Internet of Things (IoT) is supposed to carry a
$ 19 trillion value-at-stake tag over the next decade, says Cisco[1].
That volume of a bill suggests opening up of opportunities to individuals, households,
groups, firms and companies into an economy that is struggling to be born. The
frontiers of economics are expanding into 'more of techniques and less of men' scenario. (Y= f(k,l, t) where Y = output, k =
capital, l= labour and t = technology )
Education's new challenge is that it must
thrive within this rapidly evolving IoE economy which is machine and
connectivity oriented.
Internet of Education (IoEd) should be envisaged as a networked connection of students and
teachers, learning and teaching processes, of relevant data and of devices, which
are charged and linked by cloud, mobile, social analytics and which is
protected by security. The medium of IT would trigger off great changes in the
operational technology of delivery of
education.
IoEd is about using sensors and
wireless connectivity to support
educational activities. This connectivity calls for reliability of data and
systems, adherence to high standards of professional etiquette, data integrity and
to continuous evaluation of performance.
IoEd would connect the academic and physical worlds through information
technology. There has to be an
established data bank based on the registration, progression, internal processes
and the contributory and contextual environment in academic institutions. This
will increase the outreach of education, dynamically augment efficiencies, stress
on mechanization of academic activities and minimize delivery risk in teaching.
Education has now to move into this internet
world to coexist with and exist in the cloud. Education support professionals (read
technical staff) have to evolve a portfolio and an ecosystem of cloud
infrastructure and application services that allow teaching and learning to uniquely and securely coalesce
with cloud applications and services which can be used by both faculty and
students. Educators have to deliver, using online and offline, on site and off
site modes utilizing multiple cloud models.
Networked
connections have to make education accessible, relevant and valuable. There has
to be a transformation process from mere information into knowledge. Knowledge has
to collectively grow into wisdom and thus constitute the core competence of the
educational institutions.
IoEd has to
create new capabilities out of the many experiences and learning curves it has earned. IoEd has to pick up the appropriate middleware
platform. There has to be an IoEd Strategy which supports the identification
and development of solutions. Successful
business application ensures costing and monetization of each activity.
Miniaturization
technology and use of smart wearables add to the effectiveness of IoEd. In M2M
(machine to machine) and M2m (Machine to men) connectivity paths, design,
applications, measured performance, efficiency parameters, interoperability of
devices, drawing up of scenarios, (what - if)
interactive methods are all
significant. Both, hardware and
software become collaborative in their effort to deliver academic value.
Educational
institutions have to use enterprise planning for new IoEd architectures,
standards and protocols which are to build the working ecosystem. Developers have to harmonize thoughts with
educators to develop platforms. The time
to market for application development is short.
New technologies – hardware, software, bandwidth, sensor –have to
integrate to make new solutions feasible for the first time. Education has to interact and change to
fast lanes with computing technology . The economies will come in with the concept
of leveraging academic data at micro and macro levels. Educational institutions
have to reckon with hardware commoditization, software solution development, connectivity,
big data and data analytics.
Note :
These strands of thought are a part of the research work being undertaken by
the author on the Internet of Education. Copyright of this material vests with
the author, Jayaram Nayar. He can be contacted at jaynayar@gmail.com
[1] The
Internet of Everything—A $19 Trillion Opportunity;
http://www.cisco.com/web/services/portfolio/consulting-services/documents/consulting-services-capturing-ioe-value-aag.pdf
