Global Education Network (GEN)

Global Education Network (GEN)

Source: http://asiasociety.org/global-cities-education-network/about-network

Technology and telecommunication grow rapidly in globalization era. All people over the world can access information easily. Technology and telecommunication make many alterations in life. Milken Foundation in 1999 said that new technologies and telecommunications networks have dramatically transformed all facets of life, from medicine to agriculture, entertainment to politics, and economics to service industries. It means that technology and telecommunication are very important in our daily life. Technology plays important role in many aspects of life such as politic, culture, economic, etc.  Technology has the power to breakdown geographical, economical, language, and time-zone barriers.

All fields of life need technology and communication networks, including education. Nowdays, technology have been applied in education. Technology becomes a tool to create global learning. Using technology, people can make teaching and learning programs via the internet. The example of program using technology is The World Links for Development program (the WorLD program). This program will link 1200 secondary schools in 40 developing countries in South American, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East with partner schools in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States. Currently, there are 150 pilot schools connected in 14 developing countries, partnered with schools in 22 other countries. 780 Teachers have been trained to date. The program is active in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Lebanon, Mauritania, Mozambique, Paraguay, Peru, Senegal, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda, and Zimbabwe (World Bank, 1999). Another example of program using technology is The International Center for Distance Learning (ICDL). It is an international center for research, teaching, consulting, information and publishing activities based in the Institute of Educational Technology which received world class rating in the 1992 and 1996 Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Research Assessment Exercises. One more example of program is The Globewide Network Academy (GNA). It is a non-profit organization in Texas, USA that provides assistance in all aspects of virtual and distance learning with an Online Distance Education Catalog (ODEC). There is also a program for high school student, CyberSchools.NET. It is a global network that exists to fulfill the two-fold mission of strengthening school and global communities while developing real life experiences that teach children vital technological skills (CyberSchools NET, 1998).

Technology helps the students easily to study all over the world. Peer-to-Peer video conferencing is one of tool that make students easy to study and communicate with all people over the world. It offers opportunities for students to increase communication skills and language learning. Through Peer-to-Peer video conferencing, students are able to study new languages and different cultures that exist in the world. Students can share and exchange much information about cultural practices, customs, and communities other children experience around the world.

By the explanation above, it’s no doubt that global education learning is needed very much. By global learning, there are many teaching and learning innovation that make students easily to develop their knowledge. Moreover, by global learning, teachers have the ability to expose children to concepts of diversity, multiculturalism, and multilingualism. Teachers also can more easily create socially just classrooms because children will be exposed to new languages, cultures, and ways of thinking and doing which may contrast with their own and open up new avenues for discussion around equity and social change.