It is a common knowledge that we now live in a technology driven society. Be that as it may we are influenced as individuals and as a group and institutions by the various provisions technology has to offer. Technology, to one school of thought has changed the way we think and do things but to another it has not changed our thinking but has only created “new” things about the way we think.

Sometime in Sierra Leone a young man made a yam pounding machine. The reaction of the local people is that the product from the machine is not as enjoyable as what is obtainable from locally made wooden pestle. One man asks “is it a cause that black man must do everything by exertion of physical energy”? To put it the way one of my students puts it “must everything be by power?

In our knowledge society human endeavours are no longer predicated on the use of physical energy in accomplishing even a task that demand physical strength but on knowledge driven energy.

The way we act is an exercise in knowledge utilization which learning remains a vehicle that drives it. Man from inception of creation has not stopped learning. As it is popularly said “learning ends when there is no life” ipso facto only the living learn. Technology has added new ways to our learning and thinking and to that extent help us to learn collaboratively regardless of geographical location.

Learning has been simplified if I may agree with the first school of thought mentioned earlier. Knowledge therefore is no longer local but global just as our thinking has to be.

One can therefore perform a task in the remotest part of the world with someone in the most advanced part of the world even without physical contact. It is parochial for anyone to be arrogant because he thought he knows so much. It is even very primitive in our society to believe your specialist knowledge or skill should be kept to you alone.

A discovery today may just in another moment become out-of-date as knowledge is advancing so rapidly that only those who chose to be left behind and hence become obsolete will pride themselves in the knowledge they have or in what they can do and so refused to share it with others.

Institutional Collaboration

Institutions of learning are not left out on the need to re-think. In the past higher schools pride in being referred to as ‘ivory tower’ but trends of events are fast changing in that collaboration between institution in attempt to merge human resources and knowledge base is fast becoming a practice. The open course ware initiative among the world is a clear example of this.

The European countries are not left out as the creation of European Higher Education Area (EHEA) continue to top the agenda of the meetings of education ministers of the participating countries. The United Nations open course ware consortium is another initiative stretching the importance of collaboration in the world today. It is clear that if there is a pool of resources among countries, institutions, organizations and even individuals better results are likely.

Learning and Technology

We are living in knowledge society as I mentioned earlier but how much are we benefiting from it? To say we are all benefiting from it is to say the least inappropriate and incorrect. The world is in no doubt segmented into developing or emerging economies, and developed worlds. The fact that the uses and benefits of technology of education are not equally spread as the segmentation above may have suggested is a common knowledge. How much of technology is the developing world enjoying in education? Let us view this against Internet connectivity.

From little anecdotal information available most developing countries especially African countries do not have broadband Internet connectivity. If this assertion has any reliability can we say the spread of technology of education is uniform? It is therefore not having equal spread as access to knowledge is limited. Nevertheless the extent knowledge has been spread by technology has enhanced information sharing and hence knowledge acquisition but the degree of limitation is a point to ponder.

The developed words cannot afford to ignore the need to help the developing world in this onerous task of globalising the world so that we can make the world a better place where one end will not be far from the other.