The educational environment of the future
Description of the product/result: Study of the educational environments of the future (with a view to a period of 5 years) from a technological perspective.
Coordination: Francesc Santanach and Xavi Aracil (eLC)
Collaborators: Tom Coppeto (OnTap Solutions)
Observers: Tecnology and TechForce
Duration: March 2015 - March 2016
Tipology: eLearn Center Project
Key words: trends in higher education, education and learning, technology in education, educational environment, ecosystem, e-learning, blended learning, educational model.
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This project will work on the set of models and rules that define an educational ecosystem and which must allow the elements of the environment to be implemented/integrated, with the guarantees necessary in order to not restrict or compromise this model. This definition will be accompanied with a set of concept tests and prototypes demonstrating its viability.
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The objective of the project is to provide a vision of the future (5 year view) on educational environments from a technological perspective, in the same way that the FUTURA project does from a pedagogical perspective.
A system is any set of interacting elements. A group of interacting parts that operate as one, distinguishable from its environment by recognized limits or boundaries. The functioning of a system
depends on the way its parts or elements are related, meaning that if a part or element is added, removed or modified, it must be expected that the functioning of the system will be different.
An ecosystem (adaptation from the biological definition) is a system that is comprised of a group of living elements (which are added, modified and removed) and the environment in which they associate,
the network of interactions they establish with each other, as well as the features of the environment and the relationship between this environment and these elements. The functioning of an ecosystem takes into consideration the interactions between the elements that make up its community and the data flows that go through it, so that changes do not affect functioning. An ecosystem collapses due to the lack or imbalance of resources, but, in essence, its functioning does not change.
Until now, the approach to educational environments, from the technological side, has been very systemic, in the sense of considering an educational environment as the interaction of various subsystems such as the LSM, ERP and CRM, and, generally, any other relevant business subsystem.
The problem with this approach is that it greatly restricts the evolution of the system, given that the functionality of each subsystem strongly influences the set of processes and services to which a response can be made.
In this project, a new approach to educational environments is presented and put into context, based on the concept of the ecosystem. We understand the educational environment as an ecosystem where the services work as organisms and the systems, such as the LMS, ERP and CRM, are structural elements of the environment.
