engleski

The Role of Information Technology in Knowledge Distribution: Current Situation in United States Higher Education and Possible Implementation in the Southeast European and Eurasian Higher Education

The importance of Information technology is continuously increasing and has pervaded almost every part of our daily life activities. Information technology is quite significant in the distribution (transfer) of knowledge. Higher education constitutes a fertile ground for implementation and usage of information technology due to the above-average education level of its beneficiaries (students and faculties) as well as because of the fact that the young people of today use the internet to a greater extent (they have a high percentage of Internet access), bearing in mind that the internet is the basic information technology medium for information exchange. In this paper the authors identify most frequently used information technologies that are currently used in teaching at American universities. Research was conducted on a target sample of faculties from Southeastern Europe and Eurasian countries who participated in the Junior Faculty Development Program. By auditing classes at various American universities during the 2009 spring semester, they were able to witness the use of information technology both from the perspective of faculty and from that of students. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which information technology are presently used at American universities, the leading higher education institutions in the world, as well as to discover how that technology can be used as part of the teaching process in the South E European and Asian higher education.

information technology, higher education, distribution of knowledge, knowledge management, teaching improvement

Research for this article was supported in part by the Junior Faculty Development Program, which is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the United States Department of State, under authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 as amended, and administered by American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS. The opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily express the views of either ECA or American Councils.