The real goal of why we need technology in education is that it enhances learning and meets of educational needs of a society that is going through the Information Age with its information explosion. The Internet is ubiquitous and not only in education. This present generation of students is growing up with the Internet shaping their lives. In traditional education, teachers looked for ways to apply the skills they taught, so that the students could use them in the real world. But education and the real world are becoming synonymous.
Education needs to prepare students for lifelong learning and problem solving.
The emphasis is no longer on teaching but on learning. The role of the teacher will be that of a facilitator. The student needs to create his own knowledge and to learn what is relevant to his own life. There is an excellent description of active and meaningful learning in the book, Integrating the Internet for Meaningful Learning by Mark and Cindy Grabe. Learning communities is an example of a current educational outcome reflecting meaningful learning that is being made possible by the use of the Internet.