Opening keynote address on "Disruptive Technology and the Calling of Humanities and Social Sciences" at the 11th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences, at Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai, Thailand on 2 May 2019. The conference theme is Global Digital Society: Impacts on Humanities and Social Sciences. The topic of disruptive technology and our calling could not be more suitable for someone who works on international faculty development by leading the World Association for Online Education since 1998. At the same time, the author has worked for the impact to go the other way, from the Humanities and Social Sciences to new technologies, which tend to be rudderless or even dangerous unless guided by ethics, and, in education, pedagogy. In collaboration with Prof. Gráinne Conole (National Institute for Digital Learning, Dublin City University, Ireland), the presentation includes a history of e-learning.

1. 1

3. ICT & other
Technologies
Humanities &
Social Sciences

4. Disruptive Innovation vs. Facts and Ethics
According to Harvard historian Jill Lepore, facts come from the
tradition of the humanities, numbers from the social sciences, and
data from the natural sciences. Now the most prestigious way of
knowing is data – the bigger, the better. Thus she believes that
trying to re-establish the prestige of the humanities with the
digital humanities and large data sets is no longer the humanities:
Disruption emerges in the 1990s as progress without any
obligation to notions of goodness. And so ‘disruptive
innovation,’ which became the buzzword of change in every
realm in the first years of the 21st century, including higher
education, is basically destroying things because we can and
because there can be money made doing so. (in Goldstein, 2018)
Goldstein, E. (2018, November 13). ‘The academy is largely itself
responsible for its own peril.’ The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved
from https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Academy-Is-Largely/245080

5. Disruptive Technologies endanger humanity
According to historian and author Yuval Noah Harari (2017):
“disruptive technologies might change the very nature of
humanity, and are therefore entangled with human beings’
deepest ethical and religious beliefs.”
“humankind now has three such enemies – nuclear war, climate
change and disruptive technology.”
”We now have a global ecology, a global economy and a global
science – but we are still stuck with only national politics. … the
only solution is to globalise politics.”
Harari, Y.N. (2017, July 25). The age of disorder: Why technology is the
greatest threat to humankind. New Statesman. Retrieved from
https://www.newstatesman.com/2017/07/age-disorder-why-technology-
greatest-threat-humankind

6. Automation will accelerate the disruptions
Further, according to Harari (2018), economic growth now depends
on inventing more and more disruptive technologies. Most new jobs
will “demand high levels of expertise and ingenuity.”
“The automation revolution … will be a cascade of ever bigger
disruptions … People will need to reinvent themselves many times.”
Marchese (2018) shows a case of AI in Robotic Process Automation.
A video shows only one worker in a huge Tokyo clothing warehouse.
Harari, Y.N. (2018, October). Why technology favors tyranny. The Atlantic.
Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/yuval-
noah-harari-technology-tyranny/568330
Marchese, K. (2018, October 16). Uniqlo warehouse replaces 90% of staff
with robots offering a glimpse into the future. Designboom. Retrieved from
https://www.designboom.com/technology/uniqlo-warehouse-replacing-staff-with-robots-11-16-2018

7. O’Neill, E.M. (2019). Online translator, dictionary, and search engine use
among L2 students. CALL-EJ, 20(1), 154-177.

8. Disruptive but Useful Educational Technologies
Conole recognizes that the notion of disruptive innovation is controversial,
but she sees potential benefits in disruptive educational technologies:
In educational terms, disruptive technologies challenge the
established in terms of: practices (thinking about how technologies
have enabled more open practices through social media, and how this
has changed the way learners access information and communicate
with others), business models (in a world where content and expertise
is available for free through OER and MOOCs, what are the
implications for traditional institutions?), and pedagogies (what new
pedagogies are arising as a result of technologies and what new
pedagogies are needed to prepare learners for the future)? (2017)
Conole, G. (2017). Research through the generations: Reflecting on the past,
present and future. Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 2(1).
Retrieved from https://journal.ilta.ie/index.php/telji/article/view/20

9. History of e-Learning
Conole (2017) also provides a timeline of ICT innovations that educators
should understand [reformatted, with presenter’s additions in brackets]:
1980s Multimedia resources [pre-ICT, such as educational CD-ROMs]
1993 The Web [WWW, HTML markup language; later: online publications]
1994 Learning objects [reusable, sharable educational resources]
1995 Learning Management Systems [LMS, platforms for teaching online
1996 Large-scale completely online international academic conferences]
1998 Mobile devices [mobile Internet; later: m-learning, MALL, u-learning]
1999 Learning Design [Instructional Design (ID)]
2000 Gaming technologies [gamification of learning]
2001 Open Educational Resources [OER, protocols for free sharing]
2004 Social & participatory media [Web 2.0, podcasting, social media]
2005 Virtual worlds [3D software; later: virtual/augmented reality VR/AR
2006 Google acquires YouTube; 2008: used by non-profit Khan Academy]
2007 e-Books & smart devices [smartphones; 2010: iPad tablet computer]
2008 Massive Open Online Courses [MOOCs]
2010 Learning Analytics [optimizing student progress; smart learning; AI]

13.  Disruptive technologies tend to harm traditional ways &
institutions, particularly employment & wealth distribution.
 Educators need to understand disruptive technologies &
apply technologies where they are useful to one’s field.
 Humanities & social science practitioners could explore
interdisciplinary projects & fields that apply ICT.
 Humanities & social science practitioners are called to
inform ICT fields with facts, methods, ethics, & pedagogy.