CYDEC speaks with visiting international speaker Kwaku Aning, ahead of this year big event.
With technology advancing at such a rapid rate, there is no question it will have a seismic impact on the evolution of learning. As leading experts in the field of EdTech and artificial intelligence examine how learning methods and education will change in the future, greater questions still arise about what the future shape of work will really look like and the importance of human connectedness.
These issues have gained in prominence as we look to prepare the next generation of the Cayman Islands workforce to participate in the digital economy. They will be discussed in depth at CYDEC 2023, the Cayman Islands Digital Economy Conference, taking place on 28 June 2023 at the Westin Grand Cayman.
The theme of EdTech features strongly among the full day program at CYDEC 2023, including a keynote presentation by technology consultant Kwaku Aning, Director, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking (CIET) at the San Diego Jewish Academy.
Looking at tech’s role in the evolution of learning, Kwaku will be asking how tech is impacting how we learn and do we need to change anything? As a leading consultant to companies and non-profits on learning methods utilising robotics, AI, augmented reality, virtual reality, and projection mapping, his views can help frame the approach that the Cayman Islands will take in implementing EdTech and other emerging technologies such as Web 3.0 that will influence the digital transformation.
Right across the spectrum from the latest version of ChatGPT to internet in schools, Kwaku explained how the delay of innovation has rapidly shortened, just as how computers first came into offices before being used for learning. This changes the whole framework of education from what used to be a way to train people to be in the workplace to now really looking at how we are teaching people to think. “After that it is possible to determine what role they may play in society,” he said. “The roles we were once asked to play are being eliminated and now new spaces are being created.”
Looking at the rate of innovation, Kwaku also points out that it has had the effect of pushing education to emphasise and develop our ability as humans. “Kindness and humanness are harder for machines to replicate authentically,” he said. “You can make them say the word please, but in terms of the actual meaning that is much harder for the systems to do.”
Humanness and the ability to relate and empathise become more important in a world of automation, just as the advent of automatic spellcheckers mean that we really don’t have to be able to spell anymore. “Teaching simple algorithms will still exist but the concept will be more about pushing students to think about why,” he said.
In this context, the key issue for the Cayman Islands, given its size and location in the Caribbean Sea, is interconnectedness amid what Kwaku describes as the duality of human interconnectedness with the greater world due to technology. “Cayman has to make sure it is digitally connected to everywhere else to the highest capacity. The easier it is to connect to the world digitally, the more access and the more understanding will exist of the zeitgeist and culture and why the world works.”
Register for this year’s CYDEC at www.cydec.ky