Digital transformation In Education
By: Jeff Coull
Digital transformation is generally associated with the private sector, but what about our public education system? The use of technology in today’s classrooms has the potential to enable, expand, and accelerate learning in ways previously unimaginable. Whether through interactive whiteboards, tablets, apps, robotic toys, or gamified quizzes, technology is changing the way schools work.[1] Furthermore, school boards and universities are starting to embrace a cloud-first mentality and migrating their digital operations to cloud based services.
Let’s go back to 2002. I’m in grade 12 calculus wondering why I need to know how long it will take for the volume of the cone-shaped pile of grain to reach 150 m³. It must have taken me twenty minutes to figure that one out, and while it certainly wasn’t a waste of time, I wouldn’t classify it as an efficient use of time. Today, you can find that answer out in seconds (and everything you ever wanted to know
about the cone shaped pile of grain) using Google. Google can provide me with the volume, radius, height, slant height, surface area, lateral surface and base area in only a few clicks. Cone-shaped piles of grain have never been so riveting!
Whether this is a good or bad development depends on what kind of person you are. Do you care more about the journey or the outcome? Do you care if you know the formula for calculating the rate of change for the volume of the cone or do you just want to know how long you’re going to be waiting there for the cone-shaped pile of grain? In today’s fast paced world, getting the right answer as quickly as possible is given priority over knowing exactly why it’s correct. That’s why robots (AI) are taking over the world, and I for one publicly welcome our robot overlords. Regardless, of whether you are pro Skynet or not, the fact remains that students have tools available to them that were unimaginable just twenty years ago. Their cell phones can replace calculators and put entire libraries in the palm of their hands. Is this a good thing though? And if it is, is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) therefore a good thing?
It depends on who you ask. If you ask the Ontario government, then BYOD is a bad thing. Cell phones were banned from classrooms in the Fall of 2019. Lisa Thompson was the ON Education Minister at the time, saying “Ontario’s students need to be able to focus on their learning — not their cellphones” in a released statement[2]. In a vacuum, I don’t think anyone is going to argue with that statement. The ban also provided for exceptions when teachers incorporate cell phone use in lessons, and children with health or medical needs are exempt. We don’t live in a vacuum though and various organizations immediately responded with statements that the ban was unenforceable due to the exceptions being so widely applicable, citing previous bans that had been unsuccessful. Notably, school boards in Toronto and New York had tried in the past and rescinded their bans. Furthermore, 33% of all elementary and 66% of secondary schools encourage students to “bring your own device” (BYOD) every day[3]. If you asked teachers and students, it would seem as though BYOD is a good thing, or at the very least, an unavoidable thing. To combat the obvious potential abuses of BYOD, tech-savvy schools are implementing firewalls that deny access to non-educational sites such as Snapchat, TikTok or Netflix.[4] This game of cat-and-mouse with new tech implemented and students finding a way around it is the new normal whether we are comfortable with it or not.
New devices aren’t the only tech revolutionizing education. Many post-secondary institutions are embracing a digital-first approach. This doesn’t just refer to virtual delivery exclusively, but also means that administrative tools and back-end architecture is cloud-first, on-prem second. Universities and colleges all over the world are embracing the need to support their stakeholders no matter when, no matter where. It’s no surprise that online-only Universities are at the forefront of this as they are further along in their digital adoption journey. Athabasca University is the first university in Canada to migrate entirely to cloud-based services with the goal of leveraging AI at greater scale in the future.[5]
Bringing all our data together in our own cloud environment will make artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning at scale possible. It also makes IT systems’ downtime a thing of the past with disaster recovery in place that takes seconds, not hours. Learners around the globe rely on our accessible learning around the clock. -Jennifer Schaeffer, VP IT and CIO at Athabasca University
A future that is closer than people realize will include AI resources ‘teaching’ alongside human professors.
However, the most impactful and the most visible aspect of the digitization of education is probably the least interesting and maybe even the most hated – online delivery. Zoom and Teams et al. have replaced physical classrooms in these challenging COVID-times and no one is happy about it. Every teacher, parent or student I’ve spoken with is unhappy to say it politely. However, they also recognize there isn’t a good solution, or even an OK solution for that matter. Virtual learning has obvious pitfalls without solutions, especially as you get into younger classrooms. In-school learning has one obvious and major downfall as well and everyone is just trying to find a balance. I suspect that balance will require a further emphasis on technology and force our elementary schools and their boards to further embrace technology in the classroom and throughout their organizations.
So, what does this look like? I expect that digital delivery is here to stay and the variety of applications will continue to grow. In December 2021 the ON government announced a $50mil investment to support virtual learning and educational tech in post-secondary institutions.[6] The learnings and cost-saving processes from this program will inevitably trickle down to younger age groups. Institutions will eventually adopt AI that monitors eye movement and facial expressions of students participating in virtual learning to automatically respond to changes in behaviour. This will prompt automatic adjustments in AI teaching resources so that every student receives a radically personalized learning experience. I also expect an increased emphasis on the gamification of education for motivating students no differently than collecting badges, skins, characters, and titles in their favourite video games. Do you think staring at a laptop all day is hurting your kid’s brain? Well just wait until that screen is two inches away. Extended reality (XR) (a catch all term for virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality) will become a widely used tool in the near future. Imagine students taking a walk around their school’s property, tasked with naming the various plants and animals, receiving badges as they complete their tasks, viewing a scoreboard of everyone’s badge count, and all from the comfort of their couch. Teachers will focus more on developing tech solutions for delivering the curriculum and managing outcomes, aka grades, as opposed to actual in-person, in-class delivery.
That’s a lot to take in and some of it probably won’t come to pass exactly as described above, but it will arrive in one form or another. Tech innovation and adoption is inevitable across all sectors. We just don’t know what forms it will take and how our government and school boards will react. More importantly, we may not know the impact on students for many years to come, making tech adoption in schools a challenging subject no matter which side you’re on.
[1] People for Education (2019). Connecting to Success: Technology in Ontario Schools. Toronto, ON: People for Education
[2] https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2019/03/12/ontario-to-ban-cellphones-from-classrooms.html
[3] People for Education (2019). Connecting to Success: Technology in Ontario Schools. Toronto, ON: People for Education.
[4] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-bring-your-own-device-kinkora-high-school-1.5874942
[5] https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2020/09/23/2098015/0/en/Learning-in-the-Cloud-Canada-s-First-University-to-Move-Operations-into-One-Secure-Cloud-Infrastructure-Sets-the-Stage-for-the-Future-of-Learning.html
[6] https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/59600/ontario-invests-in-virtual-learning-strategy