Dr. (Mrs.) Sati Ramachandran, M.A. (History), Ph.d.
Distinguished dignitaries on the dais and esteemed members of the audience,
The present period is aptly referred to as the era of information technology and as the age of the knowledge revolution, because for the first time in the history of the human race, information and knowledge are being viewed as tradable commodities and as valued assets for organizations and for individuals. We are all in one way or the other, deeply influenced by the technological advances in the fields of information and knowledge. A young child who has his favourite cartoon films stored in CDs or a famous political leader doing his election campaigning through web portals – the young or the old – the low level employee posting his CV at a website or the industrial magnate carrying crucial information on his laptop while traveling round the world – all are indebted to, and in fact under the sway of the contributions of information and communication technologies in almost all the aspects of their lives. New frontiers are emerging at such a rate – geometric rather than arithmetic as up to some three decades ago or so – in these fields that it is no longer easy except for the professionals, to keep pace with the latest developments that are taking place in information and communication technologies. Yet to remain relevant to the world in which we have to function, we have to necessarily understand and assimilate the new content and techniques.
As with every other traditional teacher/learner, my response, as a person working in the field of research and education for nearly 25 years, to the waves upon waves of technology and techniques that are deluging us has been one of reluctant progression from apprehensive withdrawal to cautious approach, to curiosity, to increasing excitement and enthusiasm, and to great expectation for the future. This is as well, for whether we like it or not, the choice that teachers and managers in the field of education have is not binary – whether to innovate or not – but only to what extent we innovate and apply these emerging technology-driven possibilities in out curriculum, pedagogy and classroom experiences, and in our evaluation systems.
The theme of today’s discussion is “The Influence of Information Technology on Education”. But considering the immense importance of communication technologies in information transfer, I would like to rather speak in terms of information and communication technologies, usually abbreviated as ICT.
What is ICT?
We could briefly describe it as the point of convergence of two sciences – telecommunication with specific emphasis on data transmission, and tele-vision, seeing at a distance, with informatics. The computer which today can be described as an externalized subsystem of the human mind and intellect has, as we know, incredible capacity, being further expanded geometrically every year, to store, manipulate and process data, and to present and disseminate processed information. With the emergence of multimedia and networking possibilities through multiple vehicles, computers have taken on a new incarnation as implements for teaching and learning. Smart boards or interactive boards have opened new possibilities of responsive learning. The Internet has ushered in great opportunities for widening the accessibility base of information and brought about extension of the learning process in the time and space dimensions. Accordingly, educational institutions now are exploiting ICT in two ways: one in the more simple and elementary form of infrastructure and tools, and the other as an active venue for imparting of IT as well as other education. Broadly, ICT has brought about transformation in the content part of as well as in the approaches to knowledge and learning. But along with these changes, we also now notice certain shifts in the pedagogic minds – changes in the basic concepts in the field of education. There are three areas that stand out prominently in this regard:
The concept of excellence – what constitutes excellence,
