Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

Harnessing Emerging Technologies for Education Communication

Abstract

Peter Kibe Ngugi

The history of pedagogy reflects many changes in methodology, curriculum and institutional structure and management but one thing that seems to transcend time is the central role of the classroom teacher. At all levels of learning from the preparatory to higher levels of education, the role of the instructor remains paramount. Even informally, in apprenticeship the trainer plays a significant role in transmission and imparting of knowledge. Educationists have made bold attempts to integrate communication technologies to enrich learning with tremendous success but they all serve to complement the role of the teacher. The education fraternity can be noted without fear of contradiction to be the greatest beneficially of the printing technology. Discoveries of other communication technologies like the motion pictures, the television, radio, computer, internet and digital technologies have all played significant roles in improving transmission of educational instructions. The new media hold promise of stealing the show from the classroom teacher more than any other communication technology so far discovered. There is need to urgently assess the impact these new media technologies have had on learning and their contribution to quality compared to older technologies and the traditional classroom teacher. However, this is not the focus of this paper. The concern of this paper is to explore the variety of new media technologies available for learning and how they can be used to enrich learning. Through literature review method this article poignantly demonstrates how the new media is being used to complement the efforts of the classroom instructor through offline and online presentations, publishing online and offline, social networking, access, connectivity ,search, analytical tools, content creation and design and providing a rich online resources. “The newly released ICT figures confirm once again that information and communication technologies continue to be the key drivers of the information society,” ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré.