A fiction-based persona that illustrates how emerging technologies have impacted society and education in the not-so-distant future. How has technology intersected with HoYeon’s life during her first year in Canada and how has it compounded her learning? This short story is an insight into the challenges some newcomers and refugees to Canada face when trying to access services and education. How might we as educators better understand how they interact and interface with different technologies? 

Case Study: HoYeon Jung

HoYeon is the daughter and only child of North Korean parents who labored as farmers on the outskirts of Kanggye City in a province that boarders China. Her parents never completed high school and there were no computers in their home. North Korean smartphones had started appearing in 2020 but only for the rich. During the Great Famine of 2022, she slowly watched her mother starve. After Kim Jong Un succumbed to the Omicron Variant, her father was “disappeared” during the 2023 protests. They took so many people who were never seen again. Thankfully her aunt took her in but with her own children to feed things were dire. HoYeon realized that if she stayed, she might not survive the winter. She thought to herself, “No matter how hard things get, still, I must live”. There was little food these days especially with the new variant starting to spread in the east. HoYeon decided it was better to take her chances and try crossing through the north mountains than to starve in the cold house with only a wood burning stove. There was almost nothing left to burn and nothing left of the forest that was once there. So, at the age of 17 she left. 

It has now been three years since she left and today is the one-year anniversary of arriving to Vancouver, Canada. When she woke up she looked at her only photo left from her past. It was a photo of her and her parents at her junior high school graduation. They were so proud of her that day. It was almost 9:30, so HoYeon took out her smartphone and accepted her invitation for today’s lesson.

I was inspired from first hand stories of students I have met over the years and particular one North Korean refugee who I taught while I was living in Sapporo Japan. Her experiences touched me and gave me insight.

In addition to their stories, the readings that I have experienced in Unit 3 of LRNT 523 with Dr. Veletsianos at Royal Roads University guided my case study as it related to Edtech and its imagined futures. The article by sava saheli singh and Tim Maughan’s The future of ed tech is here, it’s just not evenly distributed  was of great help.

This is the start of HoYeon’s story. She will experience new things such as a personalized learning pathway, affective computing techniques with AI and augmented reality during her day of lessons. I humbly look forward to any help or advice you can provide.