Socialinio pedagogo veiklos tobulinimas panaudojant informacijos ir komunikacijos technologijas
In the epoch of the modern global changes, a new form of society is being formed. The individual knowledge of a person is becoming a still more important basis of the quality of economic and social life. The reform of education in Lithuania is taking place for more than a decade, and within this period many essential changes occurred. Lithuania is oriented towards the aims of the European Union, it seeks to become the competitive member of the European Union, is open to various novelties and aims to strengthen its education system, so that it would educate the full-fledged members of modern society. The present-day changes also conditioned the emergence of social problems, which had a strong effect on the whole social life, including school life. The necessity came forth to take all necessary measures for the improvement of social situation. Social pedagogues, whose position has been introduced in the educational establishments from 2001, may help to solve these problems. One of the priority trends in the development of modern society is the rapid implementation of communication technologies in all the fields of activities. In implementing information and communication technologies at school it is also necessary to integrate in this process the functions performed by a social pedagogue. The objective of this work is to study the opportunities of a social pedagogue, to use information and communication technologies in his activities. A social pedagogue, when performing the functions of his activities and communicating with his communication objects, may use effectively the advantages granted by information and communication technologies. In the work, the opportunities for improvement of the activities of a social pedagogue, with the use of information and communication technologies, are discussed, taking into account the pedagogical literature, standard documents of education reform, where issues of the activities of a social pedagogue as well as information and communication technologies and the prerequisites for the development of this area are considered, listing the functions of the activity of a social pedagogue, the objects of communication, evaluating the preparation of a social pedagogue and needs for use information and communication technologies. The results of the research performed are also provided, the main aim being to reveal the approach of social pedagogues to the necessity of information and communication technologies in their work and to evaluate the aspects of the activities of a social pedagogue, using information and communication technologies. The main tendency in the improvement of the activity of social pedagogues should be the ability to disseminate and process the constantly increasing amounts of information, using the technological solutions, which would provide the quality and usefulness indicators to their activities, therefore the essential precondition of this work is to distinguish, to name and to describe the principal processes and factors, which predetermine the improvement in the social pedagogue’s activity, taking into account the needs of modern society. The topic concerning the improvement in the activities of a social pedagogue, using information and communication technologies, is urgent, since computer literacy is one of the most important, priority fields of the present education policy pursued by the State.