Educational Technology in the World Today

By Ricco
              As part of outreach from my work on the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, I have often been invited to work internationally sharing the ideas on the use of technology, and to explore and demonstrate global  ideas. But working internationally is very different. It is rewarding to share the exploration, excitement, evaluation, and engagement of ideas in the use of technology using many different methodologies. I call it connecting the dots.
                In some countries, radio and television are at this time the most important systems of delivery. But with convergence, it is important to keep eyes on all parts of the use of technology, even if just for understanding the possibilities. Even in nations where technology is mostly in the form of  television, the Internet is a database for knowledge. In nations where radio is the primary means of delivery, there are ways of using the Internet to boost its value. Often the most important thing one can do is to help frame the ideas, and then listen.
As I have worked internationally, I have often been challenged as to why  there should be the use of technology at all. Sometimes where there is acceptance of the ideas, we have used the documents we crafted in the United States and other resources for thinking about national initiatives. On the other hand, we have often been confronted with age-old problems of poverty, lack of reading skills and health care, gender ideas, environmental issues, and the costs of building the infrastructure. The voices have been sometimes loud!  Here are the words of people in places where I am working:

                     "The gross disparity in the spread of the Internet and thus the economic and social benefits derived from it is a matter of profound concern. There are  more hosts in New York than in continental Africa; more hosts in Finland  than in Latin America and the Caribbean; and notwithstanding the remarkable progress in the application of Information and Communications Technology in India, many of its villages still lack a working telephone."
                      "The formidable and urgent challenge before national governments and the development community is to bridge this divide and connect the remainder of the world's population whose livelihoods can be enhanced through ICT. As each day passes, the task becomes much more difficult: "To give just one example, exploding e-commerce ties individuals, firms, and countries closer and closer together, while those who do not try to catch the "Internet Express" run the risk of being further and further marginalized. Developing countries have great potential to compete  successfully
in the new global market, but unless they promptly and actively embrace the ICT revolution they will face new barriers."