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What Will the Future of Learning Look Like?

What Will Learning Look Like in the Future?

By andrewdeen14Published 2 years ago 3 min read
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What Will the Future of Learning Look Like?
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

As the world witnesses’ fundamental shifts across nearly every industry and sector in how technology is changing the way we do things, education is no stranger to this phenomenon. The ways people learn are changing dramatically, whether in educational institutions or the workplace, and there is no end in sight.

From differences in how primary education is delivered to how new technologies are being adapted for advanced forms of training and professional development, technology is changing the game for learning.

Shifts in Primary Education

Technology is changing the way that education looks and works across every age level. This is starting with the very youngest age levels. As teachers work to maintain student engagement in an increasingly overstimulated world, they often turn to incorporating technological components into their curricula and teaching styles.

Preschoolers regularly see and interact with more devices in their classrooms today than college students in technological courses might have a decade ago.

At every level, most children and teenagers are inundated by devices during the average school day. Children receive school-issued laptops and iPads.

Teachers incorporate sanctioned use of their smartphones into the classroom to engage with online or real-time quizzes and activities. Homework is increasingly completed and turned in digitally. PowerPoints and video content can form the basis for many class curricula.

As we advance further, technology use in primary education will become increasingly ubiquitous.

Hardwares and softwares that are currently too expensive for the average school to own - things like 3D printers or sophisticated design software suites - will continue to become more attainable.

Courses, Programs, and Entire Degrees Delivered Remotely

The advent of a worldwide pandemic like COVID-19 solidified and strengthened what had already been a growing trend in education. As technology has advanced and matured over the past 5-10 years, it has become practically feasible to offer not just single college courses but entire degree programs completely online.

Numbers of college degrees are innovating how they deliver the training their graduates need and are making them more technologically heavy.

As an example, nursing is a degree area that is quickly developing creative methods of delivering content that would have traditionally been much more hands-on.

Today, online collegiate degrees are earning themselves (and their graduates) much more clout than they used to. When the world was forced to move huge portions of its formerly in-person activities to virtual and remote platforms, online degrees became a vital tool that helped keep education moving forward even as lockdowns and restrictions brought in-person learning to a halt for sometimes long periods of time.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

For technologies to create wholesale change amongst communities and cultures, a two-pronged approach is required. The tech needs to be available, cost-effective, and innovative. And the population needs to accept its use and propagate it.

Several distinct technology families sit on the cutting edge of development and wide-scale adoption. One of these is the area of Virtual or Augmented Reality (VR or AR).

Though many people know the gist of what VR or AR might be, relatively few people around the world have ever seen, experienced, or interacted with VR/AR. However, though VR/AR is still very new, its early iterations offer a set of very tantalizing benefits that could change the way certain educational spheres operate.

VR/AR technology refers to creating digital simulations and experiences using both software and hardware. There are already consumer-grade VR goggles and other products available today for early adopters, which are little more than novelties at this stage.

However, more robust examples of VR/AR that involve outfitted rooms or spaces that are designed to create fully immersive simulation experiences are in use for a variety of applications.

Corporate, Professional, and On-The-Job Training

One area with particular interest in VR/AR technology is the realm of specialized professional or workforce training. The potential applications and benefits of VR/AR in this space are numerous and could create fundamental change in the process of training individuals for professional roles.

VR/AR would allow trainees to experience realistic, immersive simulations of tasks or scenarios that would otherwise be dangerous or impossible to replicate for training purposes.

It would also allow for more data capture and sensory monitoring for trainees, such as monitoring heart rates or other biological data during a simulation to assess fitness or stress levels.

VR/AR also removes geographical or location limitations and allows “virtual” access to landscapes, areas, locations, and more that wouldn’t be otherwise feasible.

As technology continues to develop and is further integrated into the educational experience over the coming years, we will see wholesale changes take place that can enhance how people learn in a variety of ways, contexts, and education types.

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