A Brighter Future for Education (Using Technology!)

A Brighter Future for Education (Using Technology!)

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Welcome to The Tech Humanist Show a multimedia  format program exploring how data and technology   shape the human experience  I'm your host Kate O'Neill Today on the show we're talking about how we  can achieve a brighter future for education   schools are not created equal as any parent will  tell you for proof look no further than the recent   college admissions bribery scandal or the fact  that we still grade our schools and use those   metrics to determine school budgets beyond that  budgetary restrictions and teacher experience   can make for vastly different education outcomes  and with our rapidly changing technology some of   these differences will become magnified in  my book A Future So Bright I write about the   opportunity for a brighter future for education  which is critical to ensuring we meet united   nations sustainable development goal number four  ensure inclusive and equitable quality education   and promote lifelong learning opportunities for  all but when we think about what it might take   to make the future brighter for education most  teachers and administrators i have spoken with   in the US will start their answer with budgets  and move on to curricula this isn't strictly   an American occurrence either i spoke with Dr.  Oluwakemi Olurinola who is both an educator and   an educational technology consultant speaker and a  microsoft global training partner based in Nigeria   about attempts to improve the education system  in Nigeria and where the most significant gaps   are sometimes when we think about the teaching  and learning and we think about instructional   materials most times we're looking at how to get  these things bought you know we are talking about   budgets you know sometimes we engage with some  schools and they'll tell you oh i'm ict compliant   because they have quite a number of laptops but  then you go into how these things uh these devices   are being used and you see that basically all  they're doing is converting their hand nodes to   soft copies and all that and that isn't really  what technology integration is really about and   you know sometimes you also see where budgets and  the large amount of money spent buying devices and   because we there used to be this imagination that  once you have technology in the hands of students   definitely there's improved learning and we know  that that is not true yeah one of the lessons um   taken away and uh was actually the gap the  the skill gap of the teachers because we've   seen governments budgets you know or spend on  technology and then you still have that skill gap   budget and curriculum are very real limitations  but before we even get there there are more   fundamental challenges facing education many of  which are globally relevant but as we look at the   challenges and what i call change factors faced by  schools and teachers we see a lot more to overcome   a brighter future starts with full acknowledgement  of harms and risks as well as the opportunities   for improvement if we want the future  of education to be as bright as possible   we have to do that here largely  when we talk about the future   we think of two extremes dystopia versus utopia  while it feels like we should be aiming for utopia   in our planning and strategizing deep down we know  that's not possible and that makes it useless it's   a problem of framing several of the experts  i've spoken with share this view including   Rahaf Harfoush strategist digital anthropologist  and best-selling author who focuses on the   intersections between emerging technology  innovation and digital culture and John C. Havens   executive director of the ieee global initiative  on ethics of autonomous and intelligent systems   and they each elaborate on why it doesn't  make sense to think of things this way   everything has the capacity to help us it's just  that it's going to also simultaneously hurt us in   some new and different ways i don't necessarily  think about what's going to help humanity i think   about what new challenges are going to emerge with  this technology and how can we navigate that the   bigger question for me becomes is like how can we  prepare people to hold this duality because what   worries me is that a lot of the tech crowd comes  in and they try to push you this utopian version   and then other people come in and they  try to push you the dystopian version   and the thing is is like both of those are not  true but both of those are true in different   ways for every single case of facial recognition  that actually helps to catch a criminal there's   a case of where it's being used to breach privacy  i always say it's going to be equally awesome and   equally terrible at the same time and that's why  it's going to be so hard to predict the future   and we just have to continuously ask ourselves  what side of the equation are we falling on   six years ago i was writing a series for mashable  what i was finding is that even back six years   ago there were only the extremes here's the  dystopian aspect of ai here's the utopian and i   just kept calling people and saying okay is there  a code of ethics for ai because i'd like to know   and that will kind of help balance things  out and more and more no one knew of ones   there will never be a complete utopia or  complete dystopia they exist simultaneously   within our tech and within ourselves the  either or model distances us from the very   real consequences of our decisions and how they  play out in future realities when it comes to   technology and education there are externalities  to our decisions that must be considered   the good news is we can make decisions that affect  the future every day which means we can still   bend that feature towards the most uplifting  and empowering outcomes for all of humanity   first though let's look at the potential  harms and risks within our current system   one major issue that has cropped up and been  magnified since the onset of the pandemic   is lack of equitable broadband access Dr Chris  Gilliard a writer professor and speaker whose   scholarship concentrates on digital privacy and  the intersections of race class and technology   explains the consequences he's seen firsthand  because of this inequity in Detroit lack of   access to internet can be tied to health outcomes  can be tied to long-term educational outcomes or   employment opportunities and things like that and  if you looked at say a map a redlining map of the   city of Detroit that many of the ways that these  maps were drawn a lot of the disproportionate   effects of discrimination are still being felt  by the populations what i call that is digital   redlining if you drive along eight mile or some  other roads in in Detroit it's very clear 50 60   70 years later what the after effects are of  these housing policies i teach at a community   college i started to see through a lot of the  work with students some of the ways that those   effects became digital whether that was a lack  of access to to broadband or lack of access to   certain scholarly publications these were issues  before covid but our changing education landscape   has made them much more noticeable and urgent  shortly after the onset of the covet 19 pandemic   unesco reported that 192 countries had closed all  schools and universities which left nearly 1.6   billion children and young people representing  more than 90 percent of the world's learners   scrambling to adapt not to mention their teachers  parents and guardians un data reveals a nearly   insurmountable scale of lost schooling due to  covid the research suggests that quote up to 70   percent of 10 year olds in low and middle income  countries cannot read or understand simple text   up from 53 percent pre-covered in South Africa  school children are between 75 and a whole school   year behind where they should be with up to  500 000 having dropped out of school altogether   between march 2020 and October 2021 this has  long-term implications as well in the 2005   Pakistan earthquake students missed three months  of school but four years later were still one and   a half years behind where they would have been  then there are intersectional issues of gender   class and race around the world girls education  is most at risk with over 11 million girls at   risk of not returning to school after COVID-19 for  a variety of reasons including caregiving demands   early enforced marriages adolescent pregnancy  beliefs that girls aren't supposed to be educated   and more on top of that there is a tremendous  inequity of resources available to students   in low-income communities leaving far too  many students including a disproportionate   number of non-white students at a significant  disadvantage and then there are issues of safety   with the increasing number of school shootings  many districts are increasing their security often   at the expense of jobs designed to help students  progress New York city public schools for example   have over five thousand full-time police officers  but only three thousand guidance counselors   the presence of these officers drives up rates of  punitive measures for students of color including   instances of punishment for things like burping  which feeds into the school to prison pipeline   on top of all this the cost of education is  increasing especially higher education like   colleges and universities daniel binol of wbir tv  in knoxville calculated the increases in in-state   tuition at the university of tennessee compared  with wages over a nearly 40-year span and found   that quote from 1982 to 2018 college costs at  ut grew by 1430 percent while median income grew   by 213 percent and minimum wage grew only by 116  percent the total amount of student debt carried   by people well out of school is far too high  college didn't used to be a risky investment   but for many students especially those from low  income backgrounds it very much is and we still   haven't talked about curriculum in addition  to the quality of information varying wildly   from school to school many schools don't offer  contemporary technical skills aren't as inclusive   as they could be and don't take into account  the differing learning styles of the students   because of this variety of challenges we have  a long way to go if we want to reach the goal   of education equity so now that we've explored  the downside let's take a look at the bright side   what for example are the unique advantages  of remote learning because i investigated   the intersection of online and offline  experiences from my 2016 book pixels in place   i have been particularly intrigued with the pros  and cons of the mass pivots to online experiences   since early 2020. first online learning  fosters a different type of imagination  

for a long time students have existed in  a binary where they are either at school   where learning is done or not at school  where learning is not expected to happen   with the onset of online learning students  homes have become a sort of third space which   is described by Edward Soja in the field of  human geography as quote an in-between space   between binaries that enables the possibility  to think and act otherwise this third-space   ideology has allowed teachers to begin rejecting  the long-held assumption that school buildings are   the locus of learning and toward imagining ways  in which meaningful learning can occur outside our   rigid perceptions of what constitutes legitimate  education for instance a 2021 study published in   education sciences explores the ways that teachers  in Scotland were pushed to not only learn how to   use new digital tools for online learning during  COVID-19 but to even more importantly imagine   how to teach adaptively a practice that requires  deep and sophisticated knowledge about learning   learners and content this pushed teachers  to embrace the idea that learning can occur   in various forms and mediums including during  activities usually seen as just for fun Dr.   Olurinola encountered this in Nigeria as well and  spoke to me about the joys of watching teachers   embrace novelty and creativity in their teaching  processes we had all forms of interventions as   a country because we were aware that there was a  disparity in their assets to technology especially   for the not to develop cities and schools in the  remote areas one of the lessons was the the skill   gap of the teachers because we've seen governments  spend on technology and then you still have that   skill gap so one of the major things we saw the  government do and i think that the learnings   from the experience is teacher development we've  had a lot of government initiatives government   involvement in upskilling teachers especially with  digital skills you had radio broadcastings you had   tv stations teacher contents you know teachers  teaching by the television but for some of the   schools who could afford it there were technology  integration at different levels and so the beauty   about that period was even the creativity of the  teachers we saw a lot of creativity where teachers   began to use tools not originally developed for  academic purposes but we saw them adapt to meet   the needs with their students even during this  period one nursing learned and was the importance   of technology to our everyday lives we couldn't  just adopt the ostrich approach so we had to stand   up and embrace this change and in fairness to the  teachers and to the students within that period   we saw a lot of them taking up these challenges  head-on you know and because the disruption was   southern teachers weren't really prepared and  but we saw a lot of them take up crash courses   improved on their professional development you  know learn how to use various technology tools   and all this was just ensure that learning  continued even though the pandemic was on   in using third spaces to challenge the at school  or not binary some students have been better able   to participate and learn than they ever were  in the classroom classrooms were not designed   for all learning styles and with third-space  learning according to authors of the study   some of the underlying logics assumptions and  norms that make people feel excluded and alone   within institutionalized spaces are unmasked  and made visible a practice that can lead to   greater inclusion self-expression and change  neurodivergent students for example seem to be   better able to thrive in at home learning where  they're able to be in a familiar environment   so the novelty of learning is not overwhelming a  2017 report from the all party parliamentary group   on autism in England presented survey results  showing that quote fewer than half of children   and young people on the autism spectrum say they  are happy at school 7 in 10 say that their peers   do not understand them and 5 in 10 say that  their teachers do not know how to support them   Sean Arnold a special educator and stem coach in  New York city noticed a significant change when   his students were working from home saying  i had students who were selectively mute   and had never spoken to their peers in school in  person but because they had a familiar space they   literally spoke to their classmates for the first  time in remote learning i think that's meaningful   he also noted a trend nearly all of the remote  students with whom he works showed more growth   than in-person classmates an article by Eva  Tesfaye for NPR suggests that some students with   autism and other neurological differences tend  to focus better without other classmates around   Bobby a sixth grader in western massachusetts  told NPR that he likes online learning because   it's a lot easier to focus i can be in my room  and be a lot more comfortable doing stuff it's   worth noting that virtual learning isn't always  the best solution for neurodivergent students   particularly in situations when remote learning  requires significant support from parents when   certain learners need to focus on developing  social skills with classmates or when remote   learning conflicts with meeting other objectives  in a student's individualized education plan   that said there is a growing and vocal  contingent of parents teachers and students   who want to permanently incorporate virtual  or at-home learning as a resource which leads   us to the part where we look forward how can we  achieve a brighter future in regards to education   what opportunities can we take action on today  our goal is to make education equitable inclusive   accessible available to all ages and resilient in  spite of existing infrastructure gaps and climate   challenges that means there's still a need to  ensure public access to at least the basics of   education it's hard to quantify the spillover  benefits of public education but society can   only gain in both economic prosperity and overall  quality of life by continuing to invest in it i've   put together a number of specific areas that if we  focus our attention we can have the largest impact   on future prosperity first invest in educating  girls worldwide unesco lists several compelling   statistics on their website that demonstrate  the value of education at the individual level   just one more year of school can increase a girl's  earnings when she is an adult by up to 20 percent   and at the more macroeconomic level some countries  lose more than a billion u.s dollars a year by   failing to educate girls to the same level as  boys Dr. Olurinola works to expand what girls   see as possible for themselves in the stem  fields although girls in Nigeria knew they   could be doctors that was the only job they  could see themselves in over time especially   in this climate as gender stereotyping over  about the place of a woman and the types of   career that she can and she cannot do so to help  change that narrative we started what we call the   girls in science and technology program in shorts  we call it the gists and so it's basically an   initiative aimed at educating and encouraging  girls by providing these girls the opportunity   to learn about stem i remember that a particular  time i ran a program during the girls and science   and i invited girls i had almost 70 girls in in  the hall and i asked how many of them wanted to   be medical doctors and you had everybody's hands  up i had only one person in that room of almost   seventy girls who was considering a career in  engineering and i realized that basically they   loved signs but they didn't know what all the  career options were available to them so you   have the the problem of awareness and one of the  things we love to do is to show them videos also   of uh women who are actually blazing and different  career paths even in the science and tech field so   they know that this is a possibility they have  people they can look up to and mentors that they   can say okay if she can do it then why can't i  also do it if i have an interest in this field   our next actionable and necessary step is to  actively work to remove racist ideas and other   systemic discrimination from the curriculum and  the classroom we can instead increase messages of   inclusion and respect another thing to think about  is reimagining our education delivery methods one   model called teaching at the right level or tarle  attempts to sort students based on their current   knowledge and learning level rather than their  age the method was pioneered in India and rolled   out to 10 African countries by mid-2020 whether  that method works here or anywhere is really yet   to be determined but we have to be willing to try  new things and make bold decisions if we want to   make big lasting change where possible we should  also be working to improve learning opportunities   with technology this includes making accommodation  for students with autism spectrum disorder or asd   or who learn better in familiar environments  students from the national autistic society's   young ambassadors group in England submitted a  seven-point plan for how they believe schools   could do things differently for students with  asd including things like tackle bullying more   effectively provide safe spaces including a quiet  room that is always available to students with asd   and understand that students on the autism  spectrum may have sensory differences and may   be particularly sensitive to things like light  and noise in addition schools can work to use   technology to enhance learning that's already in  the current system Dr. Olurinola explored matching  

specific technologies to different lessons to  solidify concepts we see that different kind   of contents require different kinds of engagement  one of the common tools for use is powerpoint the   powerpoint presentation doesn't actually address  every form of engagement and so for instance i   want to teach maths and there are other math tools  that allow for you to collaborate for instance if   i'm using Onenote and i'm sharing that notes with  all my students they all can collaborate on that   space to work out that mathematics equation  that has a better output than presenting   rigid content just using a powerpoint presentation  and so because powerpoint is there it's easy to   use sometimes it's abused and for instance i'm  teaching a literature class uh maybe you have   you've written a book on Tech Humanist i think  one of the ways to bring to life that's content   is to actually Skype with you or have you on on  zoom and have my students connect with you via a   live session and ask you questions concerning the  content content that you have written your book   this is something that we can do because  technology enables it it will be difficult for you   to have come into my classroom but we can do this  in real time because we have technology enabling   and the learning on that topic is actually  enhanced in our increasingly digital world   we also need to teach both critical media and  digital literacies the rise of misinformation and   disinformation suggests that more people would  benefit from skills in reading comprehension   critical thinking and questioning  motives driving media and institutions   a study published in pnas in 2020 used facebook's  tips to spot fake news article to create a short   course and quiz which was given to 5 000  participants the result people's ability   to spot fake news increased by 26.5 this also  means teaching kindness and empathy if our goal   is global equity that means thinking of ourselves  as a global community and using technology to   showcase our authentic selves Dr. Olurinola spoke  to me about how she teaches her students to think   of themselves as members of a global community i  know that the fusion of technology is beginning to   blur therefore i believe that efforts should  be focused towards the development of global   competencies for our students because the world  without doubt has become more interconnected   coming from a developing country we know that  it becomes more imperative that we train our   students to be globally competent to develop  the skills to know how to live learn and work   even in the global village and then as we make  these global connections also because people are   working remotely and you know you have more global  communities uh rising athletes also need to be   aware of how to successfully navigate and interact  within the digital space things like kindness and   empathy there isn't really a dichotomy between  your online self and your offline persona your   online and offline personnel should be the same  and so if i'm kind as a person even when i'm   online when i'm using tech i should be kind in my  use of tech and kind when i'm online engaging in   the digital space we need to learn how to be good  citizens and how to develop global competencies   and also learn to appreciate differences when  they exist and so for me that's the future i see   along those lines spoke with Dr. Rumman Chowdhury  who is currently the director of the machine   learning ethics transparency and accountability  team at twitter about the dichotomy between our   education system and the workplace and the skills  taught versus the skills needed if i were to pick   one thing that got me the most interested in this  technology is actually the potential for edtech   what something like edtech should be is a complete  reimagining of education because number one   educational systems do not actually help people  get jobs they don't help people do well at their   jobs like everyone always jokes about the number  one skill you need to learn in colleges excel   and that's the one thing they don't teach you  right so if there is this disconnect between   quote the real world the jobs we get and then  educational systems how they're we know there's   inequality there's just so so much that can be  resolved with this technology whether it's remote   learning or customized learning whatever it is  when i started my job at accenture before then   people were talking about lifelong learning  and how ai really means that we have to embrace   learning and really think about how we're going  to spend the rest of our lives educating ourselves   what amazing aspirations and i sincerely hope  that what we don't do is just try to like stick   technology into the existing broken infrastructure  that is our traditional education system because   that that would be a disservice not just to us  as humanity but also to the technology and the   potential of technology so but is it is it also  true or not that once you use technology to sort   of accelerate or amplify a given system that  where it breaks might be what's instructive   about where those institutions are already failing  us specifically using the education example   there are so many people that are very look at the  inefficiency of these systems and what does work   and what doesn't work and if we really think about  this again like going back this notion of human   self-determination what is the purpose of this  system and frankly can we just objectively take   a step back and motionlessly ask is it serving the  purpose it is intended to serve i think there are   plenty of people who have been pointing out the  systemic clause well now we have technologies   and systems that theoretically could be designed  to solve these problems instead of being designed   to simply reinforce the power imbalance and the  structural inequalities and we're going to ignore   what these people say because it's much easier to  just perpetuate amplify and now like cement all of   these inequalities rather than do like the extra  amount of work it would take to like fix things   some of the skills that will be most in demand are  difficult to automate manual skills like plumbing   and other fine motor work and the skills commonly  called soft usually mature versions of unique   to human abilities such as making decisions in  context judgment calls nuanced management leading   with emotional intelligence and so on as the  future workplace remains uncertain we also need to   teach humans to be adept at making meaning if our  identities are tied too closely with our jobs many   people are in for a massive loss of self as the  upheaval in the job marketplace forces millions of   people to change career paths as we build our way  to the ideal future one way to fight this is to   have a better sense of how we make meaning in our  lives and how we can begin something new without   losing track of ourselves this is by no means  an exhaustive list but consider it a blueprint   to build and amend as we go taken as a whole this  may sound like a lot of work but if we all focus   on one thing we can influence our combined  efforts can build a future that works for everyone   thank you for listening to The Tech Humanist show  this episode was produced and edited by Chloe Skye   with research by Ashley Robinson and Erin  Daughtry at Interrobang and with input from   Jupiter F. Stone and Elizabeth Marshall you can  find more information about the show's guests and   links to their projects at TheTechHumanist.com  where you can also find more episodes  

or you can subscribe at itunes or wherever you  get your podcasts special thanks to all of our   guests for lending their voices and ideas  to help make the future a brighter place   I'm Kate O'neil and you've been listening  to the tech humanist show from KO Insights

2022-04-12 21:48

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