Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using IT in education.

Use Britain for your examples and quote authors of differing opinions. Minimum 750 words, maximum 900 words.
Castelles, ( M, 2000) 429 argued that schools and classrooms are the least affected by the logic embedded in information technology in spite of the foreseeable quasi universal use of computers in the classroom of advanced countries but they will hardly vanish into virtual space according to Castells, M (2000) 428 That What is emerging is a good quality universities with a combination of on line distance learning and on site education.

This means future higher education will be on networks between nodes of information, classroom and sites and students individual locations, computers-mediated communications is defusing around the world although with uneven geography but with the same segments of society across the globe. This is a benefit which will allow students to access information, research work, and partner with students from other part of the continent and access information globally.

Educational technology, especially computers and computer-related peripherals, have grown tremendously and have permeated all areas of our lives. Most young people cannot understand arguments that schools should limit technology use. For them, use of the Internet, for example, plays a major role in their relationships with their friends, their families, and their schools. Teens and their parents generally think use of the Internet enhances the social life and academic work of teenagers: The very concept of the Internet would not be possible without technology.

This is paralleled by the incredibly rapid growth of information that likely would not be possible without this technology. Students can easily research the information they need at any time. Research centres with no computers would arouse suspicion about the completeness, accuracy, and currency of their information because science and mathematics information grows daily and much of that new information can only be found through the use of technology.

Glennan and Melmed (1995) wrote: "Technology without reform is likely to have little value: widespread reform without technology is probably impossible" teachers are able to teach students Teaching is changing and, in many ways, becoming a more difficult job because of increasingly numerous contradictory expectations. Technology can actually assist with some of these expectations and make teachersand their studentsmore successful. Educators must prepare for a technology-rich future and keep up with change by adopting effective strategies that infuse lessons with appropriate technologies. Students complete their schoolwork more quickly; they are lesslikely to get stymied by material they don't understand; their papers and projects are more likely to draw upon up-todate sources and state-of-the-art knowledge; and, they are better at juggling their school assignments and extracurricular activities when they use the Internet. (Levin & Arafeh, 2002, p. ii) On the other hand, the apparent growth of technology use is not always welcomed by critics who argue that schools should use less technology. For example, Oppenhimer (2003) in his book titled The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom concluded that placing computers in the classroom has been almost "entirely wasteful." Other critics have written and spoken extensively of their beliefs that schools should not use technology for a variety of reasons ranging from creating social isolation to preventing students from learning critical basic skills. Addiction, time consuming etc. In their study, Russell and Haney (1997) concluded that, "As more and more students in schools and colleges do their work with spreadsheets and word processors, the traditional paper-and- pencil modes of assessment may fail to measure what they have learned." The study suggests that more and more paper-based assessments of today are becoming a thing of the past. Media characteristics of the technology used to administer the test also can present factors confounding test results when students are more apt in one medium (i.e., paper-andpencil tests) than another medium (i.e., computerized tests that require keyboarding skills). This is a concern that will continue to grow as more assessments become technology based. Companies that develop these tests increasingly design their tests to be taken on computers. However, Rubin (Fulton, Feldman, Wasser, Spitzer, Rubin, & McNamara et al., 1996) believes that a more important outcome than raising test scores is the potential of technology to create communities of learners that do the following: