Technology enables authentic learning experiences, but this research focuses on applying it innovatively to align with and enhance educational best practices, ensuring its use truly supports effective learning.
The general area of artificial intelligence has seen a steady progression over the past decade and with it an evolution in how we interact with technology. Apple’s Siri voice assistant technology was released 12 years ago with Amazon’s Alexa following shortly afterwards in 2014. While these products naturally take much of the attention it is the advancements in the technologies that underpin them that are the real game changers. The ability of computers to interact with humans using voice recognition and synthesis and to then interpret human intent through the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) has been productised and turned into commercial services that can be used to integrate this type of functionality into any application.
While technology is a key enabler, providing us with the potential to realise such authentic learning experiences, the appropriate application of those technologies in innovative ways that aligns with and enhances educational best practice lies at the heart of this research.
The Working Group have already expanded on the initial authentic assessment concept that we started with and identified a number of different elements through which the application of AI in innovative and/or novel ways would have the potential for meaningful impact:
This research stream examines Authentic Learning Experiences and explores how AI can be used to deliver them in new and innovative ways.
