Ubiquitous Learning and Instructional Technologies MOOC’s Updates

The Future of Education

Education, as a whole, has been strongly influenced by advances in technology, with high demand for innovation, personalization, inclusion and authenticity. The legacy left by the industrial revolution is increasingly losing its meaning in the context of the digital age that has promoted a paradigmatic change in our ways of living, learning and acting and, like any change in the history of humanity, has provoked the adaptation of behaviors and the need for innovations that guarantee our evolution, our survival.

Therefore, we can no longer turn our eyes away from the digital transformation of educational spaces as a basis for training and preparing professionals and citizens for this future! Living with technology has enabled us to learn how to deal with the excess of information and the scarcity of human interaction. It has provided us with facilities and solved everyday problems; it has enabled us to access a vast field of content, visions and perspectives, while conditioning us to biases and thoughts generated by algorithms. This complex environment brings with it many challenges, huge opportunities and a lot of learned lessons. So, why not integrate this new way of perceiving and living in the world into educational contexts?

The new learning, proposed in this course, conects with this holistic idea in which the education of an individual is shaped by various aspects in addition to the programmatic content of the schools and their individual performance. It considers experiences, interactions and technology as fundamental resources in this construction, being the technology the key tool to create both the design of experiences and the dynamics of relationships in these environments. From this point of view, we can think about schools as learning communities, where both individual and collective development are considered and the digital environments are the learning territory in which they interact, learn, share and validate this development process.

I highlight here some learning strategies that uses technology as a resource:

- Virtual Learning Platforms: something that is already present in many institutions mainly with the Covid-19 event, but still following a traditional pattern in teaching and teacher-student relations. Digital environments need to be increasingly co-created with students fostering their autonomy in managing their development and improving interaction with colleagues and teachers.

- Ubiquitous Innovation: In order for ubiquitous learning to happen, innovation needs to be everywhere starting with the ways of thinking education, its purpose and relevance. Only a digital platform, computers in the classroom and the use of quizzes do not set up an innovative educational model! The platform should be a space for the repository of content, sharing of insights and experiments, productive interactions, data storage, customization, continuous feedback and evaluation of each student's progress, being an ally tool for teachers in instructional design and materials customization.

- Personalization and adaptability: Teachers and instructional designers need to see the technological resources, as well as AI, as allies in the personalization of learning paths, and can dynamically adjust the content and evaluations based on the data generated by the students themselves. This personalization allows the learning trajectory to be more inclusive and more accurately reflects the level of development of each student. The adaptive evaluation method made by AI, for example, changes the difficulty of the questions based on the student's answers by analyzing the process used by him to get to that answer, as well as identifying any hesitations and patterns of mistakes. It helps educators make informed decisions to support student learning and achievement effectively.

- Authentic Assessment: traditional assessment formats, such as multiple choice tests, are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Performance-based, project-based evaluations and portfolio creation enable students to demonstrate their skills and understanding in authentic contexts, as well as reflecting real-world challenges. Assessments can involve solving complex problems, conducting research, collaborating with colleagues, and presenting findings in various formats. These models provide a broader and continuous view of the skills developed by a student, as well as opening up space for the manifestation of original ideas and unique expressions.

- Hard and Soft Skills: Not only academic knowledge will be fundamental in education, but also essential soft skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking and resilience should enter in the hall of disciplines as well as technologies in learning coding and data science. In the same way, assessments will measure not only academic skills, but critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills essential to the challenges of the twenty-first century.

We know that technology will continue to play a key role in education in the future, and this may involve the use of AI-driven platforms for personalized learning experiences and evaluation tools that adapt to the individual needs of students. In addition, virtual reality and augmented reality will be increasingly present in immersive experiences that simulate real-world scenarios for students to demonstrate their skills and knowledge. These new educational models, characterized by a mix of technology, innovation, soft skills and authenticity, will be vital to individual professional success anda also to generate positive impact across society in the future. A future that has already begun!

  • Botagoz Bermukhambetova