1.2 Education

The impact of ICT in education has been variable, but is destined to grow a great deal over the coming decade as many programmes progress to function or maturity. It has long been recognised that education is now a lifelong activity. Traditionally people went to school and college from the age of 4 to 18 and then perhaps went on to higher education, a person was expected to embark on a career that would last a working life. This is rarely now the case.

There are many people who believe that education should take advantage of new technologies to deliver better lessons, and at a time and place suited to the consumer of the education. The dream is to have their best lectures on video, which can be watched by students all over the country at any time of the day and where ever they are; for software to monitor control totaly induvidualised learning plans for all students; for really high quality resources to be available to all the teachers to aid them in preparing the best possible lessons. This is 'wired-up' education. The UK has gone a long way towards having the infrastructure in place to deliver this. All schools and colleges have some connection to the internet and the world wide web, and msot have high-speed connections. The grid, which is the backbone of the dream, is a reality. Not all students yet have personal, grid based email addresses; but many have access to a virtual learning environment which as potential for delivering some of the benefits of wired up education. There is no common experience as yet in very high quality educational experiences, but there is a clear trend to more and better use of ICT in the curriculum.
One of the more interesting parts of the debate about the future of education concerns the student as a consumer of education. In theory the student will be able to pick and mix 'learning objects' or online blocks of learning to create a curriculum suited to their needs. Although more relevant to adult longlife learners than school-age students, the model can be extended to that of the teacher having control over a variety of learning resources that are mixed and matched to create the perfect individulised learning plan. Typical resources of this are short online videos, short excercises, reading materials, quizzes and tests, access to specialised forums etc.
One of the great benefits of the internet is easy access to unlimited libraries of information. Teachers in primary schools can ask their students where a place is for example they can ask 'Where is timbuktu?' and be confident that the majority will find out using the internet. A student doing a project on the Globe Theatre in London will find access to drawings, history, photographs and much more. A student wanting to learn java script has numerous courses immediately available to them. It is possible to descover almost any subject through the internet.
There are drawbacks to the internet as a source of education information however:

• Some students find it easier copying and pasting large paragraphs of information from the internet, without reading it through and picking out the quotes that are needed for the project. This opens them up to charges of plagiarism, which is one of the greatest academic sins. Universities see this as a big problem as they have invested a great deal of programs to spot such copying.
• As it is so easy to publish on the internet, almost anyone literally can do it. Therefore it is as easy to publish inaccurate, biased or plain incorrect material on the web as it is to publish properly edited and refereed material. The reasons for doing this may be innocent, humorous or wicked, but either way the material is basically misinformation rather than information.
• Another problem that is rapidly growing is that internet providers are finding means of charging for their information that had previously been free. It is now common place to have to join a site and pay a small fee to be able to access information that have been freely accessable in the past. Newspapers and Magazines have started charging for access to many articles encyclopaedias often have extra paid-for content. A number of specialist forums, newsletters, intelligence analysts etc. now charge for information. This is a growing trend on the internet that is not likely to slow down, and therefore it may become harder to gain access to reliable, free information.

The impact of ICT on education has ther potential downsides that should be considered. There are so many potential educational media that is difficult to ensure any form of standerdised quality of experience for students. It is in many ways a pioneering age, with an enthusiasm for novelty and invention that has many positive aspects. At the same time it is not clear whether the claimed advantages of all the new technologies will be sustained. Already a number of highly-funded initiatives, especially in the field of distance learning, have been dropped or totally reorganised. Even where they prove themselves over the longer term, the cost advantages may not be sufficient to justify the changes that are now under way in the long life learning sector.