Should Developing Countries Invest More in technology?

In the last 200 years the term “technology” has changed. It was first described as the study of useful arts before the 20th century. Technology is now defined as the making, modification, usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, systems and machines in order to solve a problem or improve the current situation (Merriam-Webster, 2014). The use of technology began with early evolution of man, with the first piece of technology to be used being a stone simply because human’s wanted to find a better way of living, to do work easily and adapt to their environment. Technology development was at a faster rate during 1500-1800AD, because people did not have any scientific principles. People built or came up with technological tools by error and trial. When people discovered same scientific principles, several of them where applied to the manufacturing of sophisticated machinery, for example motor engines for transport, electrical generator, clothing machines for cloths, etc. In this period of time better engines, machines and alternative sources of energy where discovered, which lead to a massive scale of industrialization (Agarwal, 2012). Today technology plays a huge part in sectors of people lives from communication, transportation, education, mass production of food and medical research. Despite technology being a major success for developed countries they is a huge argument if developing countries should also spend huge amounts of money on technology investment.
Although some people believe that it is not necessary for developing countries to invest more in technology; the progress that has been made for the past 30 years due to technology has brought about many benefits. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to point out that technology will allow work to be done at a faster rate, provide security, create jobs and educational opportunities.
Regarding technology the first thing that comes to people’s minds is work ethic and its impacts on people’s lives. The impact of technology on work life has been one of the most talked about issues over the recent years. The impact of technology is one of the most talked about issues at the moment. Millions of dollars are being spent on technology, which has left many Chief Executive Officers assessing its impact on the work force (Torkzadeh, 2001). New band better technology will allow work to be done at faster rate, machinery does not need to be stopped more often and can be programed for long hours to do a certain jots in a given time. They will also be no need for motivation unlike human beings who need at times to be pushed to do a work which my lead to less productivity. The other point to be looked at is that technology can multifunction and multitask, most technological advancements have been made in a way that they are able to carry out different tasks and jobs at the same time. Multitasking is at a high compared to 1990s, as people have now found a cheaper and faster ways to access information and commute through smart technologies. For example the machinery used to dig into the ground can be used to cut and clear tress or do that at the sometime. Unlike people, computers are able to do work and switch takes with a 100% accuracy, whereas a human being will information the moment they stop and start a another task meaning a human will lose both time and information and a computer will lose nothing. Besides that, technology investment will save money. If purchased the machinery can be used for a long them not just then and there it may be for the long term and they will be no need to buy it over and over all people will have to do is maintain it.
Apart from technology’s impact on work force, it also provides people with security feature. First it will protect sensitive information or data from being accessed illegally. The 21st century technological advancements has brought concern over privacy due to the global reach of the internet. Campiness have found themselves examining the privacy and security of new technology will have on the, for example cyber-crime (Greenemeier, 2008). In addiction technology investment will provide secure access to company resources, information and data. People will have not to worry on whether the information or the work there are doing will be used or accessed by the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Employees will have full control and feel safe about the safety of the work around them.
Furthermore, the pace of change maybe slower for developing countries, but nevertheless they are examples of how technological roles are increasing income and creating employment. For example, in 2011, Samsung launched its Electronics Engineering Academy in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria to open up "skilled, well-paying job opportunities" for recent high school graduates. The program is as part of Samsung's broader goal to develop 10,000 electronics engineers across Africa by 2015. (Long, 2014). Technology investment will bring about job creation or opportunities in way that when the machinery is acquired, people will have to be trained on how to use it or simply employee people to work and maintain it. This will allow people to such skills to have jobs and encourage people to study new things.
Next technology in education involves, the leaner as well as the teacher who should be included for impact it will have on learning. New challenges and opportunities for schools are at a rapid pace as the changes in technology occur. When technology is introduced in educational intuitions, it will allow distant learning with the introduction of World Wide Web. Students and teachers will be able to have unlimited access to information and data from all over the world and other schools. They will be able to access this information at any time and place, students will have lots of sources to help him in there assignments or personal learning and teachers will be able to have different views and option’s on the subjects they plane to teach. This will also open up to people on e-leaning and multitasking. When students are using technology as a tool or a support for communicating with others, they are in an active role rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted by a teacher, textbook, or broadcast. The student is actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate, or display information. Technology use allows many more students to be actively thinking about information, making choices, and executing skills than is typical in teacher-led lessons. Moreover, when technology is used as a tool to support students in performing authentic tasks, the students are in the position of defining their goals, making design decisions, and evaluating their progress (O'Hara, n.d).
In addition, the introduction of technology in educational intuitions will make education and learning enjoyable. With new, simple and fun gadgets being introduced this will attract the attention of children. Most of the children nowadays find it hard to sit in class and listen to a teacher stand in front of then and talk for one or more hours, most of them don’t make it till the end of class and end up missing what was being taught. But, with these new technology’s they are made in such a way that they will have the full attention of the student while they enjoy themselves at the sometime. It was found that 78% of college use on-the-go technology to be able to do a quick research on their tablets or other mobile devices right before a quiz or test to verify something (Lepi, 2012). Furthermore, technology introduction in educational intuitions will allow students to connect with each other from different parts of the world. Students can be able share and co-operate on assignments and academic work. Students will have different views and task on certain topics because they would have researched on other cultures and people’s lives.
However, there are still groups of people who are against developing countries investing more in technology. They believe that developing countries that are trying to improve their wellbeing and economy should not choose to invest more in technology but should use alternative ways developing without spending more technology and should use the current resources. Opponents believe investment in more technology will increase a country expanses. They may or be no money for a country to use on technology, but if they do invest countries will have to overlook other problems at hand which may lead other sectors of to suffer. Opponents believe countries should work with more serious matters like heath care, in fact the government will not be sure on the kind of impact these technology’s will bring and how long they can be put to use. In addition to higher costs of software and hardware, the new technology will require people to operate them. If the working environment not familiar with new technology it might find it hard to use which will lead to more money spent on training people to use them or in other cases you will need to hair personnel to just operate the machinery. Although most basic technology systems are user friendly, business still have to train those employees who are not familiar with the technology, some may even need an expert, which will add to the expanses of maintaining them (KJ Henderson, n.d).
Human beings are now being replaced machines due to technology advancement in almost every industry and sector of our economy. Currently millions of workers have lost their jobs permanently from the economy and any other job assignments which have been restricted, have shrunk and disappeared (Rifkin, 2010). With technology improving day by day jobs being performed my humans are now be done by computer systems. For example paperwork and financial transactions are now being done automatically. This is leaving business no choice but to buy the technology and letting go of the employees who used to do the jobs to cut costs hence the high levels of unemployment. Investment in technology may lead to security breaches. The introduction of systems that allow you to keep your data and information in place (e.g. the cloud). People with unauthorized access may access confidential data which may be misused or end up in the wrong hands. Technology systems are also venerable to virus attacks, which may destroy or alter the information being kept. Some attacks are worse in way that they may end up destroying the full systems and making the machinery unusable and when this happens it will put work to a stop and important information and data will be lost.
In actual fact, technology investment may be costly to acquire for developing countries, but technology keeps improving at a faster rate which also increases the input and output of work they do. Machines will be able to do the work done by humans twice the rate and the production level. Technology will just not improve productivity, it will benefit countries in other sectors of communication, marking, customer service and telecommunication which play a major part in a countries development. Moving on, technology will also improve the medical sector. Discoveries will occur at a rapid rate; for example improvements and changes in surgical and medical procedures, medical scanners and new support systems.
Apart from medical discovers, the agricultural sector will also benefit from new technologies. Process that required lots of human labor which will now be automated leading to a higher level of output and productivity. Not only productivity will be the major benefit, but also safeguarding the environment will be improved with new technology. Fertilizer management system research tools will be discovered in order to improve the soil in areas will farming is impossible. With the introduction of geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS) and remote sensing (RS), farmers can now refine nutrient recommendation and water management models to the site-specific conditions of each field (IFDC, 2014).
Lastly, students will benefit from new technology because they will now be able to learn on a global scale. Students will now be able to collaborate on essential work, they will have countless of hours to search for information that can be accessed from anywhere at any time in the world by the use of the internet and e-leaning which allows students on-the-go or the employed who what to study to have the opportunity to do so.
In conclusion, technology needs to be embraced. Focusing on the technology that yields great value is the key for development. The use of technology to maximizing productivity will create a platform to success of a true economy. Increasing productivity is the major key to the improvement of standards of living. Technology is creating these improvements in productivity, and now it has advanced in a way that if countries are to develop fully they will need the technology as it advances. It is the future and thought it may be changing it is continually becoming faster and brings more conveniences.
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