“The robots are coming” is no longer a warning shot from science fiction: from driverless cars to systems that replace lawyers and journalists, automation and artificial intelligence are increasingly a part of working lives.
Now teachers and leading experts on education and technology are calling on schools to help pupils prepare for a world in which many jobs could soon become obsolete.
The calls follow a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee last week on challenges for the country’s skills system, at which MSPs heard that about a third of jobs were at risk from automation in the coming 15-to-20 years.
Lee Dunn, a University of Glasgow lecturer in education studies and technology, and a former schoolteacher, told Tes Scotland that schools should work more closely with colleges and universities to prepare pupils for emerging industries.
While we cannot predict specific jobs that might exist in 10 years’ time, it is clear that strong future industries will include holographic technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics and space exploration, he said.
More investment is needed in technology education and computing, Mr Dunn added. But this was “very fragmented around the country, with some schools producing excellent learning opportunities around digital technology and some doing very little”.
Last August, Tes Scotland reported that the number of secondary school computing teachers had fallen by a quarter since 2005.
Laurie O’Donnell, an education consultant and digital technology expert, said that in a fast-changing careers landscape, schools should look to Carol Dweck’s work on “growth mindset”, which seeks to build learners’ belief that they can master new skills.
Gareth Surgey, a Fife technology teacher on the teacher panel for the Scottish government’s education Delivery Plan, said schools should work on digital literacy. While pupils were “great” with smartphones, they were less confident with simple tasks such as accessing the cloud or working with documents, he said.
Mr Surgey added that “industry needs to step up to the challenge” of creating stronger links between schools and Stem workplaces”.
Teacher Ian Stuart, now of the NoTosh digital learning and design consultancy, was previously seconded to work on the Scottish government’s national technology strategy. He fears that pupils might the lack the necessary skills as a result of a “reduction in curriculum breadth at certificate levels” in schools.
He added that while “multinationals are looking at how they can get creativity into their systems, we [in the education system] are beating it out”.
Gaming entrepreneur Chris van der Kuyl, who gave the closing keynote speech at the 2015 Scottish Learning Festival, told Tes Scotland: “Technology is enabling and liberating learning at a faster pace than we have ever experienced, yet the way we structure our teaching and learning in schools, colleges and universities has barely changed in 200 years.”
He believes that “critical and computational thinking” should have the same priority as core numeracy and literacy. He also wants assessment to be “radically overhauled”, as well as “a move towards highly personalised coaching and mentoring”.
A Scottish government spokesman said that it had published a “wide-ranging digital strategy”, including “a number of actions” aimed at building digital literacy from the early years and putting a focus on creativity. It had also refreshed guidance for schools in order to “bring curriculum expectations for digital skills up to date”.
A Stem strategy will be published later this year, setting out ways to build digital skills across the whole population of Scotland. The spokesman added that National Digital Learning Week, which starts on 15 May, will give schools a chance to share their classroom work with technology and to learn from each other.
@Henry_Hepburn
