CASE STUDY
Information Technology in Education and Training:
the CET View
Vincent Thompson, Council for Educational Technology
Abstract: As the national organization concerned with the development and promotion of educational technology
throughout education and training in the United Kingdom, it will not be surprising that the Council for Educational
Technology (CET) has a major interest in the impact of information technology upon learning and teaching methods.
As well as demanding a major development programme in its own right, information technology increasingly has
implications for almost every aspect of CET activity including its own organization and ways of working.
The following is an overview of CET's major IT activities. A fuller description will be found in CET's information
sheet Education and Information Technology, freely available from the Council.
Introduction
The introduction of information technology in
education and training has two major character-
istics. First, there is the pervasive influence of
information technology throughout social and
economic life and the resulting implications for
the relevance of the content of existing education
and training curricula. Information technology is
provoking changes in the content of existing
subject syllabuses so that new knowledge and skills
can be introduced — often a result of the appli-
cation of new technology. While this is particularly
true in the technical and vocational areas, for
example the study of robotics in craft and tech-
nology courses, there is also increasing concern
about the need to introduce general information-
handling and problem-solving skills. In some
instances this is resulting in the study of inform-
ation technology as a subject in its own right,
often as an extension of existing computer studies;
in others, and perhaps more appropriately, it is
developing through cross-curricula activity.
The other major characteristic of the introduction
of information technology is our increasing under-
standing of the possibilities it has for more effec-
tive communication of information, and the scope
it allows for greater variety and flexibility of
learning and teaching methods and opportunities.
To some extent this is linked to the need to
introduce new skills and knowledge into the
curriculum and the use of information technology
itself allows this to be done in appropriate ways.
In particular, it allows for increased opportunities
for individualized and independent forms of
study. It can be said to provide a new lease of life
to resource-based learning. This is made possible
by the considerable interactive capability of the
technology, the combination of developments in
telecommunications, video and computing, that
make possible the creation of powerful new elec-
tronic information and communication systems.
The equipment is widely available and broadly
speaking its cost continues to fall. The result is a
transformation in our capability to access and
handle information. It provides new opportunities
for presenting information, storing large amounts
of data and retrieving it speedily and logically.
It allows access to a wide variety of up-to-date
information sources and the transmission of data
from those sources and its manipulation for
specified purposes. As such activity is a major
ingredient in learning, there are important impli-
cations for the provision and organization of
educational opportunities. The task is one of
harnessing this potential to provide specific edu-
cational gains.
At CET we are attempting to provide advice on
the advantages and disadvantages of introducing
particular technologies, while also promoting a
broader view of the long-term possibilities for new
kinds of learning environments made possible by
the continuing convergence of the technology and
its widespread availability. Trials are undertaken to
explore what a particular technology has to offer
and to assess its potential to meet specific edu-
cational needs. Within the constraints of the
resources available, an active interest is taken in
new developments to ensure that the views of the
educational user are represented. While concerned
to promote the opportunities for new ways of
learning, CET recognizes equally the importance
of providing users with advice and guidance on
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