Lesson 12 - Emerging Technologies

This section has looked at three very different emerging technologies: serious games; immersive technologies; and artificial intelligence. Each has the potential to influence profoundly teaching and learning in a digital age.

Both serious games and immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality will be extremely valuable in ‘niche’ areas of teaching and learning. They both have the potential to develop some of the higher-order learning skills of problem solving, analysis, intuitive thinking, and creative thinking, and also can be used to develop affective skills, such as empathy.

However, neither is likely to be a ‘core’ technology that will be extensively used across all forms of teaching. Also, both need significant investment of time and possibly money if they are to be of good quality for teaching purposes. In particular, they will need a multi-disciplinary team approach to design and development.

Therefore, it will be essential to choose the right kind of project, such as topics that are difficult to teach using other methods, or projects aimed at learners who struggle with more conventional teaching methods. Above all, it will be necessary to identify and exploit the optimum educational affordances of these two technologies.

Artificial intelligence is somewhat different to the other two emerging technologies. Artificial intelligence to date manages well the presentation and testing of content acquisition, comprehension, and understanding, but so far has not shown much promise in supporting the development or assessment of the higher-level cognitive skills needed in a digital age. However, by focusing on supporting learners’ comprehension and understanding, AI can free up human teachers and instructors to focus their time on the development of these higher-order skills. Again, this emphasizes the importance of teachers and instructors moving their focus away from content delivery – which AI can increasingly manage well – and focusing more on teaching methods that support higher-order skills development.

Furthermore, these three technologies are not really separate and unrelated but will become increasingly integrated. AI applications could improve the power and range of both serious games and virtual reality. Games can be designed within a virtual reality. The extent to which these technologies become feasible in education will depend heavily on applications outside education which can then be carried over and adapted for educational purposes.

Again, though we come back to three critical issues:

• What are the educational goals of the application?
• To what extent does the application help with the development of higher-order cognitive and/or affective skills?
• What are the costs and organizational implications of such applications within education?