Assignment

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ISSUES IN EDUCATION

Topic: Future of Information technology Submitted by: Shahbaz Ali Submitted to: Miss Memona Roll call: 942 Semester: 4th Education department

in EDU

G.C University Faisalabad

Contacts:
Ser nom

chapter

page nom

1: Definition of Information Technology 2: Technology

#3 #3

3: Future of Information Technology Predictions

#4to9

(Next comes the information (not technology) revolution. Interpersonal aspects of commerce and education will remain. Most lives will remain untouched. Most lives will remain untouched. Who will win the new power struggle? What is beyond the human-machine interface? Decentralizationisthefuture. An ethical dilemma exists. Management of knowledge capital will take off. Mere access to information will not be enough. Science will move online. Electronic learning is the future. Authentication will be more important than copyright. Winners will apply and use technology. Software dependency will become a problem. Information organizing is not the future.)

4: Technology in Education
Multimedia, beyond the classroom)

#10

Articles (Classroom Applications, the Internet: Virtual and Augmented Reality,

5: INFORMATION
#18

TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN PAKISTA N

6: ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008 & ELECTIONS 2008 #19

7: References #20
2

Definition of Information Technology

In the broadest sense, information technology refers to both the hardware and software that are used to store, retrieve, and manipulate information. At the lowest level you have the servers with an operating system. Installed on these servers are things like database and web serving software. The servers are connected to each other and to users via a network infrastructure. And the users accessing these servers have their own hardware, operating system, and software technology.
(www.mariosalexandrou.com/definition/informationTechnology. Spools.)

Technology
By the mid 20th century, humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the atmosphere of the Earth for the first time and explore space. Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its environment. Technology is a term with origins in the Greek "technologia", "" "techne", "" ("craft") and "logia", "" ("saying"). [1] However, a strict definition is elusive; "technology" can refer to material objects of use to humanity, such as machines, hardware or utensils, but can also encompass broader themes, including systems, methods of organization, and techniques. The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include "construction technology", "medical technology", or "state-of-the-art technology".
knowledge

The human race's use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of everincreasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons. Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional norms.

Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, claiming that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and technoprogressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific studies indicate tha other primates and certain dolphin communities have developed simple tools and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations. Jump to: navigation, search "Advanced technology" redirects here. For the Advanced Technology form factor , see AT (form factor)

Future of Information Technology Predictions:

Selected predictions from researchers who participated in the "Information Revolution: Its Current and Future Consequences" project.

Next comes the information (not technology) revolution.

"In the 1980s information technology (IT) took off. Computing went from an occasional activity for specialists to routine in the lives of most technical professionals. Then it did likewise for white collar workers and students. Then, for many blue collar workers and on into our homes. In the 1990s, we've gotten networked first the technical community, then business and school, then home via modems, Ethernet, some broadband and wireless. That's an 'IT Revolution.' "Now we're poised for the Information Revolution. Newly accessible digitally formatted information is weaved into our daily lives. Technical professionals first, then white collar workers and students, then most of us will rebuild our work and home lives around this resource ubiquitous electronic information." ( Alan Porter, Director, Technology Policy and Assessment Center )
Interpersonal aspects of commerce and education will remain.

"Just as the photocopier and the desktop computer did not eliminate paper, secretaries and offices (as many had forecast), the devices of the Information Revolution, will not eliminate the interpersonal aspects of commerce and education. For those with access, the pace and volume of human interactions on the network will increase enormously, and for many this change will be enriching.

"But the important social aspects of commerce and education gathering, sharing, learning about behavior, spontaneously connecting with others that require face-to-face contact will not decrease significantly. People will continue to congregate in classrooms, offices, churches, bars and shopping malls. "The cumulative impact will be a continuing increase in the speed and number of total 'information events,' and people 50 years from now will wonder why so many in our era thought that the Information Revolution would increase our leisure."
(Dr. Richard Barke, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy)

Most lives will remain untouched.

"In the years ahead, the vast majority of people of the world will go about their daily lives largely untouched by the Information Revolution. The requisite massive expenditures on technology infrastructure, operations and personal equipment will not be justified in developing countries until more fundamental needs of adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care and basic education are widely satisfied. "Satisfying those needs will absorb most of the income of the increasingly populous Third World for the foreseeable future. To be sure, there will be many juxtapositions of the old and the new for example, when a peasant walks half a day over dirt trails to visit a village doctor in a hut equipped with a satellite link to a distant medical center. But those instances will be the exceptions, not the rule, in people's daily lives."
(Dr. Peter G. Sassone, Associate Professor, School of Economics)

Who will win the new power struggle?

"The ongoing computer revolution, the Internet and other new information technologies have resulted in a remarkable array of new applications. Technology-driven socioeconomic change is occurring. However, there will be many struggles between forces for central control (as has been encouraged in the Industrial Age and existing power bases) and those for individuality (as is encouraged by the two-way communications of the Internet and similar technologies). "Already the power of technology for free exchange of information has been seen in the breakup of the Soviet Union. While there will be considerable pressure by many governments and commercial and social interests to 'regain control,' the fact is and will remain that technology-aided information exchange will remain 'free.'

"The genie is out of the bottle."

(Frederick B. Dyer, Principal Research Scientist Emeritus)


What is beyond the human-machine interface?

"Two revolutions have occurred in information technology: We use electronic machines instead of paper to store information, and we have successfully connected these machines together. As a consequence, computer users suffer a lot of 'red eye' as they interface with their information machines. "The next revolution will move beyond today's human-machine interface and liberate all those 'red-eyed' users. Machines interfacing with machines 'knowledgebased systems,' 'automatic search systems,' 'preprogrammed abstracting systems' and much more will become commonplace. Look for the coming of the automatic 'information finding, classifying and processing' machine."
( Dr. Donghua Zhu, Visiting Professor, Technology Policy and Assessment Center)

Decentralization is the future.

"The Industrial Age was based upon the centralized coordination of large numbers of manual laborers and service workers. The 'Knowledge Age,' in contrast, is based upon the decentralized coordination of large numbers of knowledge workers. One should therefore expect that decentralized mechanisms of all sorts (e.g., products, services, business processes, business strategies, markets, government agencies) will flourish at the expense of centralized ones in the future. "Predictions: The network computer will not be a successful product; governments will lose control of their currencies and the ability to control interest rates; communications industries that developed as monopolies, oligopolies or because of sheer size will wither."
(Gary S. Tjaden, Director, Center for Enterprise Systems, Information Technology & Telecommunications Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute)

An ethical dilemma exists.

"Ethical issues and concerns have always underscored the utilization, management and control of information. In the Age of Information, political and societal tensions will increasingly surface and coalesce, creating significant differences among groups within nations, as well as among nations. The quality of information content will be deliberated by the perceived haves and the have-nots. Who controls information will be a major issue for 21st century scholars and politicians."
(Don Frank, Assistant Director for Information Services)

Management of knowledge capital will take off.

"Because knowledge is becoming the key wealth-creating asset, and because highvalue knowledge is hard to accumulate in organizations and even harder to organize and effectively deploy managers in both the private and public sectors will want to learn how to master the process of knowledge management. And, they will want to become innovators in creating knowledge capital in order to achieve competitive advantage. As a consequence, leading schools of business and public administration will make major curriculum changes early in the 21st century."
( Dr.William H. Read, Professor, School of Public Policy)

Mere access to information will not be enough.

"The development of information networks has not followed a purely technological imperative. They have been shaped by social networks. New social networks will interact in their own way with the current information infrastructure to lead the next stages in its implementation. The Internet, for instance, serves to keep track of the dynamics of various socio-economic phenomena. "Networks not only bring about change, but are the ideal means to monitor change. Because of the importance that this has for both business and government, it is foreseeable that the automatic feeding of transaction information to control and decision centers of various kinds will become ubiquitous. "The key strategic issue in this environment will be the ability to bring processing power, broadly construed, to bear on any point in time and space that circumstances may demand. Mere access to information will not be sufficient. Making something happen with information, from attribution of meaning to rapid incorporation into ongoing decision processes, is what will make a difference."
( Dr. Juan D. Rogers, School of Public Policy)

Science will move online.

"By 2010, scientific publication will be a fully electronic medium. Journals will no longer be the major means of organizing scientific information; browsers will help scientific readers select new papers from across a variety of disciplines and sources. Scientific 'papers' will contain digital information of all sorts, including, but not limited to, text, graphics, movies, audio, simulations and visualizations. The life cycle of scientific publication will be considerably shortened by electronic media. Collaboration, authorship, submission and review will become more intertwined as science moves online. Quality assurance will be provided by electronic labeling services entities neither fully academic, corporate, nor governmental in nature."
Scott Cunningham, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex

Electronic learning is the future.

"The evidence is clear that there are many problems with the current academic system. The fact of the matter is that college instructional methods have not changed much over the last 50 years. Those institutions that properly assess the changes coming and respond in the appropriate manner will grow and prosper, while many others will decline and close up shop. "The present educational process can be likened to an ancient cottage-shop industry that is neither efficient (costs are growing relative to income), nor effective (does not do a very good job of increasing learning). Clearly college education is ripe for major technological change that makes education both more efficient and effective. "There is no question that electronic learning is going to grow rapidly in importance and dramatically change the college educational process."
(Dr. Farrokh Mistree, Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering)

Authentication will be more important than copyright.

"The creative human process of authoring is in part based upon the collection, interpretation and analysis of existing information. In the future the source, ownership and authentication of information become significant issues as intelligent processors duplicate these human processes to become both primary and secondary publishers. "Authentication of information sources becomes more important than copyright to ensure these processors do not reuse data that is out of context, thus resulting in false conclusions. As this prediction matures, changes will occur in the publishing business, in educational use of information, and in the purpose and use of libraries."
( Robert G. Patterson, Manager of Knowledge Transfer, Institute of Paper Science and Technology)

Winners will apply and use technology.

"Our physical ability to send, process and display data will increase enormously with cost-effective developments in bandwidth, computing, optical storage, imaging and display technologies. " But the real challenge of the Information Revolution isn't the development of technology, but how to apply and use it. The technology is developing faster than our ability to adopt it. The greatest difficulty is getting people to change. Companies spent huge sums on information technology in the 1980s, with limited improvements in productivity. "The winners in the Information Revolution will be the people and organizations that can adopt change to the way they work and live."

(Dr.William H. Bellinger, Visiting Professor, William M. Riggs, Director, Management of Technology Program)

School

of

Management

Software dependency will become a problem.

"A traditional approach to use of information systems has lead to a naive dependence on these systems. In the future, information systems will continue to support more complex and critical functions, resulting in even more dependence on these systems. It is my prediction that such dependence will result in an IS-based crisis with national and/or global implications. "Further, use of these systems will have a negative impact on quality of life. Whether or not continued integration of information systems into organizational processes leads to the optimization of these processes, information technologies will not decrease the length of the workday. Rather, they will allow organizations to claim more hours of the worker's day as these technologies continue to become accessible and mobile. Work will permeate more and more aspects of our lives." ( Dr. Judith P. Carlisle, Assistant Professor, School of Management )
Information organizing is not the future.

"Organizing information will not be so important in the future; evaluating, validating and analyzing information will be. Consequently, there will be a growing need for information and knowledge analysts whose activities are focused on content, meaning and value of information. They will need to know how to use the most modern information technologies and at the same time be educators and mentors in a changing learning environment."
(Julie Yang, Librarian)

Technology in Education
Many people warn of the possible harmful effects of using technology in the classroom. Will children lose their ability to relate to other human beings? Will they become dependent on technology to learn? Will they find inappropriate materials? The same was probably said with the invention of the printing press, radio, and television. All of these can be used inappropriately, but all of them have given humanity unbounded access to information which can be turned into knowledge. Appropriately used-- interactively and with guidance-- they have become tools for the development of higher order thinking skills. Inappropriately used in the classroom, technology can be used to perpetuate old models of teaching and learning. Students can be "plugged into computers" to do drill and practice that is not so different from workbooks. Teachers can use multimedia technology to give more colorful, stimulating lectures. Both of these have their place, but such use does not begin to tap the power of these new tools. In this area, you will find descriptions of how computers can be used to stimulate and develop writing skills, collaborate with peers in foreign countries, do authentic kinds of research that is valuable to the adult world, and do complex kinds of problem solving that would otherwise be impossible.

Articles
and Academic Achievement Les Foltos New research provides substantial evidence connecting the use of technology to academic achievement. Technology Americans Need to Know More About Technology

Engineering A 2002 report.

The National Academy of

Take Back the Afternoon: Preserving the Landscape of Childhood In Spite of Computers

David Sobel The Director of Teacher Certification Programs at Antioch New England and CoDirector of the Center for Place-Based Education describes the importance of hands-on learning and creative activities in helping children develop their fullest capacities.

10

Classroom Applications:
of New Media for K-12 Education Chris Dede Virtual Reality researcher Chris Dede's testimony to Congress on the implications of introducing new technologies in the classroom. Link to an outline of important themes and policy issues surrounding the use of information technology to support innovative models of teaching and learning. Implications

Ethan Allen UW professor and researcher considers the implications of Nan scale science and technology for K-12 education.
Nan scale Science and Technology: Connections with K-12 Education

Patrick McKercher, Judy Bonne and Andy Rogers A description of James Burke's Knowledge Web project and its application in the classroom.
The Web of Knowledge: Vision, Design, and Practice

Judy Bonne and Patrick McKercher Judy Bonne Kane, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Crawford AuSable Schools and Educational Project Director for the K-Web, and Patrick McKercher, K-Web project manager, give us an update on this project developed by James Burke.
Intercultural Education and Virtual Reality

John Shaffer and V. A. Lindley-Brunn Two educational researchers discuss a project that focuses on enhancing English language acquisition at the middle school level by English Language Learners through the study of science.
Advancement of Science Knowledge In Language Learning ( ASKILL )

S. L. Muthukumar A Singaporean researcher shares how to effectively use technology as a positive student learning experience.
Learning with the Internet

Monica Beglau A statewide education program that focuses on the use of technology in the classroom.
Changing the Face of Education in Missouri Y: Student Inclusion = Technology Infusion Sylvia Martinez A curriculum model that combines project based learning for students with professional development for teachers. Generation and MI Thomas Hoerr How technology can be used to implement the Multiple Intelligences theory in the classroom. Technology

Nancy A. Bacon One practical and successful application of special technology in the classroom.
Linking Students with Their World: A Good Day in French Class

11

Clancy J. Wolf How technology not only enhances learning but also helps students to explore and understand the world around them.
Technology in Environmental Education

Tuiren Bratina, Tom Bratina and Anthony Bratina How to add audio files to online course content.
Listen Up!: Using Audio Files in the Curriculum New Generation Meets the Ancient Mariner Ral daSilva Literature can come alive for students as a sensory experience by using new technologies. The text remains intact, but these technological enhancements can provide a context which connects the work to music, art, history and more. A Harnessing the Best of Technology for an Exceptional Information Literacy Library Program Deborah Gallaher and Sue Roberts

A library program that combines student research, technology and learning to think critically. Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph.D. Special needs students can particularly benefit from the use of new technology.
Working Together: Students with Disabilities and Computer Technology

Bruce Mitchell Onadime Composer is a software tool kit for making multi-media, multi-sensory real time interactive computer programs for teaching, learning and entertainment.
What's ONADIME?

The Internet:
for Potential Online Instructors Nancy Prince-Cohen Online educator addresses some pedagogical, sociological, and psychological issues educators need to examine before they begin to create an online course. Questions on Teaching Writing from Website Design Jennifer C. Stone University of Washington Professor showcases ways that students can transfer skills used to build a website to the writing process. Lessons

Cheryl Edwards and Lydia McCardle Through their experiences teaching a senior-level methods class and supervising student teachers, two teacher educators found that teacher candidates are increasingly looking to the Internet for help with lesson planning. However, many lack discretion in selecting effective lesson plans from the proliferation of websites. This article points out the importance of raising candidates' awareness of pitfalls and informing them of ways to identify reliable websites and effective lesson plans.
Clickers, Be Aware!

12

Brad Coulter Veteran elementary school teacher uses online publishing to motivate young writers.
Mr. Coulter's Internet Tendency: to Infinity and Beyond Messaging: Friend or Foe of Student Writing? Amanda O'Connor Graduate student in Educational Technology discusses the impact of "internet speak" on student writing. Instant Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev, Art History and Images From the World Wide Web

Alan Including art history creates a richer, more powerful lesson. A grassroots organization uniting teachers on the internet.

Warhaftig

The Learning Space: A Unique Online Community of Teachers

Bretta Beveridge

Marlene A. K. Goss, Ph.D. What teachers need in order to make use of new technologies in the classroom.
Releasing the Isolated Warrior

Dr. Miriam Masullo and Dr. Antonio Ruiz When the internet was born, educational leaders had high hopes that access to information would make education better for everyone, everywhere in the world. Now, in the year 2000, we see that these hopes have been dashed. Too few have access to the technologies. Schools do not have the equipment necessary to make use of the information superhighway, many do not even have access to telephones, much less the internet. Dr. Masullo and Dr. Ruiz propose a new way to renew the promise of equity access to education.
e-Quality

Dr. Miriam Masullo and Dr. Antonio Ruiz According to our Department of Education, in the US only 14% of poor and minority classrooms are wired. Thus, even for developed countries, diminished resources, lack of educators, and safety in the schools are higher priority issues than figuring out how to make the Internet and the Web new vehicles for improved learning.
People Are the Only Thing that Matter The Future of Learning in a New Free World and how to Build a World Wide Learning Web

Gordon Dryden New Zealand author of the New Learning Revolution notes that millions of teachers and billions of students continue to work mainly in isolation, yet in today's world of instant communication, collaboration is essential in order to make the most effective changes.
Americans All: Searching for Sponsors for a History and Civics Data Base System

Allen S.

Kullen In this essay, Kullen calls for sponsors to support Americans All, a program that will serve as the national operating entity to gather, organize, distribute and maintain electronic databases that will support how individual states teach and test history and civics at various grade levels. These inclusive databases will 13

comprise the complete political, social and cultural history of the nation, organized by state and grade level. George Gorman Could the internet become the forum for a lifelong learning program for all?
The Guilds: A New Curriculum for Education and Internet Reform

Virtual and Augmented Reality:

John Shaffer A science teacher shares ideas on virtual reality and how it could potentially enhance a multiple intelligences teaching strategy.
Virtual Reality In Education

Bill Winn How virtual reality can help students learn and what kinds of virtual reality models are available now to be used in the classroom.
Learning Through Virtual Reality Augmented Reality in Education

A pioneer in the field of AR explains its practical uses. Brett E. More on the future of augmented reality.

Mark

Billinghurst

Augmented Reality and Education: Current Projects and the Potential for Classroom Learning

Shelton

Multimedia:
Multimedia Technology and Children's Development

Implications of the technology revolution.

Technology As the Catalyst

Dee

Dickinson

Linda A. Tsantis, Ph.D. The author suggests that multimedia technology (a marriage of technology and the arts) can be utilized in ways that enhance the unique characteristics of each learner.
Learning by Design: Integrating Technology into the Curriculum Through Student Multimedia Design Projects Ted M. Kahn, Ph.D. and Linda K. Taber Ullah, M. Ed.

In order for technology to be effective in today's education system, it needs to be intelligently integrated into a rich, meaning-centered curriculum.
Encourages New Learning Styles David Thornburg, Ph.D. Modern technological tools let us work with information in ways that honor the unique learning modalities of each student. Multimedia

14

Beyond the classroom:

Using New Educational Technologies to Empower Youth: The Power of Youth-Adult Partnerships in e-Learning Gary Goldman and Barbara L. McCombs

Tapping the resource of young peoples' technological skills can benefit the whole community.
Inventing Workshops: Hands on Technology

Project based learning outside the classroom.

Washington

Ed

Sobey

Aerospace Scholars Program Bonnie J. Dunbar The Museum of Flight in Seattle and Washington Governor Christine Gregoire announce a pioneering new aerospace program to foster student interest in math and science. Campus: Experience Based Technology Learning Maura Whalen Teaching young people to use technology benefits students at every point of the achievement spectrum. Giant Access Foundation (TAF) Trish Millines Dziko This foundation brings free computer and technology access to those who have been traditionally underrepresented in the field of technology. Technology

Eric Christianson What can happen when a school gets involved with the Wilderness Technology Alliance? A win-win situation results for school, students and community.
WildTech Learning Learning

In British Columbia, Canada, students in grades 10-12 in an Information Technology Management (ITM) course take a project-driven approach to studying information technology. Students learn to manage technology and in the process about taking responsibility for getting the job done. The teacher-student collaboration is empowering for both. Gary Goldman and Allen Schmieder The authors call for young persons in America to make significant contributions to their community, thereby energizing their lives and spearheading the revitalization of schools and neighborhoods.
A Call to Action: A Global Youth Empowerment Society (YES)

to

Do:

Students

Develop

IT

Projects

that

Deliver

Service

Timothy Jenkins Timothy Jenkins believes there is a need for radically different educational interventions, and a redirecting of education dollars from anti-crime and drug prevention programs to positive skill-building and access opportunities for all children.
Campaign Against American E-Partheid

15

Recommended Reading
The Knowledge Web

James Burke David Thornburg David H. Rose and

The New Basics: Education and the Future of Work in the Telematic Age Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning

Anne Meyer
The Internet and the Law: What Educators Need to Know Using the Internet to Strengthen Curriculum

Kathleen Conn

Larry Lewin David Moursund

Project-Based Learning Using Information Technology, second ed. Gene Genie

Thomas Bass Susan

Making Technology Standards Work for You--A Guide for School Administrators

Brooks-Young
Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World

George Gilder ISTE

NETS?S Curriculum Series?Multidisciplinary Units for Grades 3?5

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers: Preparing Teachers to Use Technology M. G. Kelly, ed. Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn

Lynell Burmark

Related links
Long Island Consortium for Interconnected Learning in Quantitative Disciplines

Presents physics problems, calculus projects, problem sets for precalculus, multiple choice and essay questions for Calculus I- III, business/math problems using spreadsheets and calculators, and 23 math research projects.
New

The Center offers a curriculum model for engineering and science technology disciplines, professional development for teachers, competitions for students, and course descriptions.
Learning in the Real World

Jersey

Center

for

Advanced

Technological

Education

Learning in the Real World makes research grants to university investigators to develop, analyze and distribute information which will allow parents and planners to make rational decisions about when and where education technology is a positive tool for children and when it detracts from their development. Go to Further Reading for a great collection of articles about technology in schools. 16

Technology and Art: "Art Zone" http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/ The US National Gallery of Art invites children of all ages to create interactive art online: design a virtual mobile; create a collage, painting, or a geometric sculpture, design and texturize 3-dimensional shapes and see how artists create these effects without a computer, create a "pixel face." While you are making the art, you are also gaining new computer skills.

Critical Questions
How can technology help you personalize learning? How can technology engage multiple intelligences? How can technology bridge the digital divide in K-12 settings? How can technology assist the unique learner? How can technology be used to simultaneously deepen student understanding and accelerate student achievement standards?

Possible Actions
Encourage students to use the web as a research tool on a topic of great personal interest. Give parameters for the expected product, but let the student emerge as chief designer. Review your favorite on-line educational game or activity. List the intelligences a student would have to tap to do well. Create a multiple intelligence rubric for the piece. Create an extended learning program which focuses on on-line learning activities that could be used to "reteach" skills which students missed in class. Identify software/on-line learning activities which can be used to accommodate a learner with unique learning capacities. Choose one state standard relevant to your teaching and have each student create a problem which requires the performance of that standard. Use the web to find the resources to solve the problem.

17

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

IT has left no niche of human life untouched today BySyedM.Aslam Aug 28 - Sep 03, 2000 No other word in the contemporary English language draws more awe and reverence than IT Information Technology. IT has become synonymous with class, success and worldly gains and the symbiotic relationship between human race and the personalised computers (PC). Its short history is replete with numerous rags-to-riches stories including that of world's richest person Bill Gates a high school dropout. The word IT is being used like a cure-all mantra, a charm, a symbol of worldly prowess, an indication that one has arrived, an emotional feel-good, an educational cutting-edge, and much much more. It is surreptitiously sprinkled in talks to impress, win respect and an argument. Like all other countries, Pakistan has not remained immune to the ongoing IT revolution in the world. Ask any high school student in Pakistan that what his future plans are and the chances are that an overwhelming majority will say that it will go into IT, whatever that means. The trend, however, is an ample proof that IT is seen as the in thing without which the dreams of a prosperity could no more come true, and for a genuine reason. IT has left no niche of human life untouched today be it industry, trade, publishing, accounting, graphics, advertisement, movie-making, or otherwise routine office work. The increasing demand for IT related exposure and experience for jobs of all descriptions as visible from the 'Help Wanted' advertisements in the national dailies have made even the least discerning job seekers to realise that upgrading their computer skills is a must to get even a half decent job. Not for nothing the word IT has become an unending refrain to ensure a job placement today, a situation which will become a must in the near future. This realisation has resulted in the massive demand for the IT education in the country which is clear from the mushrooming of institutions in every nook and corner of the urban centres in Pakistan. These IT institutions offer an array of certificates, diplomas and degree courses. Basically the IT institutions in Pakistan can be divided into three primary classes the government institutions, private institutions with foreign affiliations, and the totally locally-owned and operated institutions. The IT phenomenon has taken Pakistan like a storm which poses many questions about the quality of IT education imparted by these institutions and its relevance to the local job market. The basic question is are we producing enough IT professionals to meet the demand and secondly, and more importantly what is the quality of work force that we are producing? PAGE talked to a number of educationists at many prestigious IT institutions about the key issues related to IT education to help create awareness for the benefit of potential students as well as to help the policy makers make informed decisions.

18

ANNUAL

GENERAL

MEETING

2008

&

ELECTIONS

2008

The Computer Society of Pakistan (CSP) is the national organization of Information Technology professionals in the country. It was established in 1973 to promote the use of computers, increase general awareness among the public and to look after the professional interests of the IT personnel in the country. The Society holds lectures, seminars and technology forums which provide an excellent platform for the interaction of professionals. It organizes annual computer exhibitions and software competitions all over the country with the objective of fostering a better future for IT in Pakistan. The Computer Society of Pakistan sponsors students to take part in the international software competitions in various countries as well as organizes various programs for the youth. The current membership of the Society is over 2000 professionals working in over 350 public and private sector organizations. The head office of the Society is located in Karachi with chapter offices in

Karachi Lahore Islamabad Peshawar

Aims & Objectives

To facilitate the professional advancement of personnel engaged in Information Technology (IT) and related occupation. To promote knowledge of the development and use of IT equipment and related techniques. To provide facilities for exchange of information and views of IT equipment and related techniques. To foster and encourage high standards of professional ethics and conduct among its members. To prescribe professional qualifications and to conduct examinations for members and others in the field of IT.

Achievements
Several important issues addressed by the Computer Society of Pakistan over the years are as under:

Computer allowance approved by the government for computer professionals was implemented in many institutions through the help of the committee setup by CSP in this connection. Standardization of computer education. Software Piracy and Copyright issues in Pakistan. Rationalization of duty and sales tax on computers. Declaring software as an industry. Representation of CSP in government policy making bodies regarding national policies on Information Technology. Special incentives for computers in education. Tax holidays and other incentives for computer manufacturing. Pre-Shipment inspection problems faced by computer importers. Formation of working groups and study circles on various issues.

19

References:

(www.mariosalexandrou.com/definition/informationTechnology. Spools.)

BySyedM.Aslam Aug 28 - Sep 03, 2000

RESEARH HORIZONS

The Computer Society of Pakistan (CSP)

20