TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL HIGHER EDUCATION

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.