Throughout history, there always have been and always will be certain nations or areas in the world that are more advanced than other areas. With new technologies such as the Internet, information is much easier to attain and distribute. The original sender, receiver, and message model that makes up information transfers is facilitated so much by these new technologies and media that the difference in advancement between nations is extremely magnified. America is online all of the time but the same does not go for people in Africa for example. Positive effects offset this negative impact of the media on information however. “Distance learning can widen access to training and education, such as open universities in India and Thailand and language Web sites for schools. (Norris 2)” Although some areas have more trouble accessing certain information, the fact that it is available is something that will help the world flourish for years to come. “The challenge in the emergent era of the Internet age is to maximize the potential benefits worldwide while the process of dispersion remains in transition and before new inequalities become rigidified. [1]”
[1] Norris, Pippa. “Information Poverty and the Wired World”. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. 5 (2000): 1-6. Print.
The idea of distance learning as a globalizing force is rather interesting. In a way it proves that globalization is not necessarily westernization. It is true that these efforts might fail to access some of their target countries which makes it questionable whether the result is successful. As you said, hopefully the future will correct these problems.
ReplyDeleteYour point on distance learning is intruiging and the quote about these new inequalities becoming rigid is a great quote to use
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting. My main point of the post really isn't something that you can measure in a numerical value so we'll just have to see what comes of this distance learning in the upcoming years.
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