The Future of Education

Innovative technologies are continuously evolving and influencing the instructional and curriculum approaches that are integrated into higher education settings. Hsu (2016) proclaimed that “higher-level technology use will enhance every aspect of students’ learning experiences across curricular areas, so students will grow intellectually rather than merely develop isolated technology skills” (p. 30). Essentially, the role of technology in higher education is to augment human learning and academic processes (Popenici & Herr, 2017). In education, we have also observed a shift from direct instruction to student, centered active learning experiences that include educational technology. The inclusion of advanced technologies in academic settings have resulted in students being active learners in which they are engaged in learning and are also able to make meaningful connections to new content.  Technology based active learning has resulted in students being more engaged in their classes, outperforming their peers in traditional classes, and possessing more favorable views of curriculum that is technology-enhanced (Nicol, et al., 2018). Examples of technology based active learning activities include: using robots (e.g., Robobo) to provide students autonomy in developing their own projects that align course assignments with real requirements found in the marketplace (Naya, et al., 2017), utilizing artificial intelligence to provide students personalized educational opportunities (Poenici & Herr, 2018), and integrating drones for aiding in knowledge acquisition of topics such as human geography and spatial social sciences (Birtchnell & Gibson, 2015). This proposed presentation will provide an overview of the benefits of utlilizing innovative forms of technology and each of the aforementioned forms of technology and will conclude with an explaination of how they can be incorporated into higher education curriculum.

Keywords: Higher Education, Innovative Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Drones.

References:
[1] Bellas, F., Naya, M., Varela, G., Llamas, L., Bautista, M., Prieto, A., & Duro, R. L. (2017). The next generation of educational robot. In A. Ollero, A. Sanfeliu, L. Montano, N. Lau, & C. Cardira (Eds.), ROBOT advances in Intelligent systems and computing (pp. 359-369). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
[2] Birtchnell, T., & Gibson, C. (2015). Less talk and more drone: Social reserach with UAVs. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 39(1), 182-189.
[3] Hsu. P. (2016). Examining current beliefs, practices, and barriers about technology integration: A case study. TechTrends, 60, 30-40.
[4] Nicol, A. A., Owens, S. M., Coze, S., Macintryre, A., & Eastwood, C. (2018). Comparison of high-technology active learning and low-technology active learning classrooms. Active Learning in Higher Education, 19(3), 253-265.
[5] Popenici, S. A., & Kerr, S. (2017). Exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching and learning in higher education. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 12(22). Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41039-017-0062-8