Information Technology in Education, effects of the continuing developments in information technology (IT) on education. The pace of change brought about by new technologies has had a significant effect on the way people live, work, and play worldwide. New and emerging technologies challenge the traditional process of teaching and learning, and the way education is managed. Information technology, while an important area of study in its own right, is having a major impact across all curriculum areas. Easy worldwide communication provides instant access to a vast array of data, challenging assimilation and assessment skills. Rapid communication, plus increased access to IT in the home, at work, and in educational establishments, could mean that learning becomes a truly lifelong activity—an activity in which the pace of technological change forces constant evaluation of the learning process itself. Radical technological developments in miniaturization, electronic communications, and multimedia hold the promise of affordable, truly personal, mobile computing. The move to digital data is blurring the boundary between broadcasting, publishing, and telephony by making all these media available through computer networks and computerized televisions (see Digital Broadcasting and Electronic Publishing). These developments are not only giving learners access to vast libraries and multimedia resources, but also live access to tutors and natural phenomena throughout the world. Future Trends As technology provides easier access for students to material previously supplied by the teacher, it enhances the role of the teacher as manager of the learning process rather than source of the content. Easier access for students to information, tutorials, and assessment, together with the use of IT tools such as word processors and spreadsheets, will help them learn more productively. There will be a clear split in the way schools and colleges organize learning. In areas of the curriculum that are structured and transferable to electronic format, students will work at different levels and on different content. By removing the burden of individualized learning from schools and colleges, time will be freed for teachers to concentrate on the many other learning activities requiring a teacher as catalyst. Developments in communications technology and the increase in personal ownership of technology will allow learning in schools and colleges to integrate with learning elsewhere. The boundaries between one institution and another and between institutions and the outside world will become less important. Crucially, technology will remove the barrier between school and home. The momentum of the technological revolution creates rapid and disruptive changes in the way in which people live, work, and play. As the pace of technological advance shows no sign of slowing, the challenge is in learning to adapt to changes with the minimum of physical and mental stress. To make this possible, the learning systems and those who manage them must prepare people to work with new technologies competently and confidently. They need to expect and embrace constant change to skill requirements and work patterns, making learning a natural lifelong process. However disturbing this challenge may at first seem, the nature of technology is that it not only poses problems but also offers solutions—constantly creating opportunities and providing new and creative solutions to the process of living and learning.