Education and
the Internet of Things: Some Implications for Educational institutions
What will the new operating platform of Internet of
Education (IoEd) imply for educational
institutions ?
As the Internet of Things (IoT) progresses, modernizing
educational institutions have to become an integral part of this technological
sophistication, if they have to stay in the forefront of education. In an IoT world, homes and people and devices would
all be connected. Educational institutions
have to think early on how to move ahead
on sensors, connectivity and machine to machine (m2m)- backward and forward linkages. As technology moves on to tap wearable devices,
smart rings, smart bangles, smart clothes and smart watches - all sensor
sensitive devices would seize the market.
As much as students receive support from devices,
students would also have to permit return transmission of info flows. On the
back up of these connected devices, students would share data from these devices with educational institutions. Internet-linked
sensors worn by students should enable educational
institutions to fill in data on their
activities. Each student would send
megabytes of data annually. These volumes have to be efficiently absorbed and
effectively utilized by the educational institution.
Student devices will have some
form of wireless connection. Educational institutions would have to enter into partnership with technological firms to
capture store, retrieve, analyze massive macro and micro elements. Thus,
the Internet of Education (IoEd) is not
only about helping the one - off student but also in plotting/ drawing inferences at a macro level on the strength of several packets of information
received from about several hundreds or thousands of students.
Educational Institutions have to be so
significantly alert on assimilating technical information in regard to:
·
Digitized communications
·
Smart m2m connectvities
·
Automated logistics
·
Application of sensor sensitive devices
Having large quanta of data implores the educational
institutions on the need to go beyond data. The investment requirements will be
quite high in the first round, but over time the marginal cost will come down
and as such the average cost of investment will come down.
According to Cisco Systems, by 2020, the amount of Internet-connected things will reach 50 billion, with $19 trillion in profits and cost savings coming from Internet of Things (IoT) over the next decade[1].
These strands of
thought are a part of the research work being undertaken by the author on the
Internet of Education in Emerging Economies.
Copyright
of this article and its contents vests with the author of this blog: Jayaram Nayar. He can be contacted at email:
jaynayar@gmail.com
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