We Educational Technologist can not avoid being, at least in part, futurists. And while that may be true, it is also true that we must reflect well to avoid become advocates and creators of Steam Punk (steam•punk/ˈnoun: a genre of science fiction that has a historical setting and typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology) or simply getting it wrong and consequently misguiding our colleagues.
Focus Questions:
- Which of the actual developments presented in this article do you feel are likely to impact education significantly?
- Why?
- How do you feel the forward thinking (dare we say, “visionary”) school technology leader might best prepare his/her school community for ‘next level technology innovations”?
One of the oldest areas of concern, argument, and
confusion related to the use of technology in the classroom has been the old
“Computers will/will not, replace teachers!”
ditty. And for the longest time, those of us who have had even the thinnest layer of experience with
computers in the classroom, who dispassionately have observed and reflected,
have understood that crises go, this one was obviously a total “nothing burger”,
a non-issue conjured up out of the uncomprehending fears of folks reflexively
suspicious of change. Our understanding quickly came to be that computers are tools
for teachers to use with their students, that increase their reach and
efficacy.
But the landscape of Education changes and the
movement of its geologic features long thought to be solid bedrock can move
with time. A number of impactful things have appeared in recent years that
require us to re-map a bit with the end in mind of not only understanding the
nature of where we are, but how it is determining where we will arrive at in the future.
“And
Now For Something Completely Different"
Monty Python
There are many examples of technology “improving” teaching
in the sense of making classrooms more efficient by helping to make processes
and chores easier and more effective. For instance, digital grades books make
the keeping of student performance records easier, more reliable, and easier to
store, retrieve, and share. And LMS can similarly improve the distribution of
instructional content and the collection of student responses to it.
There are examples,
as well, of technology
improving the quality of the learning
experience through applications to instruction that feature things like
interactive, media-rich content items
- There are examples of technology applications that have somewhat transformed the very format of school by expanding its capabilities and reach as a platform to deliver instruction. Virtual field trips, after school hours access to content, student access to experts in the field are a few.
- There are examples of technology applications that have somewhat transformed the very format of school by expanding its capabilities and reach as a platform to deliver instruction. Virtual field trips, after school hours access to content, student access to experts in the field are a few.
As impressive as the above examples are, they all
largely make their contributions in a liner fashion by offering the possibility
of more of what was done traditionally – and/or of supporting students and
teachings in doing it better. We are now
beginning to experience applications of technology to work of teaching and learning
that truly is different.
Here’s a list of some prominent Instructional Items
to include in our measurements of Instructional Continental Drift, and
Education Plate Tectonics (Sorry,
couldn’t resist the temptation to follow through a bit on the Topography metaphor
J:
- The Flipped Classroom (by having students access and familiarize themselves with content it on their own through means driven by digital communications technologies (e.g. video, audio, animations, game oriented, etc.) their face-to-face class time with their teachers can be maximized for higher order thinking goals: reflections, analysis, meaning making, and application of facts and skills in important, often real-world contexts) Thus, this approach deepens the value of teachers.
- The Flipped Classroom (by having students access and familiarize themselves with content it on their own through means driven by digital communications technologies (e.g. video, audio, animations, game oriented, etc.) their face-to-face class time with their teachers can be maximized for higher order thinking goals: reflections, analysis, meaning making, and application of facts and skills in important, often real-world contexts) Thus, this approach deepens the value of teachers.
In a sense, many emerging items are oriented
similarly, relieve teachers and students of the need to interface for basic
functions that now can be handled by machines so that human bandwidth is freed
and explanded allowing for deeper, more relevant and more meaningful learning
to be accomplished.
-A. I. (Artificial Intelligence, also Machine Intelligence), and Machine Learning
When the Google Search engine improved its interface algorithm a number of years back, many of us had an unsettling, almost spooky “ah ha” moment with it as we suddenly came to understand the reality of working with a technology that tracked our preferences and interests and predicted the relevance of items to present us with.
I remember my own experience when one day I was totally astounded by what at first appeared to be magicial synchronicity. I couldn’t understand how, out of the tens of thousands of advertisers Google must have had, vendors who, in the aggregate were offering a very, very broad range of goods and services… how, I wondered, could it be that the ads that showed up on my screen as I was working could be for particular brands of kayaks and electric guitars and tours of Thailand, etc. –the very things that I was most interested in back then? And then it hit me like a ton of bricks (try to understand or remember that this was cutting edge new back then and not announced or explained to the public) – the truth that came to me was that while I was learning with Google… IT was learning about me! Those ads were for things I had been searching for information about… were the same things for which I had recently been clicking links and by doing so reinforcing my interest and narrowing down the field of possibilities. Son of a gun, Google was figuring out what I was interested in, what I liked, what I wanted to see more of… and it was doing it in a spiral of specificity and relevance and accuracy that was uncanny. My computer was working with me and it was working with other individuals behind it who wanted to increase their chances of presenting me with things that resonated. Welcome to the age of machines that learn and that act on what they learn.
From Amazon’s online store to Instructional Software
-A. I. (Artificial Intelligence, also Machine Intelligence), and Machine Learning
When the Google Search engine improved its interface algorithm a number of years back, many of us had an unsettling, almost spooky “ah ha” moment with it as we suddenly came to understand the reality of working with a technology that tracked our preferences and interests and predicted the relevance of items to present us with.
I remember my own experience when one day I was totally astounded by what at first appeared to be magicial synchronicity. I couldn’t understand how, out of the tens of thousands of advertisers Google must have had, vendors who, in the aggregate were offering a very, very broad range of goods and services… how, I wondered, could it be that the ads that showed up on my screen as I was working could be for particular brands of kayaks and electric guitars and tours of Thailand, etc. –the very things that I was most interested in back then? And then it hit me like a ton of bricks (try to understand or remember that this was cutting edge new back then and not announced or explained to the public) – the truth that came to me was that while I was learning with Google… IT was learning about me! Those ads were for things I had been searching for information about… were the same things for which I had recently been clicking links and by doing so reinforcing my interest and narrowing down the field of possibilities. Son of a gun, Google was figuring out what I was interested in, what I liked, what I wanted to see more of… and it was doing it in a spiral of specificity and relevance and accuracy that was uncanny. My computer was working with me and it was working with other individuals behind it who wanted to increase their chances of presenting me with things that resonated. Welcome to the age of machines that learn and that act on what they learn.
From Amazon’s online store to Instructional Software
- Adaptive
Digital Instructional Resources
This same principle used by Google to find out about
its users has more recently been applied to teaching and learning, the idea
being that by identifying a student’s interests and preferences, his strengths and
weaknesses, his ways to approach learning, and on and on, highly Personalized Learning experiences could be provided him. Each
student no longer has to access the same content as his classmates; nor does
his content have to have the same form, look, and feel as that offers to
others; nor does the path established for him to react and respond to the
content presented to him have to be the same, either. Welcome to the world of Adaptive
Digital Instructional Resources.
Of course, this is a new development in our field and some attempts at bringing the ideas above to life for actual student use are better than others. There are varieties and grades of A.I. available to resource designers and there are designs that are better than others as well. This is an area that we will be seeing a great deal more of in the immediate future.
Peruse the links below for some examples and related ideas:
Of course, this is a new development in our field and some attempts at bringing the ideas above to life for actual student use are better than others. There are varieties and grades of A.I. available to resource designers and there are designs that are better than others as well. This is an area that we will be seeing a great deal more of in the immediate future.
Peruse the links below for some examples and related ideas:
Knewton Adaptive Learning Platform - Tutorial Video
|
No More Pencils, No More Books Adaptive learning software is
replacing textbooks and upending
|
| McGraw-Hill Education LearnSmart®: How Does
Adaptive Learning (YouTube
– 2016) https://youtu.be/jhoTHD7AL7Q |
| What is
Intelligent Adaptive Learning? - DreamBox Learning (Promotional Material / retrieved 2017)) http://www.dreambox.com/intelligent-adaptive-learning/ |
| Adaptive Technology Enhances the Science of
Learning - (YouTube – 2015) https://youtu.be/KuNa6pfMX1A |
Using A.I. as well, is the new resource type of Grading Software (see article, below)
More???
Check these out!
- Personal Digital Tutors
It’s already common for students to have their own personal digital devices that offer calendars, calculators, search engines, and more. Students interface with these generally through keyboarding. AND, we are now all familiar with Siri the ever so polite and perky little digital assistant who will activate and guide your iOS device by engaging in a conversation with you, many of us now have the Google Dots Alexa in their homes (I do), a little digital assistant who will ask you what you want to hear and then retrieve Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven if you direct her to. These digital assistants are cropping up in many places, my online bank offers one, the Dowloadable GPS App, Waze, for instance, will take your requests for directions verbally and advise you when to turn left verbally, as well. So what happens when these technologies are reconceived for the learning of young people?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
- Teaching Robots
The impending emergence of the Connected Auto Didact (self teacher)
- Teaching Robots
The impending emergence of the Connected Auto Didact (self teacher)
"With the huge and continually growing body of tutorials directed at learning all things (technology, guitar, cooking, home construction and maintenance, health and fitness, etc. etc.) are we not redefining our species' relationship to learning. Are we not heading toward self teaching as a major dimension of the whole of Education? (Just asking... :)
One
of the newfound destinations established by all of the above is the very healthy
body of query that asks "What’s a teacher? What’s Teaching? What should teachers do? and the
corollary questions What should students learn?(curriculum yes, but
Learning should be the curriculum, too)
How will they learn it best?
A final point… It seems that whenever a new technology emerges that there are some folks who quickly wrap their brains around how it may be applied to Education. Granted, some of these folks are simply tech enthusiasts, but other truly understand that these new technologies (especially after areas of work other than Education have adopted and gotten significant value from it) represent potential. There are other new technologies not discussed above, but that may prove to be important in the future if not soon. As an example, one of these is Blockchain which is well discussed in an article in Forbes, “20 Ways Blockchain Will Transform (Okay, May Improve) Education” ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2018/08/20/26-ways-blockchain-will-transform-ok-may-improve-education/#36a656784ac9 ) . Most of the applications for blockchain relate to Education in ways that are other than instruction, but there are several in this article that do. What do you think?
A final point… It seems that whenever a new technology emerges that there are some folks who quickly wrap their brains around how it may be applied to Education. Granted, some of these folks are simply tech enthusiasts, but other truly understand that these new technologies (especially after areas of work other than Education have adopted and gotten significant value from it) represent potential. There are other new technologies not discussed above, but that may prove to be important in the future if not soon. As an example, one of these is Blockchain which is well discussed in an article in Forbes, “20 Ways Blockchain Will Transform (Okay, May Improve) Education” ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2018/08/20/26-ways-blockchain-will-transform-ok-may-improve-education/#36a656784ac9 ) . Most of the applications for blockchain relate to Education in ways that are other than instruction, but there are several in this article that do. What do you think?
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