But the impact computers are having in our society is not superficial. New technologies like automation and artificial intelligence have the potential to disrupt the very fabric of our culture, changing forever the way we work, we create wealth, and even the role of humans in the world. In this context, it is only logical that education begins to change as well. In part, this change can be understood in the same context as other advancements; new technologies allow us to build new tools that make work in the classroom more effective. But the changes education is undergoing go deeper than that, and are actually a reaction to the transformation of society. They are the product of our necessity to form a different kind of workforce and citizens, better adapted to the digital world, and to an environment where technology’s permanent and fast-paced advancement redefines the context all the time.
For this reason, innovation in education goes beyond the introduction of a new set of tools and gadgets, or to the creation of a new channel to study and get a degree. Innovation in this field is a profound change in the paradigms that have ruled classrooms for over 200 years, and to the goals and methodologies, teachers use to engage students and turn them into the adults this century’s professional field needs.
BLENDED LEARNING
Blended learning is a novel methodology that combines digital content and exercises with the advantages of face-to-face lessons and activities. There is no single recipe for adopting this mix, and it is up to each teacher and school to determine how each of the available tools is used within a lesson. This way, students could get their content in the form of an online lesson, do a few exercises on their computers and devices, and then hold an open discussion, guided by the teacher, on the topic at hand. Teachers, on the other hand, could introduce the subject, relay some of the content, and have students look for further information online, before using their computers to do some exercises or projects and prove how well they understood the topic. On either approach, teachers also adopt the role of a mentor, sitting with individual students, and answering their questions.
This method expands the many benefits of the current models of education, by incorporating the endless possibilities offered by digital learning – like personalization, gathering instant metrics, and access to a wide set of content sources, among many others – without relinquishing any of the advantages of having an actual person acting as a guide, forcing the students to commit, and making of learning a social experience.
FLIPPED CLASSROOMS
Very much like Blended Learning, Flipped Classrooms are a groundbreaking education methodology that allows teachers to add the benefits of online learning to the mix, and to transform the classroom into a more practical experience.
When they flip a classroom, teachers distribute their lesson in the form of videos and interactive materials before the actual date and time of the class. This allows students to get acquainted with the material and to do the actual learning before getting to the classroom, when they participate of a guided debate on the topic, along with the teacher, or participate in other kinds of research or activities that allow them to apply the new knowledge.
The most important advantages of this methodology are that it allows teachers to allocate more time to each student, and to offer a personalized experience to those who don’t understand or have questions, it also allows students to go back to the lesson, and go through it as many times as possible, it fosters collaboration in the classroom, and it helps students acquire social skills. Additionally, this technique is that it allows students who miss the classes to get the lessons and keep up with their classmates.
SECOND GENERATION VIDEO LECTURE CAPTURING
One of the greatest benefits of technology is that it allows classrooms to expand beyond their physical walls. Not long ago, the only way for a professor to reach a student was to stand in front of him and a small group of his classmates. This made access to certain educators and content extremely difficult, and often expensive. New methods, however, are changing this. Be it in the form of closed platforms and LMSs, through special prearranged lectures, or even in the form of lessons embedded into MOOCs and other online courses, it is becoming more frequent for professors to record (or broadcast) their lessons to a wider audience. And video lecture capturing hardware and software facilitate this.
In the past, capturing a class was not so easy. It required a crew to be available to film and record the lesson, or first generation tools that made it impossible to create a good video experience. Second generation video capturing technology, created especially for education, are changing this. This new set of tools includes automatic cameras that follow the professor throughout the room, simultaneously capture the information on the blackboard, an electronic board, a projector, and even a microscope, is now available making recording any class seamless and painless.
This is enabling educators to broadcast their lessons, and also universities to easily create content for new classes and courses, that let them reach a wider audience, and even create new revenue channels.
ONLINE LEARNING
Online learning tools are becoming increasingly popular both among students who wish to learn a new particular set of skills, and among universities, which find that the web is a great channel to widen their academic offering to new audiences which were outside of their scope, either for their limited capacity, or because of the costs involved in attending one of their programs.
Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs) have become the most popular expression of this form of learning. So much so that, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 25% of university students in the United States are enrolled in one of these programs.
Unlike traditional courses, MOOCs allow students to get training in a specific area or field, sometimes getting a certificate (or Nanodegree, in the case of Udacity, one of the most popular platforms in this space), which are often recognized by companies and employers as valid credentials to demonstrate a certain skill. This opens up countless possibilities for a not so distant future when continuous learning will be the only way for professionals to keep up with the advancements of technology, and new job opportunities. Additionally, these courses represent a great opportunity for people who have not attended a university course and this way can grow professionally and aspire to better jobs. For the time being, however, their usage has been mostly limited to professionals.
One field where these kinds of courses are having great success is coding and tech schools, which teach skills such as programming, app development, digital marketing, and online business practices. Within that field, one company stands out for its great job engaging students into completing their courses and moving up the professional ladder.
Another very different example of online learning is the usage of mobile apps and web-based platforms to teach new skills. Such applications can come in the form of courses, of practical exercises, or of games built around educational content. One example of the latter, is Yogome, a developer who creates games for young kids that allows them to master eight different subjects and even teaches them the basics of programming, through trivia, questions, and different interactions in highly engaging games. Their case was also presented at the event.
FREE PLATFORMS FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION
More and more schools are adopting flipped classrooms, blended learning, or some form distance education methodologies. These involve providing at least some parts of their lessons, exercises and activities outside of the classroom by the means of a digital platform that allows teachers to distribute the material, and often to communicate with students in real-time, to send them quizzes and questions, to get reports and essays handed in, to correct such work and grade it, and to keep track of students’ performance, among other things.
Some of these platforms, like Blackboard and Adobe Connect, among others, are not free and involve the payment of a fee for their use and deployment in the school’s system. Others like Google Classrooms and Canvas are free to use, although they require an application for their usage.
These platforms have the advantage of combining all the necessary resources in one place, however some schools and teachers have opted to use a set of different free tools like Skype or Hangouts, combined with any webmail provider, and free collaboration tools like Google Docs, and content sites like YouTube and iTunes U (the education version of Apple’s popular content service, which is free of content for free) to organize their classes.
With such a wide set of options, teachers can most certainly start to try new methodologies and connect with their students both inside and outside of the classroom for a very low cost.
DIGITAL ASSESSMENTS
Digital assessment tools are software applications that allow teachers to rely on problems, polls, questions and exercises in real time to their students’ computers or mobile devices, and get instant results in a dashboard that let them know how well the class as a whole, and how each individual student has performed. This exciting area of education technology has the potential to transform the classroom like no other. By allowing teachers to easily probe how well their students understand different topics, it can help them grasp, at all times, how to manage their lessons and to detect which kids (or adult students for that matter) require further explanations or tutoring.
This way, educators no longer need to rely on their instincts or on unreliable feedback like students claiming they understood an explanation, something that often happens out of confusion, or because of peer pressure.
These tools often include features such as a real-time chat, or comments forums, that allow students to communicate with one another, as well as with teachers, in order to ask questions, make comments, or request further explanations. This way, educators can have a permanent understanding of how advanced their students are in each topic, to determine when moving on to the next one, and to determine which students require extra help before they fail the course and it becomes too late to do something about it. At the same time, through Digital Assesment, teachers can find the better way and techniques to approach each different class and compensate for their different interests and paces, making sure they do an effective job every time.
