Globalization and the Integration of ICT in Education: A Critical Review in Architecture Education

Globalization has brought fundamental changes with regard to the way of education during the historical period. In fact Globalization is a complex of values, ideologies, and practices that affect the economic, political, and cultural aspects of society. The global era has often been imagined as a period of intense technological revolution. Along with this changes, education is under attack as a result of global policies. Education is a key target because of its centrality and its potential to these challenges. Technology and its latest achievement, namely, information technology, has had a massive and dramatic impact in education. This article explores the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) as a contemporary perspective of education. With the popularity and accessibility of internet-based services such as the World Wide Web, the 1990s was the decade of computer communications and information access. Within a very short time ICTs have become one of the basic foundations of modern society. Many countries intent on understanding ICT and the basic skills and concepts of that as a basic need in education. These technologies are chiefly and increasingly being used as a tool that encourage and support independent learning. The spread of information technology and the use of new tools and concepts, provide easy and low-cost access to information for learners, including students and teachers. They provide a forum for rapid exchange of information and cultural interactions. As a result educators became more focused on the use of the technology to improve student learning as a rationale for investment. However, information and communication technologies in the educative process has been used for education for teaching/learning purposes and in education in the teaching learning process. In this way, information technology is considered as a tool in the process of learning. So the purpose of this study is exploring the role of information and communication technology in education. In this paper, we try to focus on information and communication technology in architecture education. The research method is descriptive-analytic. Research materials include all references (books, articles, theses) related to the topic under study. For this reason, information and communication technology can be used as a powerful tool for improving the quality and efficiency of architectural students learning. The growing development of tools based on ICTs and its speed with human needs has created a new form of creative, interactive, and inclusive learning environment. Architecture education should serve democracy and social change for a better society in which humans will be more flexible than today. In the restructuring of education an anthropocentric program should be applied. In this process, the case of architecture education should be considered as a dialogical process, leading to experimental learning to empower students to be independently critical to create a better society. This matter is still important in designing our future through education on the base of human needs. The findings discuss how the integration of ICT in architecture studios are embedded in a perspective of education based on new modalities, Self-regulatory and flexibility, autonomous and non-hierarchical environments.

Keywords:

Globalization , ICT , Technology Integration , Education , Architecture