Although resistance to change is still high, 92.3% of educational institutions consider it a priority to train their teachers and employees in new technologies, according to the study E-learning 2023: Trends and perceptions about online education and the adoption of educational technologies, carried out by OBS Business School and coordinated by Luis Toro, director of academic programs at the school. To this end, more than half of the educational institutions surveyed affirm that this course will increase their budget to develop online programs.
Among the most cutting-edge technologies in the field of education are artificial intelligence; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; the application of big data in the analysis of the learning process; mobile education, which facilitates the delivery of knowledge adapted to the
accessibility, needs and student interaction regardless of time or place; and blockchain for secure record storage, identity verification in learning, and information protection, as well as allowing students to manage their own personal learning journeys.
These technologies must be increasingly present in educational institutions and therefore it is vital to have teachers trained in their domain.
Desirée Gómez Cardoso and Guillem Garcia Brustenga, experts in trend detection and analysis at the eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC) of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), consider that new content generation tools will facilitate more innovative, flexible and adjusted training. to the needs of the student, and point out the main trends that involve AI in the educational environment.
According to these experts, one of the most spectacular changes will be the generalization of AI to create videos of avatars, which can star real or fictitious people, with natural language in different languages. Thanks to production tools such as Hey-Gen or Synthesia, these computer-generated human representations will help offer a more personalized and accessible educational experience on a global scale. For example, they will allow teachers to create avatars of themselves that teach in the native language of all students, even if they do not actually speak it.
Another novelty will be the adoption of this generative technology by teachers as support for the preparation of subjects in different phases of the educational process. Conversational chats, such as ChatGPT, and tools such as ChatPDF will help plan the course, search and index information, outline methodological proposals or suggest online educational resources, to give a few examples.
Furthermore, adaptive learning based on AI and student performance will reach the educational sector as a fusion of advanced technologies and pedagogical methodologies based on data exploitation. The goal is to optimize education based on the unique needs and evolution of each student, which will allow you to create or adapt learning materials and experiences in a personalized way.
“We are facing an exciting time in education because generative AI can open the doors to personalized and global learning. However, it is imperative to address the ethical risks it entails and guarantee responsibility in the use of these new technologies, as well as promote literacy in AI and equitable access to reduce the digital divide that could be associated with it,” says Desirée Gómez Cardosa. To this, Guillem Garcia Brustenga adds and concludes: “These trends show that generative AI can be a very powerful and transformative tool, but it also poses important challenges and we cannot allow excessive dependence to diminish the value of human interaction and critical thinking in education. Therefore, collaboration between teachers, students and developers will be key to a successful integration of these new possibilities in education. “The balance between technology and humanity will be key to fully realizing the potential of AI.”
