*Perceptions of Digital Education to Accelerate the Flow of Knowledge DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111916*

**Table 2.**

*Perception of digital education processed through the Kano model.*

*Formulation and problem-solving*, *Digital skill,* or *Faster communication,* and others. These tend to increase their demands on requirements from no impact (I) to must-be (M) with increasing grade of study.

Following the data obtained from the survey, quantitative and qualitative data, we investigated the flow of knowledge within digital education. The cluster analysis was used for the evaluation regarding the determined survey objective, to monitor the clusters of information flows in digital education in Slovakia, **Figure 10**.

Using cluster analysis, we identified the following three clusters displayed in the **Table 3**.

**Figure 9.**

*3D – The influence of the grade of study (current year and degree) on the investigated parameters of digital education.*

#### **Figure 10.**

*The clusters analysis of digital education in Slovakia.*

Based on the identified clusters, we can state that **Cluster 3** includes the parameters: *Interesting*, *Fun*, *Communication*, and Active students. From the above, we can consider that the *activity of students* is dependent on communication, that is, the ability of the teacher to communicate digitally, since the teacher does not have the possibility of personal contact to increase the activity of the student. Furthermore, student activity also depends on fun and interesting delivery of the curriculum within digital education.

**Cluster 2** clumps together parameters: *Interactive*, *Active teacher*,*Time management*, *Digital socialization*, *Flexible,* and *Efficiency*. This cluster is connected with the *activities of the teacher* to set digital education in such a way that he correctly schedules the time management of education, connected with digital socialization, which is

*Perceptions of Digital Education to Accelerate the Flow of Knowledge DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111916*


*The significance of colors in Table 3 according to Figure 10 - cluster 1 - orange, cluster 2 - yellow, cluster 3 - slightly orange.*

#### **Table 3.** *Identified clusters.*

supposed to arouse interest in students and their activity during education. This makes digital education interactive and effective for both parties (teacher and student) involved in the educational process.

**Cluster 1** consists of all investigated *skills*: *Formulate your own opinion*, *Search and convey information*, *Expose hoaxes or select information*, *Creatively receive and process information*, *Work with text*, *Digital skills*, *Learn by yourself*,*To think creatively*, *Formulation and problem-solving*, and *Regulate their actions*. Based on this, we can conclude that if there is a positive interaction between Cluster 3 and Cluster 2, digital skills also improve.

From the above, we can conclude that digital education is beneficial and necessary for education (Cluster 1), but its effectiveness is conditioned by the professional approach of teachers (Cluster 2), who would be able to evaluate the benefits of digital education within the flow of information for student education, which is equally conditioned by student activity (Cluster 3).

Zelená [39] claims that if the use of information and communication technologies is to be beneficial for education, it is necessary for teachers to have professional skills that would enable them to evaluate the use of information and communication technologies also in the field of the psyche of its user (Cluster 2). In this context, the teacher is expected to prepare for digital education:


The primary activating source of the flow of information in digital education is the teacher, as in the traditional model of education. Here, however, it is important, as stated by Horváthová [40], to start from the support of the brain's own activity and to try to create an environment in education that transfers this activity and control from the machines (digital education) to the user. As constructive, we can call all tools that support student activity, with which anything can be created - these are various editors, programming languages, modeling tools, etc. These digital tools based on a multimedia basis provide a number of advantages - interactive intervention of the student in the course of teaching, visualization, simulation of processes, etc. The connection of various digitally presented information within education creates a very complex virtual network of information, which must be organized into knowledge structures. The basic element of digital education is then an information unit that is combined into various structures that are linked using keywords.

The different ways of learning in the digital environment allow the teacher to change the classroom and adapt it to the teaching unit to support the development of the students' learning. Thus, digital education allows them to create a **flexible learning space** where students are actively involved in the creation of knowledge by participating in learning and assessment in a way that is meaningful to them and thus creating an independent **learning culture**. Despite the use of flexibility and a specific culture of learning in the digital environment, the teacher is a constantly activating element of digital education, who must deliberately manage the content of education to help students develop conceptual understanding and procedural fluency of education in a given issue. The teacher's role in the digital space is even more important and often more demanding than in the traditional model of education, in order to keep students' attention without physical contact and to be able to develop their knowledge and skills. Therefore, as stated by Kubálková [40], the potential of innovation in the post-initial training of teachers is underlined here, respecting andragogic aspects of the **professional development of teachers**, with a focus on the area of lifelong education of teachers and their professional development. Thus, digital education is built on the four pillars of F-L-I-P (Flexibility - Learning culture - Intentional content - Professional teacher), as stated by Flipped Learning Network [41] and Seberíni et al. [42].

Horváthová [43] points out the importance of communication, which is now self-evident in the online space, and its function as a source of information is also important for us. In accordance with the principles of modern pedagogy and digital education, it allows us to involve people and information resources from literally all over the world in the educational process. Considering this, it can be argued that the implementation of digital technologies in education must be supported by the development of digital skills [44].

Schmidt [45] claims that through digital education, the student constantly perceives and processes various stimuli within the environment created by the teacher (Cluster 3). Through cognitive and neural structures, he can transform these stimuli into information that is important to him and exclude and forget the rest. This ability is the essence of effective learning. If the teacher can create a sequence of intense stimuli for the student, which the student's brain evaluates as information, we are already talking about learning and acquiring skills within education. Schmidt [45] claims that the channel through which the student perceives the given information is equally important. Therefore, digital education is not only a tool for providing text or image study materials in electronic form, but currently represents a virtual structured network of information for the student.

Thus, the research points to the importance of connecting knowledge flows, knowledge development, and the fact of the necessity of their connection and interdependence. Hermelin [46] describes this state as shared connections between different local knowledge environments influencing the power and dynamic development of knowledge. Thai et al. [47] and Seberíni et al. [42] state that the effect of education is relatively large with mixed education.

The activation of knowledge through digital education, which is created by the mutual interaction of the teacher (Cluster 2) and the student (Cluster 3), leads to the development of the flow of information within education (cluster 1) and multimedia educational systems. In this way, we focus on the development of planned digital education [48], which is primarily aimed at developing the flow of information and knowledge in a given field. However, the goal of education is not only to develop the flow of information and knowledge in a given field but also to prepare the student for practice and develop his skills. In the context of various types of activities in digital education, the abilities of people, and individuals and the overall efficiency of the processes of building and sharing knowledge are significantly developed and improved [36]. In digital education, in addition to the planned flow of information, knowledge, and skill development, the acquisition of skills and knowledge also occurs spontaneously and unconsciously, while this process contributes to the development of the individual through interaction with others [49, 50]. It is an ability in which people can constantly develop and acquire new skills in order to be able to use them in every new change brought about by the digital world [51] and requires practice. Currently, there is a really sharp increase in the demand for not only professional but also digital skills [44], which digital education develops planned but also spontaneously as part of the creation of the flow of information during education. Based on the mentioned facts, we can conclude that digital education is a tool for facilitating knowledge sharing and development, as also confirms [52].
