The Future of Education Opportunities for the Internet of Things
Eitan Markus Conceptual Tools & Techniques December 15, 2015
Table of Contents Overview
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Framework
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Section One: Education Context
7-12
Trends
13-18
5-18
Section two: Internet of Things Context
19-21
Trends
22-26
Section three: Opportunities
19-26
27-30
Conclusions
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Sources
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Overview This report envisions the future of education. Through an analysis of pedagogy and technology, the report will contextualize the current state of the educational system, its purpose, and how it relates to the complex ecosystem we affectionately call life. Looking at emergent trends related to the Internet of Things, the report will explore the realm of opportunity for the Internet of Things in shaping a new future for education.
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Framework The following framework will be utilized in the report to provide meaningful context for the area of focus, identify and analyze relevant trends, and culminate in a conclusion that envisions opportunities for the Internet of Things in the educational system.
Contextualization & Definition Trend Analysis
Trend
Identification
Conclusions & Scenarios
Section 1 & 2
Section 3
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Section One: Education
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“In a world increasingly characterized by change, diversity and complexity, with educational institutions [...] aspiring to become ‘learning organizations' and where the ‘knowledge economy’ is apparently crucial, schools as workplaces for learning [...] exhibit physical, organizational and social arrangements that have changed relatively little in the last 150 years.” - Jane McGregor
“Most professions can point to dramatic changes in the way they work, thanks to technological innovations, but teaching still looks and feels an awful lot like it did when today’s teachers were themselves students.”
- Joe Williams
“Traditional education is very top-down, heavy-handed—sit down and read, be quiet, don’t ask questions—there’s still a lot of room for innovation.”
- Kirsten Saenz Tobey
It is clear that education, as a whole, has responded quite slowly to new technologies and innovations relative to other industries. The next few pages will provide evidence that disruption and innovation are not only possible, but necessary to reinvent education.
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What is education?
ed·u·ca·tion
By defining what education is, it is possible to understand the underlying motivations, behaviours, and goals associated with any educational model. This will be informative and insightful when determining the future of education.
The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university. The theory and practice of teaching. A body of knowledge acquired while being educated. Information about or training in a particular field or subject.
Main Theme =
Knowledge Transfer
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How did we get here? “Around the world, there were no public systems of education, really, before the 19th century. They all came into being to meet the needs of industrialism” -Sir Ken Robinson (TED 2006) The education system as we know it was formulated and conceived during the intellectual culture of the Enlightenment and economic circumstances of the Industrial Revolution. As a result, there developed a certain model of mind, which Robinson calls ‘academic ability’. If you fit the model, you’re an academic and you are considered by society to have a better chance at a job. Those people who don’t fit the model are non-academics, and more often than not believe they’re not smart and have less chance at a job. By making this split, the system educates to a very specific person and lets all others fall through the cracks. “[..] the consequence is that many highly-talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized.” -Sir Ken Robinson (TED 2006)
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The Hierarchy The system’s view of academic ability produces a hierarchy of subject importance. The more important subjects for work are at the top. Students are discouraged to pursue the subjects at the bottom because society believes they’ll never get a job doing it.
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The Curriculum “[A]cademic ability [..] has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, because the universities designed the system in their image. If you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance.” -Sir Ken Robinson (TED 2006)
The system of education is predicated on the assumption that it will teach the generations of the future the content they will need to know to progress through higher forms of education and eventually be able to get a job. The university functions as the feeder into the ‘real world’, and the university dictates what all other ‘lower’ systems of education need to do in order for their students to progress.
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Education, Society, & Technology The system of education fits into a much larger system - the ecology of life. The larger system of the city, or life, dictates certain variables for the educational system such as policy, political shifts, and the value of certain jobs over others. Resources Processes Experimentation
The education system as we know it continues to be in a state of conservation. The system continues to teach according to the old model of the mind, favouring the subjects at the peak of the hierarchy of academic importance, and standardizing testing and grading across the board. Smaller, faster evolving systems like technology introduce disruptive behaviours and other disruptive variables that can cause the state of conservation in the system of education to collapse and force it to reorganize.
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The Future of Education is the future of ... The City
The Country
The World
Creativity
Progress... 12
Trends: Education The following pages contain an identification and analysis of the relevant trends in education. These trends will later define what education will be in the future and will provide new contexts for the Internet of Things to play a role in.
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Play Based Learning Play allows children to make connections, master essential skills and apply this knowledge in real world applications. Play Based Learning encourages the skills required to succeed in a knowledge economy through the facilitation of high levels of adaptability, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving abilities in young children. Research has shown that Play-based curriculums offer children opportunities throughout the day for abstract and creative thinking by experiencing real objects and using their senses.
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Hands-On Learning Hands-On Learning is often referred to as Participatory Learning. Hands-On Learning is a student-centred approach with a focus on questioning, critical thinking and problem solving. Hands-On Learning has been shown to develop the habits of mind that encourage sustained, long-term learning and curiosity.
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Design Thinking Design Thinking encourages learners to have the confidence to tackle complex tasks in a collaborative, empathetic, creative and thought provoking way. Design Thinking encourages the re-framing of problems and systems thinking thereby promoting the discovery of an issue and empathizing with those it impacts.
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Hybrid/Blended Learning Blended learning refers to the combination of face-to-face learning with online learning. In this trend, new demands for space and technology exist that did not present themselves before in other forms of curriculum delivery.
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MOOCs Massive Open Online Courses are a relatively new concept that enable anyone and everyone with an Internet connection and a device to take university level courses offered by well known instructors - entirely online. Most courses are free, but users can get specialized certifications for a nominal fee. Participants can learn at their own pace, on their own time, anywhere they wish. They can take tests that are adaptive and dynamic in nature, ensuring their success.
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Section Two: The Internet of Things
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What is the Internet of Things? The Internet of Things represents the network of connected objects to the Internet, and by extension, to each other. The Internet of things enables objects to collect and export data to other objects, which in turn enables this data to be accessed by the owner of such objects. The Internet of Things are being adopted in the form of wearables, automobiles, homes, cities, and industrials. As a result of reduced computing costs, the widespread adoption of smartphones, faster bandwidths, and the fact that the collection of data has become an accepted mode of achieving benefits, adoption of Internet enabled technologies is ever increasing. Cisco identified that “[The Internet of Everything, the next step in the Internet of Things] brings together people, process, data, and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before—turning information into actions that create new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunities for businesses, individuals, and countries� (Cisco 2013)
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The Link Enabled Ecology
Alexander Manu identifies a new paradigm called the Link-Enabled Ecology. In this ecology, everything is connected to everything else that makes sense. It is a complex ecosystem of interdependent and networked organic elements. Manu argues that technology’s role within the human ecology serves the function of augmenting and adjusting interactions. He further argues that this role within the human ecology will change drastically to become an essential element of the ecosystem to the point where it determines its very nature.
People Places
Objects
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Trends: Internet of Things The following pages contain an identification and analysis of the relevant trends in the internet of things. These trends will later provide the means to implement new opportunities in the future of education.
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Wearable Technologies There has been a surge of wearable devices in the past few years that signals a shift in consumer behaviour and desire. Wearables, in whatever form they will manifest in the future, will enable more secure and accurate identification systems as well as personalized interactions with other objects and environments. The wearable will be the entry point of people to engage in the link-enabled ecology.
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Alternative Realities The advancement of various technologies has allowed for the ability to augment our existing reality or create an immersive virtual reality. This has many potential applications for the future, in many contexts. These technologies will eventually be able to simulate or augment all of the senses for a truly immersive experience.
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Beacons Beacons are contextually aware objects that allow content to be transmitted to nearby devices via bluetooth or other short range communication platform. Currently millions of iOS devices are capable of acting as a beacon to transmit/receive content. Beacons will allow environments to communicate with the objects and the people who occupy them.
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IoT Control Centres Still in their early stages, apps are being developed that allow users to connect decentralized enabled objects to each other, thereby allowing them to communicate. Each object contains its own instructions and functionality (like DNA). The developers hope to incorporate object recognition into the software in the future, enabling real time customizable IoT networks.
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Section three: Opportunities
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What if taking a field trip meant exploring the Earth while lying on the couch? What if learning to cook meant virtually stepping into the world’s top restaurants and cooking schools? What if you could fully prototype and experience your ideas in a coffee shop? In the future, education won’t be limited to your current location because technology allows learning experiences to be accessed virtually. 28
What if education was free by default? What if education was truly equal access? What if you didn’t have to go to school to learn everything you would need to know for the future?
In the future, education will be accessible and of equal quality to everyone because technology allows learning to exist without prejudice. 29
What if your environment taught you about itself instead of learning about it from a textbook? What if you could query your objects for meaningful data? What if learning was human existence and work was just a physics concept? In the future, anything and anyone will have the capacity to learn anytime, anywhere, and from anything or anyone. Technology will release society from the chains of an archaic system. 30
The future of education is an unrestricted, fully immersive, experiential construct that exists at any time, anywhere in the world, and is accessed from anything or anyone. There may no longer be a need for physical schools, a dedicated teaching profession, or custom published literature. Everything that can be learned will be learned through an experience, as a conscious decision to engage in knowledge transfer. 31
Sources: Cole, Samantha. “5 Big Ways Education Will Change By 2020.” Fast Company. Fast Company, 10 Mar. 2015. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2015. Do Schools Kill Creativity? Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. Ted.com. N.p., June 2006. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2015. “Education.” Def. 1. Oxford Dictionaries. N.p., n.d. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2015. Google Images - Multiple Sources Jones, Janet. From Factory to Future: Designing a Better Environment For Learners K-6. Thesis. OCAD University Strategic Foresight and Innovation Program, 2012. Toronto: n.p., 2012. Print. Manu, Alexander. Value Creation and the Internet of Things: How the Behavior Economy Will Shape the 4th Industrial Revolution. N.p.: Gower, 2015. N. pag. Print. Manu, Alexander. Disruptive Business: Desire, Innovation and the Re-design of Business. Farnham, Surrey, England: Gower, 2010. Print. Manu, Alexander. Behaviour Space: Play, Pleasure and Discovery as a Model for Business Value. Farnham, Surrey, England: Gower, 2012. Print. Markus, Eitan. Natural Drivers of Design: Education - Biomimicry Assignment 2. 2015. Submission via Canvas. Web Mcgregor, Jane. “Space Power and the Classroom.” Forum 46.1 (2004): 13. 2004. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2015. Selinger, Michelle, Ana Sepulveda, and Jim Buchan. Education and the Internet of Everything How Ubiquitous Connectedness Can Help Transform Pedagogy. N.p.: Cisco Consulting Services and Cisco EMEAR Education Team, 2013. Print. “The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Education.” Fast Company. N.p., 09 Feb. 2015. Web. Nov.-Dec. 2015.
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