My Vision for ELT
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My experience with the field of educational technology (EdTech) and instructional design is just beginning. In the very sense of the word, I am a fledgling EdTech specialist. Therefore, my personal and professional exposure to the technologies emerging from the field in the past decade has been tenuous. Most of these experiences have been via mobile learning platforms and applications, such as Duolingo’s language-learning app, LinkedIn’s collection of eLearning courses, and a brief stint with Pókemon Go’s popular augmented reality (AR) game. Others have been vicarious experiences through conversations with friends and acquaintances who are involved in gaming and virtual reality (VR) systems.
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Though my traditional exposure to the current emerging learning technologies including VR, AR, mixed reality (MR), and 3D printing, I have been aware of their prevalence in the educational sphere for quite a while. Information about these technologies has shown up in various media demonstrating their various benefits, both in learning outcomes and pragmatic applications. I have been equally impressed and intrigued and look forward to learning more.
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As a linguistics major, I have often considered ideas about utilizing learning technologies for the purposes of second language acquisition (SLA). In particular, the opportunity to use VR to generate virtual worlds where potential second language learners can interact with characters in the natural environments of the target language seems particularly useful. An added benefit is the potential reduction in second language anxiety, given that there is a reduced social cost for errors made when learning the language. This is simply an idea, of course, but one that certainly merits further investigation if it is not already being done.
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The emergence of these learning technologies is not without its challenges. Most prominent among these, I find, is the very nature of their emergence in the first place with respect to the demands of the world we live in. In the United States, for example, the demand for newer, faster, and more intuitive technology is high. This yields a rapid cycle of technological product development. Educational technology is not immune to this. Thus, the technologies that are major players in the field at present may very well be moved to the proverbial backburner in a matter of years. Necessarily, then, specialists in the field of educational technology, or in any field that utilizes emerging learning technologies, must work to stay abreast of the advancement of the tech being used and/or replaced. This could be categorized as a neutral obstacle, but it remains one nonetheless.
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Overall, I believe that the field of educational technology, and the emergence of more innovative learning technologies, will continue to improve the ways that people of all ages learn. I foresee technologies being made available to the general public that allow students or learners to interact to a greater degree. For example, students and learners will be able to interact with a virtual world not only through visual, auditory, and movement-based parameters but additionally through tactile and olfactory parameters as well. I am aware these types of technology are already being worked on, but they have not yet been made widely available.
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It will be interesting and exciting to see the trajectory and growth of the ed. tech field and the refinement of current, and emergence of additional, technologies for the purpose of instruction. As we learn more as a species, emerging learning technologies will continue to help us make that knowledge more accessible and more effectively learnable. As I continue to gain expertise in the field, I look forward to having the opportunity to follow along and challenge myself to change with the technology I will be utilizing.
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-Noah-
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