A three- year old informs his preschool teacher that she can retrieve information regarding a certain kids program from pbskids.org. A 78 year -old grandmother is utilizing facebook and a webcam to communicate with her college- attending grandson regarding a genealogy project for his class. A teacher in Korea can access the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) website for the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) to find out more information about international testing. In Kenya, the use of mobile learning is expanding throughout the country. According to Schrum and Levin (2009), in their book, Leading 21st Century Schools: harnessing technology for engagement and achievement, a high school student complains “that he has to “power down” every time he goes to school” (p. 28). These are all examples of the impact of technology and online knowledge in a global society.
This project is designed to show the impact of technology in a global society in the area of education. The first portion of the project we will examine the role of online knowledge in relation online credibility, online literacy and standardized testing. Next, we will give insight to online knowledge and technology, its role and impact on education and the existence of the digital divide. We will primarily focus on education in the United States, with a brief discussion on Ghana. Finally, we feel it is important for the reader to understand that technology not only affects the citizens of the United States, but throughout the world. Therefore, we have chosen to perform a case study on the impact of technology and online knowledge (or lack thereof) in Ghana.
Since our conversation is about the impact of technology in education, we will make use of our information through a blogger page, utilizing a combination of videos and text. Our argument being, although technology and online knowledge are critical to the area of global education, there is still much to do in order to prepare students for 21st century learning. “It is not enough to know that these tools exist; it is essential that we consider the nature of engaging students in their own learning” (2009 p. 47 Schrum and Levin).
