This year at the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) Conference in Liverpool I am presenting a twenty minute session on the Intelligent Campus.
If the spaces we use for teaching and learning could speak to us, what would they say? The places and spaces across colleges and universities are some of our biggest investments. But are we using them effectively to enhance and enrich the learning journey? Does the environment in which we learn have impact on the learning journey?
There is an institutional memory within those walls that is inaccessible and lost every time the learners and teachers leave the room. The room doesn’t remember what worked well or what could have been better. The spaces, if they could store experiences and feedback, would know what worked well, and what didn’t, for different learning activities. What if, we could we use data gathered from teachers and students, as well as space usage, to inform and improve teaching and learning?
The hyperbole around AR, VR, artificial intelligence and the internet of things as created a cynical bubble among some staff and institutional decision makers, especially those that have been burned by previous tech fads. But it may be time to put aside the cynicism that this kind of hype generates and look seriously at how we can take advantage of these emerging technologies to improve the student experience, research and the management of our campuses (Clay 2017)
If the walls, our learning and teaching spaces, could talk, what could they tell us, and how would it change what we do?
This 20 minute interactive discussion, will challenge delegates to reflect and discuss a series of short scenarios on how data gathering, analytics and appropriate technological interventions could be used to enhance and improve teaching and learning. Participants will be asked if this approach of using data gathering, analytics, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence be used to enable innovation and effectively drive and manage change. In a similar vein to learning analytics (Sclater 2017) what are the ethical questions we need to ask and answer when looking at learning space analytics.
Delegates will go away with an understanding of some of the issues that arise once we start making our learning spaces “smart” and “intelligent”.
The session is on Wednesday 6th September at 13:00 in the Elizabeth Gallery II (moved to larger room) Library Room
References
Sclater, N. (2017). Code of practice for learning analytics | Jisc. [online] Jisc. Available at: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/code-of-practice-for-learning-analytics [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].
Clay, J. (2017). Could we use artificial intelligence to help manage learning spaces and improve teaching and learning? | Intelligent campus. [online] Intelligentcampus.jiscinvolve.org. Available at: https://intelligentcampus.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2016/11/07/could-we-use-artificial-intelligence-to-help-manage-learning-spaces-and-improve-teaching-and-learning/ [Accessed 20 Mar. 2017].