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campusreview.com.au
Tech and disruption
Emerging technology is spelling
the end of many traditional
teaching methods, the TEM
conference has heard.
By Kirstie Chlopicki
A
record number of education
professionals convened in
Melbourne recently for the
annual Tertiary Education Management
conference.
More than 700 academics attended
conference sessions over several days,
drawing wisdom, research results and
industry ideas from education professionals
across the country.
Campus Review attended the event to
give you a summary of two key sessions.
THE DEATH OF THE LECTURE
THEATRE IS NIGH
Deakin University academics are planning
to move away from the traditional teaching
model within the next 10 years, with lecture
theatre use estimated to decline by more
than 20 per cent.
Presenting their research at the ATEM
conference, timetabling manager David
Reanney and space utilisation manager
Terry Roche revealed plans for a new
seven-storey “active learning” building to be
delivered by 2020.
Their session at the conference,
titled ‘Understanding What Pedagogical
Shift Means for the Teaching Space
Infrastructure’, discussed issues of space
at universities, the learning preferences of
today’s students, and their increasing use of
mobile technology such as laptops, tablets
and the cloud.
6
“For us, Burwood campus experiences
the most growth, and we started to
become concerned about a capacity
problem that would eventuate around
2017,” Roche said.
“There’s also a shift towards active
learning spaces. An active learning space
is one where students can work in groups
and there is a high level of interaction with
technology.
“Whatever we did, we were going to run
out of space, and we had to come up with
a new interactive model, so we built an
analysis of how students spend their time
and use the campus during their studies.”
Based on the studies, it is estimated that
education delivery in lecture theatres will
decline by at least 20 per cent by 2026,
while computer lab use is expected to
decline by 50 per cent.
“Deakin is looking to challenge the
traditional academic workplace,” Reanney
said.
“We’ve designed new buildings to be as
flexible as possible so we have the ability to
adapt to change.
“Effectively there are no lecture theatres
in this building – it’s all flat floor space.”
Deakin’s new building includes a new
school of law, and will be delivered by
mid-2020.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AND
ITS EDUCATIONAL POTENTIAL
The future is here, and the potential for
emerging technologies to improve tertiary
education is boundless, the University of
Canterbury’s Alex Hanlon says.
The executive director of learning
resources presented a session on
innovation and disruption at the
conference, applying key new technologies
– such as virtual reality, augmented
reality, robots, intellectual enhancements,
wearable technology and artificial
intelligence – to educational settings.
Among Hanlon’s technological examples
was Microsoft’s HoloLens, an augmented
reality headset that could be used to
project learning material – such as realistic
models – right in front of a student’s eyes.
Hanlon believes the HoloLens will
also be useful for tutors, as it can also
project what students are looking at, and
hence what captures their attention while
studying.
A second new headset, the B-Alert X24,
could act as a “feedback mechanism” by
monitoring what happens in the brain while
students perform certain activities.
Additionally, virtual reality technologies
could help tutors use games as engaging
learning tools that give students a sense of
achievement and reward.
Moving away from headset technologies,
Hanlon also touches on the possibility
of learning to cater for students with
intellectual enhancements, and
incorporating artificial intelligence into
the workforce. For example, the US
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) is already able to implant
electrodes into the brain to increase an
individual’s rate of learning, while artificially
intelligent programs have already been
used as tutor assistants.
“Will it be possible in the future to
complete a six-year medical degree in
three years?” Hanlon asks.
“There are also some great new
opportunities for us to use artificial
intelligence, but it comes at a cost.
“What about the future of training our
PhD students?”
Another big area of technological
development is robotics, and Hanson
believes chat bots and telepresence robots
will begin to emerge in schools, with
inventions such as Nao already being used
as a teaching tool for autistic children.
“Telepresence robots can be used in
a variety of schools, especially those in
remote environments,” she says.
“As an industry, we’re not really thinking
about how we can use tools like this yet,
but we’re talking about technology that’s
going to become common and affordable
very quickly.
“The students are going to start showing
up with some of this technology, and the
best thing we can do is figure out how we
can use that to our advantage.” ■