Multicultural Perspective on Smart Learning in Smart Cities
Although we have been able to develop a list of indicators that can measure the “smartness of a city”, the vision for each city must be different. It has to be created in a dialog with the local community, and take into consideration cultural and socio-ec
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Multicultural Perspective on Smart Learning in Smart Cities
Abstract Although we have been able to develop a list of indicators that can measure the “smartness of a city”, the vision for each city must be different. It has to be created in a dialog with the local community, and take into consideration cultural and socio-economic context, including cultural traditions, local definition of well being, and governance style. The future of smart cities depends on whether we can educate a new generation of governmental, corporate, and community leaders who will know how to utilize information technology in implementation of said vision. It is important though to consider the fact that just equipping the schools with advanced technology is not enough. As the parameters for smart learning environment will be different for Beijing then for a small city in rural China, we need to build smart schools, with the model of such a school varying for different locations, is necessary. In this chapter we review some opinions on the role of multicultural perspectives on smart cities and smart learning expressed by scientists, government officials teachers, and students. This brief analysis may allow the reader not only to better understand the specificity of Chinese perspective on these concepts, but also the need of teachers training focused on cultural diversity, sustainable development and the role of ICT in governance of the school and smart city.
Keywords Smart cities Smart schools China training Education ICT UNSD goals
9.1
Cultural diversity Teachers
Introduction
As it was mentioned in previous chapters, for the last decade, two concepts became key terms in science, governance, politics, industry and education: sustainability and smartness. In many countries corporations are required to write annual sustainability reports, and sponsoring organizations look for sustainability components in all projects undertaken by local governments and NGO’s. The World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as:
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 D. Liu et al., Smart Learning in Smart Cities, Lecture Notes in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4343-7_9
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9 Multicultural Perspective on Smart Learning in Smart Cities
…development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
This definition contains two key concepts (see: UN Documents: Our Common Future; Chap. 2: Towards Sustainable Development) • Concept of ‘needs’, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and • Idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs. In 2015 the United Nations published 17 Goals for Sustainable Development as a new pathway for the world community after the Millennium Development Goals era. China declared readiness to participate in this ambitious plan (see the doc
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