Synopsis:

Educational Technology can be defined to be the use of hardware and/or software technology tools to enable education. There are countless edtech tools available today. We can broadly categorise these tools as two types: generic and discipline specific tools. Tools such as Microsoft and Google tools, Mentimeter and Kahoot can be considered to be generic and applicable across many disciplines and levels in education. On the other hand, there are specialised, and often discipline specific tools that can be seen to be critical tech tools for the preparation of our higher education learners for work and profession in a certain field. For instance, we are familiar with the use of software tools like SPSS for Statisticians, Rhino for Architects, MatLab for Engineers as tech tools that empower our learners to be prepared for authentic, professional contexts. Such tools can also be hardwares. For instance, learning of anatomy may involve Augmented/Virtual Reality, Architecture may involve the use of Robots, Banking and Fintech could use Virtual Banks.

Teaching and learning in higher education therefore requires our faculty members and learners to be up-to-date with both the content knowledge and evolving technology, be it generic or specialised tools, to be future ready for the profession.

In this session, participants will present a case-study of their use of cutting-edge, discipline specific/specialised tech tools to prepare their learners to be future ready as professionals in a particular course/field. The showcase will include:

• The educational context and evolving nature of the particular professional field
• Reasons for choosing the particular tech tools in their teaching and learning
• An insight into the use of tech tools in teaching and learning: implementation, challenges and success stories
• What has been the impact of the use of the edtech tool on preparing learners to be Future ready in specific professions

The session will be 1hour and 30 min, with a presentation from each of the AU for 15-20 min. Following that, there will be a panel discussion for 30 min that will allow the speakers, moderator and audience to engage in an interactive discussion on "Challenges in using edtech tools to prepare future ready learners of evolving professions and possible solutions".

The panel discussion is meant to string together the various case-studies together, find common themes and raise awareness of common challenges in order to brainstorm possible solutions. The panel discussion hopes to inspire participants to mull over the points of discussion beyond the session and continue to explore such tech tools in their teaching and learning.

To keep to the theme of technology in education, the panel discussion will use technology tools such as Pigeon hole or Mentimeter to engage the audience.