FORMATION OF BIOLOGY STUDENTS' SOCIAL SKILLS WITH USE OF ICT TOOLS

Abstract

Contemporary society is called the Information Society or Knowledge-Based Society. Media have become not only the relays of information, but also the tools by which one may know reality and develop social skills (Chwaszcz at al., 2005). Thanks to the Internet the number of the interactive media and possibility of interpersonal communication, community-building and cooperation has increased. The change is mainly connected with the coming over mass media to the group media and from the sender's control to the receiver's control during the process of communication (Goban & Sienkiewicz,1999). Cultural texts (films, advertising, music videos, and literature) are becoming an important factor of the process of association, organizing reality, interpreting and they are patterns of behavior, thinking and communication. Preparing for critical thinking and proper delivery of media messages, as well as the use of media as tools for communicating, learning, acquiring, storing and processing information is necessary The main aim of medial education is the education capacity to perceive the processes of mass communication, using broader perspective, thus drawing attention to the selection processes of political, economic and social changes which create interpretive frame for the medial transfer (Ogonowska, 2003). The analysis of the skills' maps developed by U.S. organizations - the Partnership for XXI Century Skills and National Council for Social Studies (Now Education Foundation, 2008, Hamer 2008, 2010), was the starting point for the surveys conducted among students of biology - teachers to be. 100 biology students of Pedagogical University of Cracow participated in the research. The students evaluated the theoretical knowledge base of scientific communication and mediation as well as specific practical skills in order of their relevance and relationship between selected ways of popularization of science and the social skills improvement