"The long-term role of AI (and computer-based technology in general) in education will not be to support traditional teaching and learning practices, but to challenge and even threaten them by suggesting new things to learn and offering new ways to acquire them. For this reason it is misleading to view AI or technology in general as a means of saving education. At best, these forces will transform schools and classrooms, not improve them in any simple sense."
The Roles of Artificial Intelligence in Education: Current Progress and Future Prospects
BRAVE NEW WORLDS
ONLINE LEARNING & EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Any attempts at conceptualizing the future of online learning will perhaps demand more of our imaginations than of our insight or knowledge. Microworlds, adaptive navigation support, intelligent agents, user-modeling, scalable worlds, 3D objects, interactive behaviour: present progress and trends in online learning provide us with only a glimpse or hint of ways in which these new technologies may evolve. And what promise do they hold for education? How might they transform the ways in which students presently interact with information? This site presents an introduction to two emerging technologies: Adaptive Hypertext and Hypermedia and Virtual Reality Modeling Language. How or whether they can successfully be integrated into or even replace current teaching practices is not clear. What is clear is that these new frontiers or worlds for learning offer promises and possibilites as well as challenges and changes.


"EcoSystem is a program that creates a virtual forest when given information about altitude, rainfall, and so forth. View some output now in the above example. Soon see more species and use a forms interface to set environment parameters. Plant your own trees! Submit VRML trees, or code to generate them to Peter Hughes. Tell him where the tree grows and he will make a TreeRML file for the tree."
Ecosystem

Present forms of online hypertext and hypermedia react more than they interact. Selection of a link evokes the appearance of a new node, however, the nodes themselves are generally static and do not allow for manipulation or interaction by the user. Virtual Reality Modeling Language is an emerging or developing technology that provides the user with such options as varying the viewpoints, moving objects and changing colours. VRML transforms the two dimensional interface of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) into a three-dimensional reproduction and representation of objects, scenes, processes and worlds. VRML could offer rich learning environments for such activities as simulations of scientific experiments using variables selected by the student or exploration of worlds under the sea or in space. Real or unreal, abstract or concrete, present, past or future: Virtual Reality Modeling Language offers the possibility of representing and interacting with all these worlds.




"It is not simply a matter of providing tools for new methods of learning skills now taught in many classrooms. In some cases, new educational goals focus on topics that are not part of traditional curricula, such as boolean networks and chaos, graph theory, and inquiry skills themselves. In other cases the focus is on traditional topics, like fractions or polygons, but the intent is to foster a deeper conceptual understanding of ideas that are usually taught as simple procedures. ".
The Roles of Artificial Intelligence in Education: Current Progress and Future Prospects


Hypertext and hypermedia offer the possibility of creating new forms of learning such as inquiry-based learning or exploratory and discovery learning. Students can chose to move from one link to another in an enormous knowledge base rich with resources on almost all subjects. However, without support in such an environment, there is the potential for considerable user disorientation. Furthermore, this type of learning represents a significant deviation from more traditional classroom practices where the learning is often strongly teacher supported, controlled and directed. Implementing inquiry learning through hypertext exploration and browsing might therefore prove challenging in even the most innovative of classrooms. How can the technology be improved and fine-tuned to better serve the needs of learners and teachers? How can the technology be modified to conform or adapt to present educational structures and practices?


"The technologies that make it possible to automate traditional methods of teaching and learning are also helping to create new methods, and to redefine valued educational goals. For example, new technologies can automate symbol-manipulation algebra and spelling correction, making these skills less important to learn, while increasing the importance of "higher-order" skills required to do creative mathematics and writing. As a result, attempts to use new technologies in education to further traditional learning goals or traditional methods of teaching makes less and less sense."The Roles of Artificial Intelligence in Education: Current Progress and Future Prospects


Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia presentation and navigational support attempt to both support the user and to respond to the user's particular needs, interests and goals. Research is currently underway in the area of user-modeling and intelligent systems and some basic models have been developed. Future systems may offer the possibility of hypermedia systems that address the problem of disorientation by providing navigational support and by monitoring progress and 'movement'. As well, inquiry and discovery-based learning systems could be complemented by user-model based hypermedia systems. These systems would act as intelligent tutors that take into consideration the student's prior and current subject knowledge in order to adapt the presentation of material. Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia offer the possibility of helping students better access and structure information while at the same time tailoring it to their specific needs and interests. This new technology suggests ways in which online learning can be effectively designed to more easily merge with and, simultaneously, transform traditional classroom practices.


"According to the knowledge state and educational goal of a particular student all the links will be individually 'commented'. Some links can be hidden from the student, but some additional links can be generated. In particular, any page will have a dynamic 'next' link which leads the student to the next 'best' or teaching operation. The content of the hypermedia pages will also be adapted to the student's current knowledge. Students who see the educational material first time will get more explanations, but some second-level details will be hidden to protect them from cognitive overload."Intelligent Tutoring Systems for World-Wide Web

"Ce n'est pas demain la veille." In other words, the future is not for tomorrow. Indeed, it will be some time before we can expect or even hope to see these new technologies impact significantly on current educational practices. The technologies are themselves still evolving and emerging and will require more development. Applications to education and models for student use will need to be created. Schools will need to equip themselves with state-of-the-art technology to benefit from such sophisticated technologies. More importantly though, we will somehow have to find a way to integrate these new ways of learning into current practices. For now, we can begin to look ahead, to try to envision where the technology is moving and how we can move along with it. As the technology evolves and emerges, we can attempt to understand how, as teachers or learners, we need to change what we do, what we believe and how we behave in order to prepare ourselves to enter these brave new worlds.

ADAPTIVE HYPERTEXT & HYPERMEDIA
VIRTUAL REALITY MODELING LANGUAGE


©1997, Elizabeth Murphy, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. This page was designed to be viewed at a resolution of 640 x 480 with a browser supporting tables. Your comments are welcome!