8 Assessment

“We can imagine the world or any part of it being different from the way it in fact is. This ability is necessary to motivate changing the world. We can imagine it, moreover, as being different in any number of ways, and so can present ourselves with any number of ways that we might try to mould it. We are therefore not compelled to live in the world as we find it. We can and do act to change it, and this involves imagination” (Sartre, 2004, xxvi, translated by Webber).

You are invited to write a narrative that captures the past, present and possible future of education in your professional context, based on your personal and collective inquiries undertaken during this module that address the module learning outcomes. This is where academic writing meets creative writing and multimodal expression!

Module learning outcomes
LO1: Critically assess key contemporary debates of digital technology, education and society in your professional context.

 LO2: Apply specific learning theories relevant to digital education in your professional context.

 LO3: Critically reflect on a range of digital technologies and practices in your professional context.

All learning activities including the warm-up activities and the collaborative PBL activities have been designed to enable you to work on your narrative as you progress through the module.

Your narrative will have a focus on the past, present and the future of education in your professional context.

It is expected that you will engage critically with the literature and creatively with digital media to create a narrative that demonstrates with clarity your learning on this module aligned to the module learning outcomes. The final output can be multimodal. Consider the affordances of a range of media. Your narrative should be engaging, meaningful and interesting for others and help them consider your insights going forward.

Narrative scaffold (past-present-future)

• Past (critical review): Look back in time to review (digital) practices in your professional context
• Present (critical reflection): Explain how your thinking and practices change based on your engagement with the module
• Future (speculation, imagination, possibility thinking, creativity): Imagine how the future may look like in your professional context

The special issue on Speculative Fiction and Curriculum Theorizing (2025) may be a useful resource before you start working on your own narrative. Also read the blog post by Horst (2025) on Fictopoiesis and  publications such as Ashwin and Clarke (2025) and Ehlers and Eigbrecht (2024) for example that link to higher education. Your professional context may be different.

The intention is that your narrative will also be of value to you going forward. A post-assessment version can be published with your agreement in the second part of this companion under “Imagining educational futures” under an open licence and therefore enable your narrative to travel further.

While in your narrative your authentic voice, perspective and writing style should shine through, you can use genAI where appropriate, to support your learning as you will have done throughout the module. The capabilities of genAI are constantly evolving (OECD, 2025). We all know this. However, bypassing deep and meaningful engagement, responsible thinking (Costa and Murphy, 2025) and learning through letting genAI do the work for you is not recommended. Remember, we all make mistakes, however, be mindful that they can present valuable learning opportunities. Also, learning while most of the time is exhilarating, it can at times cause disorientation and confusion – this is normal and happens to all of us! – keep going and reach out if you need help. When we get it, it is so rewarding!