Suchergebnisse

The main purpose of this article is to present the population of "only children" in Poland and address the poss-ible effects of very low fertility for the functioning of the family, society, education system, and the only children them-selves. This analysis is based primarily on statistics published by government institutions such the Central Statistical Office of Poland, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Ministry of Finance, etc. In Poland, as in other developed countries, a decrease in fertility can be observed. As a result, only children are a fast-growing group among children and adolescents. Due to changes to the definition of a family, the definition of an only child is also under transformation. Thus, the term "only child" can now refer to more and more people. Currently, the group of only children accounts for about 50% of all children. Data and demographic projections both for the population of only children and for fertility in Poland indicate that in the next few years the situation will worsen. This raises challenges on demographic grounds, as the substitutability of generations is not only threatened, but it is also not assured. Also, pedagogy becomes a field of trial, especially in terms of the education of children and in terms of preparing adults to be parents of an only child. New problems arise on a social basis in terms of providing care for the elderly and the functioning of pension systems. The growing population of only children also implies the need for new research in the field of social sciences and humanities.

The preparation of citizens for active living in the information society is important. This not only requires having proper equipment, but also knowledge, skills, and competences. In many sociological and pedagogical analyses, as well as reports from the National Statistical Office, there is no data concerning usage of e-services, ownership of equipment, etc. Furthermore, there are no indexes that extensively present this data. In this paper, the author proposes a synthetic indi-cator called the involvement index in the information society. In addition, the author presents the results of research con-ducted in politics, international relations, and internal safety with both full-time students and part-time students at Nicolaus Copernicus University in 2009 and 2012. The author uses the value of the involvement index in the information society in the research. The research results indicate that students do not look at their future through the prism of change in the information society, they do not think about themselves as teleworkers, and they do not perceive themselves as persons who often change job positions or who use the e-learning process upon completion of their studies. Reasons for this situation are surely not attributable to matters of infrastructure, as these parameters reach almost maximum value, but instead can be attributed to a lack of knowledge or habits. Hence, a general conclusion resulting from the study is a call for change in the learning formula for the subject of information technology not only at the primary and secondary school levels, but in higher education as well.

This paper considers students' attitudes towards e-reading. The author presents the results of a studyconducted from 2003 to 2012 among students atNicolaus Copernicus University that examined students' attitudes towards electronic resources. The studyutilized the results of other researchers. The results of the study indicate that despite the increasing availability of electronic publications on the Polish market, they are not becoming more popular among students, at least not among those students that comprised the researched group. This is undoubtedly connected with the respondents' modest reading needs, which are being insufficiently developed at Polish schools. After the reforms of 1999, Polish education has focused solely on test-driven examinations of students' knowledge and abilities. The results of the research presented in this paper unambiguously indicate that interest in online magazines, as well as digital libraries in which the holdings are becoming more and more extensive, is decreasing.

Artykuł ma na celu zaprezentowanie wyników badań dotyczących poglądów współczesnych studentów na uniwersytet. Sformułowano kilka problemów badawczych: z jakich źródeł informacji i wiedzy o świecie korzystają współcześni studenci; jakie są główne cele szkolnictwa wyższego według współczesnych studentów; dlaczego współcześni studenci decydują się na rozpoczęcie studiów wyższych; kim jest nauczyciel akademicki dla współczesnego studenta? Narzędziem badawczym był kwestionariusz ankiety udostępniony studentom drogą elektroniczną. Badania wykazały, że uniwersytet jest jednym ze źródeł informacji dla 65% studentów biorących udział w badaniu. Więcej wskazań uzyskał jedynie Internet. Ponadto, respondenci za kluczowe cele szkolnictwa wyższego uznali przyczynianie się do rozwoju intelektualnego studentów, przygotowanie zawodowe oraz przyznawanie stopni naukowych i wydawanie dyplomów. Głównymi powodami, dla których respondenci zdecydowali się podjąć studia w szkole wyższej były: chęć zdobycia wyższego wykształcenia, chęć rozwoju intelektualnego i chęć nabycia określonych umiejętności praktycznych. Nauczyciele akademiccy są dla studentów, przede wszystkim, osobami przekazującymi wiedzę. 21% spośród ankietowanych udzieliło odpowiedzi "mistrz" (lub użyło synonimu tego słowa).

The purpose of this study is to perform preliminary weighing of the consequences of integration of these Central-Eastern European countries which, during the years 2004 and 2007, became members of the European Union. The elements considered in the analysis included changes observable in four areas: social, economic, cultural and that of the information society. Specifically, the analysis covered selected measurable variables relating to the above-mentioned areas. In the case of the economic field, the authors took into account the changes in production output of the economy, in public debt level, and the inflow of EU funds to the new member states. The social area factor considered was the change to the value of human development index. In the part related to the culture, particular attention was paid to four aspects: language learning, cultural heritage, employment in the cultural sector and the project of European Capital of culture. In the last part of the article, the issues related to e-society were presented (in particular: the percentage of people regularly using the Internet, the indicator of software piracy and the index of networked readiness).