ABA Journal The digital English academy
Technology is now an integral part of our lives, in work, education and social interactions, changing our lives and our perspectives. Virtual reality and artificial intelligence are opening up new development possibilities in commerce, and also in learning and education. We are at the beginning of a great evolution that concerns us all and means we must keep up with the times, if we don’t want to be left by the wayside.
It’s no coincidence that the recognition obtained by 15 students from the Da Vinci Scientific High School in Treviso, world champions in aerospace robotics programming at the world championship Zero Robotics 2017 at the Turin Polytechnic, has been well received by all those who work in the field of education and who believe in the potential of digital medium in schools.
Artificial Intelligence and virtual reality
To better understand the potential of digital medium in education, let’s first try to define what is AI (artificial intelligence) and VR (virtual reality).
The term Artificial intelligence was coined by Stanford researcher John McCarthy in 1956. It’s the science that creates software programs and hardware systems that are able to learn and then put into practice what they’ve learned, imitating the way of thinking and reasoning of human beings. Some researchers are cultivating the dream of creating machines that can think the same as us.
Virtual reality, on the other hand, represents a computer-simulated reality, often in three dimensions, to create a scenario that is as real as possible. In some cases, this is done using electronic devices such as gloves, goggles or controls, that also permit an interaction that makes the illusion seem even more real.
Technology and learning
What are the possible implications in the educational field? A lot. In several countries the Ministry of Education has already legislated and approved the digital animator.
The digital animator is an expert in the digital sector, who participates in a school environment and trains staff in the digital field. The primary task of this expert is to create innovative solutions by introducing sustainable methodologies and technologies in the school that are functional according to the educational needs of the students. What does this mean? It gives us a sense of how obvious the implications of technology in the educational field are. We can no longer ignore this reality and continue to work in the education sector without recognising it.
The potential of digital medium in the educational field is endless. Medical students could simulate a virtual reality surgery, learning to perform delicate operations without involving real patients; virtual reality could be used in the field of psychiatry to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder or phobias, such as flying.
What about foreign language teaching? Learning a foreign language can certainly benefit from the combination of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. The time when children who had logical analysis difficulties received private tuition with their books in hand is becoming less common. Today, those who need homework support can study with a real-life teacher in their own room without leaving their home. The online tutor is already well known in countries such as Britain but is gradually being introduced in other countries as an educational figure. Web courses on how to become a tutor online have started to appear on the internet, and this is indicative of how this concept is increasingly acquiring its own specificities and how highly specialized skills are needed, different from those required for a classroom teacher.
Technology and learning English
If you need a native English teacher, you can meet on Skype and learn at any time of the day. What would happen if your teacher became a robot? It would always be available to answer any questions, would never lose its patience and would always be ready to repeat what has already been explained. This might be possible in the future, but nothing is the same as interaction with a real teacher; a machine may be able to have human intelligence, but it could never have what we call emotional intelligence, the ability to grasp the nuance between different phrases, a tired look or the apathy that sometimes also attacks even the best and most motivated students.
ABA English provides qualified native teachers available to answer your questions and adapt your learning according to your needs. It combines the benefits of technology with the creation of an effective and natural method of learning English with 144 didactic units based on short films of real life situations.
What are you waiting for?
