The "knowledge society" and the "information society" -- once more -- slogans are increasingly being given substance in OECD countries. More and more people are "knowledge workers". Development competitive edge, whether it be for the individual, the enterprise, the region or the country, depends increasingly on how knowledge is used and how expertise is deployed. A premium is placed on accessing and using information rapidly and strategically. Generally, our cultures become increasingly technological cultures: at home, in the community, at work, and - importantly for us - in education.

It is hardly surprising that education is caught up in the midst of these fast-moving developments. Can we tolerate a situation where Education might fall increasingly behind so as to become out of step with these other characteristics of contemporary life? The political response to this question is clear - education and schools in particular should not be isolated but instead be an integral part of all these changes. A major fear often expressed by countries is that if education were to become any more isolated, they will fall behind, socially and economically, compared with elsewhere. It is hardly surprising that the political interest has thus become so high: some countries have adopted ambitious, national plans to open access to computers and the Internet to all school students - the Technology Literacy Challenge in the USA, The National Grid for Learning in the UK, Schulen am Netz in Germany, and Educnet in France.

Despite the enthusiasm some words of caution are warranted. First, there is a world of difference between the "knowledge" society and the "information" society, between knowledge itself and information. More and more information may even make us less knowledgeable if we become overloaded by data and instant communication. Paradoxical as it may seem, some of the most important issues that the burgeoning technological world creates for education are those of values and the ability to make choices, not technical matters at all. There might be a temptation to forget this when sights are fixed firmly on huge investments in hardware for education.

Second, there are profound concerns now about the gaps opening up between the ICT haves and have-nots, between those who reinforce their access to, and use of, ICT in education by what they have and do at home, and those who enjoy little of either. This digital divide may become every bit as profound as earlier forms of rigid social and education selection. Again, enthusiasm for ICT’s potential should not make us blind to very real accompanying risks.

Globalisation is another term that is heard regularly in international circles and again there is a risk that it can be a slogan devoid of substance. Yet it is increasingly obvious that it is a term that refers to some of the most profound changes taking place across our countries where ICT is right at the heart of the matter. Indeed, globalisation is closely linked to the notion of the information society in the sense that increasingly national frontiers are put in question, with the myriad exchanges taking place electronically and instantly across frontiers. All of this raises profound issues for education, some highly controversial.

Globalisation offers considerable opportunities. All sorts of limits can be stretched - the very purpose of education. Students can dialogue with their counterparts across the globe. Teachers can create networks and be members of professional teams drawn from far and wide, rather than feel trapped within the boundaries of the single classroom or even the single school. New sources of learning materials drawn from right around the world are accessible via the Internet and these different networks.

Other implications of globalisation are, however, a good deal more controversial. Education, especially school education, is a matter of intense national cultural interest. Flourishing education accountability mechanisms are largely predicated on accountability to national, provincial/state or local bodies, and are placed in an uneasy tension by the spread of global communications. At the same time, much of the material available on the Internet, through cable networks or major software publishers, comes from North America, raising for many countries issues about the place for other languages, cultures and identities. (Recent Oxford University Press figures suggest that the US commands nearly 70% of the educational CD-ROM market world-wide.) Hence, globalisation gives rise to major and thorny questions as well as creating exciting new potential opportunities, but underlines once more the interest in this field.

The lifelong learning agenda defines a third set of issues underpinning the keen interest in ICT and education relating both to broader economic, social and cultural change, and to more specifically educational matters. This agenda has become a priority for policy at the end of the 20^th century right across OECD countries, stemming from recognition of the key role of learning throughout the life span to meet a wide set of ambitious policy and personal objectives. And, for this to work, learning must be available in a much broader and more flexible manner than that which can be squeezed into school and college walls and syllabuses in the first quarter of our lives. Some countries have still properly to face up to the fact that education is not just for the young.

It is not difficult to see why ICT becomes so important in this context. The search is on for flexible, individualised forms of learning and accreditation suitable to the broad lifelong learning agenda, often outside institutional walls - the promise of ICT here is obvious. Despite the promise, we should ask how far this potential for extending lifelong learning on a much broader scale has been realised so far and how it can best be organised. How far are the benefits of lifelong learning being enjoyed primarily by the already educated, the already equipped, and the already technologically literate? Will ICT’s burgeoning educational role mean that the aim of lifelong learning for all will be brought nearer or pushed further away? These are urgent policy questions for today and tomorrow.

There is also need for clarity on what the different roles and uses are of ICT in education, and some of the most important trends that are emerging in assessing its potential. First, educational software, sometimes, is referred to as if it were an additional teaching and learning resource that differs in format, but not in kind, from the non-electronic materials of textbooks and the like. It can be just this. Increasingly, however, it is something radically different - through using the World Wide Web, Intranets and networks - to create interactive, individualised learning situations. And, some of the important uses of ICT in schools do not use educational software as such at all - whether networking between students and teachers using e-mail or bulletin boards or different forms of document formatting and publishing applications. We need to be sensitive to this diversity of forms and use, which give rise to increasingly complex issues concerning quality, partnerships and policy steering.

The second point is obvious once stated but fundamental: the role and potential of ICT in education is not a matter distinct from all other conventional factors of schooling - students, teachers, curricula, parents, assessment, evaluation and so forth - but intimately embedded in them. Whether ICT will live up to the many far-reaching educational promises being touted depends enormously on how it is used in practice. It does not represent a technical solution to long-standing challenges but a profoundly educational one. The many ambitious policy targets that abound today - to wire up every school, to get the student/computer ratios right down, to give teachers laptops, etc. - are excellent as far as they go, but are still only ingredients rather than the sufficient conditions of change. Putting computers in classrooms and wiring up schools does not of itself create exciting new learning situations that are about changing the ethos of classrooms and the culture of institutions. It is on this latter point that the CERI case studies will focus (see Jarl Bengtsson’s article in TechKnowLogia, Sept./Oct. 9, 1999).

The third point to highlight is the key role of teachers. How successfully ICT is used in education and how much it does break the mould, depends so much on teachers. This observation stands in contrast to those who have advocated technology in the classrooms with the aim of making learning "teacher-proof". The emerging generations of ICT use in education might well be described as "learner centred" but they can equally be described as "teacher-intensive", calling for a highly demanding repertoire of teaching knowledge, skills, and competence. Issues of teacher education, pre-service and in-service, are thus very important. Overcoming teacher resistance is critical. The focus should be on the skills possessed by individuals and teams of teachers, on the attitudes and learning environments where the open, imaginative use of ICT is both possible and encouraged, and on the incentives for teachers to develop new approaches and forms of competence. Pre- and in-service teacher education programmes, however important, will be rendered ineffective if there is not also genuine scope for exploring the potential of ICT in day-to-day teaching.

One very attractive argument in favour of ICT, particularly for a treasury (finance) minister, is that it will be a significant route to efficiency savings in a sector that commands a significant share of public expenditure. It is certainly to be hoped that some major shifts in resource use and allocation will be possible. Yet, radical change also brings it own cost, and much of that is not about hardware and access. The latter costs can themselves be very substantial - recent estimates suggest that over the OECD as a whole, approximately US$16bn are invested annually in hardware, software and communication links in education. The very flexibility and interactivity of the new forms of learning with ICT, and the demanding nature of teaching and learning that goes with them, suggest that intensive investments in people and organisations are needed over and above the investments in hardware and software.

Moreover, augmenting quality through ICT in some showcase pilot situations or in already-affluent schools is relatively straightforward; proportionally greater efforts and investments will be needed precisely in those schools that enjoy least.

I hope that CERI will have more to say about costs and investments at the end of our own project in a couple of years. Even if it turns out that actual savings are hard to make, by working towards realising the exciting potential of ICT, in combination with the other ingredients in good education, there should be an expectation of a clear upward hike in the quality of teaching and learning. If realised, this would represent value for money in a very real sense - genuine educational investment. This is what we should be aiming for.