ABSTRACT
The enthusiasm for the new information technologies in Hungary and the perceived changes in the “relationship to knowledge” are an indication of the country’s move away from a system closed to outside interference to a system that is receptive to and welcomes new ideas that are forming within the country and outside its borders. It acknowledges the need for changing perspectives on “knowledge” as well as on how knowledge and literacy (ies) are taught and distributed. This shift in approaching knowledge as changing and constantly expanding is partly influenced by Hungary’s political and economic changes, and by social and ideological shifts since the late 1980s. Specifically, the perceived need to join other European countries and to become a part of a “global citizenship” has led to serious reconsiderations of political and educational practices in many Eastern European countries. According to Balint Magyar, for example, new technological advances, and new ways to present and disseminate information, make it necessary to look at the world from new angles and to re-evaluate the previously imposed restrictions on knowledge acquisition and distribution (Magyar, 1997).
