USES OF INFORMATION

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION
Both education and learning are life time processes, they have LEARNING OBJECTIVE
no limit on when to start and stop. In our daily lives we How to use
learn new things and this helps us in changing the way we of information
leave. Education provides us with information, and then we have technology in
education
to learn and process this information for our own use. It is very
important to make education accessible at any time by everyone;
this will help in reducing on the level of illiteracy. Information
technology has the ability of speeding up information delivery, so this
ability can be used in improving our education environment. With
the implementation of information technology, costs of accessing
educational material are cut down and it makes it easy for students
to learn from anywhere.

New technologies are changing the way we learn and they have
also changed the process of teaching. Both teachers and students are
using these new educational technologies to archive specific academic
goals. The only challenge is that Information Technology comes at a
cost, so those who cannot afford the price tend to have difficulties
to benefit from the opportunities of Information Technology in KEY WORD
education. For example; the increased use of internet broadband Information technology
makes it easy for students to access academic information on time. is the application of
computers to store,
Below are some detailed points on the use of information study, retrieve,
technology in education and schools: transmit and
manipulate data, or
Plenty of Educational Resources information, often
in the context of a
Information technology makes it easy to access academic information business or other
enterprise.
at any time. Both students and teachers use information technology
to acquire and exchange educational material. For example; teachers
can easily provide visual and audio classes to their students using
computers and broadband internet. This breaks the boundaries of
accessing information, because the student will simply attend a
lecture while not in a physical classroom. Also teachers can assign
tasks to students via electronic email or campus educational forums.

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 Instant Access to Educational Information
LIVING IN THE IT ERA

Information technology speeds the transfer and distribution of

information. Students can easily access academic data using
computers and new technologies like mobile phone application.
IT experts have coded educational applications which can be used
by students to access information very fast. These mobile phone
applications are replacing some old methods like borrowing of
books in libraries, now day’s students can use Library mobile phone
applications to download books inform of e-books, so they have
these books at any time which saves them time and helps them
read at any time anywhere.

Full Time Learning

Unlike in the past when learning was limited to a physical classroom,
students and teachers could only access academic information
while at school. Today, all that has changed, a student will access
information at any given time of the day. It does not matter where
they are or the time of the day is. Information technology has
KEY WORD facilitated online education, so you will find a student in Africa
Interpreting is a will study the same course as a student in USA or India. And when
translational activity it comes to getting jobs, all these students will have the chance to
in which one produces compete for the same job.
a first and final
translation on the basis
of a one-time exposure Group Learning
to an utterance in a
source language.
Information technology has helped students learn in groups and
it has also helped teachers teach students in groups. In past, we
used to have group discussions at school which required each
member to contribute, however the shy students could stay away
from these groups because of the fear of expressing themselves.
Now with information technology, schools have created academic
forums, where students can discuss about a specific topic with no
fear of expression. They can also engage in video and text chatting.
Another benefit of these online group discussions is that not all
group members will be from the same class or school as it was in
the past. Students from various schools around the world can be
in the same academic group and share academic information. Let’s
look at a student in Africa joining a group discussion of students
in Harvard University, the information exchanged will be beneficial
to this student.

Use of Audio Visual

Information technology has changed the way we learn and interpret
information. The use of audio-visual education helps students learn
faster and easily. As opposed to text and blackboard notes, students
get bored in this form of education. It is a human weakness, people do
not want to read text for so long, they get bored, so the introduction
of audio-visual technology in education, makes students enjoy what
they are learning. Visual illustration using images on projectors helps
a student understand the concept, because some of these images

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are interesting and they look familiar to a student. The brains tend to remember visual

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

illustrations easily more than text. This explains why you can easily remember someone’s
face but fail to remember their names.

Long Distance Learning

Information technology enables students across the globe to study from anywhere through
online education. This has been possible due to the wide spread of cheap broadband internet
in both developed and non-developed countries. Unlike in the past, when some courses used
to be provided in developed countries, so for a student to study those courses they had to
go through the hassle of moving from their home country which was too expensive. Now
days, a student can have access to these courses online. Many universities have opened
their educational curriculum to the world. So at a small fee, a student can be part of that
university. These students do the same exams and are marked by the same teachers.

Impact of Information Technology on Education

The combination of education and technology has been considered the main key to human
progress. Education feeds technology which in turn forms the basis of education. It is
therefore evident that information technology has affected changes to the methods, purpose
and perceived potential of education.

Changes to learning
Being able to access large databases of information fundamentally changes education, since
learners can now be creators and collaborators in the access and construction of discourses
of information. Due to their technological literacy, young people can derive cultural capital
from their understanding of modern information technologies, and thereby have input into
educational change. The same technology also facilitates the rapid exchange of information
by researchers on specific topics, so that the speed of the distribution of information is
greatly increased. The increased access to huge amounts of data means students need help
selecting, evaluating and analyzing information, and they need to learn how to determine
the currency, validity and veracity of the information itself. All of these changes in learning
have implications for teaching practice as well.

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 Changes to teaching Information Technology and the
LIVING IN THE IT ERA
The highest level of change occurring in
potential of education
relation to information technology and
education is in the way teaching is increasingly
being seen as occurring via the medium of
technology, rather than utilizing technology
as an additional extra in the classroom.
Information technology particularly impacts
course content and teaching methodology and
the recruitment and training of teaching staff
as well as the content of courses. Information
technology requires teachers to learn new
sets of skills. Utilizing computer technology
improves the educational experience of the
students not so much because of the media
itself, but because software programs require
teachers to think laterally and systematically,
and produce better teaching materials.
The role of teachers will change with the
advances of information. Students do not
lack information, but rather the time to find,
analyses, understand and apply information.
A teacher’s role is therefore to help students
develop skills in order to determine how to
find, analyses and interpret information.
Information Technology and the
Purpose of Education
While education in the past has been centered
on teaching and learning, information
technology has affected changes to the
aims of education, therefore now education
is increasingly perceived as the process of
creating, preserving, integrating, transmitting
and applying knowledge. The perceptions
of knowledge itself have also changed
whereas knowledge could once have been
perceived as unchanging, it should now be
perceived as “revisionary, creative, personal
and pluralistic”. The future of education is
not predetermined by modern information
technology, but rather that this “future will
hinge prominently on how we construct
(and construe) the place of technology” in
the education process. We are moving from
“just-in-case” education to “just-for-you”
education” where education is targeted to
meet the needs of individual students.
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Information technology frees education
institutions from the constraints of space and
time, and enables the delivery of education
services anywhere, anytime. Therefore we
can foresee a future where physical libraries
would be replaced by digital libraries available
to anyone; and that scholars could cease to
be located around a geographical focus and
will probably become increasingly “located”
around a specialization, but physically located
anywhere in the world. We could also imagine
a day when modern technology will enable
students in a given location to access the best
of teachers in a given field and to interact
with them, whether “live” or via video.
Changing the educational institution
The sheer scope of change underway in
communication technology, with changes to
the methodology, and modes of education
suggests that the educational institution itself
may need to be revised at the organizational
level as well. Therefore we could foresee a
future of increased competition and alliances in
which education institutions avoid monolithic
approaches to education, and embrace more
strategic and collaborative approaches.
Information Technology and
the Potential of Education
The use of information technology (IT) to
support the classroom teacher and school
managers to organize and manage the
learning environment better has received
little specific attention, even though many
applications or systems purport that this is
one of their aims. The use of information
technology (IT) in higher education is far
ranging. In order to produce a working
document for the educators, Web pages and
other information-gathering devices have
become an essential part of our daily life,
as they provide extensive information on all
aspects of our society.
This is mirrored in education where there
are many different tools available, IT offers
added value to traditional teaching methods
and examples are provided. In spite of the continuing debate on the

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

learning effectiveness of e-learning applications, students request
such approaches as an adjunct to the traditional delivery of learning
materials. Faculty requires support to enable them to effectively
use the technology to the benefit of their students. This support
should be provided by the institution and it is suggested that, where
possible, institutions should appoint an e-learning champion with
good interpersonal skills to support and encourage faculty change.
From a global prospective, all students and faculty should have
access to e-learning tools. This paper encourages open access to
e-learning material, platforms and programs.
The quality of such learning materials must have well defined
learning objectives and involve peer review to ensure content
validity, accuracy, currency, the use of evidence-based data and
the use of best practices. To ensure that the developers’ intellectual
rights are protected, the original content needs to be secure from
unauthorized changes. Strategies and recommendations on how
to improve the quality of e-learning are outlined. In the area of
assessment, traditional examination schemes can be enriched by
IT, whilst the Internet can provide many innovative approaches.
Future trends in IT will evolve around improved uptake and access
facilitated by the technology (hardware and software).
The use of Web 2.0 shows considerable promise and this may
have implications on a global level. For example, the one-laptop-per-
child project is the best example of what Web 2.0 can do: minimal
use of hardware to maximize use of the Internet structure. In essence,
simple technology can overcome many of the barriers to learning.
IT will always remain exciting, as it is always changing and the
users, whether students, educators or patients are like chameleons
adapting to the ever-changing landscape.

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