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This Also Facilitates The Acquisition Of Functional Foreign Languages, Which ...

This also facilitates the acquisition of functional foreign languages, which is likewise a key skill in the twenty first century with the European Union increasingly becoming a political reality as opposed to a philosophical dream as it has hitherto been characterised.
It is also important to note that globalisation and the challenges which it brings are unlike any other development the educational world has ever known. Essentially, while the opportunities that globalisation entails are indeed vast, the grounds for a misinterpretation of its values are also extremely fertile and may prove to be a hindrance to the formulation of a durable design and technology curriculum as the twenty first century matures. The most prominent feature of globalisation (and one of the major challenges posed by the phenomenon) is the rate of technological change. For example, at the start of the 1990's when the Internet was in its infancy, computers were seen as the most essential learning tools of design and technology. By the end of the twentieth century, interactive means of new media were similarly being championed as essential means of teaching design and technology in the secondary sector. Now, in 2007, mobile means of learning and communication are being integrated into the design and technology curriculum. Thus, the rate of technological change is faster than the rate of curriculum design and policy reform. Until this discrepancy is reduced, there are likely to be deepseated structural defects in the curriculum in both Scotland and indeed elsewhere in the British Isles.
Globalisation also brings with it incumbent cultural, social and linguistic problems within the contemporary classroom itself. The rate of immigration is in a state of perpetual increase, exacerbated by the continuing expansion of the European Union to include (at present) twenty seven member states with each member state being allowed access to the UK and to its educational system. This is likely to put added strain on the design and technology curriculum, particularly during Key Stages three and four when teachers are expected to spend more time tending to individual students and to tailor the curriculum to meet specific skills and needs. Therefore, the knowledge economy of the global era is one that presents unprecedented opportunities in addition to unprecedented challenges (Burbules, 2000). This means that policy makers and education watchdogs must learn to be adaptable and to respond to ad hoc changes in technology, enterprise culture and national demographics in order to keep the (in particular) design and technology curriculum relevant to the economic environment in which it must operate.


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