The use of Information Technology in teaching and its impact on the lecturer’s missions: new techniques, new skills

Abstract

The rapid developments which have occurred in recent years in the fields of computing, multimedia and Internet as well as their intercomplementarity have lead to what we call today “Information and Communication Technologies”. Very quickly, the impact of these technologies has clearly become noticeable in all fields of life, for its use unveiled unknown possibilities and abilities. This has lead to the appearance of a new teaching environment, where the roles of teacher and student have changed. Among the impact of these technologies, there has been a change as to the pattern of knowledge access, retrieval and transmission. This could lead the teacher to go over the strategies related to the work and activities, he used to do, and control them, either at the information access level or at the level of its organization and stocking. On the other hand, the teacher must be able and efficient when performing his work within this new teaching environment, and acquiring great technical skillfulness that enable him using it. This work aims at studying the information technologies in education and analyzing some new skills that must be required by higher education lecturers. These skills will enable them employing these technologies in their pedagogical and research activities.

Keywords: Information Technology, higher education, lecturer’s missions, new techniques, new skills