{"id":9893,"date":"2018-07-23T15:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T14:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=9893"},"modified":"2018-07-23T15:00:31","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T14:00:31","slug":"from-babel-fish-to-skill-pills-the-future-of-technology-in-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/education-languages-health\/education\/from-babel-fish-to-skill-pills-the-future-of-technology-in-education\/","title":{"rendered":"From babel fish to skill pills \u2013 the future of technology in education?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jisc futurist Martin Hamilton<\/p><\/div>\n

Martin Hamilton<\/a>, a futurist at JISC<\/a> \u2013 providing digital solutions for UK education and research \u2013 shares his thoughts on the future of technology in education as part of our #TomorrowsEd<\/a> series\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember the Babel Fish<\/a> in the Hitch Hiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy? Just pop one in your ear and it will translate anything said to you in any form of language.<\/p>\n

The Babel Fish might be fictional, but the truth is that researchers are starting to understand how long term memories are stored in our brains as groups of neurons – so it might not be totally unrealistic to picture future learners simply taking a pill to learn a language or a new skill. Or even for fun \u2013 happy memories of that beach holiday you couldn\u2019t afford!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s imagine that you could take a brain surgery pill, or a civil engineering pill \u2013 and become an instant expert. At least on paper \u2013 practice might be a little different! Of course we\u2019re not there yet, and indeed we might never be. But, and it\u2019s a big but: Virtually all of human knowledge is available online, yet our schools, colleges and universities still ask learners to memorise key facts and formulae.<\/p>\n

Ban phones in schools? Or give every learner a tablet?<\/h2>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s time to ask ourselves what we really need to assess \u2013 1066 and all that, or the ability to marshall the available facts and information and use them to good effect? It feels like we\u2019re at a crossroads when it comes to technology and education. Should we ban phones in schools, or give every learner a tablet?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be the first to admit that it\u2019s not as simple as I\u2019ve just made out \u2013 if we took an open book (or phone, or tablet) approach to exams, we\u2019d need to consider how that works in quite a range of different subject areas. From constructing an argument to support an assertion (\u201cthere will be no downside to Brexit!\u201d), to figuring out which statistical tests to use on a dataset, or writing a computer program.<\/p>\n

There are some subject areas like statistics where it\u2019s long been commonplace to permit textbooks to be brought in to exams, but we should perhaps also question the role of the high stakes final assessment while we are busy reinventing education<\/p>\n

Virtual and augmented reality<\/h2>\n

But computers and the internet have already found their way into most aspects of our lives, and it seems odd not to be looking at how we can make the most of them in teaching and learning. This is where I am always fascinated by the groundbreaking work of the Open University in making distance learning an option for over 2 million learners.<\/p>\n

Long before anyone had started to talk about Massive Open Online Courses, the OU were broadcasting degree level lectures using the \u2018dead time\u2019 after the day\u2019s broadcasting had finished. How quaint that seems in our present day era of streaming media and 24 hour news!<\/p>\n

The OU embraced distance learning over the Internet wholeheartedly through tools like FirstClass, Moodle and GSuite \u2013 latterly using virtual and augmented reality to provide remote STEM lab experiences and virtual field trips, and creating the FutureLearn<\/a> online learning platform. I\u2019m fascinated to see how the OU will use the next wave of technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain. Hold on to your towel, it\u2019s going to be a bumpy ride!<\/p>\n