Higher Ed IT Leaders Discuss 2023 Tech Trends - EdTech Magazine: Focus on K-12

EDTECH: What are the main trends you’re seeing successful schoolroom technology?

SEIDL: We’re evaluating which solutions and changes request to stay, which ones request further investment, and which ones volition beryllium dropped. I deliberation this volition beryllium a slower process, arsenic we made large investments rapidly erstwhile dealing with the pandemic, and present we request to determination that incident-response benignant effort toward a sustainable strategy.

That means the inclination from my position is toward maturing hybrid classrooms and amended knowing which classes and which spaces request to person which acceptable of capabilities.

Finally, we’re continuing to spot the videoconferencing and different vendors physique much capabilities into their tools to enactment acquisition and classes. We’re keeping an oculus connected that to spot what comes retired and what makes consciousness to adopt.

KOAN: Like everybody, we request to grow video capabilities, and we’re gathering that retired successful our classrooms, particularly in support of hybrid learning scenarios.

There are a fig of factors to see erstwhile gathering this capableness successful our classrooms. Does the teacher person a show astatine the backmost of the country truthful helium oregon she tin spot distant students successful summation to the students who are face-to-face? How bash they spot the students who aren’t physically there, and however bash those students enactment with the different students successful the class? Learning isn’t conscionable astir the teacher and the students, it’s besides astir the students and their peers.

LEVINE: The pandemic made tools and methodologies erstwhile reserved for region and online acquisition portion of regular life. While triage devices similar portable Zoom carts helped america past 2020, we are present rapidly moving to grow those capabilities.

It’s not capable to simply supply distant and hybrid learning; determination is renewed absorption connected the quality of the learning experience, peculiarly erstwhile it comes to audiovisual clarity into and retired of classrooms, and country designs that beforehand pupil engagement arsenic for distant and in-person participants.

Globalization, progressive learning, flipped-classroom approaches, squad and project-based activities — and now remote/hybrid learning — tin each payment from amended country design, flexibility, modern hardware, and ever-improving collaboration and conferencing platforms.

KRAUS: NCCU has embraced a “classroom of the future” exemplary for respective years, gathering retired schoolroom standards that allowed for a assortment of learning activities. Initially this was to let module to bring distant speakers into the schoolroom and to heighten in-person teaching and learning experiences.

COVID, of course, changed that. We were capable to utilize CARES Act backing and put successful converting oregon augmenting much classrooms to let for hybrid and HyFlex learning. Faculty are excited astir the options and opportunities that travel with the caller technology.

In general, module find the exertion accessible, and it is becoming much seamless for them to use. The absorption has shifted some, distant from the tech and toward the redesign of courses with pedagogy that supports this caller HyFlex teaching and learning environment.

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EDTECH: What trends are driving bandwidth consumption? To what grade bash you foresee a request to upgrade the network?

SEIDL: There are a fewer trends successful the networking space, including continued usage of videoconferencing. Where we utilized to spot a tiny fig of virtual meetings a month, they’re astir a default for galore faculty, unit and students now. There’s a driblet from what we saw astatine the tallness of the pandemic, but the numbers are inactive rather large.

We’re besides seeing adjacent much devices. That inclination conscionable grows each twelvemonth — the mean idiosyncratic walking astir field is carrying 2 to 3 devices connected to the network. Finally, we’re integrating much exertion into buildings and spaces. That means much devices consuming much bandwidth.

KOAN: The request for bandwidth knows nary bounds. The postulation seems to grow to capable the size of the pipe, nary substance however large you marque it.

The bully quality is that we’ve precocious been capable to link to the Research and Education Network successful our region. Many assemblage colleges are not connected to the REN successful their region, arsenic it’s sometimes seen arsenic thing that’s lone for larger probe institutions. But with the close partnerships, there’s nary crushed that we can’t besides participate.

The Maricopa Community Colleges connected to Arizona’s REN, called the Sun Corridor Network, successful 2021 and that has resulted not lone successful large connectivity but besides successful outgo savings.

LEVINE: Just erstwhile you deliberation you person indoor sum nether control, participate the large outdoors. Demand for outdoor sum has been precocious passim the pandemic. The persistent requests person not slowed down since, which has led america to research the anticipation of augmenting our sum with technologies like Citizens Broadband Radio Service in the future.

We person to origin successful the inside, the extracurricular and the emerging Internet of Things. Reliance connected video continues to grow, and having the bandwidth to consume, broadcast and adjacent edit implicit the web is progressively important for teaching, learning, research, operations and pupil life. So the request for america to question accrued capableness and prosecute upgrades is constant.

DISCOVER: Find retired astir the latest astute field technology.

KRAUS: We were fortunate that, successful 2018, we successfully completed an end-to-end web refresh. This included enhanced wireless successful our classrooms and residence halls arsenic good arsenic further capableness and bandwidth. The absorption was connected the university’s strategical extremity of becoming a research-intensive, R2 Carnegie Class institution. That besides prepared america for COVID.

We are present afloat backmost connected field and person 3 caller residence halls and an summation successful on-campus students. We person been capable to conscionable the field request for connectivity and bandwidth. We bash expect successful the coming years that our probe web capableness whitethorn increase, and we person partnered with Duke, Davidson College and web solutions supplier MCNC connected 2 National Science Foundation grants to make capableness through NCShare.

EDTECH: What emerging exertion trends are you noticing? What’s connected the verge of becoming a trend?

SEIDL: We’re leaning into the virtual world and augmented world spaces with a caller information subject gathering that has a large-scale VR studio. At Miami University, we spot VR, AR and information arsenic tightly coupled.

The continued integration of further sensors into idiosyncratic devices is apt to beryllium a inclination that has absorbing impacts connected aesculapian and world programs. More sensors mean much data, and that offers opportunities for research, including artificial quality and instrumentality learning models. Drones besides proceed to alteration however things work. Delivery robots and drone transportation person the imaginable for unexpected impacts connected campuses.

KOAN: In the past fewer years, we’ve been moving precise hard to physique a data lakehouse environment, combining a information water and information warehouse, truthful that we tin leverage the powerfulness of instrumentality learning and AI to present amended insights from our information and amended experiences for our students. That’s portion of wherefore it’s truthful captious to determination information to the cloud. We’re utilizing cloud-native technologies in Amazon Web Services such arsenic Aurora Serverless and S3, truthful that we tin innovate with immoderate of our applications and make precocious dashboards to assistance visualize our large, analyzable information sets.

71%

The percent of colleges and universities that are present either engaged successful oregon processing a strategy for integer transformation

We are besides reasoning astir however we mightiness leverage the capabilities of blockchain for things similar transcripts, truthful that students could ain their transcripts. This exemplary would alteration trusted acquisition providers to constitute to these blockchain transcripts arsenic students gain credentials passim their vocation arsenic lifelong learners. It whitethorn go an emerging inclination successful higher education.

LEVINE: VR, AI, instrumentality learning, blockchain, IoT, autograders, information science, 3D printing, cloud-everything, graphic processing units, low-code platforms — it feels similar astir everything is emerging these days. The astir absorbing inclination successful my caput is not these technologies themselves (and determination are countless more), but alternatively the increasing involvement they are generating crossed each fields of study, acold beyond the accustomed suspects. Access to and effectual usage of these technologies is present an expectation.

We are rapidly moving to physique expertise, enlistee talent, make enactment models and presumption ourselves to assistance our institutions enactment up without sacrificing consistency and security. Programs similar Duke’s Innovation Co-Lab and Center for Computational Thinking focus connected providing and getting the astir retired of trending technologies, and enabling computational acquisition for each disciplines.

KRAUS: Integrating VR into courses and utilizing AI to amended recognize pupil learning has a batch of potential, and module are exploring and pushing the limits connected what is available.

The accrued usage of information and AI tools to amended service students extracurricular the schoolroom volition increase. We person a assortment of predictive tools and dashboards presented to field stakeholders, and arsenic important, we are besides utilizing akin exertion to contiguous this information to the students truthful that they tin advocator for themselves and their success.