Mobile technologies and the future of global education

Abstract

Optimism for the future lies on the diminishing “cost” of the production and dissemination of knowledge. This must be differentiated from the “price”. The cost reductions are based on the increased power of technology and the expansion of the possibilities of human thought due to digital technologies and telecommunications. The fact that the price is not being reduced and is sometimes in fact going up in spite of the cost reductions is a political/economic problem that must be resolved. This is not easy as the prices are all too often subject to control by monopolies or global consortia or even artificially kept high by governments. It is a sad fact that even as average incomes are rising due to productivity gains, the median incomes are dropping. This is having a particularly negative effect on developing countries, but is also apparent in much of the developed world.