The Concept of The Digital Age and its Characteristics
In this article, we present the concept of the digital age, the characteristics of the digital age, the requirements of the digital age in general, and the requirements of the digital age in the educational field in particular.
Concept of the digital age
Muslim (2007: 14) defines the digital era as that which indicates the dominance of modern digital means over others in the field of communication, processing and exchange of information.
Makkawi (2005) defined it as: the age that is mainly based on the dissemination, production and efficient use of knowledge in all areas of societal activity, and he means that it is “the age whose development depends mainly on information, communication networks and computers.”
That is, it depends on what some call intellectual technology that includes new goods and services with the continuous increase in the information workforce, that is, maximizing the importance of thought and the human mind with computers, communication, and artificial intelligence.
Also, the digital age means that all forms of information can become digital texts, graphics, static and moving images, and sound, and that information is transmitted, stored, and distributed through the international information network by means of electronic devices intermediary, the traditional computer – the telephone.
Characteristics of the digital age:
Abdul Qadir (2008: 143-147) believes that the digital age is characterized by several characteristics, the most important of which are:
*. The tremendous technological development through the first digital revolution, represented by the emergence of the personal computer, the second revolution represented by the information network, and the third revolution is the information media revolution and rapid information.
*. This age depends on converting any information or dealings into numbers that are easy to transfer and deal with. This makes it difficult to control, limit or prevent its development.
*. The inevitability of change as the digital revolution is different from previous revolutions, it has its own nature and aspects.
Educational requirements of the digital age:
The digital teacher
The teacher is considered the effective element in any educational system in a better and highly efficient manner. The teacher in the digital age is a specialized individual equipped with specific technical and educational skills, motivation and previous knowledge that allows him to deal with education systems via networks.
In the light of the e-learning system, the teacher has become responsible for proficiency in dealing with electronic classes. The teacher is no longer the transmitter of information, but his role has become a facilitator and facilitator of the education process.
Employing modern technology in the classroom limits the power of monopolizing knowledge. To provide assistance to the students by guiding them to the sources of information with his knowledge of the levels of his students, and to evaluate them first by using information technology that will help the teacher to perform his task better.
2- Curricula and digital courses:
The digital curriculum includes a set of educational and scientific experiences that are provided to the learner through modern technological communication techniques to achieve the learning process. The digital curriculum is characterized by diversity, flexibility, and a more impactful performance of scientific content on learners.
Digitalization has contributed to the transformation of the paper curriculum from its rigid image of ideas, concepts and facts in books to ideas, concepts and visual facts such as educational three-dimensional or audio films through instant communication via the Internet or using digital games and simulations in acquiring skills and experience for different educational situations.
3- Digital Teaching Methods and Strategies:
(Amer, 2015: 134-135) emphasized the importance of the teacher acquiring the skill of activating digital teaching methods and strategies through electronic lectures, working groups, assigning students to electronic projects, solving problems electronically, as well as electronic discussions.
He can only acquire these skills through professional development programs for teachers and follow up on the impact of such training on the development of the educational process.
4- A digital teaching and learning environment:
The digital learning environment “is the educational environment in which digital curricula and courses are provided and received remotely, with the availability of many auxiliary tools that can be obtained through some services represented in the Internet or intranets, with the need for that digital environment to adhere to the protocols for digital education as well.” Internet”.
5- Digital calendar methods:
The electronic achievement assessment methods used by teachers must be characterized by measuring the various aspects related to the learner’s achievement, not just the cognitive aspect, and they must also be based on referenced standards.
For example, content collection standards and digital performance standards are set in advance, and that exams are available within question items linked to information networks. This requires defining educational competencies, building questions and including them in database programs and question banks, and defining procedures for using these items.
And that the digital evaluation process takes place at the level of the classroom, the classroom, the region, and the country, and that it varies in measurement areas, such as electronic formative tests, electronic diagnostic tests, general ability tests, intelligence tests, and electronic homework and projects.
6- The digital book:
It is a term used to describe text in digital form; To be displayed on a computer screen (computer), and CDs can store huge amounts of information and data in the form of (text), digital image, animation, static and animated images, spoken words and other sounds that attract the student’s attention.
Which works to raise his thinking about academic problems and other life problems that he lives in the family and society, and the e-book is considered a source of electronic information, and it is originally a source of traditional paper information, but it was stored electronically on magnetic media.