Brussels, 28/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - The internet is a wonderful teaching aid but must be handled with great care; it provides a lot of information but it is time to examine what can be removed from the web, warned the chair of the European Parliament's education and culture committee, Doris Pack (EPP, Germany), after a public hearing organised by the committee on Thursday 24 June 2010. Academics and civil society representatives noted the infinite potential of the internet to help cultures understand one another. New information technology provides an unparalleled opening up of the world for students who have to stay put, explained Johannes De Gruyter of the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. This “virtual mobility” means that students from all four corners of the earth can understand and connect up with one another and improve their langue skills. Over the next five years, everyone in the developed world will be interconnected using portable electronic devices, argued Andrew Rasiej, founder of a website called Personal Democracy Forum, examining how the web is changing democracy. He said digital awareness had to be boosted and schools are lagging behind in terms of new technology. There are huge dangers, largely due to a huge concentration of powers in the hands of a few multinationals, said Verena Wiedemann of UNESCO, quoting various studies warning of “false diversity”, and the highly unreliable nature of much of the information online. Professor Jean-Noël Jeanneney, former head of the National Library in France, said the internet should not be allowed to develop spontaneously without any intervention by public authorities, whose duty it was to guide internet users and marshal the information provided. (I.L./transl.fl)