New technologies in education: trends, risks and opportunities

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the recent changes in education and information and communication and examine the kind of developments we may expect. It examines changes in society, in business and in the home. It presents data on levels of access to computers and the internet in the EU, assesses how computers are used in education and examines teachers’ knowledge of computers and how far ICTs are part of the curriculum.

The paper demonstrates that computers and ICTs are increasingly used in schools, but large number of schools still have no access or limited access to new technologies. It further demonstrates that an increasing number of teachers have received some training in the use of computers and ICT, but still about half of the teachers in the EU countries have so far received no training.

The paper recommends that, due to the importance of these developments, there is a need for teacher unions to reflect on their strategies related to the use of new technologies in education.