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Let us start considering three possible interpretation frameworks to The 4th Revolución concept: 

  • The first of these is the notion of 4th Industrial Revolution from the World Economic Forum, which I believe does not need introduction.
  • The second is the 4th anthropological space or environment (the cyberspace of Levy, 2004) of dislocated algorithms that change our ways of knowing and the notion of intelligence; 
  • The third is the 4th Revolución as the “infosphere”, a profound transformation of our self-awareness, where learning is post – cognitive and the subjective experience of a hyper-history (Floridi, 2014)

Several months ago, I started new research agenda recognizing a growing sense of perplexity, almost as a form of growing uneasiness. This feeling is expressed by school managers and educators when facing the profound and pace of transformations in all orders and knowledge fields. All associated with an unknown path in the history of humanity in terms of the possibilities of interacting, communicating, and learning by interfaces and digital devices with artificial intelligence. The proposed research agenda follows three key topics. Each of them is related to the other on a systemic articulation.

The first focus its attention on a Macro Level (historical, economic, and political dimensions) of new ways to learn, teach and evaluate. It is necessary to re-visit the global phenomena, institutions, and public policies around the revision of existing practices of renovation, redesign and educational reform, from a multi-stakeholder perspective — a further discussion of these considerations on the Globalization of Education (Rizvi, Fazal & Lingard, Fazal: 2013).

The second critical systemic issue proposed for this research agenda focuses on the Meso implications: Coming from the educational institution and the educators of the digital age. It is necessary to pursue exploration and a reflexive appreciation of the XXI century set of skills. Anna Davies, Devin Fidler, Marina Gorbis (2011) have an in-depth analysis of the responses for the advancement of twenty-first-century skills. We ought to be looking at the pedagogical deployment around the development of these skills, the teachers’roles configurations and, the practices of teaching and learning influenced by new smart technologies. However, it is not enough just considering the influence of Artificial Intelligence in all education areas, but looking into unprecedented interaction and behaviors in terms of human development in contexts of a 21st Century Capitalism (Sennett, Richard: 2008).

The third research interest focuses on the anthropological and sociological dimensions at micro-level. We are witnessing an emergent, and sometimes harmful effects not considered on identity and privacy. The average teacher is unaware of the long-lasting implications they face with current and forthcoming social uses of the “smart” Information and Communication Technologies, with the digital cultures that are building up on schools settings (Levy, Pierre: 2007). 

This research proposal focuses its interest on scenarios where the dimensions of agency, knowledge production, and self-government; become unstable terrain. We are facing a scenario where the problem of Education ceases to be the incorporation of ICT as an educational resource, to become a new immersive environment with totalizing potential in the way we define our positions of being, knowing and behaving with others as citizens of the world (Floridi; Lyotard; Cobo; Wooldridge; Howard).

In terms of Floridi (2014), we are facing the challenge of a generation with a new narrative of being, where the identities are becoming both socio-cultural and autobiographical artifacts of a life that goes from being “on-line” to “on-life.” Intensive interaction with and from intelligent digital mediations, to which we delegate the administration of our personal information (Cobo, 2019), is generating new identity processes and identification in socialization spaces that multiply and overcome the family, school, communities relations, and in most cases, the state’s own regulatory capacity (Howard, Philip: 2015).

Consider this as an open invitation and encouragement for colleagues, teachers, students and, policymakers to take on this educational agenda since we ought to be prepared, not just for the transformation of education, but to the transition to a new society where our sense of humanity is at stake.