@article {203, title = {SCHOOL CHEMICAL EXPERIMENT OPTIMIZATION IN WOLFRAM MATHEMATICA ENVIRONMENT}, journal = {Problems of Education in the 21st Century }, volume = {11}, year = {2009}, month = {May/2009}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {9-13}, abstract = {An experiment is an integral part of natural sciences, especially chemistry. Therefore pupils and students should be in contact with it on regular bases during the process of learning chemistry. However, nowadays a major decrease of use of real chemical experiments is apparent in chemistry education. New or modified known experiments can help to reduce this trend. The proposed method of experiment optimization using Wolfram Research software Mathematica is one of the possible ways how to solve it. This method is based on sequential process of optimization and stochastic extreme value finding for functions of several variables. This problem has been solved at the Department of Chemistry and Chemistry Didactics as a part of a research project entitled {\textquotedblleft}Teacher Profession in Changing Requirements on Education{\textquotedblright}, executed by Faculty of Education. During the research a program was made that computes optimal values of experiment parameters from measured values. This was verified during teacher training courses at Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education. This paper presents an example that shows the optimization procedure of a selected chemical reaction.}, keywords = {chemical experiment, school experiment}, issn = {1822-7864}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2014/457-1392408001.pdf}, author = {Martin Adamec and Pavel Bene{\v s}} } @article {45, title = {EDUCATION REALITY IN CONDITIONS OF DEVELOPING INFORMATION SOCIETY}, journal = {Problems of Education in the 21st Century }, volume = {2}, year = {2007}, month = {September/2007}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {67-72}, abstract = {Contemporary society is witnessing changes and processes triggered by the groundbreaking development of humankind{\textquoteright}s technical capacity, especially in the area of informational and communication technologies (ICT). In this new society, learning and a continual educational process constitute basic preconditions for the success of individuals as well as for the entire society. In this context, information literacy is becoming increasingly important. Informational literacy is generally understood as the ability to use information sources and communication technologies in order to solve problems in one{\textquoteright}s everyday activities, or to increase one{\textquoteright}s labour efficiency or the quality of life, respectively. The Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague is currently dealing with a research project entitled {\textquotedblleft}Changes in education reality in conditions of developing information society{\textquotedblright}. The research focused on five thematic fields: Education reality, the dynamics and connections to the spheres of knowledge and the ICT; curricular and procedural aspects of changes in context of the integration of the ICT into schools and of the training for life in the knowledge society; information and communication technology as the component of educative environment of the knowledge society; models of the support of learning and instruction via the ICT and their evaluation; preparing the teachers for educational tasks in the knowledge society and the integration of ICT into education. Teacher-training colleges should consistently and purposefully prepare would-be teachers for education that encourages functional literacy, or for the implementation of a broadly defined information-based education that transcends the constraints of a specialized subject. These are the most relevant focus areas: gathering, analysing and organizing information; disseminating ideas and information, and understanding an entire complex interconnecting system; planning and organizing one{\textquoteright}s work activities; adopting teamwork and cooperation; using systemic procedures, terminology and methodology; developing the ability of logical reasoning and strategies aimed at dealing with problems; being able to use technical equipment; cultivating a spirit of solidarity and cooperation among students; using active learning methods; providing quick feedback and testing one{\textquoteright}s knowledge by means of ICT; emphasizing the deadline by which the assigned problem task has to be solved; taking into consideration the diversified talents of individual students and various ways of teaching. This paper deals, in general, with the consequences of deep impact of the new information and communication technology on the society and describes its characteristic features and contributions for education. It also offers the characteristics subject of the one of meaning longitudinal research orientation of Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague.}, keywords = {education in science, information and communication technologies, information literacy}, issn = {1822-7864}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2014/457-1392220182.pdf}, author = {Vladimir Rambousek and Pavel Bene{\v s} and Martin Adamec} }