Impacts of globalization on educational tools and facilities in Iran

Iran Edu

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Nowadays, the role of Information and Communication Systems in simplifying the flow of information and preparing the path for decision making is clear to almost everyone. Development of the availability of communicating in the shortest time has conquered the time and has led to some new circumstances or so-called "Globalization (Shahi et al., 2008).

According to Ginkel, these changes were rooted underground about half a century ago (Ginkel, 2002). One the other hand, Madison regards globalization as an advanced human dynamic (Madison, 2001). Alberto believes that modernity has come to an end and a new era has begun in which the world has completely changed and is approaching to become a whole unit (Alberto, 2001). Based on Charlton and Andreas's beliefs, globalization is an aspect of a bigger phenomenon, i.e. modernism, which defines the society with increasingly growing properties of communication complexities (Charlton and Andreas, 2006). All these stand for a reality known as globalization. Globalization, which requires freedom of action, results in variations in factors including monitoring, hierarchical relations, and management-oriented in education management. This matter implies that although globalization does not belong to any doctrines, it is somehow aligned with post-modernity basics and principles. In the contemporary world, post modernism principles are becoming widespread and have led to new debates in political and cultural as well as literal aspects including learning and education (Farmihani, 2010). It seems that Jacques Derrida's deconstructive attitudes have stimulated evolutions in education (Derrida, 1974). As evidence suggests, education system have also benefited from globalization consequences. Referring to the fact that the year 2002 was named as "Human Globalization" by UNESCO, Ginkel believes that the whole education system plays an important role in this matter (Ginkel, 2002). The globalization process is significantly affecting the economic and commercial life of nations. With increasing global competition and the rapidly advancing technologies, the business organizations and business models as well as management systems and practices are undergoing continuous change. To cope up with these changes, the management education is also being restructured and refocused (Mushtaq, 2004).

. The availability of accessing Internet networks for students has made classrooms' walls more transparent and penetrable which brings along the possibility of infinite and multipurpose relationships to learners and has resulted in the notion of Global Village.

The concept of the Global Village can only be made manifest with the infrastructure and policies that promote information technology in the classroom. Information technologies, especially access to the Internet, promote the Global Village in real and tangible ways. Students accessing the global wealth of knowledge will be able to think more critically about the concepts, facts, and ideas they assimilate in the classroom. In Iran, the need for more robust information technologies in the classroom is apparent. The outmoded methods of education still practiced, ie. ones that do not ascribe to the Global Village concept, are reflective of the philosophy of Michel Foucault. Foucault argued that the modern education system had become too prison-like. We need to "understand the subtle, complex and harmful effects of power relations that shape and control educational institutions," (McDonough, 1993). A revolution in education is called for, one that maintains some of the essential social and political structures that define modern Iran while also incorporating liberalizing elements that bring Persian students into the era of globalization.

Foucault's analysis of the importance of power in the educational system is especially apt when applied to educational institutions in Iran. "Foucault was concerned mostly with power," as Cheshier (n.d.) points out. Yet the analysis is far deeper than that. It is not power itself that is the problem but the ramifications of that power. Students are powerless in the classroom to guide and direct their own learning, when they do not have access to the Internet and other crucial types of information technologies. It will be impossible for Persian students to achieve high levels of social, economic, and academic success without having the same access to technologies that their counterparts in Europe and North America do. For this reason, an exploration of the specific features needed to revolutionize the Iranian education system is fruitful.