The coalescence of technology and education as motor for educational innovation
Technology is present in every facet of our lives. At home, on the street, at work and also in education. Although technological advances have taken huge leaps these past few years, this is not something new for the 21st century. Dreams, thoughts and visions of the impact of technology and education were already sprouting at the start of the century. Edison, for example, had high expectations for the impact of film:
“I believe that film is intended to create a revolution in our education system and that within a few years, it will replace the majority if not all of the school books… I must say that we derive roughly two percent efficiency from the school books as they are written today. The way I see it, education in the future shall be carried out by way of the medium of film… which should make it possible to achieve one hundred percent efficiency.” — Thomas Edison (1922)
The revolution that Edison envisioned, failed to materialise. But why has it taken so long for any kind of change to take place in the world of education? There are, of course, instructors, institutes and schools that have been working with technology in education for some time. But the vast majority seemed to need a pandemic to begrudgingly begin to explore how technological possibilities can contribute to educational innovation and improvement.
We could debate whether online lessons via MS Teams, for example, are actually a “technological advance”. There are, after all, more exciting technologies that appeal more to our imagination, such as VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality, Robotics, AI (Artificial Intelligence), etc. These too, give us cause to dream about the future visions for education, not in the least by students of the EdTech minor.
Technology can influence education, but there is also room needed in the field of education in order to be able to adequately and creatively consider this. This was one aspect that Fontys ICT University understood very well, and that is why they started a new minor in September 2020: The EdTech (Education Technology) minor. The minor aims to successfully interweave technology and education. With this minor, a student is prepared for the challenges in an ever-changing world by way of technology-supported learning, teaching and training.
National context of the minor
Billions are being invested in EdTech firms worldwide. Suppliers and start-ups are offering terrific products, but very often they still fail to provide what higher education really needs. Can “Do tanks” help in making use of the innovative power of EdTech firms? How can we create and facilitate optimal preconditions for institutions and schools in order to experiment together? How can we make sure by working together that we have influence on the latest developments so we can steer the market and set demands of applications? Can we expedite educational innovations through this collaborative effort and enhance how these innovations are adopted? One point of attention here are the European procurement rules. These rules often impede innovation in higher education. How can we all operate optimally and steer the market within the framework of European regulations?
The objective of the EdTech zone is to create (infrastructural) conditions for collaboration with suppliers and start-ups so that institutions can better utilise the innovative power of EdTech firms. The members of the “acceleration team” can help inspire each other to collaborate (even more) with suppliers and start-ups and thereby contribute to the (further) development of facilities that will also be useful to other institutions in working together with the EdTech sector. A key point here is to ensure that more EdTech start-ups are created in order to create a richer field for education.
We have asked the students of the minor how they feel about this.
“The students are much further and have a real need for a renewal, but, most often, the instructors cling to the old, safe method of teaching. During the online lessons, we have already discovered that it is out of proportion: students are much more advanced technologically than most instructors. While the instructors struggle with how Microsoft Teams or Zoom work, the students already know how to mute the instructors during a lesson. In my opinion, it is important that we change along with the latest technological advances: the students will need to have certain digital skills because most companies will demand it. These digital skills will, in fact, become part of most professions; this is something we are already seeing today.
In addition to these points of improvement, I also believe a change must occur in regard to health at elementary schools. I hear that elementary schools are prohibiting “treats” more and more often in order to create a healthy environment. A healthy environment can indeed be created with negative reinforcement but why can’t we also achieve this in a better way? Have they considered, for example, the option of “more exercise”? At the moment, I am busy with finding a solution for the following dilemma: “How can children be stimulated to exercise more through technological tools?” I have developed a concept for elementary school children that motivates them to exercise more during and outside of school by way of a wearable tool. The wearable tool prompts the children to exercise by way of digital pet: the more steps the child takes the higher the number of Experience Points (XP). After acquiring x number of XPs, the digital pet can evolve into another form. The digital pet stays visible for the child and can change emotions: as soon as the child gets too little exercise in a day, the pet will be less happy and says: “Train me!” When the child get enough exercise, their digital pet is happy. At the moment that a child really makes progress over time, the pet also runs along. Children can set their own goal: how many Experience Points do I want to earn today? Because the children can see their own personal Experience Point record, they will be motivated to surpass it! The results can be shared with the teacher on a dashboard so that the teachers can also keep track of their progress and stimulate them even more. (Aleyna Kartal)
In this minor, a multi-disciplinary team of students are given the opportunity to consider creative and innovative educational concepts in which technology plays a crucial role. Some of the students share their ideas:
“After doing some initial research into my own educational background, I discovered that many HBO teachers want to make the lessons more interactive. And certainly now in this corona time, we notice that this interactivity is still more present during actual, physical lessons than the current online lessons. Hence my idea for an IA Table. This is a round table with a tablet on it which is also round so that both the student and the teacher can stand around it and work together on a better idea. That first app that will be developed for this is a notice board on which brainstorm ideas can be written and moved around so the interaction remains constant. The table is round, this is because it has been proven that there is more interactivity and less hierarchy when there is no head of the table. This does mean that we will need circular software apps which, in terms of development, are still in their infancy when it comes to daily use in education.” (Lieke Hermsen)
For the EdTech minor I am currently following, I will teach kids in groups 3–5 about the concept of concentration and what it can mean for a child. In a classroom that is too loud or too hectic, some children will not be able to perform even though they are expected to. To achieve this awareness, I will use a hologram that sleeps when the classroom is quiet and when the classroom get noisy and hectic, the hologram will also wake up and become rather hysterical. The goal is to motivate the children to stay calm so that the hologram character will also stay calm. Subsequently, a class discussion can ensue on this topic. Certainly in these times with all kinds of technological stimuli, it is important to teach children to talk about concentration and how to use it. (Naomi Mols)
Many more students presented interesting ideas; concepts that will be given a chance to grow and become prototypes in the EdTech minor and which may ultimately be the beginning of new start-ups.
In addition to the EdTech minor, there are fortunately also other initiatives aimed at implementing technology to make education easier, more fun and more effective. Also at ROC Tilburg, a group of instructors have formed the Interactive Technology Lead Group to achieve the following: The group, that operates within MindLabs, formulates various (interactive technological) assignments and initiates projects in order to bolster their own level of expertise and eventually have these projects be worked out and developed concretely by students and external parties. The purpose is to experiment with the applications of VR, AR, serious games, avatars and robots as educational instruments. What they discover can later be used to create new educational products that make education more effective and especially, more fun. By experimenting and starting projects with other knowledge institutions and companies, we want to inspire our colleagues and educators by capturing their imagination.
Do you also see opportunities to enhance education with the smart implementation of (new) technologies? Then share your ideas with us, and who knows, perhaps you will see them materialise! By working together, believing in the change and embracing technology, we can create a society that uses technology to enhance learning and expedite development.
