Information society and virtual (distance) education.

Abstract

New communication and information technologies are becoming the main force of the “new industrial revolution, which multiplies the capabilities of human intelligence”. The idea of an information society was formulated in the late 1960s – early 1970s. The term “information society” was coined by Yuri Hayashi, professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Researchers and developers of the information society theory are: M. Castells, F. Webster, E. Giddens, J. Habermas, D. Martin, D. Bell, G. Molitor, O. Toffler, Z. Brzezinski, A. King, D. Nesbit, A. Touraine, P. Drucker, M. McLuhan. The term “information society” reveals the objective process of society becoming gradually aware of the importance of information as some independent fundamental entity (along with energy and matter) and its transformation into a real productive force.