Thinking about Technology Effects on higher Education

By Mohammed F. Fahmy
Summarized By
Suhail Naaman

Introduction:
When a person thinks of technology, the first thing that comes to mind is resources, and usually resources allocated are not enough to achieve the stated goal.
But still the change is important, Should we implement every technological discovery?
The answer is no. There are so many factors that control implementing new technology.
The most successful sectors in implementing new technologies are the industry, military and education.

Recent Changes in Academe:
Ehrmann (1999) described the three main revolutions.
1. The major transformation took place 2500 years ago when the oral exchange was replaced by reading and writing.
2. Students and teachers shared the same facilities.
3. Technology revolution-the computer age.

Technology and the classroom:
Old technology was replaced with new technology, also distance learning was created and integrated e-commerce into college and university Websites and all other institutional services.

Academe and the information Society:
Fahmy, Mohammed (2004), mentioned the big sectors that did have the technology change and on of them was the industry. But now the move is from industrial to an information society.
1. The creation of numerous and diverse higher education providers that are global and more technologically advanced institutions.
2. The higher education providers are either brick universities or virtual universities or both.
3. More individualized higher education in which students set the educational agenda due to their diverse backgrounds.
4. A shift of focus of higher education from teaching to learning.
5. The focus should be on teaching as a dictated by for-profit and other new providers in higher education.
6. The professors’ name will be more important than the institution name.
7. Degrees will be replaced by transcript.
8. Maintaining portfolio for students.
9. Public and private support will be directed students rather than institutions.

References:
Fahmy, Mohammed, (2004). Thinking about Technology Effects on higher Education. The Journal of Technology studies