Notes about the impact of ICT at university

Abstract

This article has been produced from the seminar organized by the work team CCUC (Culture Change in the 21st Century Catalan Universities, http://dewey. uab. es/mtomas) from the Applied Pedagogy Department at UAB. The seminar dealt with the many changes that universities are currently undergoing. With regard to Information Technologies (IT), the new paradigm for teaching was outlined in the seminar (23/02/2001). In the information society this paradigm is being shaped by the new computer, telephone, mass-media and, especially, Internet facilities. These facilities provide access to all kinds of information, always accessible anywhere in the world. They also provide immediate and omnipresent information channels. Thus, the frame in which learning is developing today is totally different from how it was two decades ago: virtuality, bimodality, new roles of students and teachers, new teaching materials. . . IT, however, are not a guarantee of a positive change in the university. There are new challenges that need to be faced: new teaching programmes, the quality control of virtual materials and services, good teaching practices in the use of IT, the training of the teachers. . . .