Digital Policy Salon: Tech for Good at Davos and Beyond

Despite a tumultuous 2020 and a future that continues to be fraught with uncertainties, cautious optimism reigns around the world. The global macro economic reality nevertheless is in a state of flux, with many industry verticals feeling the full brunt of this challenging environment, whereas others are finding reprieve in being digital by default.

The sharp drop in economic activity and job losses has prompted governments and central banks to act swiftly to mitigate the onslaught of this pandemic. Massive liquidity provisions and favourable credit support have played a role in calming markets amid signs of considerable financial stress. Much of the world population has rapidly embraced a contact-free economy. From eCommerce and eLearning to Telemedicine, this has become the new normal for many citizens.

Automation and digital adoption also showed businesses a path to resilience and continuity in a globally competitive landscape. Business and popular sentiment has shifted toward green as the colour of the post-pandemic economic recovery. This crisis has, more than ever, affirmed the significance of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals on climate action, good health and wellbeing, sustainable cities and communities, jobs and economic growth, and the importance of a shared and equitable future for all citizens.

The world economy, however, is at an inflection point that requires careful consideration and potential actions. A key question facing world leaders now is how to best imagine and shape a post-pandemic economy. If necessity is the mother of invention, this pandemic raises critical questions that need to be addressed. 

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COVID-19 hasn’t done many favours for the education landscape in Canada this year. ICTC’s ongoing research series continues to identify challenges for both educators and administrations that impact schools at the K-12 and post-secondary level. Ranging from in-class learning, the deployment of hybridized learning models, to those that are completely digital, environments for learning vary tremendously from one province to the next. Challenges varying from educator training, to student retention and even connectivity are numerous. Likewise, the service delivery models for the educational technologies themselves have been forced to adapt and respond to shifting demands, and some organizations have adopted Churchill’s philosophy by “never [letting] a good crisis go to waste.” In this conversation ICTC’s Nathan Snider sits down with Pathway to Education’s Jason Shim (Director of Digital Strategy and Transformation) and Brock Warner (Innovation Partnerships) to chat about education in Canada. 

Jason Shim: My name is Jason Shim and I’m the Director of Digital Strategy and Transformation. I head up innovation and technology for Pathways. We’re an organization that helps youth in low-income communities to graduate from high school and reach their full potential. With our Learning Lab, we’re looking to find ways to bring more innovation to the work that we do. Innovation is a buzzword these days, but the basic premise is that when new technologies come out, it can sometimes take years to reach the non-profit space or social purpose organizations. With our Lab, we’re scoping out the future that we want, matching it to emerging technologies, then building the capacity to help connect the dots. For instance, when a new technology comes out, we take a look at the documentation and integrate or test it quickly to assess how it might be used to help serve the needs of Pathways students across the country.

Jason Shim: I suppose I’ll start by saying, I guess we’ll find out. The specifics of where we’re going to be in five, ten years from now is impossible to predict. Technology is changing really fast. So how do we get ready for these changes so that as we can uncover new forms of pedagogy and better understand their impact and be prepared? If we’re building capacity and listening closely to students, I know we can build and adapt from that. It’s more important for us to be adaptable to what that future might bring. But underlying all of it is the importance of relationships in education. There are some things that are irreducible and that you absolutely would not automate at a human level. I think [it’s about] being able to figure out what exactly we are going to automate and what we aren’t. It’s about recognizing our agency and guiding how we use things like A.I. to inform or accelerate some of our decision making.

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In 2020, the world embraced digital transformation at an expedited pace, reimagining technology’s critical role in how we work, learn and live. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic illuminated a long-standing issue: billions of people remain without the universal human right of internet access.

Many rural and low-income communities around the world, including those in large urban areas, lack reliable, affordable access. More importantly, wireless technology is no longer just important for consumers and entertainment; it is rapidly becoming critical to how we connect everything in the digital world, from smart home systems to autonomous vehicles.

While 5G infrastructure is highlighted in this article as a particularly valuable tool in closing the digital divide, it is worth thinking about the divide (and solutions to it) more holistically. Whether it’s the divergent learning outcomes of students who don’t have access to laptops, newfound language of class around remote and essential workers, or vast differences between rural and urban internet access, COVID-19 has highlighted the widening digital divide in a number of ways. Still, there is reason for optimism. Internet use, like smartphone use, seems to follow the general trend of technology adoption over time: a steep upward slope. While it is no question that attentive efforts must be made to shrink the digital divide, the history of technology adoption suggests that the pandemic will be little match for the onward march of technological proliferation. - Khiran O'Neill

Through daily interaction with digital technology, users, developers, policymakers, investors, and owners participate in the social impact of technology. Intentionally or unintentionally, they all make small choices about the ethical and safe use of these technologies. This report looks at the unintended social impacts, power imbalances, and human health and behavioural implications of various technologies.

Responsible Innovation in Canada and Beyond considers global efforts to propose common principles for improving the social impacts of technology. Interviewees who have experience in improving the social impacts of technology also provide guidance, such as extending innovation considerations beyond design and prototyping to include diverse hiring, ethical investment, and deployment; providing technology stakeholders with understandable and clearly defined goals; and minimizing the diffusion of ethical responsibility among designers, owners, and users of technology.

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