6 Summary
In this week you have explored some developments in technology that are happening now or very imminently, the impact they may have on the world (particularly on employment) and what role education can and should play in preparing for these changes.
Week 6 will support you in thinking critically about the ideas you have explored in the preceding weeks and in your own personal vision of an education system for the future.
Further reading
If you have found the issues discussed this week of particular interest, you may want to read further about the way technological developments are affecting society and hence the education needed to prepare the next generation. The following article about the way the ‘internet of things’ is affecting the way we learn is available open access.
Box _unit6.7.1
Reference: Meola, A. (2016) ‘How IoT in education is changing the way we learn’, Business Insider UK, 20 December [Online]. Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/ internet-of-things-education-2016-9 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (Accessed 5 October 2017).
If you would like further access to published research, and support in critically reading and reviewing such work to inform your own re-visioning of the purposes of education, why not consider the Open University’s new postgraduate module EE830 Learning and teaching: educating the next generation, which ran for the first time in October 2018. In this module we will be evaluating the sources of information available to us as educators, such as the article above, which is essentially advertising products linked to the lines of argument presented. We will be reviewing what counts as evidence and searching out peer reviewed publications which help us learn from studies internationally. If you are interested in signing up for this masters module, please email WELS-ECYS-Masters@open.ac.uk to find out more.