Emerging Technologies and Higher Education: Towards the Revaluation of Ancestral Knowledge

Abstract

The accelerated erosion of ancestral knowledge, recognized as a global cultural crisis by UNESCO (Gaceta UNAM, 2022; UNESCO, 2023), demands innovative responses from higher education. This article addresses the gap in the literature regarding how emerging technologies, particularly Augmented Reality (AR), can serve as effective tools for cultural revitalization within STEM environments, which have traditionally marginalized such knowledge (Ávila Camargo, 2014; Mignolo, 2000). A pilot study (N=97), articulated as participatory action research (Colmenares E, 2012), is presented to test the impact of a decolonial pedagogical intervention centered on the development of the Augmented Reality Memory Game: Gods of the Náhuatl World. The methodology combined User-Centered Design with principles of critical interculturality. Results demonstrate significant increases in students’ perception of technology’s role in cultural preservation (+88.0%, p<.001), interest in ancestral cultures (+57.1%), and motivation toward socially impactful projects (+50.0%). Qualitative analysis corroborated these findings, revealing a transformation of professional identity among future engineers. It is concluded that AR, when mediated by decolonial pedagogies, can function as an epistemic bridge and catalyze curricular reforms that integrate social responsibility and co-design with Indigenous communities as transversal formative pillars.