Abstract:

Author’s aim is to develop open – with active teacher/student contribution – content and to apply those contents in practice, as it will be described in this paper. Due to the complex nature of the subject, the new kind of electronic materials and contents were developed and piloted in a vast scope of vocational education and training (VET), namely in the fields of mechanical engineering, information technology, engineering and economics. The efficiency monitoring and the summary of the research results evaluated in connection with the school subjects of the secondary vocational training.
During the last decade, with new developments in technology the rethinking of education has stepped into a new phase. After forty years Ferguson’s ideas on the nonverbal thought in technology, especially in a technical university environment, became extremely actual. The author assumes that the by application of new interactive techniques the learning space, particularly in the promotion of horizontal communication activities severe changes will be made.
Most of the work activities contain rapidly changing elements determined by technological and economic aspects, and the dynamics of the changes are difficult to be forecasted. Meanwhile, the characteristics and communication capabilities of the population attending VET are also changing. It is probably not a Hungarian speciality that most of the young persons attending VET are under-motivated, and lack a long-term perspective of the qualification they wish to get. However, in their hands or pockets all of them have a smartphone.
Open content development (OCD), which moves from the rigid system of central content development towards more dynamic content innovation where both teachers and students can participate through cooperative techniques, has a strong visual character.
In the present framework, the author will mention two examples relating to our R&D activities seeking ways for improving education by images. First, the project Developing Open Education Resources (OER) with the participation of students means a potential of content and methodology that is capable of surpassing traditional, school and notebook based teaching. Secondly, a pilot curriculum development like the SyBook and the applied info-communication technology (ICT), open source and commercial learning management systems (LMS), memory independent management of complex visual elements and the flexible management of micro-contents.
The author focused on the development of vocational methodology and vocational knowledge and the support, organization and direction of learning because developing open education resources with the active participation of students can improve vocational knowledge (of the students as well as the teachers), and the new way of supporting learning can – according to their experiences – considerably improve the effectiveness, organization and guidance of learning. The methodological speciality of our research was modelled based on theoretical analysis and relying on which curriculum development tasks were implemented with the participation of engineer and economist teacher trainees. Some tasks completed in the process of elaborating the online curriculum headed towards the creation of a content management model. The queries and interviews made with the students and the management of the micro-contents elaborated by the students can be looked at as new procedures.

Keywords:

Open Education Resources (OER), Information and communications technology (ICT), micro-content, Learning Management System (LMS), Open Content Development (OCD).