Technology in Education

A New Way of Learning

Technology permeates almost every aspect of life in today’s society. Think about it – from ordering pizza to organising a party – technology plays a growing part in almost everything we do; and as humans we are adapting and evolving as a species around technology.

Knowledge and content are being democratised at a global level through technology – you have all the information you need (and more) at your fingertips – all you need to access this wealth of information is an internet connection. Putting an educational lens over this phenomenon, we start to see a growing trend towards online, personalised and skill-based learning programs.

This produces a unique opportunity to leverage technology to re-create the fundamental purpose of educational institutions such as schools and universities. The original intention of these institutions was to standardise students’ knowledge first, and then provide opportunities for specialisation later on. As a result of the sheer volume of knowledge and information now being available online however; we’re now seeing a trend towards tailored, skill based learning programs where the students are in control of the topics they would like to study based on their unique interests.

So, what does this mean for the traditional classroom method of teaching a prescribed syllabus? I think in the next five to ten years, standardised syllabus based learning will be outdated and will no longer be of any value – any content shared in the classroom will already be accessible online. There has to be a fundamental shift in what is being taught at educational institutions. What will have the biggest impact in my opinion is teaching students to learn how to learn¹ (https://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/11/f-the-classroom-as-we-know-it.html)

That sounds cryptic and mysterious – but it’s really not. Using a crude analogy, rather than feeding a man fish, we need to start teaching people how to fish. Rather than prescribing a syllabus and narrowing one’s interest to what the institutions/society feel needs to be taught, we need to open it up to the students to tell us what they would like to be taught.

Give students abundant information, make it easily accessible through technology, and let their individual interests dictate what they learn about. Here’s a great example of this ideology in practice; Sugata Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiment² (https://www.edutopia.org/blog/self-organized-learning-sugata-mitra – there’s also a great Ted Talk by the author embedded in the article), where he installed computers in remote villages in India that were pre-loaded with information about complex topics, such as biochemistry. He left these computers open and accessible to anyone in the village – and the children of the village, not knowing a word of English, were able to teach themselves with no assistance from a traditional teacher or syllabus – they simply figured it out for themselves –

The impact of this new learning model will be profound and felt at a universal level – and technology will enable it all. There are of course several different technologies that can augment this new way of learning – for example AI virtual assistants/chatbots used to create individual learning plans – “Artificial Intelligence systems are able to identify each student’s needs and come up with models which focus on method and reason rather than bald facts.”³ (https://elearningindustry.com/future-artificial-intelligence-in-elearning-systems)

You could also essentially create a universal data lake/data warehouse of knowledge on various topics, which when combined with Artificial Intelligence can produce tailored learning plans based on individual needs.

Another great example of technology changing the way we learn is of a Professor at Georgia Tech, who created an AI powered virtual assistant to act as a teaching assistant (TA)⁴ (http://www.news.gatech.edu/2017/01/09/jill-watson-round-three) to answer common questions his students had.

Big Data is another technological capability that can be used to change how we learn. By capturing a large number of datapoints in the classroom for example, and using that to gauge a student’s interest in a particular topic⁵ (https://www.altschool.com/lab-schools/approach)

At this moment in time, there are myriad opportunities to use various emerging technologies to fundamentally disrupt how humans learn and evolve – the possibilities are endless 😊

Sources:

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/11/f-the-classroom-as-we-know-it.html
2. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/self-organized-learning-sugata-mitra
3. https://elearningindustry.com/future-artificial-intelligence-in-elearning-systems
4. http://www.news.gatech.edu/2017/01/09/jill-watson-round-three)
5. https://www.altschool.com/lab-schools/approach

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