Education And New Multimedia Technologies In The Information Society

Even though much has been written about the importance of information and communication technologies in recent decades, their essential presence in our lives makes them an obligatory reference when talking about education in today’s society. A society in constant evolution which, in the second half of the 20th century, was characterized by continuous advances in the development of multimedia devices and programs. The new millennium, opened in the midst of the information era, seems to confirm that per-per-change has become the only constant in the world of modern multimedia technologies.

By new multimedia technologies (NTM), we mean the result of the convergence in the digital world of traditional mass media (press, radio and, especially, television), information technology and telematics.

This technological convergence has meant a revolution in the world of information technologies that finds its broth of culture in the interconnection of communication networks: the Internet or the network of systems.

This omnipresence and importance of new multimedia technologies in our daily lives are reinforced by the role that these technologies play themselves as means of diffusion and communication. Press, radio, television, Internet, etc., echo the importance of new technologies. They offer us their representations of the technological reality that surrounds us; they always announce the arrival of new devices to communicate and process information; in short, they offer us a definite vision of new multimedia technologies and the information society. Our expectations, opinions, and attitudes towards new media, as individuals and as members of an educational community, will be influenced by the dominant technological discourse,

The technical discussion that accompanies the following implantation of the NT over-determined by the significant economic and commercial interests that characterize the information world and multimedia companies, so that technological developments often come with a sensationalist and confusing discourse that addresses its potential users. A speech that presents the NTM as embodying “progress,” the panacea against all the evils and failures, including, of course, those related to education. New technologies present themselves as inevitable, all-powerful and out of questioning. As Walton says, “For fifteen years, new technologies have enjoyed enormous publicity, more than any other social, political, sporting or cultural activity.