Abstract:

The world of teaching, learning and working is undergoing a period of dramatic change. Artificial intelligence, robotics and social media are evolving, and digital uptake is having a significant impact on education, jobs, training and the roles of teachers and learners globally. Boundaries between disciplines, local and global concerns and being blurred by information systems and rapid processes of innovation and globalisation. In the OECD report “The Future of Education and Skills: Education 2030”, learner competencies are predicted to change radically and an important problem question emerges, which is this:
How can educational institutions and instructional systems develop essential skills, knowledge attitudes and values to enable students to thrive in the post truth era?

The world we live is information saturated and we talk of overload- multiple sources of fact that anyone can access, and many of which are not trustworthy. The question remains whether teaching digital literacies can protect everyone against false news. Given the sheer prevalence of misinformation around us, there is a greater need than ever to teach techniques of identifying misinformation, combined with critical thinking and research skills. Digital literacy, combined with critical evaluation and reflection, may help learners to regard populist opinions as false, enable them to question sources of data, recognise bias and investigate knowledge claims. The paper will identify and critique key trends and challenges in the higher education ecosystem based on recent policy documents from international organizations such as the World Economic Forum, EDUCUASE Horizon Report 2019, and OECD Future of Education & Skills 2030. These global perspectives will be synthesised to highlight the changes and challenges of creating “future-ready” students, rethinking the practice of teaching, adopting productive digital tools and maximising the potential of education to “future-proof” learners against disinformation, bias and partisan beliefs.

Keywords:

Teaching and learning.