Globalization refers to the situation where
processes, cultures and products developed in one region of the world
become exported to other countries to the extent that they begin to
circumvent what occurs in the local place. As a result, working patterns
and behavious, the food eaten and products consumed, and the cultural
patterns demonstrated become more similar. One possible outcome is the
levelling out of the culture and behaviour of all people, but equally as
likely is an increasing diversity of subcultures within any one nation
state and tensions about agreeing what are shared and collective values.
The role of capitalism and monetary economies is seen as a dominant
partner in the process of globalization. The influence of global markets
is a powerful determinant of social and educational life. For years the
USA has been dominant in this respect. The US economy is by far the
single biggest economy in the world. So great is its dominance that one
of its states, California, has the fifth biggest economy in the world
(when compared with other nation states). American companies have
developed what were seen as many of the first global products, for
example Coca-Cola, McDonald's fast food, Ford cars, Microsoft software,
Nike shoes and Disney media. The Nobel prize winning economist, Joseph
Stiglitz (2002), has argued that globalization is not a simple spreading
of free market ideas and open trade, but rather a process by which the
world's most powerful countries help promote unjust rules and
regulations that lead to an unfairness and discontent about the process.
The global images of Microsoft in the computing world illustrate how
much of the globalization of Internet communication is dominated by
American business and culture. These have been closely followed by the
taking up of Internet brand names into larger media brand names - for
example, America On Line into Time Warner. Many of these companies each
have greater wealth than the world's poorest countries.
Since the start of the new millenium some commentators have looked for
the increasing importance of other continents to balance the
business-driven Internet networks. China and the Far East have grown
exponentially. In January 2004 a journalist, Jim Wagner, reported for
clickz.com that China had 79.5 million web surfers, and that it had
overtaken Japan in terms of its contribution to the total world
population using the World Wide Web. But America remained in first
position with 165.75 million surfers. Nua.com ran a credible web-based
longitudinal market survey of the Internet and web-based products. They
have noted that parts of Europe have strengthened their web based
competitiveness against the USA. In April 2001 they reported that Sweden
and Denmark were better positioned to use Internet-based business
transactions and had overtaken the rankings of the USA and the UK. The
European Commission is Brussels has been concerned in the past decade to
make sure that the countries of the European Union increase their
ability to use online resources to make a profitable industry from the
new technologies available. The 2006 data from Miniwatts Marketing shows
that Internet-user growth was higher in Europe from 2000 to 2005 than
in North America, although the latter still had a higher total
penetration into the population. The same survey shows very rapid growth
in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, but from a much lower
starting point than the more prosperous continents.
Higher education has
not escaped the pressures of globalization. Although some aspects of
education will always remain culturally specific, such as art and
language, other disciplines will always remain culturally specific, such
as art and language, other disciplines are by their nature
international and global in their concerns. For this reason students
will be attracted away from the host nation to build their network
overseas, adding important educational experience, and for many there is
the possibility of adding further language skills to their personal
achievements. The English language has evolved as dominant in this
respect because it is the primary educational and business language all
across the world now.
Mahatma Gandhi University,
Shillong, Meghalaya, is such a university which provides online
education in this fast moving world where students can enrol online for
various certificate, diploma, advanced diploma, graduate and
post-graduate degrees. The best part of MGU is that you can take exam on
on-demand basis.
Author bio:
Keerti Singh is an educator and teaches english and computer science to
school students. She also helps students in taking up courses of their
choice at various levels of their education. For more info logon to http://www.mgu.edu.in