Technological hosting, along with partnerships, remains an on-going challenge in relationship to success and development. There have been many barriers placed on advancement of societal norms, specifically disruptive tendencies where advancements could take place, particularly developing countries such as sub-Sahara Africa, as well as the globalized market economy as a whole for learning and development. E-books, social media, and the Internet have broadened relationships as well as diversified interactions, thereby opening up societies to a globalized world.
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Technology, application, and advancement are constantly changing the view of the business marketplace, fostered by globalization. It is plausible that from one environment to another, commerce can be conducted across languages, borders, and barriers. Today, this is the norm of the cultural franchise, as well as a cultivation and preparation for the entrance of which into a community of service, where education is nurtured by technology. This is where the two can adeptly come together, but to make this shift accordingly, education and technology must be well-integrated. Therefore, a literate foundation with constructs developed at the base level – such as understanding technological dominance, technology in and out of the classroom, and barriers to technological integration – allows the turbulent, disruptive system to conceivably thrive. The education system, as with all systems in a society, may resemble the existing government, strong or weak; it is a representation of the people, and who we are as a society. As societies are in steady vacillation, mediums in the globalized world will transition, interface, and even adapt virtually to the needs of the people. So, planning should be a careful consideration for government entities. However, prior to predicting and understanding the needs of tomorrow, it is vital to adequately assess what is happening with technology today.
Forecasting the Beginning of Disruptive Technological Dominance
Harold Adams Innis, one of the world’s most well-known social scientists in the 20th century cites that communication media are at the core of civilization and that history is brought about by the predominant media of each time period, bringing us to an exceptional stage in the learning classroom today. In making sense of this current state, Innis relates that although ‘Super Power’ countries such as the United States were obsessed with superior military technologies, this all came at the expense of time, knowledge, tradition, and education. As a result, media and technology are a part of a larger deterioration in our world, because of Western society’s continued path of ignoring the power of multinational technology applications in relation to character and identity, reflexive philosophical capacities, and local relationships. In other words, the effects of technology are realized in three ways: Technology shapes our interests (such as our thoughts), the character of our symbols (what we use to think), and the conduct of our communities (the framework and interactions). Hence in education, it is easy to view the profound effect of technology in this area.
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s ideas about media were formed under Innis’ tutelage. After many of his theories were digested upon their initial release, it was not until the 1990s after McLuhan’s death that he became “the patron saint of the Internet age” (Moschovitis et al, 2005). While Innis says change happens because of a connection between societal/economic forces and technology, McLuhan takes a different viewpoint; in his writings, he looks to the human senses for answers: “We have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace” (1964, p. 19). In other words, the Internet becomes a virtual central nervous system for society, and his saying ‘global village’ now shows us how the world is brought together because of the World Wide Web. Although many of McLuhan’s ideas may not have appeared relevant decades earlier, it seems his theories act as premonitions, foreseeing the implications of technology and the Internet if we do not comprehend its strength: By placing all the stress on content and practically none on the medium, we lose all chance of perceiving and influencing the impact of new technologies on man, and thus we are always dumbfounded by, and unprepared for, the revolutionary environmental transformations induced by new media.
As a result, “electric technology is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life,” and it is as if McLuhan predicted the advent of social networking websites such as Facebook (1967, p. 8). When it comes to the way the Internet shapes discourse for children and teens, McLuhan warned of the adverse effects of media on parenting: “The world pool of information fathered by the electric media... character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world’s a sage” (McLuhan and Fiore, 1967, p. 14).