Being Human in a Digital Age (?)

August 26, 2016George Siemens

QUT: Grand Challenges Lecture

Stop predicting the future. Leave that to the robot who's going to steal your job

Jess Zimmerman, 2014

Perez 2011

Source: Mary Meeker, 2015, Internet Trends

Source: Mary Meeker, 2015, Internet Trends

Vanity Fair, 2014

The Guardian, 2014

Business Insider, 2015

“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”

Stephen Hawking, 2014

NY Times, 2014

Blastr, 32016

The Atlantic, 2015

Damn Daniel!

Those military people are doing some looney stuff overseas!

Bloomberg, 2016

Activist Post, 2016

Washington Post, 2016

That’s crazy!

But at least I still have a job.

The Guardian, 2016

Bloomberg, 2016

Technology Review 2013)

rapid technological change has been destroying jobs faster than it is creating them

Worst income inequality in history of USA?

WEF, 2016

What’s left for us?

The Caring Economy?

BLS, 2014

BLS, 2014

Deloitte 2015

What do we do as a society?

Edsurge, 2016

WSJ, 2016

BBC, 2016

Relinquishment of technology?

Bill Joy, 2000

A new era?Information representationDevelopment of logicPrinting pressIndustrial ageInformation/computing ageNew age of humanness?

Joy, self-compassion, art, beauty? Affect? Happiness?

Complexification of higher education

Learning needs are complex, ongoing

Simple singular narrative won’t suffice going forward

The idea of the university (and learning) is expanding and diversifying

Self-regulated, self-selected, self-directed learning

Social media, MOOCs, community knowledge spaces

BMGF, 2016

Student profiles

Diversifying(OECD)Less than 50% now full time(US Census Bureau)

OECD, 2015US Census, 2013

Favours women over menMore learners as % (up to 60%)Average entrance age increasingTop three countries for entering students:

China, India, USATraditional science courses waning in popularityGreater international student

OECD 2013

“higher education is now serving more students with more stress than at any prior point in history, yet we have done little to educate ourselves about the strategies that brain science knows can help students better manage their stress, induce relaxation and consequently improve their learning experiences.”

What will we teach?

Why will we go to university?

“Perhaps in reaching to educate the brain, we should also consider reaching for the heart”

(Peer Reviewed (by me) message on Slack, Catherine Spann, 2015)

WEF, 2016

Learning & Knowledge Framework

Existing educational practices addresses these quadrants

The future of work is in these quadrants

Maria Popova

in order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these pieces and build new castles.

ExplorationLearning is the exploration of the unknown…

… not just mastery of what is already known.

Compelling QuestionsHabitable Worlds:Are We Alone?Contagion:Can We Survive?

Astr

onom

y

Chem

istr

y

Geo

logy

Phys

ics

Biol

ogy

The questions we care about don’t fit in silos

Transdisciplinary