An international approach to creative pedagogy and students' preferences of interactive media

The world population lives within an information society, depicted as an era of "integrated software applications" where the new technology and information technology paradigms are affecting the global environment and the international trend of education (Tapscott and Caston, 1993; Ottestad, 2010). Within this context e-learning is presented by Ottestad (2010) as an emerging pedagogy where teachers' creativity, competence and professionalism (Liakopolou, 2011; Davies, 2013) as a quality force come together with the new technologies to meet students' preferences for optional learning resources, to empower students and increase their confidence as well as helping learning, understanding, reinforcing knowledge, stimulating interest, increasing collaboration and motivation (Craft and Jeffrey, 2008; Inglis et al., 2011). Previous studies demonstrated that the generation of learners called "Net generation", "Millenians", "Digital natives" or "Web generation" (Tapscott, 1998; Howe and Strauss, 2000; Prensky, 2006; Hartmann, 2003 in: Van den Beemt et al., 2011) uses the interactive media vigorously (Duimel and DeHaan, 2007; Schulmeister, 2008 in: Van den Beemt et al., 2011). This study is an international approach developed across four countries: Wales, Sweden, Russia and Greece. The research conducted focus groups based on e-learning resource presentation, a survey with questionnaires and case studies. The results demonstrated students' preferences for dynamic presentations, effective animation, comic effects (Kruger, 2004) and interactive media. In order to find different learning styles and preferences, online and paper form Questionnaires for course evaluation and assessment were conducted and compared with teachers' observations and notes. The study provided optional as well as additional e-learning resources in order to reinforce student learning and it was based on learning theories such as: the concept of learning and reinforcement, remembering and schema which can activate experiences stored in the mind (Skinner, 1930 in Kintsch, 1977; Bartlett, 1995). The results of this research support the constructivist view of cognitive development theory, the role of visual and the practical knowledge (Vygotsky, 1978; Piaget, 1970; Wadsworth, 1979).