Reflection

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Sometimes there are no current or rapidly forthcoming educational applications for emerging technologies still in development and yet to be fully deployed or realized. It is our job as educators and professionals to envision possibilities and perils of using emerging technologies for learning and education, and this project on 5G gave us an opportunity to do so. This project required a deep dive into 5G, the economic forces that will impact nations' abilities to develop its infrastructure, and how a new world economy in our Fourth Industrial Revolution driven by technological advancement will require a subsequent educational revolution.

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This group OER was an exercise in group collaboration and shifting our perspectives. It took us weeks of research and multiple conversations to decide upon a direction for the project that made sense in the spirit and context and our course topics: mobile and open learning. We had initially considered 5G from the perspective of its impact on classroom use in a fixed location and how it would impact 1:1 or BYOD (bring your own device) programs but eventually we conceptualized it outside of this context. By shifting our perspective to focus on mobile and open learning possibilities, we created a compelling forecast for 5G in education by looking at the future of work and education within the context of the rapidly approaching Fourth Industrial Revolution.