New Educational Technologies and Tools in Future Teachers’ Preparing for Professional Activities in a Multicultural Society

Ethno-cultural diversity of the population of Ukraine actualizes the problem of preparing future teachers and educators for professional activities in a multicultural society. The legislative, normative, and conceptual framework of intercultural education in Ukraine is listed. The achievements of international organizations have been taken into account and creatively developed: UN, UNESCO, UNICEF, The Council of Europe. The author’s approach to the interpretation of the essence of intercultural competence is revealed, which provides the teacher with the ability to understand and respect the cultural diversity of modern Ukrainian society, understand its value as a resource for the development of personality and society, and use in practice the educational and socializing potential of cultural diversity. The structure of the intercultural competence is outlined, which combines personal-psychological, cognitive, procedural-activity components. The model of the formation of future teachers’ intercultural competence was developed and implemented at the H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. The model assumes the construction of the content of the process of forming intercultural competence on the basis of a comparative acquaintance of future teachers with the traditional culture of different peoples and its implementation in the educational process, pedagogical practices, extracurricular and research activities of students; the use of innovative forms, methods and techniques of work: interactive, training, game, project; purposeful impact on the emotional sphere of the student's personality (work with moral dilemmas and multimedia resources); creation of an educational environment for intercultural communication in a pedagogical university. The media resources used in the process of forming the intercultural competence of future teachers (films of the Docudays festival, cartoons of the “Lullabies of the Worldˮ project, clips of the video project “Made in Ukraineˮ, etc.), as well as digital tools (virtual interactive whiteboards Padlet, Google Jamboard, service for creating presentations and instant polls Mentimeter, an online tool for creating interactive Wordwall games).

USING INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS TO ENHANCE ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION AND LEARNING

The article deals with the phenomenon of Interactive Whiteboards; their characteristics, possible ways of use and contributions to English lessons. The main aims are to examine the tool from various perspectives, to research the Interactive Whiteboards implementation possibilities in Ukraine and to provide methodological support for teachers of English as a foreign language. The key facts about Interactive Whiteboards on the basis of worldwide research and publications are summarized in the article. The article includes description and analysis of the uses of Interactive Whiteboards in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. The research aims at investigating the effects of using an Interactive Whiteboard in vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing and speaking teaching. It is emphasized that teaching English as a foreign language in accordance with the recent trends requires equal development of all language skills, regular exposition to natural language by Whiteboards, which support multimodality and learners involvement, have the potential to become one of the tools that can help the English teachers fulfill these aims. The study shows that there is potential in language learning for students with the use of Interactive Whiteboards, due to the teachers’ willingness to integrate new technology and take risks when applying it. This attitude is a positive first step and if the correct measures are taken from policy makers and stakeholders, language teaching may advance in particular ways. Findings show that the use of Interactive Whiteboards increases the students’ English academic success when compared to the use of blackboard and using Interactive Whiteboard in teaching English affects school students’ achievement positively.

Adopting the “Explain EDU” Application Approach in Teaching Mathematics and Statistics

Interactive whiteboards (IWB) is known as one of the most revolutionary instructional technologies for various educational levels. One of the popular applications among educators that can be used as an extremely versatile interactive whiteboard is 'Explain EDU' (EEDU) application. EEDU works as a platform for borderless learning, sharing and collaborating using an IWB. It is an iPad app that is used to create dynamic lessons, presentations and other content that can be easily shared with others. Students who participated in this study are those from Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences who enrolled in a mathematics or statistics course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Terengganu during the March – July 2019 semester. This study aims to gain insight on students' opinions and perspectives in learning Mathematics and Statistics subjects when being taught by using the EEDU application. The result suggests that the use of Explain EDU application in class for teaching does enhance students attitude towards learning mathematics or statistics course. Keywords: innovative teaching, interactive whiteboard, explain EDU application, iPad