Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
revolution can only continue to flourish if people
possess the skills and knowledge to design, build,
operate, maintain and, indeed, use the technologies
that sustain this information society. According to
De Haan and Van 't Hof (2006, p. 225, translated
from the Dutch by the authors), while quoting a
European study (EMCC, 2003): 'Technological
innovations have brought new opportunities to
communicate and collect data within reach of
increasing numbers of people. It is to be expected
that this trend will only become more intense and
ever stronger influence our lives in a variety of
ways'. This trend is often referred to as the arrival
of the information society. However, in its con-
nection also such terms as post-industrial society
(Toffler, 1980), knowledge society (WRR, 2002),
and networked society (Castells, 1996) are used.
Setting aside the nuances of the distinctions
between them, three different undercurrents to this
trend may be discerned. First, there is an increased
need for more and deeper knowledge; second,
the half-life of existing knowledge decreases;
and third, as our society at large changes, we as
its participants need to continuously adapt to it.
These aspects can be directly translated into an
equal number of challenges for society: How
can we educate more people better? How can
we educate people faster? How can education
keep pace with the changing society? Meeting
these challenges requires people to be educated
not once in their lifetime, but throughout their
life; and this applies to almost everyone. This
means that educational programmes must be ef-
ficiently and effectively developed, tailoring the
programme to the competences people already
mastered through previous learning experiences.
To tailor educational programmes, recognition
of such prior experiences, however acquired, is
important and the key to successfully meet the
three challenges discussed.
In this chapter we will elaborate on this line
of reasoning. To that end, we provide insight in
the effects of the changing society on the needs
of lifelong learners. We will also look into ways
to meet these needs, particularly the re-use of
educational materials for faster adaptation will
be discussed. In this discussion, we include the
current possibilities for exchange and operability
by means of specifications like IMS ePortfolio and
IMS QTI. First, the consequences of the transition
towards an information society for learning and
training on employees' competence development
and, with that, on the importance of the recogni-
tion of prior learning are described. Second, we
zoom in on procedures for the Assessment of Prior
Learning and on the conditions that have to be
met for assessment of prior learning to be a viable
solution. Finally, as assessment of prior learning
tends to be both expensive and time consuming,
means are discussed to overcome this.
TRENDS AND CHALLENGES
In this section we describe three trends that seri-
ously impact many aspects of our contemporary
society.
A first trend is that the information society
needs more knowledgeable people, meaning that
more people than ever before should receive more
education than ever before. All venues of life, all
professions, and ever more countries have increas-
ingly come to rely on the technological artefacts
to run society. Many examples are available and
here we present two of them. Some 40 years ago,
cars were still predominantly mechanical appli-
ances, nowadays they are a mixture of mechanics
and electronics. Clearly, this requires a different
expertise to design, build and maintain them, and
even to drive them. The car mechanic now needs
to understand the output of the computerised
diagnosis system and the owner needs to be able
to interpret the various messages shown by the
car's display. Something similar applies to the
medical profession. This profession has always
been a profession that heavily relied on technol-
ogy. However, with the advent of computers
technology has invaded virtually all walks of a
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