Technologies Impacting Current and Future Education

Cloud computing: the complete delivery of computing services | significant benefits to schools include the ability to access on a range of devices making learning mobile. Ubiquitous learning. Will schools even be required in the future if everyone can access anywhere/anytime? Cloud computing impacted us all during the covid pandemic. It meant students could continue to follow a classroom programme and keep connected. It did reveal issues of inequity. Students without internet, devices being shared amongst family members and lack of structure resulted in many disengaging. For some students cloud computing allows for increased agency and self direction. For students who are intrinsically motivated, they will realise they can learn on their own. This could result in a genuine heutogogical approach where they are completely directing their own learning. What will this mean for others? Disengagement in school and learning completely? In these instances, school spaces are necessary where a teacher is there to guide and motivate.

Virtual Reality: Users use a headset connected to a computer and a controller to carry out actions in an immersive environment. Headsets can track movements of the head and eyes changing perspectives of the user. Users can walk around in the immersive environment. Virtual Reality could be a technology with huge impact in my context. What if the breakout rooms inside the sychronous meeting spaces were accessible via VR? How would the experience be altered for students if they could be virtually in the room with others for their literary discussions? Would it improve the quality of discussions? Would it improve engagement in the discussions? The virtual immersive space could be student-led.

Having VR breakout rooms would enhance collaborative practice by creating virtual spaces for students to participate in literary discussions. This could occur with students beyond the walls of their immediate classroom. This way they are experiencing more perspectives and learning beyond their own world. To lead this would require me to have access to equipment and learn how to use it myself. I would need to develop an implementation plan which would include the pedagogical approach which sits behind it, the benefits to students and the digital fluency skills required by teachers and students. Something to consider which would have a major impact is the accessibility to equipment and the cost of the equipment.

VR breakout rooms delivers for a diverse range of students because many students enjoy the social and oral aspects of learning better than more traditional written tasks. In VR breakout rooms, students can bring their own experiences and cultural capital to the discussion.

For VR breakout rooms to be a part of the teacher’s tools they would need to have an innovator’s mindset. They would need to be a person who is interested and ready to trying new technologies to add value to their students’ experiences. They would need to believe in dialogic pedagogy and understand the value of student discussion in the learning experience.