Community College International Education: Looking Back to Forecast the Future
We must be looking not only into the future but learning from the past. This is the essence of this article. They do not directly address online learning however the do discuss the importance of looking at education in a more global view. It is stated that the college graduates of today need to be more aware and competent of what is going on internationally. In this way, we will be better able to compete in our more and more global society. In here they discussed the different phases of education: recognition, expansion and publication, augmentation, and institutionalization. In these phases one can see that there are many different phases that the educational system has already gone through and more that will be occurring.
The significance of international education is discussed in several different views. The political rational began as a part of national security, so that we can better understand other countries around us. The economic rational began simply because without knowledge of what is going on outside our country we will not be able to adequately understand the economic affects that it has on us. The humanist rational helps us understand others in this multicultural society which helps facilitate more tolerance and peace towards others. The academic integrity rational just assumes that if there is no reference to international themes and ideas that the education is incomplete.
One of the final items that is discussed it that educational experiences need to take into consideration geography and access. In this they discussed the physical boundaries of the different community college districts and the access that people have to their facilities. The more available the access the people have, the more likely they are to use the resources and further their education.
Being a teacher, the ideas here make total sense to me. As we look into the many changes that are facing us just within society, we must realize that we must adapt not only within our own lives, but also the educational system must also adapt to the changing needs of the people within the surrounding communities and around the world. By changing what we teach, making the students more aware of the global environment that we live in, we can hopefully teach them that we must always be aware of things that are not just within our own little communities.
One of the ways that we can expand this knowledge is by bringing in more technology into our curriculum. Not only can we use examples of things that are occurring around the world, but we can also have the students access information about other countries that was much harder to access than it is today. Currently, our students have an unlimited amount of resources available to them. They can search libraries around the world and even talk to loved ones that are out of the country while seeing them thanks to webcams and other technological advances.
As I look at this as a high school teacher, we must make our students aware of what is currently available in the world, while still making them aware of where we have came from. For example, I teach computers. I still try to make my students realize just how far the computer has come in just the few short years that they have been alive. For some of these students, they don’t even realize that there was a time before the internet and before computers were as common as they are today. If we are to make our educational system stronger, I feel we must instill in the students the importance of understanding the technologies that we are currently using, where they are possibly going, and how they have affected our lives. Part of this understanding comes from understanding where the technologies have came from.
Rabyaleau, Rosalind Latiner, & Valeau, Edward J. (2007). Community College International Education: Looking back to forecast the future. New Directions For Community Colleges. 138, 5-14.