Information and communication technology (ICT) has developed to become an integral part of everyday life. It influences the lives of everyone, wherever we live or work in the world. Almost every aspect of our daily lives now involves using ICT skills. In the increasingly dynamic world of work, people need to be able to work effectively with ICT, to develop transferable ICT skills and to apply those skills across different contexts and software packages.

At the school level, ICT prepares pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technology. Pupils use ICT tools to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information responsibly, creatively and with discrimination. They learn how to employ ICT to enable rapid access to information, ideas, and experiences from a wide range of people, communities and cultures. Increased capability in the use of ICT promotes initiative and independent learning with pupils being able to make informed judgments about when and where to use ICT to best effect, and to consider its implications for home and work both now and in the future.

Most countries in the Asia ? Pacific region have been working hard the last few years to develop policies and strategies to infuse technology into schools. The reason for these efforts is not difficult to understand : a nation?s eonomic success in the 21st century will be linked to how well it can adapt and thrive in a global IT environment. This economic imperative will naturally place tremendous responsibilties on schools and educators to prepare their children to meet global technological changes.

Recent changes have ocurred in the theories and practices of pedagogy, that is the basic elements which are considered to make up ?good instruction?. The computer has potential to contribute to all these efforts. There are many strategies for integrating technology into teaching and learning, but the important thing is that each strategy addresses a specific learning or teaching need. In general, the most effective approach is one of solving instructional problems. That is, technology should be viewed as one means of solving some of the problems which teachers face in their teaching, and which learners face in their learning.

Technology can be used both by teachers and by students, and whether it has a central role or a secondary one, it should always be intentionally important to the teaching and learning process.

<B>Avinash Satyam RAMCHARAN</B>