On 8 January 2020, the Institute of Educational Technology of the Open University of UK and the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) of Dublin City University jointly released the eighth report on innovative pedagogy, "Innovative Pedagogy 2020” (link to original file: https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2020.pdf).
This year's report proposes 10 development trends in the field of education, including 10 innovative teaching methods: artificial intelligence in education, post-humanist perspectives, learning through open data, engaging with data ethics, social justice pedagogy, Esports, learning from animations, multi-sensory learning, offline networked learning, and online laboratories.
1. Artificial intelligence in education: The term "artificial intelligence” (AI) is used to describe computer systems that interact with people and with the world in ways that imitate human capabilities and behaviours. Student-facing applications of AI include intelligent tutoring systems, dialogue-based tutoring systems, exploratory learning environments, automatic writing evaluation, and conversational agents. Teacher-facing applications of AI, although less well developed, might support teachers in enhancing their teaching abilities. It is important that educators, learning scientists, and other stakeholders engage with AI to help shape both the development of AI-powered systems and teaching and learning approaches that make appropriate use of AI.
2. Post-humanist perspective: The post-humanist perspective means examining the relationship between humans and technology. As a philosophy, the post-humanist perspective examines what it means to be human and whether being human extends beyond our bodies into the real digital world. As a pedagogical method, it opens up possibilities to learn with animals and machines as partners. Technological advances blur the line between human beings and the material world. The potential to adopt a post-humanistic approach lies in asking the provocative question of what students can learn from unsettling problems.
3. Learning through open data: Learning through open data refers to using authentic data for individual learning. There are two key factors in this approach. The first is authenticity, which means that the shared data comes from the real processes occurring within important organisations. The second is the potential personal relevance of this data to the learners, who may want to understand what is happening in their area or how they or their class compare with other people nearby or far away. It can even be used to identify issues that require attention locally or across wider society.
4. Engaging with data ethics: The growing use of digital technology in educational contexts is accompanied by an ever-increasing range of ethical problems. There are many ethical issues related to data, such as who owns the data, how the data should be interpreted, and how the privacy of learners and teachers should be protected. There is increased pressure on educational institutions to start to develop policies relating to data ethics, to obtain consent from students to use and analyse any data from their interactions with their learning management system, and to provide effective training and support for students and staff.
5. Social justice pedagogy: Education can help people address their unconscious biases, as well as the injustices in their own lives and in society. The purpose of social justice pedagogy is to educate and enable students to become active citizens who understand social inequalities and can contribute to making society more democratic and egalitarian. Educators committed to social justice value people's unique experiences and perspectives and do their best to treat all students in a caring and dignified way. Social justice pedagogy stresses the importance of involving and engaging students in building the curriculum, rather than having a curriculum imposed on them.
6. E-sports: E-sports have become a popular leisure activity all over the world. They also provide opportunities for education. The development of e-sports has been used in school subjects such as physical education to support students' understanding of movement. They illustrate a way to reach young people and connect them with virtual sporting activities. This might induce interest to partake in physical sports. E-sports could be combined with virtual reality to enhance the immersive and physical experience, and become a way to support digital literacy, numeracy, socialisation, and teamwork.
7. Learning from animations: Learning from animations refers to showing learners short animated movies of a dynamic process. On the one hand, animations can show abstractions from the real world and explain clearly and concisely how to solve a difficult problem. On the other hand, learner-created animations are also a way to support self-expression and have been used as prompts for creative activities such as story writing. Studies have shown that learners with special education needs can benefit from animations and that animations can be better than pictures when they are well designed and based on sound principles.
8. Multi-sensory learning: Listening to a teacher and using our eyes, along with visual approaches such as looking at books and watching videos, used to be the primary means of perception for learning. Yet human beings have many senses. In the future, multi-sensory experiences, including touch, taste, and smell, will provide more technical support in the field of education and training services to meet the needs of learners. Some data shows that multi-sensory learning can stimulate sensory channels to enable students to gain a more in-depth understanding of learning outcomes and can enhance communication, engagement, memorisation, and understanding between teachers and students.
9. Offline networked learning: Networked learning via digital networks is a widely adopted pedagogical approach since it promotes connections between learners, teachers, communities, and learning resources. However, in many remote rural areas, developing countries or areas with limited network access, network learning can be realised with the use of smartphones, tablets, laptops or other low-power devices for learning without the Internet. It can effectively realise resource sharing, conversation and collaboration, and visualisation and consolidation.
10. Online laboratories: Laboratories are an important resource in scientific disciplines, enabling students to apply their knowledge and develop their skills through experiments. However, there are circumstances in which using a physical laboratory is not possible or not appropriate, for example when students are unable to come to a lab or when they need to engage with dangerous activities. In these cases, online laboratories provide a viable alternative. An online laboratory is an interactive environment for creating and conducting simulated science experiments. Students can access the laboratory anytime, anywhere through the network, so that they can interact with real scientific equipment in the "remote labs.” Despite concerns that some aspects of practical work such as the sights and smells of experiments in the physical laboratory are missing from the experience, virtual labs are becoming mainstream in science and engineering higher education in many countries around the world.
Since 2012, the Open University of the UK has published an annual Innovative Pedagogy report. With the theme of innovation and future outlook, every year the report proposes 10 innovative practices that have been applied but have not yet had a profound impact on education, aiming to explore the innovations and frontiers of teaching, learning, and assessment, and provide references for educators and policy makers. It is of great significance for the Open University of China (OUC) during its period of transformation, development, and construction to understand the progress of cutting-edge technology so as to promote the deep integration of information technology and education and teaching. With this in mind, the Engineering Research Centre of the Ministry of Education under the Digital Learning Technology Integration and Application of the OUC will continue to pay close attention to the Innovative Pedagogy reports issued by the Open University of the UK and explore the innovative applications of new technologies in education and teaching.
By He Yuanjing, Yang Yafei and Wei Shunping , OUC