ICT's Impact On International Education In The 21st Century: An Essay.

“What is the impact of ICT on international education for the 21st Century?”

Effects of Globalization and e-learning on ICT

With the emerging technology and development in the recent time, the internet has evolved a lot. It has also effected the globalization a lot. With the evolution of e-learning tools and implementation of international educational learning has become effective. With the implementation of new technologies, online study material and interactive classes teaching, and learning has earned a huge interest.   The main of my study is to focus about today’s growing trend of globalization on e-learning which includes the effect of using information technology; in addition to teachers and students’ development. It also defines the use of technology as hardware and software which includes iPads, laptops, desktop computers, interactive classrooms, software and peripherals. This becomes equally important to understand the need of ICT for globalization and e learning. The implementation of new information and communication technology has improved the engagement between teachers and student has increased. ICT helps in enhancing the education process by providing support with information and communication technology.  It is the global knowledge and participation using the internet and e-learning strategies. At this point it becomes important to discuss about the provision of distance learning and on-campus learning. ICT enhances the quality of education provided to the student ways with the help of increasing number of online courses, interactive sessions, engaging the teachers and students online for better and instant support. With the implementation of this technology proper distant learning can be guaranteed. The international and national educators will continue to develop the ICT which been shaped by the economic globalization (Ryan, 1998). Providing the teachers and staff professional development and support to expand the philosophy of teaching in using ICT is the key is to share the vision among all stakeholders (Kidd, 2012). The report will analyses in detail the positive and negative impact of ICT on international education.

There are several impacts of implementing ICT on international education. However the positive impacts are more and the main role of ICT is to expand the access over education and knowledge internationally, which has translated the ideas of using the digital resources to achieve better learning and system improvement in educational communications across the worldwide or between different geographical areas (Youssef & Dahmani, 2008). Long-distance/e-learning has expanded the international education access to allow larger number of student’s participation compared to the on-campus learning. Nowadays, students can learn remotely using the new technology of digital resources such as online classroom. Considering the size of classrooms and buildings, using the ICT in teaching will be less cost effective, reliable and affordable to many of international students. Moreover, the lower cost of education has expanded and widened the access to worldwide opportunities for students to have different teaching and learning format rather than the traditional learning format. Students with different learning methods or using the technology researches have proven to show larger engagement and broaden their critical thinking and achievement this turns to be beneficial for international education.  International education is referred to the concept of involving a movement that includes people, ideas and minds (Arundhathi & Chandrashekara, 2015). The concept behind this learning includes formal education, learning, and informal learning. With the help of ICT, international education will get enhanced.

At this stage it is important to distinguish between the distance learning and attend face-to-face “on-campus access” (Cunningham et al., 1998) However, using ICT is still facing some challenges in traditional schools. Based on my experience, there are some challenging factors that we need to consider in using digital resources. Teachers, students and admin may lack the necessary experience in using technology, which may unfavorably affect the lesson content or delivery and aggravate the students’ outcomes. Teachers and students should be supported all the time to apply the best practice of using the digital resources. On the other hand, teachers and students need to be provided with computers and all necessary resources. Applying all of this will lead to a cost which schools may not be able to support (Al-Shboul, 2013). One other effect is the physical harm, sitting for a long time in front of the computer will cause a health problem like, eye strain and backpain; this will defiantly affect the student’s education. Additionally, students are likely to be playful. Using the computer or digital learning, will give them access to YouTube and games, this will also lead to wasting of time.

• Educational innovation: introducing the ICT in international education will need to develop teachers and build new IT infrastructure. Administration and teachers should play a role to meet the students pedagogical which will need to be students learning focus.
• Curriculum: the international schools need to find suitable ways to modify the curriculum content in order to be delivered using special platforms/software.
• Software copyrights: it is observed that in international education system some students and schools might be using the unlicensed/pirated software, this will lead to inappropriate connectivity. Schools should always go through a digital strategy to avoid any illegal and ethical software issues.
• Internet and networks: students may use the internet in inappropriately. Schools need to find solution to supervise the students and make sure the internet is only used for educational purposes.
• Cyber bullying and social media: students may take an advantage of using the internet as a way to bully each other. Thus it is important to take care from the perspective of international education.

Positive impacts of ICT on international education

This is the responsibility of the education policymaker to be clear about the benefits of education outcome. The objective is to develop an education system that will engage more learners and will lead them with better future. Learners are the future of every country. Thus, it is essential to develop a system that will engage maximum learner (Borko, 2004). The benefits of ICT into education is that it reduces efforts needed and increases the efficiency. Integrating the ICT into education has provoke a variety of teachers’ challenging’s. One of the challenges is how to use the new learning approach instead of the traditional way. Another obstacle is, how to map and reform the old curriculum in order to meet the new teaching methodology. International researchers found that not all schools IT infrastructure and teachers’ computer skills are capable to take the new step (Dube, Nhamo & Magonde, 2018). In order to engage every school with ICT, these is the responsibility of the education department to organize campaigns so that they can learn the about the benefits. However, these is equally important to understand that as the efforts needed by the teacher reduces that does not means they start taking the education system lightly. With implementation of ICT, effort will get reduced, but the learning process will become convenient.  To succeed the education innovations, great collaboration is required from stakeholders and teachers (Cuban, 2001). Ongoing professional development and student’s awareness are always required. This development is not only about workshops, but it also requires practical preparation and continuous support to make all stakeholders able to face all the daily challenges when using the ICT in their lesson (Ball & Cohen, 2000).

After researches it has been found out that the differences in culture affects the market of international education and has implemented new ways of using the ICT. An individual’s, culture effects the thinking of the particular individual and this is the reason that impacts the education. Based on some studies taken in place during the 1980’s proved that the distance learning of the Western countries found that students can work independently and self-directed when using text-based learning (Okoye, 2018). However, the same study has been taken to an Asian country, found out that the Asians are more competent in oral culture learning. During the 2000’s, the use of ICT has facilitated the international education it does not only use culture diversity as a resource but is also considered deliberately efficient for teaching and learning (Salmon, 2000). This has given awareness to use the ICT in the process of teaching and learning along with the development plan using the internet and online researches to encourage the students to reflect on their learning skills. Using the technology has changed the world culture, graduates that are familiar with digital culture have shown stronger opportunities in their studies outcome. An e-learning culture is one in which the emphasis is on the teacher, the student, and the technology used to facilitate that learning experiences (Simonson et al., 2000).

Up to date, there are some challenges of accessing the digital resources, international researchers have declared that there are some issues while accessing the international education information. The challenges could occur when using the ICT in teaching and learning, using the internet for researches, non-skilled teachers and lack of support to teachers and students.  As the information and communication technologies continue to intensify transnational flows of cultural commodities, text, images and artifacts, as well ideas, ideologies and values (Cunningham et al., 1998). However, there are chances of the learner facing problem with the courses taught by the teacher online. This depends on the experience of the teachers. The teacher may lack somewhere, and it may cause a difficulty for the students while learning the basic concepts.  Apart from these, it is difficult for ICT to reach to the remote areas for providing education. The people in remote areas hardly knows to interact with the system and how to use the technology. Thus, it is equally important for the government of each country to set up some basic educational rights that will ensure minimum education for each citizen. Everyone should know to use the technology as this will enhance their way of living. With the use of technology everyone can reach to their dreams (Adu & Mireku, 2016). The government should provide free net access to areas where the people can’t afford technology support. With awareness everything can be implemented effectively. Moreover, it will be better to implement a committee that will ensure proper strategies for implementing ICT in international education. This will help to overcome the challenges faced while working with ICT in international education.

Negative impacts of ICT on Distance learning

Conclusion

According to my understanding and knowledge, it can be concluded that ICT will be very much beneficial for each student. Nowadays, ICT has been introduced to international education for improving the way of teaching and helps in integrate the teaching and learning process. This also ensures accessing of distance learning and acquiring proper information. Accordingly, integrating the ICT into the international education must be setup throughout a committee that outlines the correct strategies considering all the facts and issues they will face. On the other hand, ICT and international education will remain to be the focus of many economic imperative, which will continue for development. While investigating on the topic we have learnt that ICT plays a major role in shaping the education. The objective of ICT was to develop a better future for learners. Moreover with implementation of ICT teachers can gain new experiences and also can overcome the challenges faced. The differences of culture in international education has led the market to look for new ideas of using the ICT.  Secondly, the e-learning and online courses will continue to face some issues in terms of the lesson delivery” whether in long distance or lack of teacher’s experience”. Based on the international education study, the engagement between the staffs and teachers can be improved. However, in some education system it is observed that the members of education system are not happy with the transformation.  

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