ICT in Education: The dawn of new era or the development of an accessory?

1. Designing the Science Laboratory for the School of Tomorrow: Advanced Technologies in EducationKefallonia, July 4-6 2004 ICT in Education: The dawn of new era or the development of an accessory? Costas Tsolakidis University of Aegean

2. Introduction • A lot has been said about ICT in Education • What do we mean by ICT in Education? • What do we mean by Education? • Why do we relate the two? • Why we hope that we will have better Education? • For whom?

3. The main Question Does the introduction of ICT in Education constitute a major issue that will change education dramatically, or is it a tool that will undoubtly help education but will leave it unaltered in its basic functions?

4. The Inertia of Education Why ICT is used in every activity and not in Education? a. A Global Issue b. An investment with no immediate return c. A Cultural Issue

5. Computers and the internet installed in education per thousand Source: Worldbank

6. Scaling the question • Time • Space • Threshold

7. Change has already started: • As teaching and learning practice in institutions of any level (schools, universities etc) • Mathematics • Language • All other subjects • As New ideas in teaching and new methodologies: • Distance Education • Home Schooling • Cross Curriculum Applications – Multidisciplinarity • Virtual reality

8. Human capital • Individual human capital • Social human capital Productivity depends on Human Capital Human Capital depends on Education and Training Quality of Education and Training The use of ICT increases the quality of Education and Training Benefits for society

9. The use of ICT changes the role of the teacher and the learner New skills • Methodology and content of teaching will change • More means means more coordinated actions from the teachers • Deep reading – Fast reading Learners will not be evaluated only according to their knowledge but mainly with respect to their skills

10. Another change : Different Skills Qualities of the Individual Results GOAL Competition NEW Qualities ICT Skills Qualities of the Individual GOAL Results Teacher from actor to director, like open book exams

11. Research on ICT in Education A lot of research is funded by various organizations This field did not yield results that are worthy of the money spend or the effort taken. Why? • Technology is not built for schools. • There is no feasibility study. • Innovation is the only goal for most projects. • The applications is not user centered. • The contents are far from the teacher and the student. • We sometimes have tomorrow scenarios for tomorrow while we should have today’s’ scenarios for today.

12. Reveal the full capacity of technology to education Develop methodologies Give good example for better use. Innovation End User Viability Dissemination Research on ICT in Education Doing research in technology to education we need to have in mind: We should do research to:

13. The far future of Education To the limit of the foreseeable future could one anticipate the end of education, as we know it ? • Technology evolves in an accelerating and nonlinear way. • It is becoming more cheap, small, friendly and effective • It affects also medicine • Advances in medicine will change the way we function. • There will always be a teaching system in a country Is there a chance that education will be replaced by a bioelectronic procedure? Very difficult to affect will be inspiration and creativity, the core of human grandeur.

14. Conclusions Model Theatre - Cinema New function of the school • New characteristics • More sources of knowledge ToDo • Education to change the attitudes • Education to create the skills • Investment in existing technology • Investment in research in technology Education for all

15. Thank You Very Much!