The role of information technologies in lifelong learning development

Abstract

The impact of information technologies on the development of lifelong learning in post-industrial (information) society is considered in the paper. Economic progress has caused the need for additional vocational training, reeducation and retraining of employees. The development of computerization and informatization of society has led to radical changes in education. First, adults of post graduate and retirement age, and later the children of preschool age who are actively exploring modern ICT, were involved in a lifelong learning process in developed European countries. The widespread availability of computers and ICT has caused the development of formal, non-formal and informal education. The use of advanced information and telecommunication technologies has led to adjustments in the content and education technologies, helping to solve problems of differentiation and individualization of learning, and the development of variant curriculums. The e-learning began to play a special role. The end of the 20 th century was marked by intensive development and implementation of computer and communication technology means in all spheres of our life, emergence of new information technologies and further development of existing ones. As markets become more open, global communications faster and technological change more rapid, the interaction between education and socioeconomic conditions are getting closer. Causal relationships of information process and education lie in the fact that higher level of information technology development needs higher education level, and then it becomes a source of further development of science and technology. Creation of the global information space was an important incentive to changing the classical educational paradigm. One of the topical issues for pedagogics of the 20 th century was finding education models adequate to a new stage of civilization. Primarily, permanent education was conceptually seen as continuous postgraduate studies aimed at improvement of knowledge, skills and professional competence. It was all about economic progress that put forward new educational tasks: conversion of traditional professions and creation of new ones made professional education, advanced training and retraining of employees necessary. With the course of time, "Adult Education" had evolved and came to be regarded initially as an independent sphere of educational activity, and then as a subsystem of lifelong learning (LLL) system that interlinks child and adult education in a single process.