The role of information technology in legal education

In thе article, the comparative analysis of scientific research of domestic and foreign authors on the application of digital educational resources in the preparation of future lawyers. Much attention is paid in the article to the use in the educational process of information resources, in which educational material can be presented in digital (electronic) format. In the opinion of the author, the development of information and communication technologies by university teachers, as well as the widespread use of digital educational resources to create teaching and methodological support will improve the quality of legal education. Competent use of information technology increases the pedagogical impact on the formation of the creative potential of students, increases the level of scientific culture. In conclusion, the author comes to the conclusion that today there is a need to create a unified approach that reveals the didactic possibilities of using digital educational resources (DERs) containing a system of standards in the creation and implementation of electronic resources products in the educational process. 

In the conditions of ubiquitous informatization of the entire education system, the importance of information and communication competence of pedagogical workers is greatly increased. Practice shows that today there are all opportunities for improving the educational process through the introduction of new methods and tools of ICT, especially when teaching legal disciplines. Great importance is played by the need to train teachers for these technologies.

The development of general educational, general cultural and professional skills in working with information, communicative skills of working with students, the ability to design electronic educational publications — all this together is the basis of information and communication competence of modern teachers of legal disciplines.

According to A.M. Aiulova, S.S. Kenzhebulatova the ongoing changes in the traditional approaches to the teaching and learning process are responsible for the phenomenon of e-learning. The development of ICT and multimedia speaks of a wide variety of technologies and tools, the rapid expansion of their capabilities and functions, as well as their application in the educational process, while eliminating any boundariesgeographic, cultural, age [1; 113].

The basis for improving the quality of the entire education is the level of proficiency of the teaching staff of universities by information and communication technologies (ICT). The ubiquitous use of ICT tools to create educational and methodological support of disciplines makes it possible to improve the quality of  the educational process. The competent use of ICT by university lecturers greatly enhances the pedagogical impact on the formation of the student's creative potential, the education of a certain level of scientific culture in them [2; 86].

One of the new pedagogical technologies is training using digital electronic resources (DERs), which obey the basic laws of pedagogy, and include traditional didactic principles of education, but are supplemented with new conditions and criteria of the learning environment. Existing studies of psychologists, lawyers show that the effectiveness of the learning process directly depends on the level of activation of all sensory organs, i.e. the wider the students' sensory perception of the teaching material, the better it is absorbed.

This gives grounds to believe that the more diverse and more clearly developed and presented the educational material, the more effective the educational process. It can be concluded that the most promising means of teaching legal disciplines are digital educational resources.

These tools are based on a variety of information technologies, which include not only existing technical techniques, for example, the use of hypertext technology, i.e. when there is an opportunity to go from one text to another by means of references, but also, for example, hypermedia, i.e. synthesis of hypertext and multimedia (graphics, sound, video). In addition, the use of DERs saves time in many respects and does not require large printing costs for non-printing services.

For example, T.N. Noskova, T.B. Pavlova believe that the role of digital educational resources is especially evident in the process of independent out-of-class work of students. In the developed new educational standards for independent work, the student is given much more time in relation to the total complexity of   the discipline. The process of independent mastering of knowledge by students should, as a rule, be of an individual character and occur in emerging new information conditions that reflect the content of information processes in modern society and in the learned discipline [3; 134].

For example, according to E.Y. Bidaibekov, S.S. Usenov any kind of educational activity can be provided with a variety of information tools. The question of the choice of teaching aids is decided taking into account the specifics of the content of learning goals and objectives for a given discipline. The following grounds for the selection and combination of teaching aids are singled out:

• the degree of adequacy of funds to the goals and content of education;
• the degree of adequacy of funds in relation to organizational forms and methods of training, the level of effectiveness in their implementation;
• taking into account the multivariate principle of learning by the students of educational material;
• the level of correspondence of the means of instruction to the educational objectives and tasks for the discipline under study at this stage;
• the level of effectiveness of training tools [4; 89].

To date, in the educational process, a simple demonstration of educational material (even with an interactive whiteboard) is an inadequate option for organizing classes, especially in legal disciplines. It arises necessary to apply different methods when issuing training material.

For example, you can apply slide-lectures with animation elements, which will allow the student to more clearly study the material. In addition, interactive models and dynamic FLASH-presentations will be effective. However, it should be noted that for the creation of animated models by teachers, special knowledge is required (not just Word or Excel) and a sufficiently long time for their development. To this end, universities should be organized special courses to train the teaching staff the necessary skills and knowledge in the development of digital educational resources.

According to E.Sh. Shamsuvaleeva, R.I. Kashapov with the introduction of new educational standards, it is necessary to create and use only those electronic educational resources that are strictly regulated by time, content, and also correspond to educational and work programs. The creation of such standards should be entrusted to special organizations that have experienced programmers, proofreaders, scientific advisers, and, of course, teachers in the given disciplines [5; 115].

All electronic learning resources can be divided into the following groups (categories):

• on the functions that they perform in the educational process: educational-methodical complex for a certain legal discipline, curriculum, reference books, lecture notes, test tasks, methodological instructions for doing independent work, a set of scientific publications and other;
• the degree and level of didactic support of the discipline under study: a separate subject of the discipline, section, part of the section and other;
• by the type of educational process in which a certain educational resource is used: lectures, the necessary educational and methodological support for distance learning or the e-learning system and other;
• by the nature of the presentation of information: a multimedia product, an electronic analogue of a printed educational publication, a special curriculum and other;
• on the degree of interactivity: active, descriptive, mixed and

When developing digital educational resources, it is necessary to withstand certain requirements, the essence of which is reduced to the effectiveness and quality of the final product for the more successful mastering of the educational material by students. Didactic, organizational and technical requirements can be singled out in the development of digital educational resources:

1. Didactic requirements:

• the availability of pedagogical expediency of using the digital resource in the educational process;
• a certain degree of scientific content of the digital resource, i.e. availability of scientific and reliable information, objective scientific facts;
• openness of the presented digital educational resource with the means of information and communication technologies (ICT) to students at all levels of education (bachelor, master's degree, doctoral studies);
• increasing the level of information capacity of education through the use of alternative sources, as well as the distribution and structuring of educational information;
• realization of the possibility of individualization of education within the framework of collective training, i.e. the possibility of students choosing an individual path, a level of complexity, a mode of work that takes into account individual psycho-physiological, intellectual, motivational characteristics of students;
• realization of the possibility of combining group and individual forms of education depending on its goals, objectives, content and methodology;
• the presence of the development of communicative abilities of the student in the framework of joint educational, research

2. Organizational requirements:

• full correspondence of the content of the educational material of the discipline to the educational standards of specialty;
• the ability to ensure the integrated and multi-functional use of ICT in teaching (in lecture, seminar, practical, laboratory classes, independent work of the student, in research and extracurricular activities), as well as in the management of the educational process;
• increase the level of adaptability of the digital educational resource, the possibility to include certain changes and additions to it when the educational standard is changed, curricula;
• providing a certain aesthetic perception and design of a digital educational resource, expressed in the orderliness and expressiveness of visual and sound elements of the resource;
• creation of own methodical recommendations for work with digital educational resources;
• reduction of time costs for the organization of educational, research and educational work by the developer (teacher) himself, and by the manager of the educational process in the university, or at the faculty and

3. Technical requirements:

• ensuring the sustainable operation of the digital educational resource;
• protection against unauthorized actions both from the user of the electronic resource, and external influence of the Internet network;
• sufficient speed of processing of educational information (for example, when performing test tasks or laboratory tasks);
• the possibility of networking ways of working with digital educational resources;
• ease of installation (installation) of the digital educational resource;
• availability of correspondence of the basis of the resource to modern operating systems (Windows 7, 8, 10).

According to A.G. Akhmetova in the modern university there should be a developed electronic educational environment that provides the opportunity to develop innovative teaching methods based on the constant interaction of both teachers with students and students among themselves. This work should be provided with special methods of constructing the educational and methodological complex of discipline, effective forms of control and various methods of communication [6; 351].

The position of I.K. Voitovich is interesting, which boils down to the fact that the algorithm of creation of electronic training courses should be based on several equally important and necessary components:

• selection and development of educational material on the discipline or course content for presentation in electronic (digital) form; 
• definition of the model of the electronic training course, taking into account the set of didactic and methodological principles of its construction;
• choice of special tools, through which digital (electronic) content will be created;
• choice of platform for remote content placement;
• mastering of new types of interaction [7; 140].

Thus, it can be concluded that the use of modern information technology (DERs) in the teaching of legal disciplines will not only provide an educational process, but also to identify some of the advantages of such forms of organization of the educational process. Such advantages include:

1. A new organization of independent work of students is introduced, based on individual characteristics of
2. The intensity of the educational process
3. The students motivation for cognitive activity
4. There is an openness and availability of educational materials on electronic media, ease of
5. Availability of students ability to self-control the degree of mastering the educational material (testing, problem solving). 

References

1. Aiulov, M., & Kenzhebulatova, S.S. (2016). E-learning kak novaia paradihma v sisteme vyssheho obrazovaniia [E-learning as a new paradigm in the higher education system]. Vestnik KarGU. Seriia Pedahohika — Bulletin of KarSU. Series Pedagogy, 1, 112–117 [in Russian].
2. Arzumanova, N.V. (2009). Ispolzovanie sovremennykh informatsionnykh tekhnologii v obrazovatelnom protsesse [The use of modern information technology in the educational process]. Izvestiia Rossiiskoho hosudarstvennoho pedahohicheskoho universiteta A.I. Gercena — Proceedings of the A.I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University, 113, 86–90 [in Russian].
3. Noskova, T.N., & Pavlova, T.B. (2013). Elektronnye resursy kak osnova formirovaniia perspektivnykh professionalnykh kompetencii [Electronic resources as a basis for the formation of promising professional competencies]. Vestnik SanktPeterburhskoho universiteta MVD Rossii — Bulletin of the Saint Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, 3 (59), 133–137 [in Russian].
4. Bidaіbekov, E.Y., & Usenov, S.S. (2012). Aktualnye problemy i sushchestvuiushhii opyt formirovaniia obrazovatelnykh elektronnykh resursov [Actual problems and existing experience in the formation of educational electronic resources]. Vestnik Seriia Informatizaciia obrazovaniia — Bulletin PFUR. Series Informatization of Education, 1, 89–93 [in Russian].
5. Shamsuvaleeva, E.Sh., & Kashapov, R.I. (2012). Didakticheskie problemy uchebnykh zaniatii s ispolzovaniem elektronnykh obrazovatelnykh resursov [Didactic problems of training sessions using electronic educational resources]. Vestnik RUDN. Seriia Informatizatsiia obrazovaniia — Bulletin of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Series Informatization of Education, 4, 114–118 [in Russian].
6. Akhmetova, A.G. (2013). Sozdanie informatsionnoi obrazovatelnoi sredy vuza: opyt i problemy [Creation of the information educational environment of the university: experience and problems]. Vestnik Universiteta — Bulletin of the University, 15, 350–353 [in Russian].
7. Voitovich, I.K. (2015). Spetsifika sozdaniia elektronnykh obrazovatelnykh kursov [Specificity of the creation of electronic educational courses]. Vestnik Tomskoho hosudarstvennoho pedahohicheskoho universiteta — Bulletin of Tomsk State Pedagogical University, 1 (153), 138–143 [in Russian].