Raya Bidshahri (2018) said: “Our traditional, industrial-era
educational models are simply outdated. What is required is not an incremental
change in education, but rather an entire overhaul of the current system. It
will take creative imagination to develop new models for 21st-century
education.”
In an interview Raya Bidshahri (2018) asked Rohan Roberts,
the author of the ground-breaking new book Cosmic
Citizens and Moonshot Thinking: Education in an Age of Exponential Technologies:
“In a future of technological automation and increasing digitization, how do
you see teachers’ roles changing?” Roberts answered: “The 21st-century teacher
will be more of a guide-on-the-side than a sage-on-stage. Students today have
access to tremendous computing power and information. The days of the teacher
as subject expert and fount of information are numbered. In addition to being
cross-curricular specialists, teachers will need to be guides, counselors,
mentors, and facilitators.”
We, as lecturers and teachers, can’t ignore the impact of exponential change in technology, also referred to as exponential technologies, on future human existence and education, such as learning driven by Artificial Intelligent (AI), immersive environments of virtual reality (VR) and artificial reality (AR), the use of nootropics, etc. (Roberts, 2018).
Rohan Roberts was also asked in the interview mentioned above: “In your opinion, what are some key features of innovative curriculum? What skills, values, and mindsets should we be teaching?” This was Robert’s answer: “Any curriculum worth its salt would focus not on content but on developing critical survival skills, such as leading by influence, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurship, effective communication, analyzing information, and curiosity and imagination. In an age of fake news and alternative facts, we ought to focus on teaching our youth to distinguish between information, misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. We’d need to focus on future fluencies that are based on problem solving, creativity, digital citizenship, media, and collaboration across networks” (Bidshahri, 2018).
· So, it seems we need to prepare our students as lifelong learners for Robert’s “school of the future as a
space-independent institution that is focused on robot-proofing our youth and
helping them leverage technology in ways that can help solve the grand
challenges facing our species” (Bidshahri, 2018).
References
Bidshahri, R. (2018). Reimagining education in the Exponentail Age. Retrieved from https://singularityhub.com/2018/09/20/reimagining-education-in-the-exponential-age/#sm.0000e4sxn3xpf8q10mz2671p503hp
Roberts, R.
(2018). Cosmic citizens and moonshot thinking: education in an Age of
Exponential Technologies. AuthorHouse. ISBN-10: 1546250395; ISBN-13:
978-1546250395.