The article clarifies the concept of “virtual information educational environment” (VIEE) and examines the researchers’ views on its meaning exposed in the scientific literature. The article determines the didactic potential of the virtual information educational environment for the geography students training based on the analysis of the authors’ experience of blended learning by means of the Google Classroom. It also specifies the features (immersion, interactivity, and dynamism, sense of presence, continuity, and causality). The authors highlighted the advantages of virtual information educational environment implementation, such as: increase of the efficiency of the educational process by intensifying the process of cognition and interpersonal interactive communication; continuous access to multimedia content both in Google Classroom and beyond; saving student time due to the absence of necessity to work out the training material “manually”; availability of virtual pages of the virtual class; individualization of the educational process; formation of informational culture of the geography students; and more productive learning of the educational material at the expense of IT educational facilities. Among the disadvantages the article mentions low level of computerization, insignificant quantity and low quality of software products, underestimation of the role of VIЕЕ in the professional training of geography students, and the lack of economic stimuli, etc.
The article is devoted to the topical issue of the cloud technologies implementation in educational process in general and when studying geography, in particular. The authors offer a selection of online services which can contribute to the effective acquisition of geographical knowledge in higher school. The publication describes such cloud technologies as Gapminder, DESA, Datawrapper.de, Time.Graphics, HP Reveal, MOZAIK education, Settera Online, Click-that-hood, Canva, Paint Instant. It is also made some theoretical generalization of their economic, technical, technological, didactic advantages and disadvantages. Visual examples of application are provided in the article. The authors make notice that in the long run the technologies under study should become a valuable educational tool of creation virtual information and education environments connected into common national, and then global, educational space.
The modern tourism diversity coursed by the emergence of its new varieties is sure to evolve with a view to the goals of sustainable future. The article is dedicated to couchsurfing, a kind of sustainable youth tourism, a global hospitality network, as an online service used for transcultural communication of tourists through the organization of various assistance during joint travel. It helps meet tourists' recreational needs and travelling at no charge. The article considers the organizational structure of couchsurfing as a network managed by regional units. The authors identify the factors that influence the development of this type of tourism (globalization of the world economy, the development of the Internet, the growth of human wellbeing, democratization of society and etc.). They offer a comprehensive classification of types of couchsurfing by several criteria (age of tourists, number of participants, purpose of the trip and direction, length of stay, intensity of tourist flow). The regional peculiarities of the couchsurfing development are identified, and the regions with high
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