TheCable

It all starts with you, yes You and Me. We make up the space and time called Nigeria in the scheme of things as we have it today! What if I began by asking if there was a clear goal-set of what you wanted your life to look like? Every creation begins with a clearly defined goal, while technology remains a leverage that enhances the achievement of same. Presently, Nigeria is 61 years old, and you and I are a part of that number. What is our clearly spelt out goal or set of goals? When there is no goal, everything is fine to engage with, but with a clearly spelt out goal, only the goal matters. Because ALL THINGS are created twice, first withIN and then withOUT.

That said, new technologies are fast budding to redefine what we know as our reality today, and they include:

1. Internet of Things: aka IoT, which helps the billions of physical devices around the world to connect to the internet, while receiving and sharing data;
2. Robotic process automation: aka RPA, a software technology that makes it easy to develop, deploy, and manage software robots (or bots) that emulate human behaviors while engaging with digital systems and humans;
3. Artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, machine learning: a model of living capacity that puts humans and the planet in harmony for the 21st century and beyond, often powered by superior continuously improving intelligence with learning feedback;
4. Blockchain: makes possible a scenario where you can store money in a secure online wallet not tied to a bank, implying that you are your own bank and have complete control over same;
5. Robotics and automation: depends on sensors, actuators, machine learning systems, complex algorithms and powerful processors to execute predefined programs like in autonomous vehicles;
6. Augmented reality: an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli delivered via technology;
7. Virtual reality: provides a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. AR is now redefining entertainment as in video games, education, medical procedure, military training and business meetings;
8. Social networking and collaboration technologies: the use of Internet-based social media sites to stay connected with friends, family, colleagues, customers, or clients. Social networking can have a social purpose, a business purpose, or both, through sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram;
9. Biotech, digital health, genetics: technology based on biology – harnesses cellular and bio-molecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve human lives and health of the planet;
10. On Demand marketplace platforms (one that can only scale through continuous growth in two separate user groups: the seller and the buyer)

Source: KPMG Technology Industry Innovation Survey 2019.

Bearing all the aforementioned in mind, how would you want to position the asset called YOU, knowing what you now know is and could be made possible?

We need to become the Leader in Enriching Personal Development (and Classrooms) through Technology

Educators need to be empowered with technology to make the move and acquire the skills to incorporate technology in education, which can take advantage of learning opportunities to advance their competencies. For individuals and organizations looking to help transform the education system through technology, American University’s School of Education Online offers a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Master of Arts in Education Policy and Leadership that prepare educators with great tools to become leaders. Also, courses such as Education Program and Policy Implementation and Teaching Science in Elementary School could equip graduate students with critical competencies to fuse technology into educational settings effectively. Some benefits of tech-enabled-learning-environments (T.E.L.E) include, Increased Overall Collaboration and Communication, Customized Learning Opportunities, Curiosity Driven by Highly Engaging Content, and Improved Teacher Productivity and Efficiency among others.

At this point, thinking of the world as one single piece, we need to:

1. Develop digital content literacy on a national scale: Creating great content is definitely one way to gaining swift prominence as your audience is now on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms more than traditional platforms. We need to go deeper to sensitize people on how and why different events, peoples, communities, and cultures are represented in the global mass media and how this both reflects different contexts and affects cross-cultural understanding.
2. Tap deliberately into available global knowledge network spaces. We must help students come to terms with the power of “collective intelligence” through global networks where information is collected and analyzed. Engagement in these networks allow students to develop cross-cultural understanding while looking into global issues, synthesizing information from multiple cultures and collaborating in global teams to responsibly build on existing knowledge while generating new ones.
3. Engage a national or global audience through online publishing. These days, students should not only share their research work and ideas through technology within a classroom or school, but also share their learning worldwide through online publishing tools and websites that reach a global audience, such platforms as Medium, Quota, even their own channel (personal website or blog).
4. Take swift advantage of the enormous power of virtual simulationto better appreciate national and global complexities, while focusing on the creation of solutions. Through the use of virtual reality, game worlds and modeling applications can simulate real-world experiences through technology use, while students can test out globally accepted theories and engage their target content.

Considering the foregoing, if you could have your dreams come true at the click of a button, what would it be? What possibilities can Tech make happen if we paid more attention to it? We all know that life happens at the speed of thoughts and now with technology automating every part of it, the value is astronomical. And yes, we live in a connected world in which all countries will soon be ONE. Everything is getting more closely knit together and will fuse into one big reality. And we must never underestimate or take for granted any human who can learn something new for knowledge is the great leverage. How are you positioning with knowledge and experience for today’s relevance at the workplace (work from home), entertainment (everywhere you go), social or community (on your finger tips) and life (where you are, it is)?

I am signing out for now, yours in tech, Olufemi Ariyo.