Online webinars now have been a popular choice as an alternative to substitute large-scale seminars, gathering many participants around the world virtually in this pandemic. Through internationalization program, the Directorate of Postgraduate Program UMM held international conference series under the theme The Construction of Spirituality, Humanity, and Technology-Based Society 5.0. The webinars are divided into four batches on Saturdays throughout December 2020 and January 2021, comprising two education stream clusters, and two non-education stream clusters.
The first batch held Saturday, 5 December 5, 2020 was opened by Dr. Fauzan, M.Pd. as the Rector of Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang. It was attended by all UMM’s postgraduate students of 2019, and also participants from other institutions. There were five speakers from four Southeast Asian countries, those were Dr. M Amir bin Kadir from Singapore, Dr. M Zain Musa from Cambodia, Dr. Suraiya Chapakiya from Thailand, and two UMM lecturers: Dr. Abdulkadir Rahardjanto and Dr. Estu Widodo from Indonesia. These education experts presented their views and research of the role of education in the Society 5.0. Dr. Musa, especially, highlighted the development of Cambodian education through historical perspectives. "Historical discoveries in the form of relics carved in Khmer and Sanskrit language actually show that Cambodian education has been running since ancient times, but it is not supported by an adequate system. Education in Cambodia is now divided into 3 systems, namely Buddhist Education, Muslim Education, and National Education," said Dr. Musa.
Dr. M. Amin Bin Kadir from Singapore elaborated government attempts that have been continuously applying to advance education in his country. Dr. bin Kadir explained that Singaporean education consistently aims to produce individuals with self-awareness, sound moral compass, with necessary skills and knowledge. Singaporean students are expected to be a confident person, self-directed learner, active contributor, concerned citizen. Each level of education in Singapore, that is elementary, lower secondary, and upper secondary, has different output objectives.
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From Indonesia, Dr. Estu Widodo described the needs of society 5.0 that emphasizes on the creativity, innovation, and change. "There is a subtle difference among different eras where 3.0 was centered on creativity and innovation. We are now in a transition between 4.0 and 5.0 – which previously centered on creativity, innovation and collaboration, now has been shifting to the need for analytical thinking, collaboration, and complex problem-solving abilities. This underlies different roles between teachers and students, who ultimately must work together to achieve future success in the future," concluded Dr. Widodo.
Dr. Abdulkadir Rahardjanto delivered his findings on the environmental literacy among students in overcoming environmental conflicts in urban areas. Dr. Rahardjanto stated that ecological literacy is critical ability for younger generation in dealing with waste. "There were more female students than male students as my research participants. The data show that students’ confidence on their ecology literacy is at the medium rank. They were not sure that they have the environmental literacy to deal with waste. Only 9.4% of students feel confident that they have ecological literacy skills to resolve environmental conflict in urban areas,” According to Dr. Rahardjanto, this condition is worrying because sound ecological literacy is a necessary skill, especially for his participants as prospective teachers. They are expected to have ecological literacy to pass to their future students.
Directorate of Postgraduate Programs
