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The Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition discusses the increasing use of Open Education Resources. Increasingly, we are seeing resources licensed under Creative Commons licenses (looking through our unit plans is direct evidence of this!). The use of OERs may be a solution for school divisions that are facing funding reductions, increasing enrollments, and students with complex needs (Educase, 2020).

The role of the teacher in the future with respect to OERs is one of a critical curator. I believe that teachers will play an important role in learning the needs of their students and selecting resources that best meet student needs and support the implementation of mandated curricula.

My hope is that AI can be part of the future role of educators. Not a replacement for teachers, but a tool that educators can leverage to make parts of their job more efficient to allow their time to shift to the emerging needs of future students.

Reference
Educause. (2020). Horizon report: Teaching and learning edition.  https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2020/3/2020_horizon_report_pdf.pdf?la=en&hash=08A92C17998E8113BCB15DCA7BA1F467F303BA80

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Future of Education, MOOCs & Reminder for Educators

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Future of Education, MOOCs & Reminder for Educators

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I personally think that the future of education with AI and other educational technologies is both exciting and challenging. On one hand, AI and other educational technologies can actually help the quality and accessibility of education by providing interactive learning experiences for learners of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. On the other hand, and I know this is very subjective, AI and other educational technologies also pose some ethical, social, and practical issues like as privacy, bias, accountability, and lack of human interaction. I feel that education is not in danger but it definitely is in need of transformation and innovation.

As a teacher, I think we should be positive about the changes, but also critical and outspoken. We could embrace AI and other educational technologies have to offer but also be aware of the challenges they bring. YWe need to start to look at AI as partners and tools that can support our teaching and learning goals while we continue to update our skills and knowledge of different tech.

Not only with do we need to accept AI as partners but we need to look at all different forms of educational technologies, such as MOOCs, and take advantage of these ideas. Although to some, especially to higher educational institutions, this may be considered a disruptive technology, MOOC's offer minimal cost for students around the world and are able to reach diverse learners from countries who may struggle with practical educational models (Bates, 2014). It is important that we, as educators, continue to push our students to become lifelong learners and make universities accessible to all. However, as Bates' article concludes, he suggests that MOOC's are only part of the answer to the challenges of teaching in a digital world (Bates, 2014), in which I would have to agree. Can we make this model even more productive and reduce the dropout rates for MOOC's? Are there ways to better assess students in MOOC's and better facilitate discussions and make learning authentic?

I feel that we are at a very important crossroads in education and I think that programs like the MET should be something that all educators learn on professional development days. IT's critical that educators don't forget that we are mentors and facilitators in a students learning journey that cannot be replaced. Teachers are also designers and curators that engage students and create lasting relationships that create change in students' lives. These relationships are what education will always have on our side. Relationships cannot be programmed or fabricated and are the exact thing that get students to want to come to school in the first place. Here's hoping for educators to embrace changes and challenges while staying true to believing in the importance of our practice day in and day out.

Cheers,

Carlo

Bates, T. (2014). MOOCs. In Teaching in digital age, Chapter 5. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/chapter-7-moocs/

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By Isa Chan

The rapid technological development has already triggered the increasing demand for e-learning for education in the future. Variations of e-learning approaches, including online learning, virtual learning, distributed learning, network, and web-based learning (Goyal, 2012), cater to the needs of learners to pursue and continue studying synchronously and asynchronously. Geographic restrictions are not the main reason for online learning, as Canadians based in Japan and Vancouver also undertake the same MET program online. I believe that education in the future is interwoven with learners’ needs. Although there may be security issues on privacy leakage and concerns, the social norm is already used to sharing personal lives on various social platforms and adopting AI applications. Despite the fact that Dr. Harari argues that there are still unknown realms humans have not delved into (Lex Fridman, 2023), AI promotes teaching and learning (Holmes et al., 2019). It will be embedded into the e-learning practice as a future trend to fulfill learners’ needs in education. Personalization is one of the learners’ preferential needs in online learning, and virtual mentors providing one-to-one mentorship may facilitate mentees’ personal growth (Junn et al., 2022). Educators should also keep pace with the times to advocate ways to stimulate learners’ intrinsic motivation and to teach learners values and qualities (Bergmark & Westman, 2018) to foster personal development in e-learning. They may contextualize the teaching materials using educational, technological tools at ease; however, whether or not the tools can effectually enhance intrinsic motivation may still be questionable. I believe that the implementation of AI robots, serving as personalized mentors, will increase learners’ intrinsic motivation in e-learning for education in the future.

Click for references

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The rapid technological development has already triggered the increasing demand for e-learning for education in the future. Variations of e-learning approaches, including online learning, virtual learning, distributed learning, network, and web-based learning (Goyal, 2012), cater to the needs of learners to pursue and continue studying synchronously and asynchronously. Geographic restrictions are not the main reason for online learning, as Canadians based in Japan and Vancouver also undertake the same MET program online. I believe that education in the future is interwoven with learners’ needs. Although there may be security issues on privacy leakage and concerns, the social norm is already used to sharing personal lives on various social platforms and adopting AI applications. Despite the fact that Dr. Harari argues that there are still unknown realms humans have not delved into (Lex Fridman, 2023), AI promotes teaching and learning (Holmes et al., 2019). It will be embedded into the e-learning practice as a future trend to fulfill learners’ needs in education. Personalization is one of the learners’ preferential needs in online learning, and virtual mentors providing one-to-one mentorship may facilitate mentees’ personal growth (Junn et al., 2022). Educators should also keep pace with the times to advocate ways to stimulate learners’ intrinsic motivation and to teach learners values and qualities (Bergmark & Westman, 2018) to foster personal development in e-learning. They may contextualize the teaching materials using educational, technological tools at ease; however, whether or not the tools can effectually enhance intrinsic motivation may still be questionable. I believe that the implementation of AI robots, serving as personalized mentors, will increase learners’ intrinsic motivation in e-learning for education in the future.

Click for references

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Unlike other fields (behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, etc.) that directly influence educational practices or provide ready-to-use educational approaches, neuroscience, which focuses on the biological basis of human behaviors, seems irrelevant to education. However, the relationship between neuroscience and education is a rapidly growing and mutually beneficial one. Neuroscience provides insights into how the brain learns, acquires skills, and keeps information, informing educational practices to optimize teaching and learning strategies. In this information age, technologies, which evolved extremely fast, enable us to achieve more and more previously unprocurable ideas.

In the brain/neural computer interaction field, the brain-computer interface (BCI) area has grown dramatically over the past few years (BNCI Horizon 2020, 2015). A BCI enables communication without movement; it may be “the only communication system possible for severely disabled users who cannot speak or use keyboards, mice, or other traditional interfaces” to learn (Brunner et al., 2015, p.2). According to Brunner et al. (2015), a BCI works by measuring users’ central nervous system (CNS) activity and converting the signal into artificial output, supplementing or improving the natural CNS interaction with the environment (both internal and external). Specifically in education, the future applications of BCI include integrating game-based learning and augmented reality (AR) to further facilitate learning experiences.

Another example will be Mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI), which is “an integrative multimethod approach used to investigate human brain activity, motor behavior, and other physiological data associated with cognitive processes that involve active behavior” under naturalistic conditions (Jungnickel et al., 2019, p.59). MoBI overcomes the disadvantages of stationary experimental settings and allows experiments to be conducted outside the lab. Therefore, MoBI studies can record ever-changing real-world classroom experiences and improve educational practices. Specifically, MoBI allows for a deeper understanding of human-machine interaction (students/educators with computers, robots, and AI systems), which has grown dramatically and has the potential to revolutionize education (Gramann et al., 2017).

Designing more efficient and valuable educational practices presupposes fundamental neuroscience research. With fast-growing technologies, more neuroscience and educational experiments can be conducted, thus, improving our understanding of the brain and learning and hopefully aiding the development of educational practices shortly.

-- Bingying (Iris) Wang

References

BNCI Horizon 2020. (2015). The future in brain/neural computer interaction: Horizon 2020. Retrieved from http://bnci-horizon-2020.eu/Links to an external site.

Brunner, C., Birbaumer, N., Blankertz, B., Guger, C., Kübler, A., Mattia, D., Del R Millán, J., Miralles, F., Nijholt, A., Opisso, E., Ramsey, N., Salomon, P. R., & Müller-Putz, G. (2015). BNCI Horizon 2020: towards a roadmap for the BCI community. Brain Computer Interfaces, 2(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/2326263x.2015.1008956

Gramann, K., Fairclough, S. H., Zander, T. O., & Ayaz, H. (2017). Editorial: Trends in Neuroergonomics. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00165

Jungnickel, E., Gehrke, L., Klug, M., & Gramann, K. (2019). MoBI—Mobile Brain/Body Imaging. Elsevier EBooks, 59–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-811926-6.00010-5

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I think technology will be a great tool to increase communication and collaboration. The MET program is a fantastic example of how learning can take place fully online but there are still several opportunities for us to communicate and collaborate with others. In this week’s required readings, the one that stood out to me was Bates (2014) article on MOOCs. After reading more about MOOC’s and thinking about the future of technology in the education field I wanted to highlight a few strengths and weaknesses of this. A few strengths as mentioned by Bates (2014) was how MOOCs are open and free education, you can work at your own pace, and there is access to a range of content. The arguments against MOOCs however include points on the fact that it can be costly, it may not include high-level discussions and challenges around assessment (Bates, 2014). Overtime, we have seen an increase in technology growing in the education field. I can see the benefits of MOOCs, especially for educators. Going with the phrase of ‘teachers are lifelong learners’, if they are given the opportunity (such as during professional development days), it might be useful to encourage the use of MOOCs to expand educators’ knowledge in a particular area. A year ago, there were a few educators at my school who mentioned they signed up for a course through Coursera on Indigenous Education. This was my first-time hearing a bit about it and if I wasn’t busy with a master’s program, I would’ve loved to give that a try. Having said that, I can see how some might be hesitant to sign up for it as it can be a challenge to find the motivation when there is little incentive. After looking at the strengths and weaknesses of MOOCs, it seems that there is more research being done on this topic and there is a possibility that we see an increase in popularity in it in the future. Upon completing the master’s program, I can see myself continuing as a lifelong learner and trying to register for a MOOCs course on a topic I want to learn more about.

- Jasmine R.
References:

Bates, T. (2014). MOOCs. In Teaching in digital age, Chapter 5. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/chapter-7-moocs/