Twenty-seven contributions from leading experts in the field have come together at an opportune time, when the entire world has been forced to transition to virtual learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking ahead, we still have significant challenges in delivering the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. I congratulate Sheila Jagannathan and the many contributing authors for this impressive exposition of how EdTech and pedagogical innovations will diffuse the benefits of the digital and learning revolution to every corner of the world.
-Denis Robitaille, Vice President, World Bank
For decades, Sheila Jagannathan has had a pulse on learning technologies being incorporated by the world community for transformative change. Not surprisingly, she has deftly assembled a stellar slate of futurists, policy makers, pragmatists, realists, and visionaries in the pages of this wondrous book. Each chapter offers a timely recap of today that should foster cogent and exhilarating plans for education and training in the many worlds of tomorrow about to unfold.
-Curtis J. Bonk, Professor, Instructional Systems Technology (IST), Indiana University
This is an interesting and timely publication, as the COVID-19 pandemic has been such a disrupter for the education sector globally. The opportunities offered by innovative pedagogies and EdTech advances are particularly valuable to emerging countries seeking to modernize their skills and capacity-building institutions to create new jobs and build back more resilient futures after the pandemic.
-Bakary Diallo, CEO & Rector, African Virtual University
Upskilling the global workforce to compete for the jobs of the future is an urgent imperative and a complex challenge. This book provides valuable insights on the growing importance of lifelong learning to prepare us for jobs and careers that do not exist today and to assist us in mastering digital disruption in the workplace, where full-time workers, gig workers, and bots work side by side.
-Jeanne Meister, Managing Partner, Future Workplace and Faculty of the Future Workplace Academy
This book addresses a range of critical issues facing education today. These challenges include that of reimagining at scale what education can and should be, especially to equitably meet the needs of today's learners, as well as to prepare them for future careers (careers that may not even exist today). There is great potential in digital technologies and their thoughtful implementation in educational spaces to meet these challenges. This book brings together a wide array of ideas, tools, approaches, and models across multiple contexts that can inform the next wave of educational innovation, both locally and globally. I see this book as being of great value to policy makers, practitioners, educational and business leaders across the world.
-Punya Mishra, Professor and Associate Dean of Scholarship and Innovation, Arizona State University
This book is a must read for leaders looking to reimagine a modern, digital learning ecosystem with a strategic vision. Sheila Jagannathan and other eminent authors provide practical insights on the how-to aspects, including smart solutions to the typical upskilling or reskilling challenges that emerging economies face.
-George Siemens, Professor and the Executive Director of the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Research Lab at University of Texas
Digital connectivity has become a lifeline for using data, consuming content, and engaging in digital applications by individuals, governments, and businesses to ensure continuity of economic and social activities throughout the developing world. I congratulate Sheila Jagannathan and the authors for producing a timely contribution that offers insights on how skills-building from brick-and-mortar to blended institutions can be achieved throughout the world.
-Boutheina Guermazi, Senior Director, Digital Development, World Bank
Institutions globally are struggling with questions on how and where to invest in education for the future. This book provides useful insights based on the experiences of leading practitioners in online learning from around the world on how to effectively reskill and upskill the workforce and meet the SDGs, in order preparing people for new jobs enabled by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
-Nick van Dam, Chief of the IE University Center for Corporate Learning Innovation, and former partner and Global Chief Learning Officer at McKinsey & Company
For those looking to optimize online education technology in building human capital, Reimagining Digital Learning for Sustainable Development, a new anthology edited by Sheila Jagannathan, is an invaluable resource. . . . Learning leaders and innovators will appreciate this book first as an invaluable primer and second as a consistent resource to reference while doing on-the-ground work creating learning strategies, leading workshops and more.
-Kelly Pesce Cassaro is Chief of Learning at Generation, a nonprofit founded by McKinsey & Company
This book provides many new ideas on digital learning for sustainable development and highlights the growing importance of lifelong learning. The insights and practical examples, tools, approaches, and methods are of great value for several stakeholders including policymakers, educational corporate leaders, researchers, and education practitioners.
-Meina Zhu, American Journal of Distance Education
The book aims to help learning leaders in emerging countries develop a flexible mindset and a set of strategies to modernize learning by harnessing educational technology in their respective institutions and countries.
-Tony Bates, Research Associate with Contact North
Reimagining Digital Learning for Sustainable Development offers a compilation of curated insights from leading experts in the educational sector, as they contemplate how educational systems will have to reinvent themselves to support the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. . . . In summary, this book provides practical and useful insights on the state of educational provision in a post-pandemic world, putting forward alternatives for how and where to invest in education and capacity development.
-Rosario Passos, Journal of Learning for Development
