Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are all buzzwords which have moved out of tech circles and into the mainstream, and the education sector is being revolutionised by these new solutions to age-old learning challenges, says Aimee Laurence freelancer editor at Essayroo. The IoT in particular is facilitating whole-scale changes in the way that education is delivered, right at the heart of the matter too, in terms of learning processes. Here are 5 IoT solutions that are making their mark….
Communication
Unsurprisingly, technological advances are threatening to fundamentally change the way in which all the educational stakeholders communicate among themselves. Teachers and other purveyors of learning are now able to communicate with their students in an incredible number of ways which facilitates the learning process, and has made it both remote, and without time restrictions.
Textbooks
There are two distinct ways in which the IoT is changing the face of that old educational staple: the beloved textbook. First of all, huge quantities of information – libraries worth – are now accessible and storable on portable devices, making physical libraries somewhat antiquated in a sense of being a place that stores books.
Sharpening student focus
As unlikely as it may sound, it is now possible to track the attention that students are giving to a certain class through IoT-connected wearables. These wearables measure the vitals of a student in order to interpret energy, focus and concentration levels. Only can teachers react in-class by changing the activity in order to stimulate students who are lagging, but schools and colleges can design nutrition programs which better facilitate learning based on the data that is collected. This is truly the future playing out in the present.
Anywhere learning
This is closely linked to communication and textbook advances, because the result is that students can now effectively learn from anywhere. Not only does this promise to bring educational standards in-line in all geographical locations, but can better integrate students with disabilities, those who live in remote areas, of those who are homeschooled. Access is a key consideration here, and promises to take the very best educations out of the hands of the very privileged few, and deliver it to the masses. Not so long ago that may have sounded like a pipedream, but it is quickly becoming reality.
Interactive devices
This is another topic that was previously touched upon, but interactive whitebeards, tablets, digital pens, collaborative software, and all other sorts of interactive devices are not streaming into the classroom at breakneck speed.