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For centuries, people have been using education to teach survival based skills. However, with the change in the purpose of education, how will IT fit in as a new educational tool, and to what extent should it be incorporated within the educational sphere? In prehistoric times, education was mainly based on a master-apprentice model, with male children learning, by demonstration, the role of their fathers business, a key feature for their survival and for the survival of the society. Nowadays, however, the topics that are taught in schools and colleges are not always related to survival. There are real college courses ranging from Zombies in Popular Media to Strategies in StarCraft! Consequently, my conclusion is that education, nowadays, is to impart any knowledge or skill, whether it is practically useful or not. Naturally, IT can help reach this objective. Because of its high accessibility, extensions to asynchronous learning, and edutainment possibilities, it has high promises within the educational sphere. For example, when I tried to learn how to play modern piano songs, I was introduced to the song through Youtube, a video sharing website, and I downloaded the music sheets online, which are usually not available in stores. Furthermore, even though I had a personal piano tutor, I attended virtual piano lectures, where I could repeatedly watch a single segment of a tutorial video over and over again at night without annoying the teacher. Lastly, by playing around with the Virtual Piano application, I became more familiar with the different chord voicings, which eventually enabled me to pass a theoretical Piano examination. IT facilitated my education in music. Nevertheless, IT is merely a tool for education, and is not a complete supplement. There are some areas of (what we consider) essential knowledge and skills that IT alone cannot completely fill. For example, while forum post sections in VLEs allow students to partake in discussions, the lack of face-to-face communication may restrict students communication and public oratory skills. Furthermore, instead of learning to concentrate, students may be tempted to plagiarize. Lastly, some of the conveniences that come with IT, such as predictive text and dictation software, may worsen students spelling and reading skills as well. Like most other education specialists, I agree that blended learning may allow students to obtain the benefits of IT while minimizing its secondary effects. However, as you would expect, finding the correct balance is challenging. Furthermore, while a great deal of research has been conducted in this area, the results are yet inconclusive. Because the talents, learning habits, and goals of each student are different, it is difficult to outright claim that there exists a best ratio of IT in education. I hope that IT will continue to be used in education for it is a great educational tool. I hope that IT will continue to provide easily accessible supplementary material. However, I also hope that IT will be used in schools along with non-IT education for that will allow students to experience the best of two worlds.

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