Description
Information and communication technology is radically changing our way of acquiring and processing knowledge and promoting new ways of organising and delivering teaching. The traditional perception of knowledge is challenged when individuals can consult their personal networks and gain access to global knowledge immediately and anywhere via the internet. The ability to select, structure and evaluate information is fundamental to teaching and learning processes. These abilities are becoming increasingly pivotal in a world where access to information is enormous, the rate of updating is high and credibility must continually be assessed.
This trend is being stimulated by IT policies within the education system, new teaching methods and the rapid pace of technological development. In everyday life, at work and during our leisure time, information technology is part of our learning. Computer videos, internet-based games and smart mobile telephones offer new ways of broadening our experience of life and thereby acquiring and using new knowledge. The digital classroom has no limits in terms of time or space. Learning with the aid of digital tools takes place in many different types of context.
Information and communication technology are driving forces in the increasingly intensive globalisation process. We know more about other places and are more rapidly informed about events than ever before in history. We are also digitally present at all times, even while travelling far away from work or school. Education and learning are becoming increasingly internationalised, and systems at different levels throughout the world are facing the same challenges and increased competition. Digital technology and the media are facilitating customised individual learning projects and opening the door to mass education in an increasingly complex world. The economy has become increasingly knowledge-based, and systems for the continual updating of employees’ skills are essential.
The successful implementation of new technology includes not only the technical dimension, but also requires understanding of and consideration for the cultural and social context. This requires in-depth knowledge of how IT affects and shapes our living conditions, our thinking and our actions at school, in higher education, in the workplace and in our everyday lives.
The Department of Computer and Systems Sciences is carrying out projects relating to IT and learning within the following fields:
- Strategy, policy, visions and planning of IT for learning and education
- Computer games and generic skills
- Mobile learning and innovative learning environments
- Digital resources and school development
- Higher education, quality, examination forms and flexibility
- Digital learning means and e-libraries
- Evaluation models and method development for studying the effects of technology-supported learning
- Distance learning/e-learning and Open education
- Globalisation and international collaboration within education initiatives
- Models for sustainable technology-supported education, from both a financial and an employment perspective
- Improved accessibility and adaptation of education to groups with special needs
- ICT4D: E-learning, education organisation and telecentres in developing centres.
- ICT4D: Cheap computers and low-cost services for schools in developing countries
