Digital technologies and education for sustainable development

Abstract

Education for sustainability has become the mechanism for creating a pool of graduates who can understand, appreciate, practice and support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In a world with diverse cultures, demographics, political ideologies, etc. faster progress towards sustainable development needs increased use of digital technologies. Integration of digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), metaverse, visualisation techniques, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), open data repositories, geographic information system (GIS), etc. with classroom teaching can build awareness, skills, attitudes and values among students in the journey towards sustainable development and scale up the efforts towards the goals.

In this chapter, the authors have tried to bring out a list of digital technologies and the way in which they can be used in classroom teaching to ensure education for sustainability. It may be noticed that there are watertight compartments between those who know the SDGs and those with proficiency in technology. What is also needed is integration between both silos for mapping the digital technologies with the appropriate SDGs. The teachers in the higher education system need more exposure to understand and implement this integration.

Keywords Education for Sustainability, Digital Technologies, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Higher Education, Technology Integration, Artificial Intelligence