GENEVA-------October 19, 2015------ The Global Knowledge Networking initiative that supports the missions of Geneva’s prominent organizations serving the international community, contributing to global peace and security by fostering innovative partnerships in the area of training and education was launched recently with HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh stressing that digital revolution is unstoppable.
In his keynote speech, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh, president of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh University said that the landscape of global business is changing rapidly with an avalanche of technology changing the way individuals interact with one another around the world.
“Wave after wave of technological innovation is coming out daily and is being adopted at an unprecedented rate. Since the development of the microchip, technologies have revolutionized the world by making it a smaller place to live, work, and get an education,” he said during the event co-hosted by the Global Challenges Forum and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in cooperation with the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and MIIS Cyber.
“People are no longer restricted by the boundaries of geography and locality as the global marketplace has become accessible to anyone, with opportunities and challenges never encountered before. This phenomenon assures me of the future of both education and business,” he added.
According to Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh, Modern technology has made business more efficient and more productive while warning that “those who do not welcome it will be left behind.”
“The global adoption of technologies such as e-signatures, the acceptance of e-payments, and the establishment of governmental e-services, are all society’s way of saying that such technology has come of age and needs to be embraced,” he said.
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh tackled the effect of technology on various sectors such as education and business with special focus on the social impact of using the latest technology as the world is divided between native and digital immigrants.
“The explosion of technology today has led to a new generation of children, for whom technology is native; it is in their blood and part and parcel of their daily lives. These ‘digital natives’ have the upper hand when using technology, whether for leisure or for work. Their mentors, the ‘digital immigrants’, are those who came to technology later in life and who started to use technology at an advanced age,” he said.
“As technology and biology advance, the link between humans and technology will become indistinguishable which will have huge implications in the way that businesses function and how future generations will be educated. The singularity, as it is known, has been spoken about widely by many commentators. This is where an intelligence explosion will come about as a result of a symbiotic relationship between humans and technology,” he added.
In his speech, Abu-Ghazaleh focused on digital education as the key for a greater future.
“Education is a fundamental human right and is something which we are constantly striving to acquire. In 2011, the United Nations proclaimed that access
×
![img]()