New Media in Formal and Non-formal Higher Education in Social Sciences

Introduction

Modern time is characterized by expansion of IT-media in every field of human activity. Accordingly, electronic media have inevitably been implemented in professional education, particularly in the higher education system. Social sciences, specifically law schools, have also made use of those inexhaustible sources of information. Power Point presentations represent nowadays a most commonly used teaching tool, and use of the internet sources has become an integral part of teaching approach at Croatian law faculties. Modern teaching approach includes analysis and discussion of different legal documents, laws and international conventions available online as well as implementation of audio-visual materials, like trials or video conferences in delivery of subject-matter courses.

Goal and the Method

As usage of IT and electronic media has become an indispensable part of modern teaching process even in the most traditional higher education institutions, the main goal of this paper is to present the extent and the manner of usage of IT and modern electronic media as teaching devices at the Faculty of Law, University of Osijek, Croatia. Special attention is paid to a specific type of non-formal education delivered at that faculty, which includes the course founded on and aimed at productive usage of modern technologies.

In the introductory part, the authors discuss the role of new media in contemporary higher education. As illustration, the usage of the Internet sources and electronic media in delivery of subject-matter courses in Croatian higher education institutions is presented by analyzing the results of the questionnaire conducted among the teachers of the Faculty of Law Osijek and the Faculty of Law Zagreb in the year 2013 (Kordić, Papa 2013). In that part of the paper, we use a comparative approach and the method of statistical analysis. The main part of the paper is focused on the use of modern IT media and online translation tools within the non-formal education program carried out at the Faculty of Law Osijek: the Lifelong Learning Program for Lawyer-Linguists. Special attention is paid to the course Online Translation Tools and EU Vocabulary, in which online database and machine translation tools perform two functions: they serve as a means of instruction, and at the same time, the ability to use them independently represents the principal goal of the course. In that part of the paper, the authors use a qualitative approach to the analysis of the subject presented. Although this paper only partly relies on the research results, we are convinced that it gives a valuable contribution to modern education science by presenting and discussing a non-formal type of higher education developed in Croatia as a response to changed economic and employment circumstances in which modern electronic media play an important role as teaching devices.

IT and Modern Higher Education System

The upcoming generations of the 21^st century have all grown up surrounded by computers, the internet and mobile phones and are often considered as generations of the „digital natives“. This fact has quite clearly defined their relationship to digital technology. They expect the features such as the IT- founded creativity and communication to be a part of their everyday lives, their education and the way they learn and communicate. In this context, the students of today are no longer similar to the students taught by the 20^th century methods. In order to make the universities competitive, these technologies need to be integrated into the curricula and the courses designed, in order to reflect professional real life. On the other hand, most academic teachers assume digital technology to be an integral part of social and educational lives of their students but not of the people of their own age. Many discussions about modern education focusing on IT are related to its effect on teachers, institutions and learners as end users. The academic circles and educators are challenged by the way current generations feel comfortable in using digital technology. For the sake of students’ intrinsic motivation as well as for the purpose of productive and elaborate computer assisted learning, it is important to introduce information technology into the teaching process. According to Dudeney and Hockly (2007), information technology can be used in education in different ways. Students and teachers can use websites to browse for authentic information unlike teacher created materials, which facilitates at the same time the personalized learning experience and approach to learning. Internet-based project work incorporates task based and cooperative learning (from simple information gathering to simulations and web-quests). Communicative approach to language learning is supported by using email, chat and Skype, which again points out the importance of cross cultural communication and intercultural competence. Furthermore, opportunities for collaborative tools such as Wikis, Google Docs, or Share Point incorporate a wide variety of audio-visual items supporting the communication both written and oral. Online reference tools can be used to relate to online resources (corpuses, dictionaries, thesauruses etc.).

The New Media Consortium (NMC) is a non-profit group of more than 250 higher education institutions, museums and companies, whose task is to stimulate and promote the exploration and use of new media and technologies for learning and creative expression. The NMC points out that in the years to come, the key trends speeding up the introduction of technology in higher education will be “ (…) advancing cultures of change and innovation, increasing cross-institution collaboration, growing focus on measuring learning, proliferation of open educational resources, increasing use of blended learning and redesigning learning spaces” (2015 Horizon Report, Higher Education Edition, http://www.nmc.org/).

Implementation of IT at Croatian Law Faculties

IT in the Formal Type of Education

As pointed out previously, modern technologies and new media need to be integrated into the teaching process of higher education institutions worldwide. In order to explore the extent of the usage of IT and modern media in education of prospective lawyers in Croatia, we included several questions related to this issue into a wider questionnaire conducted in 2014 at the Faculties of Law in Croatian towns of Zagreb and Osijek. General purpose of the questionnaire was to establish the attitudes of specialized teachers at those faculties towards the importance of knowledge of the English language for law students and to explore their own usage of teaching materials and legal documents in English available on the internet and accessible by using modern technologies. Overall results of that research were published in the professional journal of the Faculty of law Osijek Pravni vjesnik (Kordić, Papa 2014), but for the purpose of this paper we shall present and analyse the part of the research results relating to the role, function and usage of computer technologies and other new media at Croatian law faculties.

Research results. At the Faculty of Law Osijek, 29 out of 50 teachers participated in the research. At the Zagreb Faculty of Law, which employs 140 teachers, only 38 were willing to take part in the research. Before comparing the results gathered at the two faculties, our presumption was that the respondents at both faculties would offer similar answers. It is interesting that almost all respondents use computer technologies to prepare their lectures and most of them (95% on average at both faculties) use Power Point in delivering their lectures. The fact relevant for this paper is that 35% of specialized teachers of the Osijek faculty and 18 % of teachers of the Zagreb Law Faculty claimed that they used sources in English in teaching their courses but also recommended such sources as obligatory exam materials to their students. Those materials include textbooks, book chapters, but also court decisions and other legal documents, as well as international bills and conventions available on the internet. Such internet sources are most intensely used in teaching Private International Law, European Law, Labour and Social Law and Commercial Law. The difference in the percentage that can be observed between the two faculties may have resulted from the fact that 79% of the Osijek respondents are younger than 35 and belong to the young generation trained in using (and open to) new technologies. The percentage of recommended supplementary exam materials in English available online is high at both faculties: 82% of respondents at the Faculty of Law Osijek and 63% of respondents at the Faculty of Law Zagreb recommend to their students additional (supplementary) learning materials in English, most of which are available online. That percentage is mostly covered by the courses in Private International Law, European Law, Labour and Social Law, Commercial Law, followed by Revenue Law and Civil Law. At the Faculty of Law of Osijek the usage of teaching materials in English available on the internet is especially intensive in exercises and seminars: 80% of teachers (mostly teaching assistants) use internet materials, 30% use chapters or shorter legal texts available online and 23% use video-clips. As for student activities, at both faculties students are instructed and encouraged to use the internet sources in their academic activities. According to our respondents, law students at both faculties mostly use materials available on the Internet for writing their seminar papers (92% on average at both faculties) and for preparatory reading before courses (35% on average at both faculties). By analysing the results presented above, we can conclude that new media and IT take a significant place in preparing and delivery of most exercises and seminars at Croatian law faculties (the questionnaire was conducted at two out four law faculties in Croatia). However, the percentage of teachers using internet sources in English for their lectures and as obligatory exam materials for students is rather low, especially at the Faculty of Law Zagreb. The percentage of positive answers is substantially higher at the Faculty of Law Osijek, which is in close correlation to average age of the respondents (almost 80% of respondents are 35 and younger), and to the respondents’ knowledge of English (most Osijek respondents asses their knowledge of English as very good). A relevant variable is also the fact that our respondents are mostly teaching assistants who do not deliver lectures but exercises and seminars that are primarily focussed on students’ activities and additional reading. Our results indicate that teaching staff at both faculties is aware of the importance of IT in the lives of young people and in their university education, which is confirmed by the fact that student activities at both faculties are significantly oriented at the resources and possibilities of learning offered by computer technologies.

Limitations of the research. The relevance of the presented results for this paper may have some limitations, taking into account the fact that they primarily relate to using teaching materials in English available on the internet, and that the respondents’ bodies compared here differ in number. It is indicative though, that the respondents’ age and knowledge of English have significantly influenced the results. That is why we can claim that these data confirm the growing trend of implementation of computer technologies in higher education in Croatia and the fact that they have become an indispensable part both of the everyday and professional life of young generations. However, from the educators’ point of view it should be highlighted that new materials from the internet and other electronic media should be selected carefully in order to be integrated in specific courses in accordance with the curriculum and the outcomes planned for specific course. This requires more workload and preparation for teachers. As Dudley-Evans and St John state: “The Internet is bringing further changes as courses can now be downloaded from all over the world. For the teacher as provider of material, the concern will largely be with evaluating and using rather than preparing materials – and they nearly require more time to preview than paper-based materials” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 2007, p. 185). In the following part of the paper, we shall present specific and intensive application of computer technologies in the informal type of education, which has been carried out at the Faculty of Law Osijek for several years now: the Lifelong Learning Programme for Lawyer-Linguists.

IT in Non-Formal Education at the Faculty of Law, University of Osijek, Croatia

Following the Strategy of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, the Faculty of Law made an effort to bring about prosperity and well-being of its social community. One of its strategic goals for the period 2010-2020 is to promote lifelong learning programmes as non-formal ways of education, which should equip citizens with additional competences and skills required by the labour market (Strategy, 2011: 54). In accordance with this goal, in the period of accession of Croatia to EU and its labour market, the Chair of Foreign Languages of the Faculty has developed a new programme of non-formal education that represented a direct response to economic changes and employment chances opened to Croatian legal professionals on the EU labour market. This specifically refers to professions required by European Personnel Selection Office of the EU Commission, such as translators, legal administrators and lawyer-linguists. The new programme was developed within the lifelong learning education programmes of the Faculty of law Osijek and was called the Lifelong Learning Programme for Lawyer-Linguists. The programme was accredited by the Senate of the Osijek University in 2012. Since then, it has been carried out every year in January, February and March. It encompasses seven courses with altogether 160 teaching hours, which are allocated 22 ECTS credits. Attendants are graduate lawyers with thorough foreign language knowledge (primarily English and German). This knowledge must be proved by corresponding certificates before enrolling into the programme. After passing all exams, attendants obtain certificates verified with an official stamp and signed by the Dean of the Faculty. The Programme comprises the following courses: Introduction to the EU Law, Introduction to the Theory of Legal Translation and Terminology, Exercises in Legal Translation – English Language, Exercises in Legal Translation – German Language, Introduction to French Language of Law, Croatian Language for Lawyer-Linguists and Online Translation Tools and EU Vocabulary. Modern teaching methods, Power Point presentations and EU legal documents available online are used in all the courses. Within the course Online Translation Tools and EU Vocabulary, possibilities offered by new computer technologies are implemented in a specific way and by using a specific teaching approach.

The Course Online Translation Tools and EU-Vocabulary

Historical Background

Translating legal texts has never been an easy task and, like any other activity involving language, it was for a very long time reserved for linguists. They also translated everything in the sphere of law, either as interpreters providing oral translation, or as translators working with texts. In this context, we may distinguish between translators of texts in the field of law and legal translators. Translators in the field of law actually translate all kinds of texts including those with legal contents and they are primarily expected to have the required linguistic knowledge and skills, which they can apply in a specific language pair. Legal translators are also primarily language experts, but they specialise in translating legal texts, for which they must also learn the essentials of law relating to the language pair(s) they translate from and into. The creation of the European Communities, which have eventually evolved into the present-day European Union, has introduced a new problem based on one of the essential principles of the Union: the principle of equality – not only of member states and their people but also of the languages spoken in them. At the time, this noble idea did not seem to be a potential source of huge problems since there were only 4 languages in question (Dutch, French, German and Italian). However, this would change drastically because the years that followed brought six enlargements of the EU with a number of new languages and thousands of new regulations for translation. What the administration and bureaucrats in the bodies of the EU were now asking for were experts who not only understood the basics of law but who themselves were legal experts in one or more fields of law, and who also possessed a very high level of proficiency in the required language pair or pairs. This turned the old ideas about translating as an exclusive domain of linguists upside down and new experts were in demand. These experts are now referred to as lawyer-linguists. Croatia has become painfully aware of the lack of such experts the moment it expressed the desire to join the EU. Only then the relevant bodies in Croatia realised that there were very few people who could take up the daunting task of translating the Acquis Communautaire into Croatian and Croatian legislation into other EU languages. This is one of the reasons why, as the accession talks between Croatia and the EU were approaching their final stage, a series of lifelong education programmes were developed equipping attendants with the necessary knowledge and skills that were in demand at the time. One of such programmes is also our programme for lawyer-linguists as a part of lifelong learning projects for lawyers.

EU-Vocabulary, Data Bases and Translation Tools

The contents of the course Online Translation Tools and EU Vocabulary are divided into two parts covering periods: a) before the accession of Croatia to the EU and during the accession talks, and b) the period since the accession of Croatia to the EU with the localization of most of the data bases and services. This division was necessary for practical reasons, because still some materials are available only in one of the “older” official languages, and the databases have only partially been translated into Croatian). The attendants of the course are therefore instructed both how to find and access information and documents in English (as the most commonly used source language) and also how to search those databases that are available in Croatian.

EU-Vocabulary. The first thing one observes when reading a legal text from the EU is the number of very strange and unintelligible abbreviations using characters and digits. This is why our course includes a subject dealing with on-line databases and programmes, and why this subject starts from the explanation and definition of the commonly used abbreviations, which are used in actual search for information, data and documents.

European Union Vocabulary Manual – EuroVoc. EuroVoc is a multilingual and multidisciplinary thesaurus covering terminology from 21 domains and 127 sub-domains relating to all fields of activities in the EU. Its focus is on the terminology used by the European Parliament and there are currently versions of EuroVoc in 24 languages used in the EU plus Albanian, the language used in the FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and Serbian. It can be accessed directly from its own home page offering localised versions in any of the 24 languages or from within other databases (e.g. from EurLex) in the same language version as the respective database. It is regularly updated and managed by the Publications Office and can be searched in various ways: alphabetically, by domain or by subject matter. EuroVoc can be searched on-line or downloaded freely, following different criteria. Attendants are given a demonstration of various search modes for practicing the use of EuroVoc.

IATE. IATE is the official site introducing InterActive Terminology for Europe. It may be the first source of information about the terminology of the EU documents but it also has some serious limitations. It is primarily intended for general audience and not for any legal or technical purposes, and there are no guarantees that the available documents actually reproduce officially adopted texts; the only exceptions are texts published in the Official Journal, which are always authentic. The portal provides initial information about the meaning of the sought term and the document(s) in which it may be found in use. Almost entire European documentation is available in four languages (English, French, German and Spanish). Most documents have also been localised and are available in all other official languages of the EU but this depends on the year of a country’ accession to the EU: countries that have accessed the Union only recently – such as Croatia – only have limited (but constantly growing) number of entries. In spite of its shortcomings, IATE is a good site for any initial search for meanings of certain terms.

EUR-Lex. EUR-Lex offers access to all laws of the European Union including treaties, legislation and consolidated legislation, EFTA documents, preparatory acts, case law of the EU, international agreements and even questions raised in the EU Parliament. It also allows insight into national case law and measures for the implementation of national laws in the member states through N-Lex. Furthermore, users can access relevant judgments of courts in the member states and of the EU Court of Justice through the JURE (Jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters) collection. JURE has a serious fault, however, because cases are only available in their original languages with summaries in English, French and German, so they can only be used as examples of how certain terms can be used in respective languages. Probably the most useful feature of EUR-Lex is the possibility to access directly the Official Journal (OJ) from within the EUR-Lex and to find all OJ issues that exist only in printed version. For all these characteristics, the EUR-Lex home page may well be the starting point for any research relating to EU legislation and its versions in different languages. The practical part of the subject therefore includes different search options both in the Official Journal and in the EUR-Lex URI-database with and without full information about the navigation elements (such as, for example, the OJ publication reference, or the Celex number). To start an efficient search in the EUR-Lex database, it is very useful to know the Celex number of the sought document. Celex database is the inter-institutional documentation system for Community law and it contains coded numbers of the documents published in the Official Journal (documents of the European Communities and those produced by the Court of Justice including legislation, treaties, case law and preparatory documents). The first thing attendants of the course must learn is how to interpret, understand and distinguish different Celex numbers. The attendants are only required to remember the meaning of particular parts of the Celex number and encouraged to use the Celex table that makes the search for particular types of documents a lot easier. Practical assignments include decoding the Celex number, using the table, interpreting the types of documents according to their Celex number, searching the database using Celex numbers and, finally, producing a Celex number for a specific type of document.

European Union Open Data Portal. This very useful site offers information about all data that are freely available to general public, but also to legal and language experts who can access the requested data without previous registration. The database can be searched in a vast variety of ways - from alphabetical search, search according to subject matter or subject group, search according to popularity of search topics, to search according to date of publication or according to source of information. The Portal may also serve as the starting point from which users can “jump” into other databases, such as CORDIS (EU-funded research projects database), Eurostat (statistical data from various domains within the EU), DORIE (collection of all documents issued by the European Commission), ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations database), etc. It should be noted that ESCO is very useful not only for people seeking employment in the EU, but also for agencies providing employment. Furthermore, the Portal allows access to the already mentioned EuroVoc as well as to the DGT-Translation memory (a data-base with sentences and their direct translations into 24 languages of the EU; its content includes segments of the Acquis Communautaire and all treaties, regulations and directives adopted by the EU as part of the European legislation). Attendants of the course are instructed on how to use the most popular and helpful features of the European Union Data Portal and receive assignments to search for specific information at home.

IPEX. The principal function of IPEX is to facilitate inter-parliamentary cooperation in the EU by offering a platform for inter-parliamentary electronic exchange of all EU-related information between parliaments of the EU member states. The platform contains information about parliamentary scrutiny in EU affairs including aspects of subsidiarity and regularly updated calendar of scheduled inter-parliamentary meetings. There are also forums for the exchange of views on topical issues. The site is therefore a valuable source of nearly first-hand information about the state of affairs in the EU and in all of its members. It is primarily intended to be used by national parliaments’ members and IPEX correspondents in national parliaments. However, it is also open for use to every citizen of the EU interested in inter-parliamentary communication within the EU. Citizens can access the databases as ‘general users’ who can only search the data base or as ‘authentified users’ who can also store the searched documents but first have to create an account with IPEX. The portal is fully operational only in English with parts that have been localised in other EU languages. In addition to search options for the portal, attendants of the course are also informed about other databases accessible from the IPEX website (ECPRD, ECPRD and the Council of Europe).

TAIEX. TAIEX is the Technical Assistance and Information EXchange instrument of the European Commission. This tool was of great importance for Croatia as the candidate for EU membership, but it also remains operational and usable in the years of adjustment after the accession. It offers information about European neighbourhood policy and funds available for the financing of cross border cooperation and other activities. One serious limitation of the site is that it is intended exclusively for the experts from the public administration of the member states. However, as Croatia has become a full member of the EU, its citizens can apply for the status of registered experts willing to assist future candidates for Union membership in their preparation for accession. Since this largely applies to Croatia’s neighbouring countries, attendants of our course are well advised to consider the possibility and maybe apply for the status of registered experts.

TED. TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is an online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU focusing on public procurement. The course attendants are informed about its contents and options it offers, because it provides free access to business opportunities from the EU, the European Economic Area and even beyond that with information published in all 24 official languages of the EU. After registration, users can personalise their search profiles, receive email alerts about available positions, etc. All this makes this portal unavoidable for anyone seeking quality employment in the EU.

Machine Translation (MT) and Machine Assisted Translation (MAT)

The vast number of documents and other written information produced daily in the bodies and institutions of the EU must be made available at least in all working languages and preferably also in all other of the 24 official languages of the EU. This puts an enormous burden on the translation service provided by the member states and administered by the DGT (Directorate General for Translation) responsible for the translation services. The 21^st century with its many technological wonders has brought some relief for translators of some languages by providing automated/machine translation for particular language pairs. Years of use and experience have resulted in drastic improvements of the service in some languages so that today translations between particular language pairs (e.g. English < - > German; English < - > French or French < - > Spanish) work almost flawlessly rendering instant translations of most communicated documents. These translations must be proof-read by translators to eventually become official. Unfortunately, machine translation software was primarily oriented towards the so-called “big” languages, and Croatian is not one of them so that, for the time being, machine translation is still unavailable, while machine assisted translation is merely an option for translators of Croatian. Nevertheless, course attendants must be informed about the possibilities offered by automated translation tools.

Machine/Computer Translation. At the moment, there is no quality machine translation software for Croatian either as target or source language. However, the principle on which the software operates for other languages raises the hope that at some time in the future machine translation will be also available for Croatian. The principle is very simple: the translation software searches a vast database that contains previously produced documents in all available language versions. The software then re-samples texts by simply replacing the text in the source language with already existing sentences from other texts from the target language database. This requires an enormous bank of texts so it is rather a matter of time needed for a language to fill the text bank before any language could be translated by machines and only proofread by humans. What now works with the working languages in the EU will one day also work with Croatian as well.

Machine/Computer Assisted/Supported Translation. Unlike the machine translation where the machines do all the work and humans only exercise control, machine assisted translation still requires a lot of human work, and unlike machine translation, which is still out of reach for most “small” languages such as Croatian, machine assisted translation is also available for these languages. Here the users have a choice between word translators and text translators, which are obviously a better solution since they work with entire texts. There is also the choice between freely accessible translation services such as Google Translator or Babylon and commercial online translation services provided by many local companies in their respective countries. The problem with free translation services is that the translation is not always of good quality, especially (again) for “small” languages; commercial online translation services, on the other hand, may be quite expensive. Both these types of services also share a common feature: the user has no influence on the translation process – one can only work on the finished text. The good news here is that Croatian translators can use localised commercial translation software for language pairs such as English – Croatian/Croatian – English or German – Croatian/Croatian – German that works quite well. The software can be purchased and installed on the user’s PC and it comes with a renewable 1-year license for one machine. Since this is the only quality translation software available on the market, course attendants are given a demonstration of how to use the programme and how to make it progressively more efficient. The programme can be “taught” about the language by editing texts while they are being translated, by expanding the programme’s dictionary database and by feeding finished translations into the programme’s memory (so that eventually it will work almost in the same way as machine translation programmes do). The attendants can download a trial version of the programme with limited functionality (but offering most of the important options for users) and practice its use by translating a text they receive as a home assignment.

Conclusion

From its earliest days, the EU has been developing a specific language of administration that had to be incorporated into all official languages in use in the member states. This includes all of the treaties, directives, recommendations and other legal documents and materials that have been produced in the Communities since their foundation and that are now known as the Acquis Communautaire. Its translation into the respective language is the first step any candidate for membership in the EU must take. In the past almost 70 years since the birth of the present-day EU many things have changed, and that also includes the amount of materials, programmes, databases and other forms of aid for the translators in EU institutions, all of which is now provided by the DGT – Directorate General for Translation. In this paper we have tried to demonstrate how foreign language teachers at the Faculty of Law, University of Osijek, responded to new requirements that modern higher education system is faced with in the new circumstances of the 21^st century. It was by developing of a non-formal type of education programme – the Lifelong Learning Programme for Lawyer-Linguists, in which electronic media play an important role and in which possibilities they offer are excessively used. They are most intensely applied within the course Online Translation Tools and EU Vocabulary, in which modern media not only serve as devices for teaching translation, but their skilful use also represents the principal goal of the course.

There is no doubt that new media and IT will play an even more important role in formal and non-formal types of education in the future. This fact, however, represents a new challenge and new requirements for teachers who should be instructed how to use them properly, efficiently and in accordance with the specific curricular tasks and planned learning outcomes. The question is: should we accept those changes open-mindedly and only with positive attitudes, or should we take into consideration some rather critical approaches, like the opinion “that teachers should have at the same time a positive attitude towards and a healthy scepticism of these technological devices” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 2007, p. 185)?

References

Internet-Sources