Web pages, used to establish an automatic connection). A place on the Web runs a program called a "Web page server that processes requests for information, typically requests for pages."
Scholars of the subject on the Web (2007) consider that the Web site is “a set of electronic files and Web pages referring to a particular subject, which includes an initial welcome page, generally called home page, with a domain name and specific Internet address ”.
Web sites require a private address so that users can access the information contained in them. These addresses, or URLs (Uniform Resource Locator), appear daily in all media such as written press, radio, television, magazines, technical publications and on the Internet itself through search engines (by its name in English search engines). The names of these websites obey a worldwide naming system and are governed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
Web service is a new way of representing page-based information, either on the Internet or on an intranet. A web page can include three types of information: text, graphics, and hypertext.
A hypertext is highlighted text that the user can activate to load another web page. The difference between a hypertext document and a normal document is that hypertext contains, in addition to the information, a series of links or connections to other related documents, so that the reader can move from one topic to another and return to the original document at the time that interests you.
The main advantages of the Web service are three:
1.- You can combine text and graphics.
2.- Hyperlinks allow you to load pages from any other server connected to the Internet, no matter where it is located.
3.- The creation of Web pages is quite simple using the HTML language.
The great success of the Web is not only due to the use of hypertext. It is common to find that Web documents are made up of text and graphics, and links to other documents can be underlined or highlighted keywords in the text, but also the whole of an image or even parts of it.
Websites can be of various genres, highlighting business, service, online e-commerce, corporate image, entertainment, and informational sites.
This concept essentially includes the necessary elements that are taken into account for the elaboration of the same, thus each Web page is a set of elements related to each other through HTML code.
It is also agreed that an Internet page or Web page is an electronic document that contains specific information on a particular topic and that is stored in a computer system that is connected to an information network called the Internet, in such a way so that this document can be consulted by the person who connects to this global communications network and who has the appropriate permissions to do so.
The Web page has the peculiar characteristic that the text is combined with images to make the document dynamic and allow different actions to be carried out, one after the other, through the selection of highlighted text or images, an action that It can lead us to another section within the document, open another web page, initiate an e-mail message, or transport us to a totally different web site through its hyperlinks.
Among the elements that make up the content of a Web page are the following: Page background, Text, Images, Hyperlinks, tables, form fields, buttons, animated elements, videos, audio, interactive elements.
When two or more computers or computers are connected, so that they can exchange information and share resources (for example, a printer) we say that they form a computer network.
It is also necessary to emphasize that when the connected computers belong to the same organization or company, the computer network is called an internal network or intranet. In turn, this network can be connected to other networks.
On the other hand, the Internet is the connection between thousands of computer networks around the world that allows the computers that connect to it to communicate with each other: from our computer we can access the data that is stored on a server in another country, or send an email to any other computer that has a mailbox enabled for it.
A server is a large computer that is connected to a network and that makes its resources available to the rest of the members of the network.
Precisely, the name Internet comes from the English words Interconnected Networks, which means interconnected networks.
To surf the Internet you need: A computer, A modem, which converts the signals between the telephone line and the computer (and all new computers have it internally), a telephone line. ADSL lines are telephone lines that allow data to be transmitted at high speed, while maintaining voice transmission at the same time. With the normal telephone line we can talk or surf the Internet, but not both at the same time, a browser, such as Navigator, from Netscape, or Internet Explorer, from Microsoft, which is a program that allows us to surf the Internet, a connection to an Internet server.
Internet services. The basic services provided through the Internet are:
E-mail or e-mail: allows you to exchange written messages between two people, similar to traditional mail, but without paper.
1. The interactive chats or chats: they allow to maintain a communication by computer between several people at the same time. Access discussion forums and newsgroups (news).
2. File exchange or FTP (which is the acronym for File Transfer Protocol).
3. Remote control of the computer or Telnet: allows you to connect to a computer from another location.
Conclusions
• The comprehensive analysis of these elements and the experience reflected in the scientific literature in relation to this topic has allowed us to consider the conceptualizations and operationalizations necessary for the development of the website that makes the use of ICT feasible for the preparation of teachers and students in the context of Universalization.
• Actions in subject groups aimed at the teaching-methodological preparation of the teacher for the orientation of independent studies, seminars are not enough and the use of computer resources to support them is not implemented.
• The new conception directed to the teaching-methodological preparation of the teacher with the use of ICT contributes satisfactorily to the development of methodological, demonstrative, open classes and other types of training for the teacher, with a dynamic and interactive environment.
• The teaching-methodological preparation of the student using this computer resource represents a movement to improve the quality of higher education of a particular connotation due to the incidence of its results in other prioritized programs by contributing to the elevation of the quality of preparation of teachers and students, an essential factor in achieving the objectives of many other educational programs.
• There are organizational conditions for the use of computer resources in teaching, although the profile of their use shows the tendency to use traditional media, not taking advantage of the full potential of computer resources even when there are limitations to do so.
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