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The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is an international bestselling book by Thomas L. Friedman that analyzes globalization,

Connecting Cultures For the same reasons but in a far different environment, social studies teacher Suzie Nestico oversees a project that involves 14 schools and nearly 400 students in Australia, Canada, England, Germany, South Korea, and the United States. She teaches students in grades 10 through 12 at the 900-student Mount Carmel Area High School in Mount Carmel, Pa. See Also On-Demand Webinar: E-Learning Goes Global From professional development for teachers in China to the use of mobile technology to bring new learning opportunities to remote villages in Africa, e-learning is bringing advanced courses, expert teachers, and an awareness of life in other countries to students around the globe. • View this on-demand webinar. “We’re a small, rural town of 6,000 with ultra-conservative family values and viewpoints, and most of our students have never gone anywhere else,” said Ms. Nestico, the project manager for the Flat Classroom Project, an international collaborative effort that links classrooms around the globe. She also built a course called 21st Century Global Studies that started this academic year. The course is for students in grades 10 through 12 who, through project- and inquiry-based assignments such as editing wiki pages, learn that working collaboratively with other cultures—an increasingly marketable skill—can be challenging. “It’s a big shift for them to go from ‘me’ to ‘we,’ ” she said. “I can’t help but think that the more kids we involve in projects like this, the more we start to break down some of this sense of entitlement” that exists among students in the United States. “Just imagine if you wrote 200 words on your wiki page, and when you went back the next day, you saw that students in Korea had changed a couple of your sentences because they thought it sounded better another way,” Ms. Nestico said. “There are a lot of sighs at first, and it’s a messy process, but it’s very much worth doing. This is where we truly push learning to the highest level.” Some lessons have less to do with a final grade than with understanding that a simple phrase in one culture can easily be misperceived in another. When a student in California posted an online request last summer for information about a “flash mob,” for example, a teacher from Germany immediately jumped in to write that European students couldn’t even talk about such a thing because of the London riots. And two years ago, during an education-related trip to Mumbai, India, Ms. Nestico had to nix any exclamatory T-shirts that might offend the local residents, such as “Holy cow!,” because cows are considered sacred animals in India.

Cost savings — The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, and cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.[10] Focus on Core Business — Resources (for example investment, people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specialised IT services companies. Cost restructuring — Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable. Improve quality — Achieve a steep change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement. Knowledge — Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.[11] Contract — Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.[12] Operational expertise — Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house. Access to talent — Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.[13][14] Capacity management — An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier. Catalyst for change — An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a Change agent in the process. Enhance capacity for innovation — Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.[14][15] Reduce time to market — The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.[16] Commodification — The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services, and application services which enable to buy at the right price, allows businesses access to services which were only available to large corporations. Risk management — An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.[17] Venture Capital — Some countries match government funds venture capital with private venture capital for start-ups that start businesses in their country.[18] Tax Benefit — Countries offer tax incentives to move manufacturing operations to counter high corporate taxes within another country. Scalability — The outsourced company will usually be prepared to manage a temporary or permanent increase or decrease in production. Creating leisure time — Individuals may wish to outsource their work in order to optimise their work-leisure balance.[19] Liability — Organizations choose to transfer liabilities inherent to specific business processes or services that are outside of their core competencies. [edit] Implications

Wi-Fi (pronounced /ˈwaɪfaɪ/) is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance that manufacturers may use to brand certified products that belong to a class of wireless local area network (WLAN) devices based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. 802.11 the most widely used WLAN technology.

The term Wi-Fi suggests Wireless Fidelity,

Virtual visitation is the use of electronic communication tools to provide contact between a parent and his or her children as part of a parenting plan or custody order. Virtual visitation includes many forms of communication, such as e-mail, instant messaging, and videoconferencing. Contents [hide]

Some effects of globalization: The United States is the center of globalization trends – we drive most of the world’s economy, influence international policy, and financial transactions. The prime paradigm is capitalism – a faithful reliance on the market to drive decisions. Global forces like the World Bank promote decentralization and privatization.  Governments get out of the way, leave services to private groups. Inherent in capitalism is an unequal distribution of wealth. Having wealth generates more wealth, having no resources leaves countries at a severe disadvantage. Technology is one kind of resource and wealth. Countries that have technology, use it to develop new products, markets, ideas… and financial power.

What are globalization effects on Education (in the U.S.) Heightened competition between nations to develop an educated labor force; nations need a competitive niche. Education is seen as a mechanical process – develop basic skills, technical skills, competitive skills. Movements like standards and testing develop from this view of education. The cultural philosophy of capitalism, decentralization, and privatization manifest in strategies such as independent schools, charter schools, and vouchers. Higher education (colleges and universities) are more closely tied to the private sector – it is a necessary reality. Technology is seen as a key area for education, but how is technology important? View 1 -People trained directly in the hard sciences and technology fields contribute to those lucrative markets. View 2 – Information technologies impact how people work, play, gain information, and participate in communities. Those who can use IT to further their own aims win out, those without access or skills lose out in the new world.

Outsourcing can save you money

Economies of scale save money when unit costs go down as volumes increase

Outsourcing can help you share risk.