Nothing keeps my thoughts more consistently focused on global connections with

technology than being a WMU staff member, EDT student and just a 21 st century
learner all simultaneously. One need only look across campus, around our
classroom or through their class list for an online course to see that our higher
education learning environment has participants from across the globe. Utilizing
these global connections both effectively and appropriately as educational tools will
be imperative to any instructor, administrator or learner. One dynamic concept that
stood out from the three videos we reviewed regarding this subject was that of
stakeholders and who owns the learning that will be occurring in a course. The
presenter made it clear that from his perspective and research this new global
technology age brings together all the voices of the individual stakeholders
students, teachers, administrators and parents together to truly own the learning.
First and foremost the presenter stressed that first any stakeholder must be
educated to use the internet efficiently and ethically, something he feels has not yet
been fully addressed. Secondly, the presenter advocated for more student
interaction and participation in global educational technology with an eye towards
better results, citing research that supports the idea that students with a purpose
are more driven to produce higher quality work. One telling concept that the
presenter advised he shared with his own students is that the technology taught to
them as freshman in high school will usually be obsolete by the time they graduate.
Staying effective with global technology such as Google means trained, educated
global leaders are required to connect with this new global technology we need. It
seems, perhaps not by coincidence, that overcoming objections to global
educational technology will as always be partially about setting aside instructor fear
to be able to think about teaching in new ways.
Here at Western Michigan University and in my own career the push to embrace
global learning is on. This is evident all the way up to the highest-level
administrative goals for our University. WMU has recently put a strategic plan in
place for guiding this University towards greater success in the next century and it
has three pillars learner centered, discovery driven and globally engaged. All
three of these pillars include focusing on our now-global student base and these
videos we have reviewed enforce this perspective. We cannot be learner-centered
without shifting how we focus and who we focus on this includes global concepts
like recruiting students from across the world, technology that easily and readily
connects global populations, and the focus our presenter highlighted on students
owning their own learning and being given a purpose to their education to
improve the quality. We cannot be globally engaged without embracing,
understanding and effectively implementing technology that suits the students
needs, is extremely current and engages students of many differing populations in a
way they feel works. We cannot be discovery driven without knowing the cuttingedge ways in which contemporary research and discovery is being driven largely by
the internet, online journals and in the online classroom. If I am to be successful
either as an instructor using educational technology or an administrator I must be
mindful of the lessons imparted in these videos, primarily keeping up-to date about
changing technology, being aware of how interacting globally with learners or

instructors requires ethics and effective results and how to best evolve the
traditional classroom into the 21st century one with an eye to effectiveness and the
ability to overcome objections.