18 | FEATURE | EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
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hildren are using technology from a younger and younger age. Pre-school toddlers are able to unlock an iPhone, while
an entire generation doesn’t remember life before the internet and social networking. Technology is changing education too – and it’s noticeable in everything from at empts to ‘gamify’ the learning experience (i.e. blurring the line between work and play), to virtual classrooms and online tutorials. For this article, Education Technology
decided to step back a few years further in the education market than is our usual remit to look at how technology isn’t just aff ecting HE, but primary and secondary education, also. What we learned is that, while the technology may vary based on student age, the dreams that lead it remain very much the same.
Tech for the under-10 Anyone who has ever tried to deal with a room full of primary school children will know the challenges of keeping them learning and from being distracted. Here, technology can prove immensely useful. For one thing it can help increase motivation. Primary school age students have notoriously short at ention spans, but their interest can be sparked by the right sort of technology. For instance, a colourful animated screen – as one might fi nd on an iPad or other tablet computer – can capture their at ention and keep them interested for longer than usual periods of time. By engaging the child, this technology can also help empower children and encourage them to work independently. Of course, a danger in encouraging
children to use only screens as the basis for their learning is that it encourages independent learning at a stage in their lives when children should be interacting with each other. So how do you build on the positives off ered by technology, while stripping away the negatives that would promote detachment? One solution is off ered by the UK-based
company WizeLearning, which provides a technology called the WizeFloor. The WizeFloor is, essentially, a super-sized tablet computer, although rather than using a physical screen, it replicates the same eff ect using a projector and the motion-tracking technology from Microsoft’s Kinect (the line of motion sensing input devices for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles). This monitors the movement of the children playing on it, and creates a range of games and educational activities to help them learn.
While technology in education may vary based on student age, the dreams that lead it remain very much the same. Luke Dormehl reports
“Because it’s super-sized, children get to
use their arms and their legs to gesture,” says WizeFloor’s managing director, Cameron Wade. “Think of it as a full-body tablet computer. It encourages learning through play, and gets kids moving around. There have been a lot of studies over the years into kinesthetic learning, which suggest that kids learn bet er through play than they do from sit ing still. This means that kids don’t feel that they’re being spoon-fed, and in many cases they don’t even realise how much it is that they’re learning.” The WizeFloor comes with 18 diff erent
games, 14 of which allow the users to control the content themselves. “This lets teachers incorporate the device into their own curriculums,” Wade continues. “They can change the questions being asked, they can change the content in terms of visuals, and they change how diffi cult or easy individual games are. It’s incredibly fl exible, and that’s what we feel separates us from many past interactive technologies.”
Do you know your Moodle from your Google? Wade makes a good point. Today, computers aren’t just a tacked-on extra to the learning environment, but a fundamental way of shaking it up. Traditional models of education typically feature around 30 pupils sat in rows facing a teacher. Scholars studying the development of education over the years have likened this to a factory model of “industrial schooling” that rose to prominence with the Industrial Revolution, pit ing warden-teachers against prisoner- students. The concept of virtual classrooms is seen
increasingly in HE, but it is also beginning to appear in secondary level education. For example, multiple schools around the UK, such as Manchester High School for Girls and Westborough High School, utilise what is called Moodle, an open source virtual environment, developed by education technology pioneer Martin Dougiamas. Moodle’s lack of license fee
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