EduTECH Asia Conference & Exhibition 2019 Challenged the Speakers and Delegates to Look into the Future

“The campus of the future will be your living room”, commented William Confalonieri from Deakin University during the Tertiary Leaders Insights Panel at the recently concluded EduTECH Asia, themed ‘Inspiring the Next Generation’. The event was held at the SunTec Convention Centre, Singapore on 4-6 November 2019.

“While this may be the case for an increasing number of students, it will not be the case for everyone,” said Professor Perry Hobson, the Pro Vice Chancellor for Global Engagement at Sunway University, pointing out that for many other students, the physical campus environment and the social interactions on the campus will become an even more important part of the education experience.

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“I want to stress on the word ‘experience’. My kids use Spotify when they want to listen to music, which means they can download and listen to any song at anytime! When I was growing up I could not do this.” Professor Hobson added.

He opined that people still want the experience and they want to ‘be there’. He said, “This helps to explain why sales of live concert sales have soared.” After all, “they could listen to the songs on Spotify - and they may well do that too – but they want the experience of being there, and of interacting with others”.

He put forward the view that the campus of the future needs to offer a much more immersive experience than it currently does, not only in terms of the facilities but also the quality of the engagement with staff and other students. He also emphasised that this has been central to the design of the new campus building that is being built for Sunway University.

“One impact of digitalisation is the increasingly loss of personal connectivity and the ability to deal socially with people – so it is not just about hi-tech but also hi-touch and the campus of the future will have to reflect that”.

As the Finnish Keynote Speaker Professor Pasi Solberg from UNSW in Australia shared during the same session about the growing digital divide, “It may be the kids of poorer parents who will be raised by digital screens, while the children of the elite will be returning to wooden toys and the luxury of human interaction”.

Professor Hobson has been a regular speaker at EduTECH Asia over the last few years, and is looking forward to next year’s event at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. EduTECH Asia is recognised as Asia’s largest education conference and exhibition since its debut in 2016. Next year will be its 5th edition which is expected to draw bigger and bolder crowd of 7000 attendees, 500 speakers, 200 exhibitors and multiple conferences and sessions showcasing and deliberating on the latest EdTech solutions not just in Asia, but also around the world.