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Research Paper

Education & Technology

E-ISSN No : 2454-9916 | Volume : 5 | Issue : 9 | Sep 2019

TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL HIGHER EDUCATION 1

Robert E. Waller | Pamela A. Lemoine | *Michael D. Richardson 1

Assistant Professor, Counseling, Foundations and Leadership, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA, United States - 31907. Assistant Professor, Leadership, Development, and Professional Studies, Troy University, Phenix City, AL, United States - 36869. 3 Professor, Counseling, Foundations and Leadership, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA, United States - 31907. (*Corresponding Author) 2

ABSTRACT In the 21st century technology and global higher education must work together to increase society's future growth and development. The focus of society in the 21st century is knowledge-based: learning is critical, and yet information will continually become obsolete. Society has assumed a global focus, supported by technology that demands quality global higher education institutions produce more at less cost. Technology implementation has accelerated tremendously during the last decade, particularly changes in the development, access and delivery of learning opportunities. In the current scenario of globalization and heightened accountability for educational enterprises, global higher education needs technology to provide enlightened, far-sighted and highly qualified persons and systems to handle educational and societal concerns now and in the future. Higher education is no longer a national concept, but rather a global concept. Globalization has sanctioned competition as a new driving force in higher education that includes competition for students, faculty, research, innovation and especially technology. Current technology clearly provides the means for acquiring greater amounts of information with more efficiency than ever before, but what of the future technology? Technology is transforming global higher education by intensifying the global interconnectedness of people, institutions, learning and society. Technology has now become central to global changes; reshaping social, economic and cultural life. Data and information are more readily available and more quickly accessible today, but that does not mean they are used more efficiently or effectively. The key is the relationship between technology and its application in global higher education systems. KEYWORDS: Technology, global higher education, change, globalization. INTRODUCTION: Technology has ushered in a new era in global higher education, particularly in the international market (Altbach, Reisberg & Rumbley, 2019). International society has assumed a globalized emphasis, supported and sustained by technology. In this rapidly changing environment global higher education institutions are expected to offer the highest quality education, especially technology skills and competencies, to a widely diverse audience at a cost that can be supported by society (Avdeeva, Kulik, Kosareva, Zhilkina, & Belogurov, 2017). Understanding new information and communication technologies is essential for global higher education systems in both a local and global perspective (Bosire & Amimo, 2017). In order to open many global markets, higher education institutions are more important than ever to develop relationships, providing continuous flow of resources, and creating vast new markets for higher education in a global marketplace (Waller, Lemoine, Mense, & Richardson, 2019). The combined forces of technology and globalization have created a landscape of tremendous complexity with strategic directions difficult to predict (Dennis, 2018). The fact that these forces interact on a global scale creates non-linear change with the appearance of chaos due to the many degrees of interdependence and interaction (McChrystal, Collins, Silverman, & Fussell, 2015). Increasing global interdependencies and the accelerating pace of change demand more flexible, adaptive, and agile higher education organizations (Lemoine & Richardson, 2019). TECHNOLOGY IN GLOBAL HIGHER EDUCATION: The use of technology is a necessary condition of doing business in global higher education (Moodie, 2016). Information needs incessantly drive the demands for increased technological capabilities and progressively more advanced technologies are being utilized in new sophisticated ways by global higher education (Mense, Lemoine, Garretson, & Richardson, 2018). Along with increasing global competition, technology adds complexity and uncertainty to the organizational environment (Thambusamy, Singh & Ramly, 2019). Global higher education leaders must manage enormous complexity. To achieve success the global higher education leader must be flexible and use the creativity provided by technology (Said, Ahmad, Mustaffa, & Ghani, 2015). To compete in today's global knowledge society, higher education leaders need to be adaptive and agile, and capable of responding quickly to changing customer demands (Pucciarelli & Kaplan, 2016).

RELATIONSHIPS OF GLOBAL HIGHER EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY: Two major world changes, moving from a manufacturing-based economy to an information-based economy and the globalization of education, including the shrinking of the world's workforce to compete globally, have led to many innovations in educational technology (Axtell & Asino, 2020). In recent years nothing has affected education as profoundly as the advent of technology and its uses in educational applications. Classes are no longer taught strictly through lectures with the teacher spewing words of wisdom (Englund, Olofsson, & Price, 2017). The depth, diversity, and value of computer information continue to grow at an incredibly rapid pace. Additionally, the Internet has made finding information and doing research much less difficult than before its conception (McKenna, 2018). Some speculate that technology may be the great equalizer by allowing all students access to huge volumes of information on the Internet (Qureshi & Nair, 2015). In the last two decades, the focus of learning has shifted from using linear interactions (face to face instruction) into cooperating and collaborating communities of faculty and learners as technologies have evolved to accommodate these different learning techniques (Dee, 2016). New technologies, especially the Web 2.0, virtual and social networking tools, enables learning to be a phenomenon of participation and shared knowledge (Tekleselassie, Roberts, & Richardson, 2014). Thus far, researchers and technology advocators have focused on finding new tools and technologies in their quest to control the data, information and knowledge (Flavin, 2016). A change in perspective and usage of current and futuristic technologies seems to be inevitable. New technologies are creating virtual environments endorsing networking in virtual worlds (Kiriakidis, Kefallonitis, & Kavoura, 2018). Economic and technological changes are occurring at an accelerating rate in the knowledge society, making life-long learning for everyone a necessity (Bosire & Amimo, 2017). This is particularly the case in the transition period from industrial production to a knowledge and communication-based society (Bourn, 2018). DISCUSSION: Global higher education has become a crowded marketplace that is not immune to changes affecting 21st century society--an increasingly global, digital, and dynamic environment. The future of global higher education is and will be complicated, challenging, and uncertain as institutions work to redefine themselves during a time when the only certainty is uncertainty (Altbach & Reisberg, 2018). Globalization, a key reality in the 21st century, has already profoundly influenced

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International Education & Research Journal [IERJ]

Research Paper

E-ISSN No : 2454-9916 | Volume : 5 | Issue : 9 | Sep 2019

and changed global higher education from a local enterprise to a global reality (Bagley & Portnoi, 2014). Education as a service, not a product, will be the dominant catchphrase of the early years of the next decade (Gerstein & Friedman, 2016). During the next decade, technical innovations will alter the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the workplace and society (Lemoine, Jenkins, & Richardson, 2017). Preparing technically educated and skilled individuals is of great economic importance to all countries and requires significant attention from both educators and employers. To keep pace with technological development and change, global higher education should assume a leadership role in optimizing technology (Everhart & Seymour, 2017). Additionally, global higher education should cooperate with both business and government to create strategies to develop, apply and utilize new technology (Fenwick & Edwards, 2016). CONCLUSIONS: 1. The technologies that impact how students live and learn are having a tremendous effect on global higher education. 2.

The power of the internet and educational technology is accelerating the movement of universities to enter the global marketplace and provide educational services internationally.

Technological change demands more flexible, adaptive, and agile global higher education organizations.

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