International perspectives

 

We are currently living in an era of the digital revolution, which is also recognised as the new age/augmented age (Conti, 2016). During this age, natural human abilities are going to be augmented by computational systems that will aid in helping us to think, design and create new ideas (Conti, 2016). Society will work hand in hand with computers and robots to bring designs to life in an original form (Conti, 2016). This will be one of the biggest shifts in the revolution that the world has ever seen, however, it will come at a cost. For thousands of years people’s jobs have been replaced by new and improved versions and with technology being at its peak and evolving so rapidly, the process of unemployment is only happening faster than ever with technology and globalisation being responsible for millions of people being made redundant. There are predictions from The McKinsey Global Institute that by 2030 a staggering 800 million jobs could be lost all over the world due to technology (Vincent, 2017). Researchers at Oxford University (2013) suggest that 47% of jobs in the USA are at high risk of being automated (Frey and Osborne, 2013).

We are living in a society that potentially with a blink of an eye the world could be ruled by robots, or alternatively we may find ourselves living alongside them and actually find their assistance quite helpful. There is a worldwide debate as to whether technology adds a positive change to society, despite these schools in all countries are beginning to introduce technology into their curriculums and are seeing positive results. The new advances in technology may result in millions of jobs being lost, however, if we look at this issue from a different point of view, it can also be argued that thanks to the advances in technology millions of new jobs are being made. The US government commission (1960) stated that "technology destroys jobs, but it doesn't destroy work". For example, in 2007 'Computer World' claimed that the internet has created over 1.2 million new jobs and many of those jobs pay higher salaries than average (Thibodeau, 2009). They also stated that the internet business contributes $300 billions to the total gross domestic product of the US (Thibodeau, 2009).

Schools in the Netherlands are taking technology to new extremes with the new Steve Jobs Schools, they are throwing out the textbooks, whiteboards and planned curriculum and relying solely on Apple tablets, iPhone and MacBooks for teaching and learning (Marsh, 2014). In 2013, 7 new schools opened to 1000 pupils each aged 4-12 years old, the structure of these schools differs from the mainstream schooling that the majority of us have experienced, the schools made up of workshops rather than lessons which are chosen by teachers, parents and the pupils themselves as they decide together on a six-week plan of what they will learn in school (Marsh, 2014). The children are required to attend school for a full day however pupils only have to drop into 30-minute workshops on various subjects, the schools are open plan, colourful, there are no seating plans and 45% of learning takes place on an iPad (Marsh, 2014). The Steve Jobs schools are open all year round from 9-6 (Marsh, 2014). Steve Jobs schools set a good example of what Donaldson would like to introduce into the new welsh curriculum when it comes to technology, he believes that information is fundamental to scientific enquiry, design, how we build and manage modern society and we develop and behave as individuals (GovWales, 2017).

Despite the fact that schools in Finland have no uniform, no inspections, fee's or tests they are ranked  one of the best schools in the world (Flood, 2016). An interesting principle of Finnish education is that all students have a right to equal access to a high-quality education as well as training(Ministry of Education and Culture, 2017). The same educational opportunities are available to all citizens regardless of their race, age, social class or location (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2017). Education begins when a child turns 7 and lasts for 9 years, basic education is carried out within a single structure meaning there is no split between primary schools and secondary education (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2017). Lessons are usually taught by the same class teacher in most subjects in the first 6 year classes and then in the last 3 years they are taught by subject specialists (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2017). Teachers are free to set their own curriculum which is a big difference to how we teach in the UK as we are expected to follow the national curriculum (Flood, 2016). There are no national tests for students in basic education, instead teachers have a responsibility to assess their pupils in lesson time to ensure that they are understanding what is being taught (Flood, 2016). As a result of the Primary School Act 1958, each pupil must study 2 languages in addition to their native language, with Swedish, Finnish and English being the main languages (Nurmi, 1990).

  

References

Gov Wales (2017) Science and Technology AOLE, available: https://beta.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2018-07/science-and-technology-aole-december-2017.pdf accessed 25th February 2019.

Flood, R (2016) what UK teachers can learn from Finland, where children have one of the worlds best educations, available at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/best-education-world-finland-what-uk-schools-can-learn-a7319056.html (accessed 25th February 2019).

Frey, Carl Benedikt, and Michael A. Osborne. 2013. “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerisation?” Oxford Martin Programme Working Paper. Oxford, England: Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment. http://rooseveltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Monetary-Policy-Toolkit-Report-1.pdf (Accessed 15th February 2019).

Marsh, Sarah (2014) The Guardian: Inside Steve Jobs Schools: Swapping books for Ipads, available at https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/oct/07/text-books-school-ipad-steve-jobs-classrooms (accessed 22nd February 2019).

Ministry of education and culture (2017) Education in Finland, Finnish Education in a nutshell available at: https://www.oph.fi/download/146428_Finnish_Education_in_a_Nutshell.pdf accessed: 25th February 2019.

Thibodeau, P (2009) Study: Internet economy has created 1.2m jobs, available at https://www.computerworld.com/article/2525229/internet/study--internet-economy-has-created-1-2m-jobs.html (accessed 18th February 2019).

Veli Nurmi, (1990) "Education in Finland", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 4 Issue: 2, available at https://www-emeraldinsight-com.ezproxy.cardiffmet.ac.uk/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/09513549010136788 accessed 25th February 2019

Vincent, J (2017) Automation threatens 800 million jobs, but technology could still save us, available at https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/30/16719092/automation-robots-jobs-global-800-million-forecast (accessed 18th February 2019).