The Impact of the Internet on the Educational Systems in the New Millennium

The Internet is bound to become an inseparable part of all the educational systems in the new millennium. In fact, in some systems, like the American educational system, the Internet has become an indispensable part without which the educational system can not function any more. There seems to be an assumption that progress at all levels: individual, national, and international, can be hindered if there is no adequate use of the latest technology. Nationally and globally, progress is being judged against the level of the use of the electronic media. Not enough thought, however, has been given to the understanding of the reasons for such an expansion and its consequences on the educational process. The future looks unclear as to what lies ahead. Not a single comprehensive study, to my knowledge, has been made to explore the impact of technology and its cost. Moreover, not enough thinking or research is conducted to explain the way the latest technology should be integrated into the educational systems in the world. For this reason, some key questions remain unanswered: How would the Internet affect the educational systems in the world? Will its effects be more positive than negative? In other words, will its advantages be more than its disadvantages? In this paper, I will try to answer these key questions and look at the way the Internet and the electronic media can and will affect the educational process in the future. There is no doubt that the Internet and the electronic media have ushered in an amazing revolution in information. The superhighway has become a huge panorama of global information and experiences. It is indeed the age of information where vast amount of information can be accessed in a matter of seconds. In the old days, one could spent hours looking for the information he (or she) needed since books were the only medium of information accessible to the learner. Moreover, the question is: are these information being made use of in the right way to serve the educational systems? In other words, is the student making use of the wealth of information in the Internet to find out and read about academic subjects? There are many complexities that involve the answer. Generally, the answer tends to be in the negative. In most cases, the student does not use the Internet to find out about academic subjects, rather he uses the Internet for other purposes like playing games or listening to music or chatting with others. For this reason, the purpose of the Internet is diverted to serve other purposes unrelated to education. What makes matters worse is that even when the student is required to obtain some information, he would just copy them without reading them. Even when the student is looking for the relevant information, the Internet tempts him to keep looking for more information or to go to other websites. This can, by itself, be a big waste of time since one can spent whole hours without realizing it. Here lies one of the drawbacks of the Internet. Probably, the most major and serious drawback of the Internet is the possibility that the Internet will replace the curriculum. Some educators argue that the traditional curriculum is typically not connected directly to the lives of most students, therefore, it can become outdated quickly and can seldom be individualized. On the other hand, they maintain that the internet brings immediacy and individualization to the curriculum since the internet brings up-to-date materials like articles, data, reports, surveys, photographs, maps and is capable of transforming the curriculum (Dyrli and Kinnaman, 1996). …