What is Technology? The meaning and interpretation of the word texnologija, the definition of the term. Modern pedagogical technologies

technology). Application of knowledge in production for the material sphere. Technology means the creation of material means (for example, machines, automatons) for the purpose of their use by man.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

TECHNOLOGY

TECHNOLOGY) As it is used in sociology, it covers all forms of production techniques, including manual operations, and is not synonymous with the concept of machinery, as presented in some popular concepts. In the sociology of work and employment, the term also means the physical organization of production, that is, the way in which production equipment is located in the enterprise, and thus covers the division of labor and the organization of work, which are part of an effective production process or its necessary condition. Production technologies and the organization of production are social products, the consequences of making certain decisions by a person; thus, technology can be seen as the result of social processes. Sociologists working within the "human relations" tradition (see: The Human Relations School) have focused on the relationship between technology on the one hand and worker morale and alienation on the other, especially on the direct interaction between worker and machine and the impact of technology. to working groups. This kind of interaction and influence, they have shown, has a certain limited effect on people's morale. Later, technology came to be seen as an aspect of social class and class relations. Within the Marxist work process approach, technology was understood as a manifestation of relations between social classes. At the same time, it was argued that within the framework of capitalist economies, in order to mitigate the consequences of the inevitable conflict between the interests of workers (labor) and management (capital), new production technologies are developed that dominate wage workers and control them. Within the framework of some Weberian theories of class, the “labor situation” is considered as a criterion for class position, the main determining factor of which is technology. See also: Automation; Flexible specialization; Dequalification; Scientific management; Alienation; Postfordism; Sociotechnical systems; labor process; Fordism.

When in 1993 the subject “technology” appeared in the timetable of Russian schools instead of the usual subject “labor”, many school principals and teachers opened dictionaries and encyclopedias and tried to figure out what kind of new innovation fell on their heads.

At the end of XX century. in a society that proclaimed itself technological, there was no agreed point of view on technology and technological education. There was only a general understanding that it was necessary to study technology. This subject began to appear in schools in England, France, the USA, Israel and many other countries. How to explain to schoolchildren what they will learn in technology lessons.

Download:

Preview:

What is technology?

At the end of the XX century. in a society that proclaimed itself technological, there was no agreed point of view on technology and technological education. There was only a general understanding that it was necessary to study technology. This subject began to appear in schools in England, France, the USA, Israel and many other countries. How to explain to schoolchildren what they will learn in technology lessons.

This is how our colleague from the USA, Dr. Kendel N. Starkweather, Executive Director of the International Association for Technology Education, tried to get out of the situation in his article “Tell me what technology is”

OK! You are getting ready for your first day of school. Soon students will appear in front of you, and you will have to explain to them what technology is. So what is it? You are almost in a panic, you know so many definitions of this concept that you do not know which one to choose. What should you do?

To start a discussion, ask the students themselves about the technology. Everyone will try to express their opinion. Surely some will say: “These are computers!” Thanks to the information revolution over the past years, the concept of "technology" has changed dramatically in the minds of many people, but you know what it isnot only computers. It is also educational or training technology. Computers are just tools, equipment, and you teach not only computer technology, because you have a technology education room. You teach a school subject and plan to tell children about technology, and not just use it in teaching.

Other students will say, “This is science!” And there is truth in this. This can help. Now you must explain the difference between science and technology, which is taught in school. Children will say: “Science is the study of the natural world, but technology is the study of the artificial, man-made world!” This is a good start.

Students correctly understood that the difference between science and technology lies precisely in the concept of human activity. Science is something about phenomena, theorems, and technology is about how people use tools, machines, materials, processes, and so on.

However, you still haven't explained what technology is and what you will do while studying it. To sort this out, you can toss the idea that technology is like water. It is dynamic and can take any form. It is beautiful and ugly, stable and changing. It brings blessings and misfortunes. It can be controlled and unbridled. We use it at work and during leisure. It causes a feeling of pleasure or annoyance. It is omnipresent and is connected by thousands of threads to everyday life. Our opinion of it depends on how we use it and how it affects us. But one fact is clear for both technology and water: we cannot do without them.

If you consider this alone, it becomes clear why technology comes to our schools as an essential subject. And you will work with schoolchildren to better understand it, learn how to find solutions, work and live in a technological world.

Good luck in the new academic year!

USA, 1998

According to the New Britannica Encyclopedia, the term "technology", which first appeared in English in the 17th century, referred only to applied arts (crafts). At the beginning of the XX century. the concept of “technology” no longer referred only to machines and tools, but also to other processes that were not related to them. In the middle of the XX century. the term has come to mean "ways or activities by which a person seeks to transform or manipulate the world around him." But this broad definition has been criticized because it was difficult to distinguish between the concepts of "scientific research" and "technological activity".

What is meant by technology today? “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language”, edited by D.N. Ushakov contains the following definition: “Technology (from Greek techne - "art" and logos - "teaching") is a set of sciences and information about the methods of processing one or another raw material into a finished product, into a finished product ... The set of processes for such processing.

The course program “Technology” approved by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation (supervisors Yu.L. Khotunets and V.D. Simonenko) defines this subject as follows: “... the science of the transformation and use of matter, energy and information in the interests and according to the plan of man.”

The already mentioned New Encyclopædia Britannica defines technology as "the systematic study of the ways in which things are made and made."

All the above definitions reveal various aspects of the complex concept of "technology".

The basis for the study of technology in school is the following definition:

Technology is a transformative human activity aimed at

to meet the needs and requirements of people, to solve their problems.

It includes the processes of transformation of matter, energy and information, relies on knowledge and influences nature and society, creates a new man-made world. The result of technological activities are products that meet certain characteristics predetermined at the design stage. Technology as a science studies this human activity.

Technology - a word that comes from the Greek, denoting skill, the ability to make something, art - in our modern sense, is a set of techniques and methods for obtaining, processing or processing raw materials, materials, semi-finished products or products carried out in various industries, in construction and. etc., a scientific discipline that develops and improves such techniques and methods. Technology (or technological processes) are also called the operations of extraction, processing, processing, transportation, storage, storage, which are an integral part of the production process. Modern technology also includes technical control of production. In the old fashioned way it is called quality control. This is wrong - remember - quality is the ability of an object to fulfill its functional properties and satisfy the needs of the user. The entire list of requirements that the product meets is contained in its design documentation. The product designer is responsible for their compliance with modern requirements. The task of the technology is to ensure the manufacture of the product in strict accordance with the requirements of design documentation. The task of technical control of production is to check whether it ensures the fulfillment of the requirements of design documentation. If the product does not meet these requirements, then it simply should not be - the shoes should not slightly let moisture in and cause inconvenience to the one who put it on. In the old fashioned way, we still talk about high or low quality products - you will encounter this from the very first practical steps in production. This is a relic of our common low culture. My task is to warn you about this.

Technology is also called a description of production processes, instructions for their implementation, technological rules, requirements, maps, graphs, etc.

Technology is usually considered in connection with a specific industry (mining technology, mechanical engineering technology, construction technology) or based on the methods of obtaining or processing individual materials (metal technology, fiber technology, fabric technology, etc.)

As a result of the implementation of technological processes, a qualitative change occurs in the objects being processed. Thus, the technology for obtaining various metals is based on a change in the qualitative composition, chemical and physical properties of raw materials; machining technology is associated with a change in some of the physical properties of the machined parts; chemical technology is based on processes carried out as a result of chemical reactions and leading to a change in the composition, structure and properties of the starting materials. The most important indicators characterizing the technical and economic efficiency of the technological process are: the specific consumption of raw materials, semi-finished products, energy per unit of output; yield (quantity) and quality of finished products (products); the level of labor productivity; the intensity of the process; production costs; production cost.

The task of technology as a science is to identify physical, chemical, mechanical and other regularities in order to determine and use in practice the most efficient and economical production processes that require the least labor and material resources.

Thus, the subject of research and development of mechanical engineering technology are: the basics of designing technological processes (types of processing, selection of workpieces, surface quality of workpieces, processing accuracy, basing of workpieces), methods of machining surfaces (flat, shaped, etc.), methods for manufacturing standard parts ( housings, shafts, gears, etc.), assembly processes (the nature of the connection of parts and assemblies, the principles of mechanization and automation of assembly work), the basics of designing fixtures.

The technology of various industries is constantly updated and changed as technology develops. Improving the technology of all industries and types of production is an important condition for accelerating technical progress. The main directions of modern technology are the transition from discontinuous (discrete, cyclic) technological processes to continuous in-line processes, ensuring an increase in the scale of production, the introduction of a closed (wasteless) technology for the most complete use of raw materials, materials, fuel energy, which makes it possible to minimize or completely eliminate production waste from circulation and take measures to improve the environment.

Define the term technology. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Give a definition of the concept of "technology." 2017, 2018.

Technology is usually called the process of processing the source material in order to obtain a product with predetermined properties at the output. In the encyclopedic dictionary, we find the following definition: technology is "a set of methods of processing, manufacturing, changing the state, properties, form of raw materials, material or semi-finished products carried out in the production process."

However, technology is not just a "set of methods". The methods were not chosen by chance, and all of them are aimed at one single goal - obtaining specific products. From this point of view, a more precise definition that reflects the very essence of the process, we find in the textbook "Fundamentals of Management" (M.Kh. Melson et al.), where technology means "any means of converting source materials - be it people, information or physical materials to obtain the desired product or service. This definition is not accurate enough, since the phrase “any means” may include not only the technological method of production, but also the means of production, for example: tools, machine tools, etc. Nevertheless, the essence of the concept of "technology" in the second definition is more pronounced.

So, the definition of technology that emerges from a cursory glance at the problem can be formulated as follows: technology should be understood as a set and sequence of methods and processes for converting raw materials that make it possible to obtain products with specified parameters.

With this view, the key element of any technology (industrial or social) is the detailed definition of the final result and its exact achievement. The resulting definition is essentially a definition of methodology. It simply puts an equal sign between methodology and technology, which is not entirely legitimate.

This approach to the concept of "technology" does not allow to distinguish between methodology and technology. We will try to do this by looking at the approaches that are outlined in the pedagogical literature.

Existing approaches to the concept of "learning technology".

In the psychological and pedagogical literature, one can find several very different views on the concept of "technology". Systematization of different points of view allows us to identify three main approaches to the definition of learning technology.

In the first approach, technology is often understood as a particular technique for achieving a separately set goal (for example, technology for developing the skill of oral counting, technology for organizing group activities, etc.). Equating technology to a private technique, the authors of this approach rely on one of the most important characteristics of technology - they emphasize that it is a way to achieve any specific goal.

The use of the concept of "technology" in this sense does not give pedagogy something new, does not specify the learning process. It is simply a substitution of one concept for another. If earlier they said “the technique (or system) of V.V. Davydova -D.B. Elkonin", now in order to show off their erudition) they say "V.V. Davydova-D.B. Elkonin. From the change of words, the essence of the subject (the system of V.V. Davydov-D.B. Elkonin) has not changed.

Proponents of the second approach by technology mean the pedagogical system as a whole. However, it should be noted that the most important elements of the pedagogical system, according to the interpretation of V.P. Bespalko, are students and teachers. technology, on the other hand, is a characteristic of the way of teaching that is embedded in the pedagogical system and cannot explicitly include students and teachers. Despite the discrepancy between the concepts of "technology" and "pedagogical system", this interpretation of technology is closer to its original meaning, since technology includes not only a methodology (a certain set of rules and methods of activity aimed at achieving a given result, forms of organization of the process ), but also such an important element of the pedagogical system as the system of teaching aids.

In line with the third approach, technology is considered not just as a methodology or pedagogical system, but as an optimal methodology or system for achieving a given goal, as a kind of algorithm. It cannot be said that this view would come even closer to the original interpretation of the concept of "technology" - rather, on the contrary. After all, technology is a way.

And the ways can be different: fast and slow, new and old. And it is no coincidence that the term "modern technologies" appeared, implying the most effective and fastest ways to obtain results at a given level of development of society. The success of many industrial enterprises lies precisely in the fact that they abandon outdated and inefficient technologies and use new and latest technologies based on the latest scientific developments. Technology is not the optimal and most efficient way, but any method of production (or training) that meets the requirements of the manufacturability of the process.

In addition to the three approaches presented, which have already been quite clearly identified in the pedagogical literature, there are a number of others that have not yet fully taken shape. Among them, the view of learning technology as a way of forming the curriculum of individual courses from a set of modules (blocks) stands out. Each of these modules represents the content and methodological development of a single section of the academic discipline. It is believed that by varying such ready-made modules (blocks), rearranging them in places, the teacher can achieve the best result.

It turns out that the technology of learning here is the possibility of rearranging various modules. However, such a rearrangement cannot be called a technology for teaching a student - it is, in fact, a way for a teacher to select educational material, a way of arranging the content of a subject. Of course, the sequence of presentation of the material and its qualitative composition are related to the methods and methods, since certain methods and techniques can be used to study a certain content. However, no matter how the modules (blocks) change places, their teaching is usually carried out in line with a single methodology that a teacher or educational institution uses in their practice.

As we can see, the most frequently encountered in the pedagogical literature of the 90s. approaches to the concept of "technology" also do not answer the question of its difference from methodology. In order to discover this difference, it is necessary to look at the technology from a different angle. We will do this by referring to the historian of the issue.

The original meaning of the term "technology".

The term "technology" is widely used in industry and construction. It is from these two areas that this concept came to pedagogy. This transition was facilitated by the development of information technologies for processing and storing data (information), which at a certain level of development began to be used in the field of education. Their appearance and intensive development in education led to the rapid spread of new terminology.

For the first time the term "technology" appeared several centuries ago, during the formation of industry. This period of development of society is characterized by the growth of machine production, the increase in the volume of products produced in factories, in conditions of higher productivity. In other words, this is the period of transition from handicraft to machine production. Only with the advent of powerful means of production, the productivity of which exceeded the possible productivity of one artisan, did the concept of "technology" arise.

Consideration of the history of the development of production suggests that the development of any sphere of human activity occurs along the chain:

Random Experience-------Craft--------Technology

At the first stage (random experience), a person, faced with some kind of phenomenon (experience, technique), only masters it and gains the skills to work with it. At this stage, he still does not use this phenomenon to ensure his life. This is the period of initial assimilation of the phenomenon. At the second stage - the stage of development of the craft - a person not only masters this phenomenon, but also, giving it strength, builds a certain type of activity on it, adapts it to ensure his life. It was during this period that a profession arises by type of activity (carpenter, potter, fisherman, etc.). At the third stage, society reaches a level of development at which mechanisms and technical means are created for the production of any product. It is they who now do the main work on the production of the product. This is already a stage of technology.

According to the original meaning, technology means the process of production of products by technical means - machines, a group of machines, a production line. Each of the technologies means the production of a specific product using specific means of production. Any change in the set of means of production (for example, the replacement of milling machines at the plant with machines with other technical characteristics) leads to a change in the technological chain, characteristics and production parameters, and, consequently, to a change in the technology itself.

The transition from the handicraft mode of production to the industrial one means a significant complication of production, since machines take part in the production, replacing a person partially or completely. Technologies largely depend on the technical characteristics of the technical means used in the industry. Therefore, in machine production, it was necessary to complicate and detail the description of each action. A simple description of the sequence of actions used by an artisan (or methodologist in training) is no longer enough. Moreover, the description of the production process had to include the exact characteristics of each type of technical means of production, since the entire production process is based precisely on these characteristics.

In this way, industrial technology is a certain method of production (formed by the combination and sequence of methods application) of a product, built on the use of technical or any other means of production under human control. Moreover, the means of production play a dominant role in technology and bear the main burden in obtaining the product. An example is machine production, fabrics in industry, where there is one operator for dozens of machines that produce hundreds and thousands of meters of fabric.

If we transfer this meaning of the term "technology" to pedagogy, then under learning technology will imply a certain a method of learning in which the main load for the implementation of the learning function is performed by a learning tool under the control of a person. In other words, in learning technology, the leading role should be given to the learning tool. With technology, the teacher does not teach students, but performs the function of managing the learning tool, as well as the function of stimulating and coordinating the activities of students.

Apparently, the difference between technology and methodology in the field of education is the same as the difference between technology and handicraft in the manufacturing and construction sectors. This is the difference between highly productive machine production and relatively inefficient manual labor.

So, in learning technologies, the learning tool plays the most important and leading role.

The structure of learning technology.

Consider the structure of the technology of teaching students in elementary school.

It includes the following main components (see Figure 3):

1. Preliminary diagnostics of the level of assimilation of educational material(not to be confused with the level of general development of students) and selection of trainees in classes(groups) with a uniform level of already existing knowledge and experience. For example, testing students who entered the 1st grade according to such criteria as reading ability and reading speed, the ability to count and write, makes it possible to distribute first-graders in the 2nd grade with different levels of preparedness: strong, medium and weak. Education in each of these classes is built differently. Conducting classes on the same textbooks, teachers, making an allowance for the preparedness of students, with a strong class, after a short repetition, quickly move on to mastering new material, and with a weak one, in which students almost cannot read, they study the alphabet and numbers, teach read and count to ten.

The results of the widespread use of preliminary diagnostics in schools when enrolling in the first grades and the grouping of beginners into classes with the same (or close) level of preparedness proved the need to include this element in practice. Preliminary diagnostics and selection are necessary not only when enrolling in grade 1, but also in most cases when starting to study any course or subject. This may be selection in groups for learning a foreign language, psychological training, etc.

2. Motivation and organization of educational activities of students. Motivation is one of the leading areas of the teacher's work. With the introduction of teaching technologies, this direction in the work of the teacher becomes especially important. The interaction of a student with a learning tool may not always bring joy and pleasure, although this is possible (for example, computer games are very attractive to students). Therefore, the main task of the teacher in the introduction of learning technology is to attract students to cognitive activities and support this interest.

3. Action of means of training. This stage is the actual learning process, which is carried out through the interaction of students with learning tools. At this stage, the student masters the educational material when interacting not with the teacher, as in frontal or individual learning, but with the learning tool.

Quality control of mastering the material. Technology pays significant attention to the control process. If, when using the methodology, the main attention was paid to the process of organizing the activities of students in mastering knowledge and accumulating experience, then in technology the components of organizing activities and control are equivalent - these are two interrelated and complementary blocks. Insufficient attention to any of them leads to a decrease in the capabilities of the technology and an increase in the time required for training. From this point of view, the learning process can be schematically depicted as follows (Fig. 1, 2):

Rice. 1. Learning process, Fig. 2. The learning process, built on the basis of principles built according to technological methodology

It should be noted that the use of teaching aids (means of control, diagnostics, etc.) is possible at any stage of the educational process, however, the learning process becomes a technology only when the teaching aid is used at a key stage - the stage of educational activity (the third stage) . The use of teaching aids at all other stages speaks only of one or another degree of completeness of the technology used.

Rice. 3. Learning built like a workflow

Technology features learning.

Any technology used in the social sphere has its own characteristics.

The learning technology is characterized by the following features:

The uncertainty of the result, the lack of methods and means that immediately after one cycle of interaction (training) give the required 100% result;

Periodic monitoring of the improved parameter;

Identification and selection of underachievers;

Additional work with selected, i.e. carrying out a repeated cycle of interaction;

Secondary inspection after additional work;

In case of persistent misunderstanding by students of new material, a diagnosis of the causes of misunderstanding or lagging behind is also carried out.

Requirements to technological process in education.

In learning technologies, the degree of achievement of the result (completion of the learning process) can be determined in two ways. Firstly, by the means of control that allow obtaining an objective assessment, and secondly, by the teacher himself. He himself can evaluate whether the process is completed or not.

Thus, different processes are characterized by different degrees of manufacturability. With the highest degree of manufacturability, all stages of the process are carried out by means of training. With a minimum degree of manufacturability, the learning process itself can be carried out by a learning tool, and control can be carried out by the teacher.

In some cases, the learning process, which contains a significant element of communication and interaction between people, can be called a technological process.

This becomes possible if:

1) teaching aids play a leading role in learning;

2) the goal of learning is set diagnostically (indicating the required level of assimilation);

3) the achievement of the final result is carried out with an accuracy of at least 70Uo (for a given level of assimilation).

The activity of individuals and organizations now increasingly depends on the knowledge they have, one of the most valuable resources of modern society, and the ability to use it effectively. However, the means intended for the representation of knowledge are still quite imperfect and often force people to look for solutions to the same problems again and again.

To optimize the search for the necessary information, all kinds of online services are being created today. So, on the basis of Wiki-technology in 2001, Wales and Sanger opened the site "Wikipedia". Wikipedia is a multilingual, public, freely distributed encyclopedia published on the Internet. This "public" encyclopedia is a prime example of the rapid growth and accumulation of knowledge in the distributed environment of the Internet. It is created by the collective work of volunteer authors using Wiki technology.

Before Wikipedia on the Internet, many ways of group communication were invented: chat, web forum, blog. These technologies allow you to exchange information and organize it in some way, but none of them allows you to create a full-fledged, dynamically updated site. Wikipedia currently has 253 language sections.

The Ukrainian part of Wikipedia currently consists of over 70 thousand articles, and the Russian part - over 250 thousand. Their growth rates are among the highest (1000 articles per month). Obviously, not all Ukrainian and Russian-speaking Internet users know about Wikipedia, but given how many scientists and students are among these users, we can expect a significant increase in the rate of filling these resources.

During its development, the Wikipedia project, despite the fears associated with the unprofessionalism of the authors, possible vandalism, the spontaneity of creating individual articles, made it possible to create a fairly high-quality product - a complete and objective, freely accessible multilingual encyclopedia. The success of Wikipedia has demonstrated that Internet users need reliable encyclopedic information. Therefore, the online encyclopedia project is already today a serious source of reference information, knowledge, which, unlike traditional sources, has a remarkable feature - efficiency.

The success of Wikipedia has spawned a wide variety of other essential projects that operate on similar principles and serve to create other kinds of educational and reference publications.

Wiki technology and its main characteristics

Wiki is a technology for building a website that allows users to actively participate in the process of editing its content through a web interface - fixing errors, adding new materials. Wiki-technology does not require the use of special programs, registration on the server and knowledge of HTML. The term Wiki is also used to refer to software that is developed to create such sites.

The information provided in the Wiki has a non-linear navigational structure. Each page usually contains a large number of hyperlinks to other pages. The first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, was developed in 1994 and first appeared on the Internet in 1995. The first Wiki site was the Portland Sample Repository, created by Ward Cunningham, where code snippets were collected. The largest and most famous Wiki site is Wikipedia. Today, Wiki technology is used to create directories, knowledge bases, and documentation development. Modern Wiki engines allow you to work not only with texts, but also with spreadsheets, calendars, image galleries, files, etc. Map services can also be built according to the Wiki principle. There have been developments of Wiki applications for corporate environments (eg Confluence, Jot, Near-Time).

Wiki is designed to solve a simple and natural task - to enable each visitor to participate in the development of content. Participate not only as a commentator, but also as a full-fledged author and editor - on a par with the administration and staff members of the project. This requires two things: firstly, the user must have the technical ability to make changes to the pages of the site, and secondly, this process should not require special knowledge and skills.

The Wiki technology allows accumulating the knowledge of mankind, presenting it in an electronic interoperable form, providing navigation through this knowledge base and means of updating it. At the same time, communities of various sizes and thematic focus can use Wiki, creating knowledge bases from global Wikipedias and electronic encyclopedias of large corporations to easily updated reference systems of small organizations, enterprises and educational institutions. Wiki is a fairly complex system for collecting and structuring information. Its main characteristics are:

- Support for multi-user work is provided;

there is the possibility of multiple editing of any text using the Wiki-environment (website);

- the appearance of changes immediately after they are made;

- each Wiki article has its own unique name;

- the language of this markup is quite simple and does not require special knowledge;

- It is possible to revert to a previous version.

Compared to CMS (Content Management Systems), Wiki technology has the following differences:

— The title of the article is also a hyperlink to external systems.

- Articles are created and edited almost at any time by any user.

- Articles available for editing are located directly in the web browser.

- Each article provides access to view and edit the chronology / versions of the page, which supports the search for existing discrepancies.

- Each article grants the user access to that article's talk page.

Wiki assumes broader user rights when editing content, lack of hierarchy and freer access to information. In addition, Wiki-enabled pages provide interoperability and knowledge reuse.

Wiki engines

Wiki engines are software used to create Wiki sites. A Wiki engine is a set of programs that converts Wiki markup into a human-readable HTML representation.

MediaWiki is a software engine for creating websites based on Wiki technology, developed specifically for Wikipedia by a German student M. Manske. It is one of the most powerful Wiki engines, written specifically for Wikipedia and used in many other Wikimedia projects. MediaWiki is written in PHP and uses a relational database in its work (you can use MySQL, PostgreSQL); supports memcached and Squid programs.

MediaWiki provides an interface for working with the page database, differentiation of access rights to system administration, as well as the following features:

— process text both in native format and in HTML and TeX formats (for formulas)

- upload images or other files, etc.

A flexible extension system allows users to add their own features and programming interfaces. Further versions of MediaWiki continue to be developed. For example, among the new features present in the experimental version of MediaWiki are PostgreSQL support and a system for approving completed and verified articles. Version 1.7.0 removed support for Oracle due to the lack of movement in the development of this direction.

There are many Wiki-engines with their own characteristics and advantages. In the table on p. 59 provides an overview of modern Wiki engines. The choice of a Wiki engine depends on what set of features and capabilities is required (version control, access restrictions, RSS feeds with information about page changes, subscription to changes to specific pages, etc.), on which platform it will be based and how all this will work, etc. First of all, you need to determine what will be used: a Wiki on your own server or a Wiki service provided by an external organization. For creating online encyclopedias, many people recommend MediaWiki. WackoWiki, Confluence and NPJ are often used to form knowledge bases. For personal use, use WikidPad or deskDo. Using Wiki-technologies in the absence of the Internet allows TiddlyWiki and deskDo.

How to create articles for Wikipedia

There is a 90-9-1 theory that estimates the percentage of Wiki users, dividing them into three groups: 1) readers - 90%; 2) those who occasionally contribute in some way, 9% and 3) those who actively work on filling the content of the Wiki - only 1%. Most of the work is done by 1% of users, but it is also useful for the rest to know how they can join this group.

The openness of the technology did not lead, as many feared, to the destruction and deterioration of materials: the Wiki saves all the changes that have occurred to all articles since their creation, so at any time you can compare different versions of the same article, correct the page again, or simply return to the old version. Thus, repairing the damage done is easier than causing it. In addition, administrators always have the opportunity to block changes to individual pages (in particular, the most controversial ones).

Wiki pages are articles whose content is plain text, where you can use HTML tags or special Wiki markup that is more suitable for text documents than HTML. Using a link or button, any visitor to the Wiki site can edit and save a modified version of the text of any existing page or create a new one. The procedure for publishing text on Wikipedia is reduced to two buttons - "Edit" and "Save".

The rules for creating Wikipedia articles, aimed at creating high-quality texts, are quite simple, but several conditions must be met:

2. When writing any article, one should strive for a neutral presentation and reflect all known points of view.

3. It is necessary to indicate the sources of information to confirm the reliability of the information.

There are two kinds of articles that do not comply with the policy of neutrality: articles that clearly conflict with the requirements of neutrality and articles that do not describe all opinions or are not detailed enough. In the first case, the article should be marked as biased (((POV))). The non-neutral part of the information of such an article is subject to correction or deletion. In the second case, the article should only be considered incomplete, no matter how impartial and detailed the information already available in it may be.

A certain part of Wikipedia articles is automatically created "blanks". There are three types of links on Wikipedia - to existing articles, to articles not yet written, and to external web resources. In order to create a hyperlink to an article, it is enough to enclose the name of the article to which you want to link in double square brackets - [[Title of the article]] when entering Wiki markup. If the article to which the link points does not exist, then the link will still be created, but its text will be red instead of the usual blue. By activating this link, you can go to the article template and write it, actually correcting the template.

When any author marks a term or expression in the text as a link to a non-existent article, Wikipedia automatically generates a new template article containing the text: "The article has not yet been written, you can write it." The authors who access this link expand the content of the "dummy".

Almost any page on a Wiki site can be edited. In order to make changes to the article, you must:

- make the desired changes to the text of the article;

- for the purpose of control, view the list of changes made (button "Changes made");

- make sure that the edits are correct by viewing the text of the article in advance (the "Preview" button);

- fill in the "Briefly describe the essence of your edit" field and click the "Save page" button.

Wikipedia search

Today there are many national Wikipedias and projects. It is quite laborious to carry out a manual search in this set of information resources. Qwika is a search engine for wikis. Its task is to cover all major Wikipedias in all fairly common languages, translate them and provide a quick search. The system currently indexes the following resources:

- English-language Wikipedia and all namespaces in its composition (Chat, Image, User, etc.).

- English-language Wikipedias (machine translation of popular Wikipedias in other languages).

- Wikipedia in other languages.

— Tourism project WikiTravel.

- Cached versions of all pages in both the original language and machine translation.l

Gladun Anatoly, Senior Researcher, Candidate of Technical Sciences, International Scientific and Educational

information technology center

and systems of NASU;

Rogushina Julia, Senior Researcher

Associate, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Institute of Program Systems of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine