Motivational Effect of Communication Technologies in Connectivist Science Education

The paper presents our long-term research results of the
motivational effect of communication technologies on
connectivist technology in science education. The main research
method used in this study is design-based research.

Traditional views on learning have been questioned by some educators (Downes, 2005;Siemens, 2004). The limits of traditional views of knowledge are highlighted with the development of the Internet. Instead of seeing knowledge as innate, a function of reasoning or experience, connectivism and connectivist knowledge present an alternative source of valid knowledge.
According to S. Downes (2005), connectivist knowledge networks possess four traits: Diversity: Is the widest possible spectrum of points of view revealed?
Autonomy: Were the individual knower's contributing to the interaction of their own accord, according to their own knowledge, values and decisions, or were they acting at the behest of some external agency seeking to magnify a certain point of view through quantity rather than reason and reflection?
Interactivity: Is the knowledge being produced the product of an interaction between the members, or is it a (mere) aggregation of the members' perspectives?
Openness: Is there a mechanism that allows a given perspective to be entered into the system, to be heard and interacted with by others?
In accordance with the above stated principles, in 2005 G. Siemens (2005) identified 8 principles of connectivism:  Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions  Learning is a process of connecting  Learning may reside in non-human appliances  Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known  Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed for continual learning  Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill  Accurate, up-to-date knowledge is the aim of all connectivist learning  Decision-making is a learning process. What we know today may change tomorrow. The right decision today may be the wrong decision tomorrow.
S. Downes (2006) applies the network theory to the network pedagogy and formulates S.

Downes educational theory:
 A good student learns by practice, practice and reflection  A good teacher teaches by demonstration and modelling Connectivism reflects the influence of ICT on education, therefore also on science education.
It uses ICT, social networks, etc. and thus it is a suitable educational approach for instruction Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 5 -Issue: 3 July -2015 of the Net generation students because of the respect for their learning style. One of the principles of connectivism to which teachers should react in their teaching is that the ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. The thesis of "know-where" substitutes the present theses "know-what" and "know-how". We should be teaching our students not only finished knowledge but also the path to it and skills to assess it.
We use these theories to identify connectivist motivation factors and to determine their influence on science education; to develop motivational connectivist educational methods and tools; implementation of to implement motivational connectivist methods and tools into science teaching/learning and teachers training. We developed collaborative action research based on ICT as an important method for the development of teachers ' professional competencies in the sphere of students´ motivation. Design-based research is the main research method used in this study.

Rationales and Research Questions
Today science education plays an important role in educational systems and in many systems it has the goal of enhancing scientific literacy in students (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1989), but the interest of students in science has been significantly decreasing. There are many causes and factors of this negative situation but the way science is taught in schools and the different learning style of today's learners are the main reasons.
In this context it is necessary to consider how to change teaching methods and increase students´ motivation for science (Rocard et al, 2007). The way how to increase the motivation of students in science is to respect the stated generation differences and understand what they prefer, what they are interested in, and how they learn. Students learn more effectively when taught in accordance with their learning style preferences and when their worldviews are acknowledged. So it is necessary to change teaching methods and materials to accommodate the Net Generation learners better and to correlate them with improvements in students' attitudes and performances. Therefore the need arose to examine possible connectivist influences on science education.
Our research focuses on the following issues: International cooperation between the teachers and among the students where collaborative action research based on ICT was used brought about strong motivation of all the participants. Tangible evidence of this strong motivation can be found in the open answers in the questionnaire below as well as in the findings of the questionnaire research stated in Table 2.

The most frequent open responses from the questionnaire:
"It was fine to read worksheets and discuss about tasks with Portuguese friends"….
"That was great experience to work with our Portuguese classmates." "I was curious about this project, it was really interesting." "Enthusiasmbecause it's amazing to do project online with students from Portugal." "I'm very happy that I could be a partner in this project." The questionnaire was focused on students´ reflections on this innovative bilateral collaboration with ICT use. Their answers indicate high level of both motivation and engagement in the educational process. According to the test results and also in the students´ opinion they learnt a great deal.
Students´ view of the teachers´ work in on-line environment and their ability to manage unusual instruction is also very interesting (see Table 3): Students' responses in the questionnaire prove that their mutual communication and the use of ICT are highly motivating for the learners and that the students learn more effectively when they are taught in accordance with their learning style.

Conclusions
The main outcomes of the research and implementation of connectivist methods and tools into science education are:  With the help of design-based research, suitable teaching methods and tools could be developed for teachers to realize science education in the most efficient and motivational way (Hodson, 1988). We may anticipate that importance of connectivist methods and tools will grow and that students and teachers will work creatively using ICT even more. Our research results indicate that students learned with interest, and their knowledge and skills were better than we would expect using standard methods free of connectivism. On the basis of the results of our research, we can conclude that the connectivist methods and tools produced very positive outcomes for students and significantly contributed to the development of competences of teachers for science education.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 5 -Issue: 3 July -2015