Enriching Course Content in University With New Media Technologies and Neuro Education

Introduction

Education is the general definition of learning process of an individual from birth to death, acquired through life and the formation of the behaviors. This is a lifelong process and is actually life itself. In every known stage of human history, education has always existed in all societies even in primitive groups. Education is the effort to maximize the potential of the human; shape, enhance, improve their behaviors and thoughts in accordance with the pre-determined current and future goals. Knowledge, skill, and attitude gained with education increase humans’ awareness of being an individual and belonging and improve their all competencies all together and in harmony (Lim, 2005:402). Education, unchanging agenda and priority of human history, is a highly effective social phenomenon that is continuously changing with continuously renewed technological developments. Therefore, education provided in the school should be supported with technological tools. Otherwise, educators, the object of a generation encountering hundreds of positive, negative new information every day cannot reach up to students and cannot ensure readiness in teaching (Gorder, 2008:65).

The technical sufficiency of the educator, the content of the education, and teaching strategies should be reviewed by being integrated with technological devices. Students now have the advantage of being in an era in which reaching information is very high and thus have the chance of learning more information than the teacher whenever they want. Now the role of the teacher has changed. Teachers are no longer the ones transmitting knowledge but the ones showing the way of reaching information, being the source of relevancy and motivation, accompanying the inner journey of the students. Today, in this digital age, professional teaching knowledge is inadequate in terms of teacher competencies (Roncetti, 2010:46). Teachers should also have characteristics such as communication skills, learning strategy, speaking the same language with the students, complying with them, and establishing a bond with them. In the 21^st century, in which digital literacy and proactivity are significant, new generation learning and teaching skills are necessary, and this indicates the new generation education called neuro education (cognitive education) (Ansari, 2012:106).

The purpose of neuro education is to find out how the mental processes in the brain work and student behavior, while learning. The aim of neuroscience is to reshape existing learning methods by supporting cognitive psychological theories with neuroscientific data. The questions to be asked for how the brain works while learning and how the results of cognitive neuroscience research can be applied in the classroom are the framework for the concept of neuro education. One of the most important researcher on educational neuroscience Howard- Jones states that “neuro education is uniquely characterized by its own methods and techniques; by linking the information based on social, biological and experimental evidences with education and is reflected to explain education with a better understanding” (2011:29).

Neuro education is not only related to the students. Teachers must have a knowledge of the brain and its functioning, too. The studies that are examined through neuroscience provide important datas to be used in education; therefore, neuroscience findings should be integrated according to the needs of education policies and its applications on how students are differentiated in the class. The way to adapt neuroscience findings to education is to inform the teachers about the basic information of the neuroscience approach. For this reason, teachers must be trained to reflect the relationship between education with neuroscience in school and in professional life.