Visions of the Future – Teaching and Learning Conference Presentation 2017
…or… Musings on How Emerging Digital Technologies May Shape Education
We live in a digital age, and education – like most fields – is constantly having to adapt to technological innovation. This fun session looked at a handful of big ideas making waves in the digital realm outside of education, and speculates on how their potential future popularity may influence teaching and learning practice in years to come.
Technologies demonstrated included Virtual Reality, Internet of Things, Data Analytics and Intelligent Personal Assistants (Alexa / Siri / Cortana), and audience comments were encourage on any ‘bleeding-edge’ tech.
The session was an invitation to reflect, in a bold blue-skies kind of way, about how new technologies might fit into the needs of educators. What are the possibilities, what are the pitfalls, and what experimental steps are already being taken towards bringing these tools into the classroom?
The presentation slides (and Lego video) can be accessed here.
More information about the various technologies and useful references can be found below.
Intelligent Personal Assistants
Otherwise known as a virtual assistant, the Wikipedia definition explains: “a virtual assistant is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual.” The key technology word here is agent, which in computer-speak is any algorithm that has a degree of autonomy about how it achieves its goals, typically consulting or interacting with other technologies (search engines, calendars, email, etc.) to help it intelligently solve the problem it has been set. Increasingly Intelligent Personal Assistants learn from past user behaviours to try to anticipate how to best solve future tasks, favouring (for example) those news sources most read by their user.
Popular IPAs include Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa (aka the Amazon Echo), and Google Assistant. These services interact with the user via voice; having been set a task or asked a question using natural spoken language, the service uses the resources at its command to achieve its goal, and reports back either a confirmation or answer using its synthetic voice.
In no particular order…
Journal of Human Sciences: On the track of Artificial Intelligence: Learning with Intelligent Personal Assistants
In a technology dominated world, useful and timely information can be accessed quickly via Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs). By the use of these assistants built into mobile operating systems, daily electronic tasks of a user can be accomplished 24/7. Such tasks like taking dictation, getting turn-by-turn directions, vocalizing email messages, reminding daily appointments, setting reminders, responding any factual questions and invoking apps can be completed by IPAs such as Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Microsoft Cortana. The mentioned assistants programmed within Artificial Intelligence (AI) do create an interaction between human and computer through a natural language used in digital communication. In this regard, the overall purpose of this study is to examine the potential use of IPAs that use advanced cognitive computing technologies and Natural Language Processing (NLP) for learning. To achieve this purpose, the working system of IPAs is reviewed briefly within the scope of AI that has recently become smarter to predict, comprehend and carry out multi-step and complex requests of users.
From DeLC to VelSpace Conference: Intelligent Personal Assistants in a Virtual Learning Space
This paper presents a concept which will be used to develop intelligent personal assistants. The personal assistants are operating in a virtual education space and will be in service to teachers and students. The aim is to support the provision of e-learning services by providing a high level of customization. It is expected that the personal assistants will work on a variety of hardware mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets operating in the Android environment.
Think Further: Curious bots make better companions in the classroom
Han Yu and his colleagues at Nanyang Technological University in China developed a virtual companion to guide schoolchildren through an online course. They found that children were more likely to remain focused when the companion enquired about what they were doing.
TeachThought: 10 Roles For Artificial Intelligence In Education
While we may not see humanoid robots acting as teachers within the next decade, there are many projects already in the works that use computer intelligence to help students and teachers get more out of the educational experience. Here are just a few of the ways those tools, and those that will follow them, will shape and define the educational experience of the future.
TES: Four Ways that Artificial Intelligence Can Benefit Universities
There is no question that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are entering the workplace in many graduate level jobs, and this trend is likely to continue and quicken.
Times Higher Education recently asked whether universities needed to rethink what they do and how they do it, given that artificial intelligence is beginning to take over many post-university careers.
Forbes: The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Education
Our world as we know it is running on artificial intelligence. Siri manages our calendars. Facebook suggests our friends. Computers trade our stocks. We have cars that park themselves, and air traffic control is almost fully automated. Virtually every field has benefited from advances in artificial intelligence, from the military to medicine to manufacturing.
However, almost none of the recent advancements in artificial intelligence have advanced the education industry. Why is education lagging behind? Why has the momentum for artificial intelligence in education seemed to have largely faded in the past few years?
Microsoft blog: Could Cortana in education help students and teachers?
So that got me thinking – how could Cortana in education help improve things for students and teachers? After I discovered that I could ask Cortana “When is my next dentist appointment”, and it would tell me the time and date, it got me thinking about how useful it would be to ask questions like: “When/what/where is my next lesson?” / “When is my next science lesson?” / “When is my next essay due?” And every single one of those questions it worked for! As long as I had things noted in my calendar, which could be either my personal or work calendar, it would find it and let me know, whether it’s tomorrow or in six months’ time! What a help for a time-poor or disorganised student. And a teacher could set a reminder like “Remind me to talk about the Ice Age next time I meet Year 7 Geography”
Raconteur blog: Artificial intelligence is the next giant leap in education
A third of Britain’s schools are asking students to bring their own tablets and laptops into the classroom now, coding has been on the national curriculum for three years, and more and more education is happening outside school through apps and digital services. But these changes are just the start. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next giant leap in learning and, according to those working in the field of education and technology, we haven’t seen anything yet.
Analytics and Internet of Things
Analytics is the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a class of devices that are designed to share data and cooperate across the internet, allowing them to achieve functionality beyond merely the sum of their individual parts. These M2M (machine-to-machine) networks may include sensors, vehicles, household appliances, A/V equipment, etc. More traditional internet technologies (PCs, tablets, smart phones, etc.) may connect to an IoT network via apps or web pages to permit users to interact with and configure the devices.
In no particular order…
Open University: Educating the Internet-of-Things generation
As highlighted by the articles in this special issue, the concept of the Internet of Things is becoming increasingly important and understanding both the technical underpinning and wider societal impacts of the Internet of Things (IoT) will be crucial for digital citizens of the future. Building on extensive experience in delivering large-scale distance learning, The Open University has redesigned its introductory computer science curriculum to place the Internet of Things at the centre of students’ experience, in a course called My Digital Life. In this article we present the design of this module, including a learning infrastructure that allows complete novices to experiment with, and learn about, Internet of Things technologies. We also share our experience of having almost 2000 students participate in the first presentation of the course, engaging in a range of activities that include collaborative and collective programming of real-world sensing applications.
Educause Review: The Internet of Things: Riding the Wave in Higher Education
Industry leaders have been looking toward and anticipating the Internet of Things for quite some time. EDUCAUSE Review asked five experts in the field to share their insights on lessons learned, on current problems solved and created, and on the possible future impact of the IoT.
Gov2020 (Deloitte Consulting LLP): Can the Internet of Things make education more student-focused?
Current hype around the “Internet of Things” has focused largely on how connecting devices can create efficiency, but connecting people directly to digital networks may have the greatest potential to shift our social experience and even alter traditional institutions. Think about how connected devices could reshape the standard American school, for example – an experience largely unchanged over the past century. While modern technology is often just a new tool or another bolt-on to the classroom, connected devices have the potential to drive new ways of teaching and transform the experience both for students and educators.
In the last decade, the increasing plurality of materials, media types and software tools within the internet has established first steps towards more individualized learning approaches. However, the development of utilizing Big Data-based algorithms of the next internet generation, the so-called `Internet of Things’, leads to a comprehensive approach of personalized learning for very different target groups. Understanding the learner’s profile and interests, learning goals and learning difficulties, `intelligent agents’ accompany and guide the learner during the learning process in the future. In particular, for students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dyscalculia, the new development of `learning analytics’ based on Big Data algorithms has a large potential. The goal is to overcome the severe gap between their existing intellectual potentials and their often unsuccessful learning biographies in schools and universities. The changes of daily environments towards a 4.0-Society, in particular through fully networked Smart Cities, result in an increasing number of data from very heterogeneous sources. Due to technologies such as, e.g., smart wearables combined with data generated through traffic and mobility or logistics, smart geographical places will be enabled to act as a basis for intelligent learning and evaluation mechanisms.
Applied Mechanics and Materials: The Application of the Internet of Things in Intelligent Digital Campus
From the starting of understanding the concept and characteristics of the Internet of Things, I propose the concept of the intelligent digital campus according to the research status grasping of the Internet of Things. The intelligent digital campus based on the Internet of Things can achieve automatic recognition, library borrowing management, multimedia classroom and laboratory management and campus consumption management. It provides more efficient services for teachers and students work, studying and daily life.
IEEE: The Application of Internet of Things in Teaching Management System
In order to improve service quality and efficiency of the current teaching management system, an application scheme based on the internet of things is proposed in the paper. And basic concepts and key technologies of internet of things are introduced as the base of its design and improvement. By using a mutual authentication method in the proposed scheme, the access defects of RFID tag and system security problems are solved. The analysis result shows that this application scheme is of more efficiency than the traditional methods of teaching management system.
IEEE: Early Infrastructure of an Internet of Things in Spaces for Learning
The deployment of mobile and ubiquitous computing in smart objects introduces the concept of an Internet of things which will offer new scenarios for learning processes. This paper presents this concept in relation with some other new alternatives of spaces for learning. A basic architecture for interaction is proposed and a set of prototypes that we have developed are also explained as part of an early infrastructure.
IBM blog: IoT in education: the internet of school things
If you’ve seen preliminary research on how the Internet of Things (IoT) will impact education, you may think students will soon be connected to iPads and RFID scanning objects while getting personalized curricula delivered to their desks…a dreamy new world of individually tailored lessons. But remember how computers were supposed to completely alter the way students learn decades ago? Anyone who took a “computer 101” class in high school may know tech in the classroom is not the futuristic bonanza we want it to be.
Telegraph: Eight UK schools to take part in ‘Internet of Things’ pilot
Children in eight UK schools are to be given access to new technology as part of a pilot scheme to define how the ‘Internet of Things’ can enhance learning in science, technology, and geography.
Multimodal analysis has had demonstrated effectiveness in studying and modeling several human-human and human-computer interactions. In this paper, we explore the role of multimodal analysis in the service of studying complex learning environments. We use a semi-automated multimodal method to examine how students learn in a hands-on, engineering design context. Specifically, we combine, audio, gesture and electro-dermal activation data from a study (N=20) in which students were divided into two experimental conditions.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is an immersive technology that transports the user inside a world or environment that only exists within a computer, typically marrying real time generated 3D graphics with special goggles or a headset. The initial interest and investment into Virtual Reality came from the video games industry, but with smartphone makers creating ever more powerful devices the focus began to shift sometime around 2016 towards applications involving 360 degree photography, video, and apps.
The market is currently divided between expensive headsets that run their software on powerful games consoles or PCs, and cheap harnesses that allow smartphones to be re-purposed as VR displays. There’s also a range of accessories to allow the user to interact with the 3D environment, including (at the high-end) multi-directional treadmills that capture the walking and running actions, to (at the low-end) cheap clickers and wands that capture gesturing and pointing actions.
What are the teaching and learning prospects?
VR scores in situations where it is allowing the learner to experience environments that they otherwise would have difficultly accessing. Outside of simulating real-world environments, it might also have potential in introducing new abstract ways of exploring and visualising complex data in domains such as mathematics, statistics, economics, etc.
What’s the state of current research and commentary?
There seems to have been a reasonable amount of research around health training, specifically using streaming video to allow students to gain familiarity with the environment of an operating theatre, and to create a more immersive first-person experience for teaching surgeons, nurses, paramedics, etc. Science has also used VR in similar ways, to help train students in lab procedures and safety (including simulating accidents.)
Despite obvious potential, little seems to have been done to use VR to help bring alive history, aside from creating 360 degree tours of historic sites.
In no particular order…
BBC: Virtual reality bringing WW1 history to life
The Drum: Synchronised VR startup Sibro makes history with educational WWI experience
Sibro, a new synchronised virtual reality platform dedicated to educational content, has been launched in Liverpool following investment by local digital agency Mashbo.
The Sibro content distribution system allows the multiple classroom VR headsets to be managed by one device, allowing an entire class of students to share the same experience simultaneously.
The Guardian: Holograms replacing cadavers in training for doctors
Surgeons are embracing technology’s cutting edge, using the latest in augmented, virtual and mixed reality to transform medical training. Among the devices the Royal College of Surgeons is planning to explore is the Microsoft HoloLens, a mixed reality headset, released to developers this year, which shows hovering 3D holograms. The college said it was teaming up with education group Pearson to harness immersive technologies for training students.
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland:
For the past few weeks we have been working with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on a Gear VR experience that places students in a RESUS room where they take control and make life or death choices for their patient.
Tech Times: UK Doctors Live-Stream Cancer Surgery: How Virtual Reality Can Help Medicine Students
UK Doctors were able to live-stream a cancer surgery for worldwide audience, but specifically helped medical students get an almost real experience inside the operating room.
TED: This virtual lab will revolutionize science class – Michael Bodekaer (video)
Virtual reality is no longer part of some distant future, and it’s not just for gaming and entertainment anymore. Michael Bodekaer wants to use it to make quality education more accessible. In this refreshing talk, he demos an idea that could revolutionize the way we teach science in schools.
Berkeley – Info 290 Sensors, Humans, Data, Apps Project:
Course description: Info 290 Sensors, Humans, Data, Apps
Just as the web browser brought us click-stream data and the mobile phone brought us geo-location data, ubiquitous low-cost sensors integrated with wearable and Internet-of-Things devices will bring us a new torrent of user data to collect, analyze, and exploit. The course takes a hands-on approach to exploring the possibilities and limitations of consumer-grade sensing technologies for physiological and contextual data.
Open University: Open University gets Google Award to investigate virtual reality in schools and Teaching in Virtual Reality
The Open University helps Google evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality in the classroom
The Open University (OU) is taking school children to the Great Barrier Reef with new technology in the classroom. Through virtual reality technology called Google Expeditions, students are given virtual field trips to places that may be practically difficult or impossible for them to visit – such as The Great Barrier Reef, an active volcano or Mount Everest. With virtual reality hardware becoming more affordable and available, this technology could play a significant role in education. OU is working with Google and leading UK education organisations including the Field Studies Council, Geographical Association and the Association for Science Education.
Telegraph: How our school is using Virtual Reality to prepare pupils for a future dominated by technology
Virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, haptic feedback; the line between these and many other technological realities is becoming blurred and they are beginning to be grouped under one umbrella term: artificial reality. But what is artificial reality and how can it be used effectively in the classroom?