Abstract:

The world is now in the age of mobilism and entering the age of artificial intelligence, learning analytics and robotics. New technology tools fit more readily and naturally into our lives; increasingly broad, inexpensive, and easy access to internet wireless devices and a variety of web-based personal publishing and social software tools have made computing truly a ubiquitous and “continuous” part of our lives. What is important is the fact that essentially anyone who wants mobile device can afford to purchase one. Furthermore, the adoption of mobile devices has been quite rapid, as smartphone sales surpassed global PC shipments for the first time in history in 2010, and after that sales has surpassed those of feature phones many times.

We are using in our daily life a plethora of of context-aware tools. Such tools are built on by following contemporary human–computer interaction paradigms (Bluetooth beacons, RFID tags, QR codes, Augmented intelligence, GPS, etc.), which are now mainstream in current mobile devices, navigators, smart watches and other IoT devices. The just-in-time and contextualized information afforded by these devices can serve as evidence to support partially formed ideas and misunderstandings, to trigger comparison with previously stored data on the devices, and to support an inquiry process or dialogue in situ. These affordances are enabling us to prepare instructional designs based on the ideas suggested almost decade ago by Roschelle and Pea in their seminal paper on wireless learning devices.

Emerging technology should be used so that it fulfills basic educational goal:
1) develop responsible citizens;
2) develop lifelong learners;
3) develop basic knowledge and literacy;
4) develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.

However, it is not easy task because there are major challenges in implementing that ubiquitous and pervasive technology in classrooms. First challenge is large learning gap among learners in the classroom, which makes classroom curriculum difficult to fulfill and cater to each individual learners’ learning. Second challenge is the fact that burden of learning and using technology usually lies on the teachers. Proper training and support has to be available and provided to in-service and pre-service teachers. Third challenge is the teacher centered model of teaching and learning. In other words, in order to support the use of (emergent) technology in the classrooms, the existing curriculum in schools should be restructured and teachers should be rewarded. Fourth, more attention should be made on the use of technology instead of technology itself.

To address 21st century challenges and opportunities new designs and possibilities, such as user modeling, mobile devices and networks, rich interfaces and interfaces including gamification and intelligent systems and educational data mining should be used to:
1) personalize education;
2) assess students’ learning in individual and group tasks;
3) diminish boundaries;
4) develop alternative teaching strategies and learning designs;
5) Enhance roles of stakeholders; and to address policy changes just like Woolf has argued.

In this presentation, the recent research results and contemporary technological advances are explored together in order to couple emergent technology and learning together.

Keywords:

Emergent technology, mobile devices, artificial intelligence, robotics, learning analytics, learning, teaching.