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INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY PENETRATION INTO EDUCATION: SOME THOUGHTS
Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas
Number of views: 459
Over the last decade the spread of information communication technologies has been growing very rapidly both in quantitative and qualitative meaning. Not only new, innovative technologies, but also various people communication forms based on these technologies have appeared. Here, it is spoken about so-called social networking websites. Their rapid development raises certain anxiousness as well. Education, as one of society life spheres, can’t stay apart. The penetration of technologies in education is very great. The number of computers and computer technologies is expanding not only in educational offices, but also in the environment of every of us: homes, working places and so on. The youth is a very receptive group of society in this respect, seeking to try the newest technologies as quickly as possible. The majority of pupils spend quite a big part of time working on computers and using other computer technologies. It must be accentuated, that very often such kind of activity is not directly related with learning and self-education in a wider sense. It is obvious, that penetration of technologies enables educational community to work differently, to change educational process, to search for new approaches and so on. On the other hand, that raises certain problems and challenges. Though nowadays ICT technologies enable to get, process, save, convey and transmit information very effectively, on the other hand, realisation of information itself becomes problematic. In general, it is obvious that on the one hand, ICT provide quite big possibilities and on the other hand, they cause hard to solve problems. How to find a sensible balance between expectable benefit and probable harm? ICT in education isn’t an end in itself, is it? First of all we have to orientate ourselves to effective technology appliance in the educational process seeking better education and self-education quality. Here, ICT competence question remains urgent. It is to do with educators, first of all. Technologies themselves do not improve anything or make effective, do they? It is necessary to be able to use them.