The internet and global education

Global Education

The Internet and Global Education

The Industrial Revolution was in large part responsible for the development of massive public educational systems, and especially the compulsory nature of such programs in most countries today. The demands of employment in the industrial world, combined with the lessened need of family labor working in the agriculture sector in the developed world, created a need for literate and knowledgeable citizens, and it also suggested mechanisms by which this could be accomplished. Though educational theories and practices have of course changed a great deal since the early years of the nineteenth century educational systems, the systematic group instruction that is the standard method of instilling knowledge and thinking skills in young minds is still run much like a factory, with a division of labor, schedules of progression, and tests to ensure standards are being met.

Technological changes continue to have a major influence on educational systems and opportunities, and the advent of the Computer Age marked the beginning of a new shift in education almost as large as that created by the Industrial Revolution. In large part, this has to do with education's scarcity as a limited commodity. Education, especially at levels higher than those provided by local communities, used to require great expense -- travel, lodging, and the cost of books and study itself. With the Internet, however, the face of education has been drastically changed for individuals in many countries, and as the technology expands its spread more and more students will have the capabilities to achieve higher educational goals. The technologies that have developed can also help local communities and families provided substantive education to children and adolescents.

The available educational opportunities on the Internet range in variety from sophisticated lecture and test-taking programs that allow for near-full experience of a traditional learning environment from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, to more informal sites that simply encourage a global educational community and collaborative spirit. On this latter type of site, such as iearn.org, teachers and students find projects that they can engage in and resource material that they can draw on to develop lesson plans, modify practices, and simple gain awareness of issues in the educational field (iearn.org 2010). There is a highly social aspect to this site as well in a monitored online environment that encourages global communication and collaboration n a safe and school-like atmosphere (iearn.org 2010). The potential for such communities only increases with age.

Teachers of elementary through high school age classrooms have also developed specific online communities and resource centers which are more geared toward both communication and networking among education professionals. Even a decade ago, numerous sites existed where educators could retrieve lesson plans, government documents concerning guidelines, large educational databases with current news and developments in the academic study of education, and more (Pinhey 1998). This does not even include the abundance of purely informational websites that enable the distinguishing user to obtain information on almost any subject within a few minutes, which is itself a great resource for educators and students alike. The ability to share recommendations and experiences between educators has also been of great benefit in global education (Pinhey 1998).

The most important impact that the Internet has had in the educational realm s the extension of educational opportunities to those for whom such opportunities did not exist a generation ago. A large part of the world's population still lives in rural and impoverished areas, and many countries exhibit a wide disparity between the rich and the poor and their opportunities, and these situations tend to be self-perpetuating (GE 2009). Globalization has in many ways been responsible for this growing disparity, but the Internet might be helping to correct these imbalances in a way that has never really been achieved before. Internet access and computer technology is relatively cheap, when compared to the construction of new schools, the training and hiring of teachers, production of text books, etc. The simple affordability of education has been changed significantly by the Internet, allowing students living in poverty to obtain a better and more complete education, thus advancing their opportunities to be more in line with those of the developed world (GE 2009).