General key points for ICT and teachers education

 ICT and teachers education: Global context and framework

•         Key point

1.       General overview of the article

This article talks about information and communication technologies (ICT) being a major factor in shaping the new global economy and producing rapid changes in society. It talks about how the use of ICT has changed the way people communicate and do business and has also transformed the nature of education. Since the use of ICT  has become significant for education, for educationists to reap the full benefit of ICT in teaching and learning, it is essential for pre-service and inservice teachers to have basic ICT skills and competencies and how they should model the new pedagogic and tools for learning.

2.                   Knowledge based society

This article talks about how the emergence of the “knowledge -based “ society is changing the global economy and the status of education with the use of ICT. In this 21st century there has been a growing awareness among the peoples and they need this knowledge and skills to thrive in the 21st century’s knowledge-based economy and society. When we say the 21st century it means that the world's knowledge improves every 2-3 years and the graduates of schools in industrialized nations have been exposed to more information than their parents and grandparents were in a lifetime. It talks about the technology-based economy also poses challenges to countries as the national economy becomes more internationalized, with the increasing flow of information, technology, products, capital and people between nations creating a new era of global competition for goods, services and expertise. In industrialized nations, the economic base is shifting from industry to information. This shift also demands new knowledge and skills in the work force and ICT has helped in changing the nature of work and the type of skills needed in most fields and professions.

Education is a powerful tool for survival, technological and political forces will shape the structure of the educational system across the globe for the remainder of this century. Thus the new technologies challenge traditional conception of both teaching and learning by re-configuring how teachers and learners gain access to knowledge, and have the potential to transform the teaching and learning process. To meet these challenges, this article talks about how schools must embrace the new technologies and use ICT tools for learning and transforming the paradigm shift of learning from traditional view to modern view in bringing educational systems into alignment with the knowledge-based, information-rich society.

3.                   Traditional view of the learning process

This article talks about the traditional view of the learning process being emerged out of the factory model of education at the turn of the 20th century. It is a teacher-centered approach to learning and here the teacher acts as the expert  and the dispense of the knowledge to the students.