Description
A number of core tech developments have shaped the modern IR classroom, from the normalization of a fully digitized work environment to social media and currently, AI. But these changes have not arrived in a neutral context in UK higher education, but rather during a sustained period of austerity, cuts and generational challenges to the role of the University in British society. Technology is routinely showcased as a way of bridging the gap between ever increasing expectations of growth, with increasingly limited resources. Drawing upon the Critical Technology Studies literature, this paper presents a reflection on the experience of using cutting edge technology in the IR classroom (in this case Virtual Reality platforms), and explores why some tech solutions feel like ‘pushing an open door’ in terms of applications for support in adaptation, and what that says about management strategies in negotiating near term challenges to survival of the sector. What is the future of the virtual classroom, and how might these approaches shape the outlook of the next generation of IR scholars?
