Challenges in Education posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Keywords:
Fourth Industrial Revolution, Education, Digitization, TranshumanismAbstract
This review article provides an overview of the challenges that the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) may pose for education as reflected in scientific articles, white papers and other up-to-date publications. The approach taken here does not make distinctions among different educational levels but instead aims to highlight overarching challenges across the education sector as a whole, providing the opportunity to identify general or cross-cutting risks that may arise from the 4IR. The topic of digitization - one of the main pillars of the 4IR - seems highly controversial within the research studies examined, with disagreement regarding both possible harmful effects of digitizing classrooms and the fundamental benefits of multimedia. There seems to be a clear trend of many authors to recommend necessary adjustments that enable various stakeholders to adapt to the developments prompted by the 4IR. The main recommendations here are flexibility, personal responsibility, and self-reliance. Relatively few researchers - such as Yong Zhao - recommend active engagement in order to consciously influence or even delay the dynamics of the 4IR. Leaders in particular are called upon to make greater efforts to adapt, e.g. by implementing AI and AI-powered personalized learning into pedagogies and curricula, teacher support in using AI tools and developing ethical standards, fostering access and equity, data-driven decision making, future-ready skills development, partnerships with tech companies, continual adaptation and lifelong learning, and taking into account human aspects regarding the digitalization of education, such as the impact on people when they learn and work on computer screens or in virtual worlds.
References
Alam, G. M. (2021). Does online technology provide sustainable he or aggravate diploma disease? evidence from Bangladesh. A comparison of conditions before and during COVID-19. Technology in Society, 66, 101677.
AlMalki, H. A., & Durugbo, C. M. (2023). Evaluating critical institutional factors of Industry 4.0 for education reform. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 188, 122327.
Briggs, J., & Kodnani, D. (2023). The potentially large effects of Artificial Intelligence on economic growth. Retrieved from https://www.gspublishing.com/content/research/en/reports/2023/03/27/d64e052b-0f6e-45d7-967b-d7be35fabd16.html
Butler, T. (2019). A critical review of digital technology in education that should give policy makers and educators pause for thought. Ireland: University College Cork.
Chomsky, N. (2003). Chomsky on Democracy and Education. New York, NY: Routledge Falmer.
Eleyyan, S. (2021). The future of education according to the fourth industrial revolution. Journal of Educational Technology & Online Learning, 4(1), 23-30.
Harari, Y. N. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. United Kingdom: Random House.
Harari, Y. N. (2015). Homo deus: A brief history of tomorrow. United Kingdom: Random House.
Hong, S. M. (2022). The 4th industrial revolution and the significance of liberal education, and the need to reform its curriculum. Korean Journal of General Education,16(2), 65-79.
Horoszkiewicz, B. (2022). Digital dementia and its impact on human cognitive and emotional functioning. Journal of Education, Health and Sport, 12(11), 290–296.
Kamsuwan T. (2021). Using community-based research projects to motivate learning among engineering students. Times Higher Education Siam University. Retrieved from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/using-communitybased-research-projects-motivatelearning-among-engineering-students
McDiarmid, G. W., & Zhao, Y. (2023). Time to rethink: Educating for a technology-transformed world. ECNU Review of Education, 6(2), 189-214.
McKinsey (2014). Offline and falling behind: Barriers to internet adoption. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/dotcom/client_service/high%20tech/pdfs/offline_and_falling_behind_full_report.pdf
McKinsey (2022). What are industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, and 4IR? Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-are-industry-4-0-the-fourth-industrial-revolutionand-4ir
McLeod, S., & Graber, J. (2018). Harnessing technology for deeper learning. USA: Solution Tree Press.
Mezied, A. (2016). What role will education play in the fourth industrial revolution? Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/what-role-will-educationplay-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/
O’Rourke, K. H., Rahman, A. S., & Taylor, A. M. (2013). Luddites, the industrial revolution, and the demographic transition. Journal of Economic Growth, 18(4), 373–409.
Philbeck, T., & Davis, N. (2018). The fourth industrial revolution: Shaping a new era. Journal of International Affairs, 72(1), 17–22.
Preiss, M. (2014). Manfred spitzer: Digital dementia: What we and our children are doing to our minds. Brno: Host, 2014. Cognitive Remediation Journal, 3(2), 31-34.
Reaves, J. (2019). 21st century skills and 4IR: A critical future role for online education. International Journal on Innovations in Online Education, 3(1), 2019.
Sandu, A., & Nistor, P. (2020). Digital dementia. Eastern- European Journal of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, 4(1), 01-06.
Schwab, K. (2016). The fourth industrial revolution. Geneva: World Economic Forum.
Scheidler, F. (2020). The end of the megamachine. A brief history of a failing civilization. Washington, DC: Zero Books.
Selwyn, N. (2019). What’s the problem with learning analytics? Journal of Learning Analytics, 6(3), 11-19.
Shen, Y., & Zhang, X. (2024). The impact of artificial intelligence on employment: the role of virtual agglomeration. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11, 122.
Shukla, S. (2020). Fourth industrial revolution preparing the students. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.35125.22240.
Seldon, A., Abidoye, O., & Metcalf, T. (2020). The fourth education revolution reconsidered: Will Artificial intelligence enrich or diminish humanity. London: University of Buckingham Press.
UK and German Ministries of Defence (2021). Human augmentation – The dawn of a new paradigm. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government
UK Ministry of Defence (2021). Human augmentation – The dawn of a new paradigm. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/986301/Human_Augmentation_SIP_access2.pdf
Waldia, N., Sonawane, S., Mali, M., & Jadhav, V. (2023). Microlearning strategies for teacher professional development in the era of fourth industrial revolution in India. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 19(3), 74-81.
World Economic Forum (2017). White paper: Realizing human potential in the fourth industrial revolution: An agenda for leaders to shape the future of education, gender and work. Retrieved from https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EGW_Whitepaper.pdf
World Economic Forum (2023). Future of jobs report. insight report. Geneva. Retrieved from https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2023.pdf
Zhao, Y. (2014). Who’s afraid of the big bad dragon. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answersheetwp/2014/09/15/a-warning-to-u-s-about-educationalauthoritarianism-from-a-chinese-scholar/
Zhao, Y. (2019). The rise of the useless: The case for talent diversity. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 28, 62–68.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Suan Dusit University
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
1 All articles will undergo a formal peer-review. A panel of experts from within or without the university will examine the article; approval from a minimum of two experts is required for publication. Revisions posed by the experts must be completed by the research prior to publication.
2 Once published in the ASEAN Journal of Education, the article becomes intellectual property of Suan Dusit University. Duplication, in full or part, requires permission from Suan Dusit University.
3 Excluding errors incurred during printing, author(s) are responsible for the content of their articles.
