Horizon Scanning and Implications in the Near Future

Abstract

This chapter analyses the contemporary developments in Singapore that might have an impact on ICT in education, including technological advances, sociotechnical developments, technology and economy, technology and new perspectives of learning, and technology-related national policies. Based on the current landscape, implications for Singapore education were discussed. In essence, educators need to navigate between the physical space and the cyberspace to leverage their complementary strengths. There is a need to develop many IT specialists that the country needs and to enhance the basic IT competencies of all students to meet the challenge of the future economic model. Physical face-to-face interactions are still essential for preserving the mother tongues and ethnic identities and maintaining social cohesion and state legitimacy in Singapore. Nevertheless, teachers can also harness the abundant resources in the cyberspace to help develop students’ agency in knowledge creation, so that they have the competency and recognize their critical roles in co-creating the future.