**1. Technology into the curriculum**

Students of the twenty-first century represent generations which grew up with technology. Most of their day to day activities, regardless of being academic or social, they mainly use a technological gadget. For all academic questions or tasks which they have to complete, Google is usually their first point of search. They do not know a world without Google; hence, they have access to a wide range of information.

They want to be afforded opportunities for learning in real time, anytime, and on their own terms using technology. This challenges lecturers in institutions of higher learning to be creative and innovative in curriculum design and pedagogy in order to meet needs and

expectations of students in this digital era. A need for reviewing the curriculum to make it suitable for this digital era has led Williamson [1] to ask: what might be the future of the curriculum in the digital age?

twenty-first century students do it the easy way by simply getting answers on Wikipedia and

Higher Education Curriculum in a Global Village http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84849 197

Students can easily get answers to sophisticated questions by simply clicking keys on the computer or smart phone. This can be viewed as an advantage as it provides easy access to information. But, some of the sources (for example Wikipedia and google.com) which novice researchers and undergraduate students use are questionable and not ideal to use in an atmosphere where quality teaching and learning are at stake. Wikipedia and google.com are the first places that millions of people, including students turn to whenever they want to access

It is unfortunate to note that some sources like Wikipedia and google.com which students over rely on sometimes consist of misleading information. Wikipedia and google.com are not credible sources to cite when compiling an academic piece of work. This is simply because some of the information which they consist of would not have been peer reviewed by experts in the field. Orlando Figes, a professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London, checked Wikipedia for information about the Russian Revolution—his area of expertise—and found 'an alarming number of mistakes, misapprehensions and misleading statements that would never have appeared in a textbook written by an expert in the field' [8]. When students rely on such sources to write their assignments and all educational tasks, information would be so limited and result in the compromise of quality education. Wikipedia and google.com are essential websites to use especially when one wants to get quick readily available answers to questions. But, complete and credible educational information needs to be obtained from peer

This makes the use of textbooks, journals and other peer reviewed materials indispensable in any educational setting. The way in which students nowadays hardly engage with published peer reviewed resources such as books can be conceptualised as an educational consumption of slow poison. Such poison does not have imminent effects, but long-term detrimental consequences. Students will eventually bury a culture of reading textbooks in preference of quick short answers which may not be accurate because it was written by a student like them.

The notable downside of technology is that students who are supposed to make rigorous search of information and deeply engage with text from authentic sources tend to bury books in favour of readily available quick and short answers on Internet. As shown in **Figure 1**, cell phones, iphone and a remote control are carrying a book to a grave which was dug by headphones using a shovel. The graphic illustrates that students are disregarding traditional books, not because they prefer reading digital books which are very ubiquitous in this century, but they dislike reading at all. The illustration corresponds with a prediction made by Thomas Edison a century ago about books being superseded by technology: 'Books will soon be obsolete in schools. Scholars will soon be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be com-

Marjorie Sykes emphasised that 'books have played only a minor part in the nurture of the young' [10] (xxv). This argument should not be taken in a wrong context. Sykes' point is not to mean

**Figure 1** is a graphical illustration of how technology is burying traditional books.

pletely changed in ten years' (Thomas Edison, 1913, as quoted in [9], p. 100).

google.com without necessarily reading books.

some educational information [7].

reviewed published sources.

It is imperative in the twenty-first century for a higher education curriculum to have technology embedded throughout. Technological advancements have made it possible for students in institutions of higher learning across the globe to blur boundaries by collaborating as if they are on different campuses of the same university in one district. In other words, university students are living in a global village where they learn and collaborate easily using technology.

In this contemporary digital age, educational technology is playing an increasingly important role. It has become so ubiquitous and fundamental in the teaching and learning of higher education [2]. Higher education sector is forced to use educational technology to keep up with needs of a twenty-first century student [3]. Placing computers in lecture rooms is not adequate enough for students to be competitive in the new millennium [4]. There is a need for curriculum design and pedagogy to be responsive to the use of technology in learning [5].

Curriculum is the main drive that can be used to perpetrate technology use in institutions of higher learning [3]. Gregory and Lodge [6] argue that a good curriculum is one that is not just responsive to the needs of students, but also what is happening in the environment at the time. A use of digital strategies is what is happening in the higher education environment today, hence, the need for curriculum design and pedagogy to enhance this initiative. The use of technology to reinforce the curriculum has proven not to be an obvious fit as there are diverging and sceptical views about effect.

Academics in institutions of higher learning do not unanimously agree that technology has tremendous influence in education. They have different views. This led Selwyn [7] to conclude that the confluence of technology and education is marred by a multiplicity of complications and contradictions, and it can be messy sometimes. The integration of technology into this twenty-first century curriculum has been conceptualised from different perspectives by various academics and authors. Three dominant perspectives about integrating technology into the higher education curriculum are presented in this chapter. These are technology critics' perspective, technology enthusiasts' perspective and technology from an intellectual perspective.
