The Electronic Forms Of School Textbooks For History And Social Studies

Learning situations: History

An educational potential of EFT consists in both various information sources and capabilities for developing learning activities of pupils.

Thus, additional texts not only enlarge the horizon of students, but should be used as objects for cognitive activities of pupils (systemizing and analysis of facts, etc). Biographical data about well-known figures of the national and the universal history help students in composing characteristics of historical personalities.

Fragments of historical sources (chronicles, state edicts, international agreements, correspondence and memoirs etc.) present many-sided images of historical epochs. Analyzing them, students pass a school of historical analysis. Texts from studies of historians help to introduce schoolboys in the field of versions and estimations of historical events, to develop their own experience of axiological activities.

Illustrations (historical maps, photographs, painting and graphic images) are important as sources of visual impressions, an emotional relation to the Past.

The analysis of contemporary electronic forms of History textbooks for Russian schools (2015 – 2016) shows that their use requires a special attention of a teacher. That means an optimal selection of the additional material (sometimes it’s equal by the volume or even exceeds the material of a paper textbook). More didactic maintenance is needed as well, for instance, including questions to the sources’ texts and illustrations.

Learning situations, based on the acting textbooks and EFT on History, are presented below.

Using additional components EFT while studying a new material on lessons (frontal, team, individual work).

• Cities in the Old Russia. Life of town’s folk (Andreev, and Fedorov, 2016). Grade 6.

Characteristics of Old-Russian cities, given in paper textbooks, are usually supplemented in EFT by the following elements: 1) plans or video of Old-Russian cities; 2) audiovisual stories slides about townspeople occupations, trade and crafts, daily life.

These materials give possibilities for creative work of sixth-grade pupils. The class is divided into groups; each of them has to carry out a certain task. For example: 1. Draw a plan of an Old-Russian city, designate and name its parts. 2. What population groups did live in the Old-Russian cities? What were their occupations? 3. Name the basic handicraft specialties, which existed in the Old-Russian cities. What articles, of what materials did craftsmen manufacture? After a brief presentation of the obtained results it is possible to give pupils the task for the domestic preparation: to compose a story about a daily life of one of townspeople groups (on a choice).

Use of resources EFT in an individual homework of students.

Thanks to the additional EFT information the space of schoolboys’ creative activities in homework is enlarged considerably. That entails a systematization of historical material, a formulation and explanation of judgments, writing historical characteristics (portraits), preparing presentations and others. As the practice shows, among creative tasks in the field of History prevail characteristics of historical personalities and topics concerning a history of culture and a way of life.

• Old-Russian culture. Grade 6.

Contemporary printed textbooks on History contain, besides the author's text, fragments from literary monuments, statements of historians about the Old-Russian temples, and also a variety of illustrations (photo, miniatures, reconstructions, pictures and others). In EFT this material is supplemented with such components as: 1) slides and models of ancient Russian temples; 2) images of icons, frescoes, mosaics, articles of craftsmen etc.

The contents of printed textbooks and EFT can be used by pupils for preparing (in an individual order or in groups) presentations, for example: “An Old-Russian temple”, “On what material and how did people write in the old times”, “Old-Russian fine arts”, “Handicraft skills in Old Russia”.

• Speransky: the historical portrait (Solovyev, & Shevyrev, 2015). Grade 9.

In the printed textbook (a topic about Russian political system at the beginning of the 19 century) the following materials are included: Speransky’s portrait and biographical information; fragment from his work “Introductions to the packing of the state laws”. The EFT contains wider information of Speransky: pieces of contemporaries’ notes and of historians’ works about Speransky and other. This complex of materials can be used both in class and for home preparing by students essay (presentation) about Speransky. The recommended questions for consideration: Speransky’s curriculum vitae; the basic content of his projects; a perception of Speransky’s activities in the society and reasons for his dismissal. The obtained results are discussed in the class. As a conclusion it is reasonable to share insights on the place of Speransky in the Russian history of the 19 century.

Use of an EFT information in study projects (study cases).

The idea of a study project (study case) supposes a solution of research tasks, a creation of a certain new product. A work on a study project makes it possible for students to develop skills of goal setting, planning activity, application of their knowledge, search and generalization of a new information, reflection and introspection, presentation of obtained results and others.

The following forms of study projects on History can be carried out on the ground of EFT information: 1) historical reconstruction of events, based on a wider, than in printed textbooks, complex of sources; 2) historical journey (with the use of historical maps and other materials); 3) historical-biographical study (“historical portrait”, “personality in History”); 4) project on a history of native city, region.

An example of study project is given below.

• Study project “Classicism in the architecture of Russia in the first half XIX century: the capitals and province”. Grade 9.

The educational value of this project consists in the correlation of general characteristic of the architecture in Russia in the named period (mainly S.-Petersburg and Moscow) and special features of the artistic culture in the region, in which the students live.

In printed textbooks the general characteristic of the basic architecture styles in Russia in the first half of XIX c. are presented; the outstanding architects are named; photographs of the most known buildings are included. EFT contains a significant additional materials: slides of palaces and monuments, the portraits of their creators, and also slide-show of architectural ensembles (Lyashenko, Volobuev, Simonova, 2016).

Taking into consideration the complex, vast nature of the project, it seems to be reasonable to propose the work to a group of students. As a common plan the following points are recommended: 1. The basic features of classicism in the Russian architecture of 1. half XIX c. 2. Development of Moscow and S.-Petersburg, province cities (types of buildings, their designation). 3. Outstanding architectural pieces, ensembles. 4. Architects: life and art.

At the first stage of the work main achievements in the Russian architecture of the period are characterized (on the basis of EFT information). Then students have to investigate a history of their city, region architecture. That means studying regional literature, collecting visual materials (plans, photograph, etc). The possibility of immediate observing and studying nearby located buildings and monuments inspires in schoolboys a perception of local architectural environment as an irreplaceable part of Russian culture.

Learning situations: Social Studies

Along with communicating information and providing interactive cognitive exercises that are similar to those applied in the History course, additional components of electronic forms of Social Studies textbooks help achieve a number of significant educational results. Examples of using audiovisual and illustrative material are presented below.

Mobilizing additional EFT components when studying new material on lessons.

While studying new topic, the audio-visual components contained in the EFT could help to organize the pupil’s interactive cognitive exercises.

• Topic A Man Is A Social Being . (Korolkova, 2014). Grade 6.

The topic is devoted to revealing human social nature, the role played by society in people's everyday lives, the problem of human relationships. Taking into account an age of junior pupils, a segment of a documentary film about a life of penguins is placed in the EFT as an illustrative material. The aspect of appealing to animal life when considering the problem of human social nature can be validated by the fact that in this case, the ultimate objective for the emergence of any animal community, which is the survival of the species, is clearly displayed in the form of a motion picture. The documentary featured in the EFT demonstrates important animalistic aspects like mutual assistance, birds’ caring for each other, as well as the role of the flock in protecting and preserving the life of each individual member.

To carry out the exercise, a class is divided into groups. After watching the documentary, the pupils are asked the following questions: 1) What typical tasks does an animal community perform? 2) How do animals behave in a situation of impending danger? 3) Could penguins survive as a species if they did not lead a gregarious kind of lifestyle? 4) What are some of the conditions that ensure the survival of the pack? 5) What are common characteristics of both animal and human behavior? Since the information conveyed to the pupils is not only visual, but is also emotionally saturated, the pupils will be able to identify the behavioral features of animals that are caused by their gregarious way of life and draw parallels between animal behavior and human behavior. At the end of the exercise, the pupils may be asked to prepare arguments supporting the correctness of the statement: “Everyone is really responsible to all men for all men and for everything (Dostoyevsky).

Working with illustrations presented in a dynamic form (slideshows)

The EFT on Social Studies contains many illustrations, some of which are presented in dynamic forms. Among them there are slideshows containing images, selected for a specific topic. Here are some examples of working with this material on lessons or in pupils’ homework.

• Topic “The Russian State Symbols” (Bogolyubov and Ivanova, 2016). Grade 5 .

The electronic resources on the topic include a collection of 12 images showing how the Russian State Symbols has changed since the mid-16th century to the present day. Working with these images contributes to the formation of creative ideas about the main milestones that have been reached in our country’s development, and ensures the concretization of the Social Science material on the basis of establishing inter-subject connections with History. After reviewing the images on the lesson, the pupils may be tasked to collect additional social and historical information for compiling a narrative “History of the Russian State Symbols”. Pupils’ presentations revealing the content and the sense of Russian State Symbols in different epochs help to create general historical and social context of the Past and the Present.

• Topic “ Free Time” (Bogolyubov and Ivanova, elektronnoye prilozhenie, 2016). Grade 5.

The electronic annex to the textbook contains a slide show entitled ‘People’s Free Vocations on the Paintings of Artists’. This includes reproductions of 7 paintings (Bryullov, Polenov, Repin, Manet and others). Each picture depicts a story about people's everyday vocations like spending free time, attachments and preoccupations that are still relevant in our time.

The class can be divided into seven groups, each of them is given the task to make a certain painting “come to life”, to activate it. That means describing its action plot, compiling possible sayings of depicted people, etc. It is worthwhile to listen to different pupils’ opinions about the same picture, and pay attention to the possibility of a variety of opinions. It is also important to explain by what means the artists showed characters of the personages, their attitude to others.