Emerging Issues in Education A Contemporary Discourse

“Education — nudged and pushed to change — could lead to surprising innovations”

Technology in itself is merely a means to an end, yet technological developments are leading to fundamental changes in higher education and in society – and this at an unprecedented pace. One of its key priorities of contemporary advancements in education is to discuss, debate and bring to the attention of leaders of higher education and policy makers the issues at stake and the opportunities to be explored. On one hand, technological developments are exciting and aspiring as they come with an untapped potential for exploring new opportunities for tackling challenges facing societies, opportunities in terms of teaching, learning and research. Yet, at the same time, the opportunities for exploring and leveraging the very much different from one country to another and within countries, which means there is a great risk of exacerbating divides. This implies that this mission is twofold: we need to consider the opportunities to be explored and at the same time to advocate and raise awareness of the important global challenges and risks related to digital transformation in order to close gaps, avoid biases and ensure an inclusive, fair, ethical and human-centred approach to digitalization. This is essential in order to build bridges and create mutual understanding of local as well as global challenges to determine the key values and principles that are pivotal in order to shape a meaningful, human-centred digital future for the common global good, regardless of where in the world we are physically based. The aim is that it will fuel the much-needed debates from the transformation of education in different forms as well as in higher education.