Essay on the Information Technology of the Past, Present and Future Classrooms

Information Technology of the Past and Present:

The previous education system was primarily an inheritor of the past. What was decided as Right or Good by the earlier generation was passed on as the Gospel truth to the next generation. Information Technology, was primarily the word of mouth of the preacher or the teacher or the sacred books, written or composed by the then wise people, restricted the perception and patterns of living to whatever is fed to him/her by their limited sources of information.

The new Information Technology is in a way going to liberalise the human beings primarily by allowing him to see the various even contradicting patterns of living, perception of right and wrong. It will encourage the persons to redefine what is good for him and society.

This will, of course, create confusion, as people will try to break away from the static definition of right and wrong. The new Information Technology will allow individuals to get into many areas of knowledge and as such to recreate a lot of anxiety and uncertainty. This will be true not only of the elders but also of the young ones who will be provided with contradictory sets of information and still have to decide within a short span of time.

Future Classroom:

In the industrialization period the innovation of radio/TV enabled the teacher to leave the room but still the group was learning together under a plan designed by the teacher. The tape recorders, videos and now the computer have changed this concept. They have given the control of the learning process in the hands of the student. So, what would be the classroom of future? They would be of different types:

(a) The institutional framework like the school/college of today would most probably transform into Learning Resources Centre (LRC). These will be the places where students may learn what they want to learn from the sources which they want to select from and with the peers or the teachers whom they want to consult.

(b) The homes or cluster of homes can also provide to the student or a group of students the LRC. These could be utilized under the guidance of parents or elder brothers/sisters or peers etc. in a face-to-face situation.

But it may be emphasized that both in types a) and b) a student will not be restricted to the persons with whom he has face-to-face contact. He will have an access to persons residing far away from him; experts who may be anywhere in the world along with the data banks with the interconnectivity provided by the telecommunications.

The human interactions which may even be sometimes transformed into social pressures are definitely required at certain ages particularly in the childhood and adolescents where lots of skills and attitudes required for social survival are learnt through the school/institution. In fact, the literal meaning of the school is a group of individuals. The socialization process required for personality development is helped by the schools.