Foresight Project: Digital Tech in Learning Space - University Context

This Foresight Project analyzes the integration of digital technologies within university classrooms, focusing on the current flawed implementations and envisioning a preferred future. The project begins by defining digital technology and its impact on education, particularly within the context of Google Classrooms. It identifies issues such as unencrypted security systems, inadequate teacher training for digital tools, student dependency on technology, and the need for continuous technology upgrades. The assignment then articulates a preferred future learning space, 10 years from now, where digital technologies are fully integrated, with a focus on teacher training, online module tests, and security audits. The project employs back-casting, a planning method that starts with a desired future and works backward to identify necessary actions, to address the challenges of achieving this future. The analysis includes pedagogical, social, cultural, and political obstacles, along with system-level changes required for effective digital technology implementation. The project defines back-casting, outlines the steps involved, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of this method. The assignment concludes by discussing the need for universities to focus on delivering high-quality education through digital technologies and addressing the challenges of digital disruption. The project aims to provide insights into how digital technologies can be effectively used to enhance teaching and learning in higher education.

FORESIGHT PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
Flawed use of digital technologies in learning space in order to support & mediate learning
and articulation of preferred future..............................................................................................1
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................3
Back-cast from that future to the present.....................................................................................3
Pedagogical, social, cultural and political obstacles that are required to be changed with
example........................................................................................................................................5
Challenges of using digital technologies that require system level changes...............................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Digital technology can be defined as different kinds of electronic tools, devices, systems
and resources that are used to generate, process and store data (de Oliveira Musse and et. al.,
2018). As advancement in technology is taking place, usage of digital technology within learning
space is also increasing. Digital technology has brought various kinds of changes within
educational settings. There are various kinds of digital technologies that are being used within
learning space in different ways. This digital transformation has helped in has given rise to
educational technology which has further helped in bringing various kinds of changes within
teaching methods. However, it has been observed that this digital technology within educational
settings requires various kinds of transformation as due to these digital technologies many things
are taken for-granted. It has increased disruption of common sense about teaching and learning.
There is a requirement to provide special training to both teachers and learners so that they can
easily use new and advance technology without facing any kind of issues or challenges that
might be faced by them in learning space (Scherer, Siddiq and Tondeur, 2019). This assignment
will lay emphasis on a learning space and outlook learning space 10 years from now with respect
to its use of digital technology. This assignment will focus on flawed use of digital technologies
in university classroom in order to support learning and Back-cast from that future to the present.
In this assignment learning space that has been preferred is Google Classrooms. It is a free web
service that has been developed by Google for schools and universities for creating, distributing,
and grading assignments. One of the main purposes of Google Classrooms is t sharing files
between teachers and students
Task 1
Flawed use of digital technologies in learning space in order to support & mediate learning and
articulation of preferred future
Advancement in technology has brought various kinds of changes within learning pattern
of students, teaching pattern of teachers and many other kinds of changes within classroom
settings. Today most of the education organizations are focusing on adopting digital technology
in order to enhance learning within students. But it has been observed that adoption of digital
technology has not been 100 percent positive, in fact it has many flaws which has further been
impacting overall learning of individuals (Selwyn, 2016). Most of the universities today have
adopted various kinds of new and advance digital technologies in order to provide excellent
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education to their students. Google Classrooms is one of those advance technology with the help
of which they share notes with their students, create Moodle exams for their students so that
students and their performance can easily be graded. Adoption of new digital technologies has
helped universities to deliver excellent high- level education to their students. It has clearly
provided various kinds of benefits to the universities and has also helped them to enhance their
relationship with their students. Despite of this, there are adoption of these high- level digital
technology has brought some flaws with it as well. These digital technologies are becoming
university needs rather than becoming students’ interest. It can also be said that universities use
digital technologies are used as a source of marketing and a source of attracting students for
universities rather than enhancing educational level of students (Selwyn, 2017). There are
various kinds of flaws within digital technology used within university classrooms.
 Many universities today have their own websites on which study material is uploaded so that
it becomes easy for students and teachers to access those materials. It has been observed that
most of the Universities have unencrypted security system in which details and password of
teachers and students are stored in a plain text. Any unauthorized access can easily gain
access to those teachers and students details or passwords easily. It is one of the major flaws
which is seen within digital technology used by universities for supporting learning.
 Digital boards are also quite common which is being used within university classrooms. But
one of the major flaws associated with such digital boards is that teachers are provided with
proper training for using such digital boards because of which they are mostly engaged in
properly using such boards and as a result they pay least attention upon students i.e. whether
they are understanding the topic properly, whether they are paying attention on the topic or
not, or if they have any doubts or queries associated with the topic (Sarker and et. al., 2019).
 It was observed that many universities encourage their students to use adopted digital
technology in order to enhance their learning. But most of the students sees it as a way of
reducing burden of notetaking, they also do not take initiative of understanding the topic
themselves. It can also be said that usage of digital technology within universities has made
students dependent. There is no doubt that some students do use this technology in creatively
completing their assignments or learn new things and implement it but mostly students use it
in order to reduce their burden.
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 Universities need to bring continuous upgradation within the digital technologies adopted by
them because if they do not do so then it can impact learning experience of students. For
example: if a student submits their assignment online and due to some technical issues, the
assignment is not submitted and student is marked Zero for the assignment which they have
already submitted (Kalolo, 2019). This not only degrade overall morale of the students but
also impact learning experience of students within university classrooms.
 Today most of the teachers within university classrooms uses power point presentation in
order to teach their students. It is another flaw as many students do not take initiative of
taking lecture notes and important things explained by the teacher. Not only this many times
students uses their mobile phones to simply click a picture of the same.
Articulate of preferred future
It is important for universities to focus on delivering excellent quality high level
education to their students. Adoption of digital technology can help the universities to deliver
high level of education to the students. Currently most of the school and universities are using
Google classrooms only for creating, distributing and grading assignment and to share notes with
students. It is quite clear that in future complete learning experience of students within
universities will be based upon digital technologies. In future, 10 years from now, Google
Classrooms can be used by students so that they can be provided with an online learning
experience if they miss their lectures. However, there are few factors that are required to be
focused on by universities such as they need to provide training to all the teachers for all the new
technologies that have been implemented within university. This training will help the teachers
to get familiar with the technology such that they can focus more on students and work on
enhancing their learning experience (Emejulu and Mcgregor, 2019). University can also focus on
online module test for their students in order to understand level till which students have
understood the topic and will also help them to understand topics that are required to be focused
on in a more detailed manner so that students can learn it in an accurate manner. Students should
also be provided access to these advance digital technologies and should be asked to explain
their understanding so that if they have any kinds of doubts then it can be cleared in an
appropriate manner. Before bringing any digital technology in use its security testing or auditing
should be done so that any kind of flaw within it can be identified and resolved appropriately.
There are many methods that can be used so that digital technology can be implemented within
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University so that teaching and learning methods can be enhanced and disruption associated with
can be reduced.
Task 2
Back-cast from that future to the present
Define back-casting and method of back-casting
Back-casting can be defined as a planning method which mainly starts with desirable
future and then works backward in order to identify programs and policies that helps in
connecting specified or desired future to present. This planning method was identified in 1990 by
John B. Robinson (Kurtagić and Vučijak, 2016). This method is majorly based upon a question
that if a certain future or goal is required to be attained then what actions can be taken in order to
achieve defied goal. This method helps in discussing challenges of achieving the future goal
from opposite direction. With the help of this method future desired condition so that steps
through which future goal can be achieved can be defined. It is completely opposite of
forecasting as it involves predicting of unknown values of independent variables that might exist
in order to explain known values of dependent variables. It can be used to develop future vision,
support strategic design project. Here, back-casting method will be used to overcome all kinds of
challenges associated with use of digital technology within universities so that digital technology
can be used within university classroom without impact main teaching and learning ways. This is
the main idle state which is required to be achieved within 5 years and in order to achieve this
state backward work will be done where assumptions and actions will be worked on so that this
idle state can be archived (Kishita and et. al., 2017).
There are various strengths and weakness of this methods, such as: Simplified back-
casting can be completed easily within one or two days, it is one of the most common way of
reaching common understanding of successful future and review the steps through which it can
be achieved. It also helps in proving actionable information. But it has some weakness as well
like: it requires strong facilitator and strong preparedness, valuable results achieved can be easily
lost until and unless there is an ongoing campaign to keep up with the results in the eyes of
stakeholders. Back-casting involves various task that helps in completing back casting process in
an appropriate manner. First of all, it is important to list down all the long- term goals that are
required to be achieved. While defining long- term goals that are required to achieved, time
frame for all the goals should be defined. After defining goals, work backwards in order to figure
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out important and necessary actions to that defined goals can be achieved. All the necessary
actions should be defined step by step, not even a single step should be missed. After defining of
actions, insight over difficulties that might be encountered are required to be collected. This
helps in identifying requirement of resources or steps that are required to be achieved (de
Oliveira Musse and et. al., 2018). These task helps in achieving difficult future goals or options
and as an output it helps in developing more than one possible action through which end point
can be can be developed. Wile developing actions it is important to focus on physical,
technological and socioeconomic feasibility and policy implications. This will help in identifying
all kinds of challenges that can work as a barrier in achieving final output.
Pedagogical, social, cultural and political obstacles that are required to be changed with example
Digital learning in their institution practice have the ultimate helpful for the student as it
provided broad range of technology which is more level of being enhanced with education
strategies. It includes blended learning, flipped learning, personalized learning, and other
strategies that rely on digital tools to a small or large degree.
In addition to that’s there is something which is more level to missing for the application
of technology in education which leads to have failure as there is right pedagogy in which
technology is tools which must be implemented with rigs principles. In the terms of the
pedagogy there is more level of EdTech failure which is extremely with certainly sceptical
problem. It helps for creating an effective working environment so that student share their own
idea, thoughts, and opinion. It became increase greater opportunities for improving the career
growth as well development. There is the missing piece of puzzle as there is more level of lack
in terms of digital technology as A great lesson wasn't great just because there was a great
teacher teaching interesting content, but because they applied the right teaching strategy and
methods suitable for this content.
Here, back-casting method will be used to overcome all kinds of challenges associated
with use of digital technology within universities so that digital technology can be used within
university classroom without impact main teaching and learning ways.
In order to implement the designed program to improve overall digital concept literacy for
both student as well as teacher. Although many teachers appreciated the advantage of digital
technology in learning. They can easily often find the effective integration with education
technologies challenging.
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As applied the back-casting as methodology on the cultural and social issues in the digital
technology have the clear level of transformation which have the widen the cultural divide about
the 7 % as compared to the respective six years. As the technology is the culture have affected
there their collaboration practices, innovation, open culture, digital-first mindset, agility and
flexibility, customer centricity and a data-driven culture. This type of back casting method
impact on the demand of digital technology has rapidly increasing so as require to achieve
significant goal and objective. It has increased disruption of common sense about teaching and
learning. There is a requirement to provide special training to both teachers and learners so that
they can easily use new and advance technology without facing any kind of issues or challenges
that might be faced by them in learning space. Adoption of digital technology can help the
universities to deliver high level of education to the students. It is quite clear that in future
complete learning experience of students within universities will be based upon digital
technologies. Students might be given online learning experience if they miss their lectures.
For Example- It should be considered the online disinhibiting effects which providing the
facilities for people to access information or data. This effect is likely to attract people and
always maintained the ethical learning style. Online learning can be assumed as great
opportunity that help for improving own abilities and capabilities but it will require for
maintaining ethical learning. Many people can misuse online learning whereas leaked the test
paper which is not consider an appropriate manner. So as require to maintain the privacy and
secure the information (Nambisan, Wright and Feldman, 2019). It is necessary thing to provide
accurate information to student so that they can improve their own learning skill through online
technology. Back-casting involves various task that helps in completing back casting process in
an appropriate manner. First of all, it is important to list down all the long- term goals that are
required to be achieved.
As above discussion, it has identified that back casting involves to change the
Pedagogical, social, cultural and political obstacles because it has developed the issue or problem
for educators.
Social culture
The online trends would help for changing the culture or environment where many people
attracts towards online learning (Bouncken, Kraus and Roig-Tierno, 2019). They can directly
join online session to build own knowledge. It help for creating an effective working
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environment so that student share their own idea, thoughts, and opinion. It became increase
greater opportunities for improving the career growth as well development.
Political
In this factor, it can be applied the back casting approach which usually recognised the
political problem. Back casting also often come up with new and unconventional idea to the
problem at stake. It may be interpreted as political standpoint. In future it will create the
relationship between proposed solution or image of future.
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Pedagogical
It is mainly described the knowledge model of teaching and practices to achieve the pre-
determined learning outcome or result. A relatively short term required to acquire the
Pedagogical knowledge. When applying back-casting as a method to predict the learning the
advancement of learning through digital technology. It is positively impact on change the
preference of people in education sector.
Challenges of using digital technologies that require system level changes
Digital technology is perhaps the strongest factor that help for shaping the education
landscape in current scenario. Many institutions are showing moral support for increasing the
advanced level of technology. It provide the various hardware such as computers, tablets for
purpose to enhance the connectivity (Agostini and Filippini, 2019). In order to implement the
designed program to improve overall digital concept literacy for both student as well as teacher.
Although many teachers appreciated the advantage of digital technology in learning. They can
easily often find the effective integration with education technologies challenging (Nambisan,
Wright and Feldman, 2019). Nowadays, it can be identified the digital technology integration
which mainly presenting significant challenges to educators.
In this way, it has represented the common challenges faced by educator when they can try
to attempt and integrate with digital technology in classroom. It offering the potential solution to
find out problems. Sometimes, the education level issue that should be valuable to future as well
as current school researcher.
Challenge to classroom technology
The primary barriers to the successful integration of technology within classroom which
consider as external factors. In order to identify the external barrier that should be addressed at
institutional level (Nambisan, Wright and Feldman, 2019). As per evidence, it can be identified
that how can tackle problem or issue. Initially, it can address the issue surrounding related
insufficient connectivity, equipment so it become difficult to establish connection with one
person to another (Helbing, 2018). If educator does not have a proper computers, hardware
internet connection. In this way, it cannot maintain the feasible in the implementation of
education technology.
In another way, it has been introduced the challenges of inadequate training related to
modern technology. If a person is not provide an effective professional development on digital
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technologies. Student will not able to using in potential manner. As per discussed with external
factor to consider support constraint. The support barriers to integrate with digital technologies
which include inadequate technical support (Light and et al, 2019). At earlier, it accounts of
technology integration focused on increasing the availability of computer in schools. The
primary step is to integrate with access equipment and necessary to run educational computer
programs (Bouncken, Kraus and Roig-Tierno, 2019). Many student do not have regularly access
the computer system. In this way, it has increased the inconsistency which make it difficult for
instructor to integrate with digital technology.
Training
It is another commonly issue or reason for using lack of technology implementing in
educational sector. Various educator has not followed the focused on adequate professional
development (Bouncken, Kraus and Roig-Tierno, 2019). As a result, it can reduce the confidence
level of student and not operating various tool or platform. In recently, it has found that modern
technology is constantly changing when more important thing than teacher always update with
technological expertise. As per analysis, it has identified that many public school suggest that
implementing education technology professional training to educator (Bouncken, Kraus and
Roig-Tierno, 2019). In 2009, 18% of teacher have not completed education technology training.
According to report, it can be determined that completing training approximately 1 to 8 hours. It
enough for teacher to gain knowledge amount digital technology and enhance their career in
global world. Furthermore, they have consider the positive perception of training and
development (Nambisan, Wright and Feldman, 2019). It always encouraging for educator to
improve their technology knowledge in order to support in career enhancement. In marketplace,
demand of digital technology has rapidly increasing so as require to achieve significant goal and
objective (Bouncken, Kraus and Roig-Tierno, 2019). According to study, it has been identified
that professional development has greater impact on the teachers. As issue related technology
access which will be handled or controlled through training and likely to address problem.
Furthermore, there are specific type of training available for teacher which plays
important role for resolving problem effectively and efficiently.
Apart from that digital technology have a huge impact on the student where they can always
use online medium to do something innovative. It is consider the usage of digital technology in
both positive as well a negative aspects. In context of learning, student can use unique way to
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learn new thing (Bouncken, Kraus and Roig-Tierno, 2019). This process is directly visible for
both teacher as well as student. The visibility is the crucial part in order to develop or create
learning idea and also enhanced by online training.
As per discussion, it has been realised that effective digital technology useful for learning, it
provide facility to integrate with the teacher and also gained more knowledge. There are lot of
online course which can be possible due to digital technology. It give an idea to understand
different level of technology skills.
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CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it has been summarized that due to technology advancement,
various kinds of changes have occurred within education system which has directly/ indirectly
impacted teaching methods of teachers and learning ways of students. Today many educational
organizations are focusing on implementing digital technologies within their learning space in
order to enhance learning within learning space. It has been analysed that there are various kinds
of advance digital technologies that are used by universities in order to make learning much
easier for students. But has been analysed that adoption of digital technology has disrupted the
way in which learning and teaching was carried out within universities. It has been analysed that
it is important for Universities to analyse challenges that can impact the way in which things are
carried out. This analysis can help universities to understand challenges that can work as a
barrier in implementing digital technology without disturbing common ways of learning and
teaching. It has also been analysed that back- casting is one of the planning methods that can
help in developing more than one actions that can result in achieving defined future goals.
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REREFENCES
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de Oliveira Musse, J., and et. al., 2018. Applying backcasting and system dynamics towards
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Brazil. Journal of Cleaner Production. 193. pp.97-114.
Emejulu, A. and Mcgregor, C., 2019. Towards a radical digital citizenship in digital
education. Critical Studies in Education. 60(1). pp.131-147.
Helbing, D., 2019. Societal, economic, ethical and legal challenges of the digital revolution:
From big data to deep learning, artificial intelligence, and manipulative technologies.
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Selwyn, N., 2017. Digital inclusion: can we transform education through technology?.
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