Information Technology Education For Developing Countries And Beginners Using Web Based Distance Learning

One of the most crucial technological challenges facing developing countries in the new millennium is the lack of suitably qualified personnel in the area of Information and Communication Technologies. Such technologies are not only important in the performance and growth of a nation’s economy, but are also the effective tools in the advancement of human development. Education of a large number of personnel in Information Technology requires an infrastructure of modern educational institutions for the younger generation to help improve the nation’s economy and provide suitable employment for them. In the absence of such an infrastructure, developing countries can educate their students by making use of new methods of web-based distance learning employed by various educational institutions in USA. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ways in which web-based distance learning can be implemented in the developing countries and educational institutions wishing to start such facilities by using some of the resources available on the world wide web. The use of web-based and virtual labs for distance education in engineering and information technology will also be discussed.