Foreword
The galloping development of science and technology has impacted our life deeply. As a significant part of modern life, education is also changing greatly with technology, bringing technology for education to our attention.
Technology is a double-edged sword. Some people believe that technology is exerting positive influence on education by lowering the cost of education, increasing the efficiency, and opening up more opportunities of pursuing education. However, others contend that technology can never achieve what a traditional class can and may even decrease the efficiency, and that introducing technology into education is a waste of resources.
What does technology mean to you? What are some of the most cutting-edge technologies that can be applied to education? What can we do with it? What are their influences, and what do people think about them? By answering these questions, we hope to provide you with a more comprehensive purview of technology for education.
We will also be investigating some of the most representative technologies, listed as follows:
· Augmented Reality (AR), which is considered to be the next-generation technology and has great potentials;
· Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), which have existed for several years, yet still causes heated discussions;
· Lifelong learning, which we believe is going to be one of the hottest topics in education. Technology may be more essential in lifelong learning than we can possibly imagine.
(Foreword by Melody, edited by Edison)
How MOOC Helped Him Nail a Class with 400+ Students
Dr. Torsten Juelich tells us why he introduced MOOC into his academic writing class at UCAS, and shares his opinions on technology for education.
How did you come up with the idea of introducing the MOOC platform into your class? In which way did you expect MOOC to help with your teaching?
The idea of MOOC came up when the college asked me to teach 400 students! I did some research, and was introduced to MOOC by Yizhou*. He then set up the system, and we have been using it for our classes ever since, with great success.
(* Editor's note: Yizhou Fan [Chinese: 范逸洲] is a graduate student from the graduate school of education of Peking University. He specializes in the utilization of MOOCs and flipped classroom models.)
There are a number of things where MOOC is beneficial: enabling the teacher to handle so many students; enabling students to preview and review the material as often as they like; and enabling students and teachers to communicate with each other freely, using one platform.
It was very successful when we used it last semester. (It was) very convenient. And actually there's a concept called "flipped classroom" which means students learn online and discuss with the teachers offline?
Glad to hear! Yes, that is exactly how we use MOOC; students prepare for next class, and we then go through the solutions and questions, as well as do more exercises.
But researches also showed that boys do better in flipped classroom settings than girls, because girls sometimes need more communication...
Okay, for that, we have Q&A after class. So far, there is no sign of more girls making use of that communication channel than boys.
So generally speaking, you think MOOC helps a lot.
It certainly helps the teacher, and from the feedback we receive, it also helps our students, yes, especially for second language courses like ours.
But you stopped using it for the Academic Reading class. Why? Are you still using it for the graduates' class in Huairou?
Because we do not cover writing theory. We mostly do reading, so no need for MOOC. And yes, most definitely! We are now in part 2, peer review on our SPOC (Small Private Online Course).
Glad to hear that. I like that peer review! So, definitely positive comments on MOOC. What do you think about your students using electronic devices in your class? Do you think they are using electronic devices to learn or for fun?
We encourage our students to use e-devices, mainly to do our in-class tasks via Wenjuan. While this is very convenient, students sometimes complain that it is difficult to use for writing. Also, I feel students use their mobile phones too often to check their WeChat accounts, but by and large, I have no problems with it, and think it is a useful tool.
If you can introduce another brand new technology into your classroom, what would it be? For example, AR, VR, holographic displays, interactive blackboards etc.
I really need some technology that allows me as a teacher instant feedback with my students writing, or answers
there are a number of different types around, but never had a chance to test them.
Like an interactive blackboard?
Maybe... if that allows students to write something on their phones, and that gets submitted to the blackboard? As for VR, I am not sure if that would serve the purpose of teacher-student interaction in class. Students still emphasize the need for personal interaction, so our mix of MOOC and class is probably best.
Students can take notes or make annotations on their iPads, and the blackboard can show them. We have this kind of blackboard on campus in some classrooms, but teachers don't like to use it.
Well, I would like to get an introduction into this type of tech.
So for you, interaction between students and teachers is the most important thing!
For me as a teacher too, yes - but students themselves express that need too. Neither I nor Yizhou believe in tech-only classes. The question is more: how many students should be in one class, and what exactly should the teacher do with class time.
Yes, I agree. It won't be long before the new tech gets used widely! Okay, so what do you think is the influence of technology for education on teachers? I met some teachers who prefer the traditional class. They think learning how to customize the tech into their class can make a lot of trouble.
In general, teachers fear that new tech will increase their workload even more, so often they are reluctant to use it. In contrast, we embraced it because it was the only feasible way to handle so many students! So, I think it does mean extra work in the beginning, but in the long run it makes things much easier.
That's true. Maybe teachers need more excellent TAs like Yizhou!
(Laughs) I know, I am very lucky.
But here comes the question. What if the school spend money on hiring more teachers?
There will never be enough teachers to have small classes of 10-20 students. It's too expensive for universities. Education is becoming a service, (and) profit is priority number one, not quality of education. That's the way the cookie crumbles. So we are doing our best to combine both worlds' impact on students.
What do you think technologies for education mean for students?
Difficult for me to answer, but studies show that the best students learn well no matter what system is used; however, students with learning difficulties seem to be somewhat handicapped by too much technology. Again, in our mixed model, these issues should not come up; we offer students a Q&A after every class.
In general, what is your attitude towards the different technologies that are being applied to education?
I think new tech can enrich the learning experience, and provide most students with additional assistance for their
learning processes; however, it is still important to provide as much time and space for direct interaction with the teaching team as possible. Therefore new tech must not be used to reduce the number of teachers, but should be seen as a tool to facilitate learning.
So actually the best technology is not the newest one, but the one that can meet the teacher's need...
Exactly! We always need to be careful when choosing tech, as we cannot be sure why it was invented: to enable a company to improve its profit margins, or because it has been proven to assist in learning objectives.
Lifelong Learning
By Chris Kan
The influence of technology does not only unfold within the classroom. Apart from the MOOCs which challenge the necessity of professors and AR that redefines our learning experience, the arising of AI and information technologies are either replacing or redefining traditional jobs.
The reformation of education is required under the radical change of technology. How many times did you cram up before the exam and forget everything immediately and spontaneously right after? This phenomenon is considered to be quite natural in traditional classes. Though it may work in elementary educations for adolescents to build up their basic knowledge and skills, this kind of learning by rote is never suitable but instead detrimental to adults who are facing enormous challenges in this fast evolving world.
The Economist closely examined this problem and dedicated its Jan 14th issue to it, the cover headlines reading: “Lifelong learning - How to survive in the age of automation”.
One of the most dramatic consequences is discrimination. Driven by the capital market aided by technology, there exists considerable growth in the wage premium associated with higher education and cognitive ability. Skill demands have persistently risen in industrialized countries, and the economic value of inequality alongside its potential social costs is to be seriously considered.
Therefore, governments and organizations should endeavor to combine technology with education to keep the job market alive and reduce inequality.
While not everyone will successfully navigate the shifting jobs market, technology can help and offers various ways for life-long learning, the foundation of which lies in the redefining of learning and rethinking the status of human being against machines. In such an age of information explosion, information is too easy to get. It is not information itself that counts, for whatever you want to know just it consult the internet, but the capability of internalization, the formation of structures between bunches of soft materials and the attention payed to any possible connections are definitely critical. Creativity prefers the connected mind, and the way to reach such a stage is to rise above all the traditional staffs with the help of technology while not losing our self-awareness to form our own structure of knowledge.
All in all, we are compelled to brood on the essence of education under the circumstance that the technology is constantly shifting the world around us. In terms of learning, as the famous predictor Alvin Toffler put it, “the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” Technology require us to question the ultimate goal of education which I believe is also the core meaning of life-long learning. Albert Einstein’s famous quotation is now more than significant: once you stop learning, you start dying.
Bibliography:
1. "Lifelong Learning": from The Economist, Jan 14th 2017.
2. Skills, education, and the rise of earnings inequality among the “other 99 percent”, by David H. Autor. Science 23 May 2014:Vol. 344, Issue 6186, pp. 843-851.