 Welcome to the ITU studio in Geneva where we're joined today by Professor James Larson who is Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chair of the Department of Technology in Society for SUNY Career. Dr. Larson, thank you very much for being with us today. Thank you. Good to be here. Great stuff. Now I'd like to start off by talking about the fact that this year we're celebrating the 25th anniversary of ITU's development sector. The ICT landscape as we know has changed tremendously in the past decades. ITU is also launching a study on ICT for SDGs and I wanted to ask you how do you think that this study will contribute to responding to many of today's challenges? Well, as you mentioned the information and communication technology revolution or the ICT revolution is a fairly recent thing and it was traceable to the mid 20th century when three things happened and the year I was born the transistor was invented the same year in the same place Bell Labs Claude Shannon wrote his famous mathematical theory of communication He's the founder of information theory and those two developments together made it possible in the ensuing decades for engineers to develop digital switches and put them into existing telephone networks so what followed that was exponential increases all around the world in the amount of the human ability to compute store and communicate digital information so I had the privilege of living and working for two years in Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer the early 70s and then later and I've been there living there continuously since 1996 and the pace of technology change to those of us who've lived back in the 20th century Industrial mass media era and now in this rapidly unfolding digital era is really something to behold So this is an important study because policy makers citizens academics everyone is faced with the challenge of fast-moving media and technology landscape Now there are several studies and debates on how ICT's Key enablers for economic growth and innovation perhaps you could tell us a little bit more about the main outcomes In particular of this study and it's added value to existing discussions Specifically its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals Yes, well the Sustainable Development Goals are a relatively recent development compared with the digital revolution and You have a situation where in the 1980s Which coincidentally is is when Korea began digitizing its networks, and it's not widely known around the world, but Korea had the most modern public switch telephone network one of the most modern in the world as of 1987 before the 88th Seoul Olympics and These have spread unevenly around the world But we are now at a point where it's imperative for people concerned with sustainability all environmental sustainability the sustainability of the planet need to talk with people in the ICT sector because ICT has developed so fast and to the point where it's difficult to conceive of effective ways To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals without utilizing the internet mobile broadband networks and other digital technologies Now I know that you've been involved in the specific chapter chapter 7 of this study It covers the dynamic role of Education and academia for sustainable development And I know it's one of the most crucial chapters of this study Perhaps you could explain to us the different aspects of the role of ICTs in education and the SDGs. Yes, I After returning to the United States from Korea after two years in Peace Corps I did my doctorate in communication research at Stanford and became a university professor for about 15 years Then I strayed from the straight path and Did executive training and worked with the Fulbright Commission for about 14 years, so I was not teaching I returned to teaching in 2012 so I feel like I've got one foot back in the 20th century one in the 21st and Information and communication technologies ICTs have changed everything when it comes to university education. They change the way you prepare for teaching What is done in the classroom? They've changed the nature of scientific research scholarly research and publication and they've changed academic administration everything is digital and so There are three broad ways in which we can think about Education the first is the what I've alluded to the role of ICT in transforming the processes of education the second is the use of education and the important use of education to Teach people about ICT and how to use ICT so that citizens and consumers will actually Utilize these new networks and technologies that are evolving and finally there's this important question of how ICT driven education Can have an impact on the sustainable development goals and there you can think of First-order impacts if we take the example of climate change the ICT industry itself these large data centers emit two to three percent or more of the carbon emitted in the whole world, so first-order effect would be to control the emissions and the At effects of the ICT sector itself second-order effects can cut across all the other economic sectors agriculture health Manufacturing industries and ICT has the capability to make all of those sectors more efficient finally There is the long-term Structural and social changes which are probably more difficult because it involves changing people's attitude attitudes Garnering political support and so forth so and how will people be able to get hold of this study? This study is going to be published by the ITU Hopefully with an academic press, but possibly alone and it will be the easiest way We'll be to just do a quick Google search on the internet. It'll be widely publicized and available Professor James Larson. Thank you very much indeed being with us today And we look forward very much to the outcomes of this study. Thank you