The Reality of Digital Teaching of History in Croatia

Abstract

The educational system has traditionally been slow to accept innovations and advances in technology used in everyday life. The high penetration of networking, digitalization, and the use of devices is ordinary daily life in the 21st century. They also have a severe impact on the everyday life of schools. Teaching history has not remained immune to the fruits of the IT revolution. In the Croatian framework, several attempts to reform history teaching must be added, rounded off by the School for Life project and pandemic attempts at online and combined teaching in recent years. The use of digital technologies and adapted methods of teaching history in that period went from indignation followed by individual utopian attempts to broader acceptance of the use of ICT. However, what does this wider acceptance mean for teaching history? In qualitative research using the structured interview method, 11 history teachers (advanced in the profession) were interviewed who, in the initial contact, expressed themselves positively towards the use of digital tools. The results point to possible future directions for the education of history teachers and specific strategies for using digital tools.

Full text

The Reality of Digital Teaching of History in
Croatia
M. Hajdarović
1st Elementary School Čakovec, Čakovec, Croatia
miljenko@hajdarovic.com
Abstract - The educational system has traditionally been
slow to accept innovations and advances in technology used
in everyday life. The high penetration of networking,
digitalization, and the use of devices is ordinary daily life in
the 21st century. They also have a severe impact on the
everyday life of schools. Teaching history has not remained
immune to the fruits of the IT revolution. In the Croatian
framework, several attempts to reform history teaching
must be added, rounded off by the School for Life project
and pandemic attempts at online and combined teaching in
recent years. The use of digital technologies and adapted
methods of teaching history in that period went from
indignation followed by individual utopian attempts to
broader acceptance of the use of ICT. However, what does
this wider acceptance mean for teaching history? In
qualitative research using the structured interview method,
11 history teachers (advanced in the profession) were
interviewed who, in the initial contact, expressed themselves
positively towards the use of digital tools. The results point
to possible future directions for the education of history
teachers and specific strategies for using digital tools.
Keywords - the digital revolution, use of ICT, teaching
history
I. INTRODUCTION
The use of ICT in education and the so-called digital
revolution are no longer novelties about which opposed
utopian and dystopian works would be written.
Fortunately, the first decades of the 21st century are
increasingly filled not only with experimentation but also
with quality research on the use of ICT in schools. As a
result, educational policymakers have accepted ICT not
only as a supporting part of the educational system but
also as a necessary part of the education of new
generations.
Teaching history has not remained immune to the
fruits of the IT revolution. In publications and magazines
on didactics and methods of teaching history, the use of
ICT was shyly mentioned already in the late 1960s and
early 1970s. Only at the turn of the century and thanks to
the translation of foreign literature did Croatian history
teachers receive professional literature that gave
instructions and examples of the use of the then-current
computer technology and the Internet. Scientific research
on history teaching using digital media and tools is rare
[1]. In the last twenty years, in Croatian scientific journals
covering the topic of history teaching, the application of
ICT has only been written about in rare cases. The most
significant impetus for using ICT was the COVID-19
pandemic, during which almost all teachers used the
available technology in different ways to teach. In the
Croatian case and for elementary schools, the already
implemented e-School (and School for Life) project, in
which all elementary school students received tablets for
use, certainly has great merit in the high use of ICT.
According to the project plan, free Internet should be
available to students in addition to tablets in schools.
There is no research or report on the use of tablets, but in
communication through teacher groups on social
networks, it could be concluded that they are mostly not
used or used adequately [2].
One positive development influencing the broader
acceptance of digital history teaching is upgrading digital
parts of history textbooks from 2019 until today. In that
series, all history textbooks, in addition to the usual
digitized textbook (usually in PDF format with links to
external multimedia content), also received various
additional forms of interactivity. Depending on the
textbook publisher, additional interactivity is in digital
educational objects or digital educational content. Digital
educational objects vividly display a particular
phenomenon in a digital format. Digital educational
content is didactically-methodically designed units that
can be part of a lesson or replace a regular lesson [3]. The
new textbooks were issued after the publication of the new
History curriculum, which only slightly encourages the
use of digital technologies in the recommended teaching
methods. It mentions that digital resources (websites,
journals, tools, archives, collections, and repositories) can
also be used. The new textbooks were issued after the
publication of the new History curriculum in 2019, which
only slightly encourages the use of digital technologies in
the recommended teaching methods. It mentions that
digital resources (websites, journals, tools, archives,
collections, and repositories) can also be used. It can only
be assumed that the authors of the history curriculum
relied on the fact that students should acquire part of the
ICT skills according to educational expectations Cross-
curricular topic "Use of information and communication
technology."[2]. The two pandemic years brought more
online classes, whether synchronous or asynchronous
teaching. Teachers have increased digital communication,
and the number of materials passed on to students. Due to
the increased Internet use among students, there is also a
growing problem with information verification. The
problem of spreading false and inaccurate information is
certainly contributed by leading statesmen who use
fabricated data from the past to strengthen their
arguments. There is agreement amongst media
commentators that the spread of so-called fake news poses
a severe threat to a democratic society. Therefore, history
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educators should help stem the rising tide of
misinformation. [4] Although the issue of using artificial
intelligence is not new in the academic community, school
practitioners have only begun to open up the topic. Tools
like ChatGPT and Midjourney and even the general issue
of artificial intelligence have not yet been mentioned in
the official training programs for Croatian history
teachers. With remarks about possible abuses in the matter
of plagiarism, Chat GPT is perceived mostly positively
among early adopters in recent research.[5]
The status of history as a school subject in the
countries of the European Union is not uniform, nor is the
procedure for acquiring the qualifications of history
teachers. Regarding the state of digital teaching in Croatia,
examples from other countries can be presented, but they
are not comparable. In discussions about the relationship
of teachers to technology, a romanticized notion is still
used, according to which the new generation of students
are digital natives while teachers are digital immigrants.
[6] The scientific community warns that the rapid spread
of fake news and digital media that transmit historical
falsifications shows that the so-called digital natives
intuitively use digital technology but lack digital literacy.
Recent literature calls this current period post-factual or
the era of alternative theories. [7] This challenge of digital
literacy also puts increasing pressure on Croatian history
teachers. The use of digital technology supports today's
prevailing paradigm of constructivist teaching, which, by
placing students in the leading role, should contribute to
developing critical and historical thinking while
expanding digital literacy. [8]
II. RESEARCH
In qualitative research using the structured interview
method, 11 history teachers were interviewed (working in
elementary and high school). Questionnaire testing was
avoided to give respondents more freedom to clarify their
work and think about the use of digital technologies. With
a questionnaire, the possible answers could be too
conditioned by the limitations set by the researcher. Two
criteria for selecting respondents were an initially positive
attitude towards using digital technology in teaching and
professional advancement. The criterion of professional
advancement was chosen because it testifies to the
professional activity of the respondent. The gender, age of
the respondents, and their work experience are not
relevant if we consider that advancement in the profession
is the primary variable for selecting respondents.
The opening research question to starting the
interviews with respondents was: How do you use digital
technology in your teaching?
Emphasized follow-up questions were:
- what are the advantages of using digital technology,
- what are the limitations and/or disadvantages of
using digital technology,
- do you think that today's generation of students are
digital natives who use digital technologies independently
and meaningfully,
- in what ways can teachers guide students for the
meaningful use of digital technologies in learning history?
The questions were comprehensive to avoid
contamination of the answers or influence on the
respondents. For example, a possible area of inquiry could
have mentioned learning management platforms, 3D
models, or augmented or virtual reality. However, such
questions could lead the respondents to give possible,
desirable answers to show the situation better.
From the collected answers, the following common
characteristics and a few outstanding developments can be
distinguished.
When answering the initial question, respondents
usually began to explain in which part of the teaching
process they most often use digital technology. All
respondents use computer presentations as a teaching tool
for presenting content. This includes presenting new facts
and using presentations to ask questions and tasks. A
minor part (3) of the respondents expressed a more
remarkable ability to use computer presentations with
which they create interactive games (such as association,
quizzes, puzzles, and gradually discovering graphics).
Computer presentations are used in all parts of the lesson -
from the introduction through the central part to repetition
or even self-evaluation at the end. According to most
respondents (9), using other applications, websites,
multimedia, simulations, or 3D models depends primarily
on the historical topics and content covered in the lesson.
When choosing whether to use digital technology or
"classical" textbook materials, most respondents prefer
textbook materials or materials they have prepared
themselves for a particular lesson. A large part of the
respondents (7) leaves the use of digital technologies to
the students in preparation for the presentation of certain
content or during the repetition. In practice, this means
that teachers give students the opportunity or task to
present a part of the topic, some historical source (text or
picture) for an upcoming class, or in another creative way,
take over part of the creation of the teaching material. For
this purpose, students use different presentation tools
available on the market. Finally, students independently
create quizzes or interactive tasks for repetition. Among
the respondents, there is a consensus that for specific
teaching topics, there is suitable digital material for
teaching. At the same time, there is no acceptable digital
content for a significant part of the topics. In doing so,
they highlight the problem of foreign languages, the
inappropriateness of content for a specific age of students,
and, for example, the duration of certain content if video
clips, documentaries, or feature films are used.
To the related question of why they give preference to
classic teaching materials, the respondents indicated:
uncertainty as to whether the technology available to
students will be helpful (frequent tablet failures and
insufficient quality of internet connection in classrooms),
loss of time for technology preparation, more complex
control of individual tablets in terms of are the students
doing what they should or taking the opportunity to play
or surf the Internet. Some respondents noted that it is
extremely difficult or almost impossible to achieve
equality, i.e., the availability of digital technology for
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every student in the class. For example, some students
cannot work with the help of digital technology. In that
case, classic materials must be provided for them in the
teaching process, leading to a division of opportunities in
the class.
All respondents pointed out the possibility of better
presentation of historical events, personalities, culture, and
historical stories in general with the help of digital
multimedia as the most crucial advantage of digital
technology in teaching history. Less than half of
respondents (5) mentioned that using well-designed and
interactive digital educational content enables students to
independently research and draw conclusions about the
past. Only one respondent recognized the possibility for
additional research of gifted or especially interested
students in publishing houses' existing digital educational
content.
Regarding the limitations of digital technology, the
respondents pointed out the issue of available time as the
most significant limitation - insufficient time for the
quality preparation of teachers (who must familiarize
themselves with some digital content, sufficiently master
the use of some digital technology or materials) as well as
the big problem of lack of time in the weekly number of
hours as well as total time during the entire school year. A
small number of respondents (4) cited that students are
continuously exposed to screens and various digital tools
as a disadvantage of digital technology. That is why they
often and intentionally insist on using paper materials,
plain text, or images. Searching the Internet for historical
content presents a significant challenge to students
because they need prior knowledge to assess the value or
veracity of the information found. In the absence of time,
teachers rarely decide to spend time gradually and
studiously take students through the research process.
Unfortunately, the problem of fake news was not
explicitly mentioned among the respondents.
Respondents were divided on whether today's
generation of students is genuine digital natives who
skillfully use digital technologies. Most respondents agree
that students regularly use digital technologies. At the
same time, six respondents believe that this use is skillful
and that students use technology correctly. Another part of
the respondents believes that students, although they often
use digital technology, do not know how to use it for
functional educational purposes. At the same time, they
point out that most students, for example, refrain from
critically evaluating information found on the Internet
during research.
Due to the inadequate use of digital technologies, the
respondents agree that students should be taught how to
use digital technology adequately. One of the interviewees
highlighted the question of whether students should learn
how to use digital technology only in history lessons
meaningfully or should it be part of the basic knowledge
that students would acquire from the very beginning of
school education (the question of the need and expediency
of computer science classes in schools).
Among the respondents, there is a consensus about
how to use the possibilities of digital technology
meaningfully. They emphasize project teaching that is
carried out individually or in groups. Such teaching would
be carried out during several teaching hours, and teachers
should prepare enough tasks that are carried out in steps or
in a specific order. Students would independently research
most of the content, present it to others, and create a
review. Only one respondent tentatively explained the
flipped classroom model as the preferred method of using
digital technologies.
III. CONCLUSION
The period of teacher insecurity in using ICT is a thing
of the past. Teachers are familiar with the possibilities of
digital technology, know that there are different tools, and
use them depending on personal preferences. Digital
technology is used throughout the teaching process, often
not continuously but at appropriate teaching stages.
This research was conducted as a private initiative
without the support of educational authorities and is
therefore limited in the number of participants. The small
number of respondents can only indicate the direction of
thinking, but conclusions cannot be generalized for the
entire population of history teachers in Croatia. The
interview research method is time-consuming because it
includes the time needed to organize the interview and the
analysis time. Institutional support for conducting research
of this type is necessary. The research showed that among
teachers, there is a need to question the use of digital
technologies. However, it cannot be concluded that
teachers are skeptical about using digital technologies, but
there is much uncertainty about acceptable use and the
need to create adequate teaching materials. When listing
digital tools used during history classes, the number of
named tools leads to additional questions. For example,
how does this amount of tools positively or negatively
affect the attention of students who adapt to various tools
through all school subjects?
It is interesting and encourages further research that no
respondent mentioned the use or possibilities of LMS
(such as Moodle). The teachers were exposed to LMS
while preparing to introduce the new subject curriculum,
i.e., during the recent education system reform. It is also
important to note that none of the interviewees mentioned
artificial intelligence during the conversation. However,
we can only assume that this topic has yet to enter the
teaching population, but whether the students will be the
forerunners who will, for example, use possibilities like
ChatGPT in their little school research or homework.
During the research, respondents did not mention
gamification, virtual and augmented reality, or active use
of 3D models.
Educational authorities and creators of educational
policies should systematically and continuously conduct
research that would include the teacher population. In
addition, there is an urgent need to examine the effects of
all forms of teaching, not just teaching with digital
technology.
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