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Maria Strange

Emerging Technologies

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Edited by Maria Strange, Thursday, 22 Mar 2018, 21:30

New Media Consortium’s Horizon Project: 2017 Higher Education Edition suggest six emerging technologies which will have a significant impact on learning in the future: Adaptive Learning Technologies, Mobile Learning, The Internet of Things, Next-Generation LMS, Artificial Intelligence, Natural User Interfaces.

Thinking on Languages I think the following three are the one that will have the greatest impact: Adaptive Technologies, Mobile Learning, Artificial Intelligence.

Adaptive Learning Technologies - 

I believe it will still take few years (5-6 perhaps!)  for schools to implement this technology in the language classroom.

Although already commercially implemented, it is rarely used for teaching languages at schools.   "Adaptive learning is seen by its advocates as a ‘game-changer’, something that will revolutionize learning (including language learning), making it more economical, more efficient and more personalized. Still a largely unfamiliar term to most language teachers, it is already a central concern to large educational providers, such as universities and chains of language schools, as well as major" publishers of ELT materials (Kerr, 2014)

"A student completing a traditional homework assignment has no idea if a word they are using is correctly spelt or used in the correct context.Adaptive learning solutions provide students with this feedback instantly. This immediately engages users with relevant feedback, allowing them to quickly adjust and take ownership of their learning" (source: Adaptemy https://www.adaptemy.com/997-2/https://www.adaptemy.com/adaptive-learning-technology-supports-languages/)

Mobile Learning

I believe mobile learning is nearly getting its way into the language classroom, it is just a case of reassurance some more skeptical language teachers.

Image

"I still use desktops in my class to access language-based websites, and use Google Docs to allow students to work together. You can also connect a desktop computer to a whiteboard and project Google Images onto it. It’s an invaluable resource for language teaching. However, mobile devices allow you and your learners to interact seamlessly with each other, in both formal and informal learning contexts"..(Norton, 2014 for the British Council)  

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/teaching-tips-how-students-can-use-mobiles-to-learn-english

Artificial Intelligence

This is the future which will change how language learning and broadly any learning will be. It will allow more "hands-on" learning. We are already seeing the first steps with Amazon Echo for example (imagine your own personal Echo at home programmed in French so you can practice listening and speaking anytime; you can also take it anyway!) However to develop real AI in language more progress in natural conversation and natural responsiveness will be necessary.

Since I watched Star Treck in the nineties I have always been impressed by the Holodeck rooms. 

Fancy be a physics student sat at the same table with Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton? 

Perhaps in a couple of decades you might! As you might just go into a classroom where Madrid, Paris or London streets have been recreated with Holographic Technology for children to learn languages in real-context. and with real native interactions.



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