Invited talk to the CloudTech2017 International conference held in Rabat, Morocco between October 24th - October 26th. Pr. Radouane Mrabet, ENSIAS, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco.

1. 25/10/2017
Research issues in
IoT for Education
Pr. Radouane Mrabet
mrabet@um5s.net.ma
ENSIAS, Mohammed V University in Rabat
CloudTech’17, October 25th, 2017

2. 25/10/2017
IoT in brief
A global infrastructure for the information society, enabling
advanced services by interconnecting (physical and virtual)
things based on existing and evolving interoperable information
and communication technologies. Rec. ITU-T Y.2060 (06/2012)
Note 1: Through the exploitation of identification, data capture, processing and
communication capabilities, the IoT makes full use of things to offer services to all kinds of
applications, whilst ensuring that security and privacy requirements are fulfilled.
Note 2: From a broader perspective, the IoT can be perceived as a vision with technological
and societal implications

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IoT in brief
Thing: With regard to the Internet of things, this is an object of
the physical world (physical things) or the information world
(virtual things), which is capable of being identified and
integrated into communication networks.
Device: With regard to the Internet of things, this is a piece of equipment
with the mandatory capabilities of communication and the optional
capabilities of sensing, actuation, data capture, data storage and data
processing.

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The new dimension introduced in IoT

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The IoT
reference
model

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IoT is
transverse
IoT may be used in
several domains

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IoT is
transverse

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IoT is
transverse
Source : https://31663966digitalinnovation.wordpress.com
/2016/05/08/3-the-internet-of-things-iot/

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IoT is
transverse
Source : http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2013.01.010

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What about IoT for Education?
Education is not a priority.
• Economic and financial reasons
• Education is a Human and Social Science
• Lack of interest from the education actors
Why:

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Economic
and
financial
reasons

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Education is a Human and
Social Science
Pedagogy Psychology Linguistic Sociology

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Lack of interest
from the
education actors

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Survey of 315
CIO and IT
managers
worldwide
(2017)
Source : https://content.extremenetworks.com/extreme-networks-blog/internet-of-things-is-soaring-into-classrooms

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Survey of 315
CIO and IT
managers
worldwide
(2017)
Source : https://content.extremenetworks.com/extreme-networks-blog/internet-of-things-is-soaring-into-classrooms

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Survey of 315
CIO and IT
managers
worldwide
(2017)
Source : https://content.extremenetworks.com/extreme-networks-blog/internet-of-things-is-soaring-into-classrooms

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Examples of IoT devices for schools
IoT Camera Student ID Card School bus tracking
Interactive whiteboard Attendance trackingSmart podium
IoT Pen
Multitouch table

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Education main actors
Student
pupil
scholar
learner
apprentice
Professor
teacher
instructor
tutor
lecturer
educator
faculty member
Administrator
rector
vice chancellor
principal
dean - provost
academic affairs
director

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What are
the
potential
benefits of
IoT in
education?
Student
• Adaptive / personalized learning
• Just in time learning
• It refers to making learning available
when needed by the student, and at
the time that the student needs the
information or knowledge. He can
also have a personal assistant to
help him to use the various contents.
• Increases student engagement
• Better students outcomes

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What are
the
potential
benefits of
IoT in
education?
Professor
• Better tools to explain subjects and theories
• Help professor to run educational activities
in various educational scenarios
• Better professor engagement
• Reduce administrative procedures (e.g.
attendance tracking)
• Better tools for measuring students
performance and achievements
• Better tools to elaborate experiments (e.g.
improve STEM teaching)

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What are
the
potential
benefits of
IoT in
education?
Administrator
• Smart buildings and a better
management of equipment
and resources (HVAC, light,
locks, displays, …)
• Provides a safer learning
environment
• Enrich LMS content
• Lowering costs of STEM labs

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IoT for
students
to learn
IoT allow the creation
of context-aware
ubiquitous learning
environments known
also as “smart
learning”

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IoT for
students
to learn
Context-aware ubiquitous
learning environment
• Detects and takes into account the real-world
contexts and multiple personal factors (e.g.,
learning needs, preferences, … ) ;
• Adapts learning content for individual
students ;
• Provides personalized feedback or guidance ;
• Interacts with students via multiple channels:
mobile devices, wearable devices, or other
ubiquitous computing devices embedded in
everyday objects.

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IoT for
students
to learn
First challenging research
issue is to design generic
frameworks of context-aware
ubiquitous learning
environments dealing with
the IoT emerging
technologies.

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IoT for
students
to learn
Second challenging research issue is
pedagogical.
Smart learning needs to reconsider existing
pedagogical theories, such as constructivism,
motivational theory, the technology
acceptance model, cognitive load theory, etc.
It’s also a good opportunity for researchers to
develop new strategies for helping students
more efficiently to gain knowledge and solve
problems

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IoT for
students
to learn
Researchers are trying to find
answers to the following
questions:
• Can students’ engagement be
generated and maintained in a such
environment?
• Is this type of environment enhance
collaboration and communication
among students?
• Is this type of environment improve
the quality of learning?

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IoT for
professors
to teach

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IoT for
professors
to teach
A context-aware ubiquitous
learning environment, is capable to
record every detail of the students’
learning activities.
It provides a good opportunity for
professors to acquire valuable and
detailed information via analyzing
the recorded data.

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IoT for
professors
to teach
Researchers have to deal with
three main issues:
1)How to capture the data related to
students’ learning activities?
2)Which tools need to be created to help
professors to analyze these data?
3)How long-term observations and
analysis of learning behaviors can be
used to know more about the social
impacts of these new educational
technologies?

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IoT for
professors
to teach
When applied to education, analytics
and data mining are referred to as
learning analytics and educational
data mining.

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Learning analytics
Help the three main actors of
the education system :
professor, student and
administrator.
Important research issue

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IoT for
professors
to assess
students
achievements

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IoT for
professors
to assess
students
achievements
Assessment of students in context-aware
ubiquitous learning environments has
two opposite facets:
1- creation of new innovative ways to
assess students achievements ;
2- giving new cheating tools for students.
Theses two facets are two main
research trends.

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IoT for
professors
to assess
students
achievements
1- creation of new innovative ways to
assess students achievements
Researchers need to find new ways for
professors to take advantage of the potential of
IoT technologies to enhance classroom
assessment.
Or, to reinforce the traditional approaches of
assessment and strengthen inquiry-based
learning.

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IoT for
professors
to assess
students
achievements
2- giving new cheating tools for students
Device built on biometric systems such as facial
recognition may offer ways to ensure honesty
in exams.
Routers could be enabled for exam-standard
security in designated ‘Examination Zones’.
“Security issues”

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IoT for
professors
to teach

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IoT for
professors
to teach
Affective computing is the study
and development of systems and
devices that can recognize,
interpret, process, and simulate
human affects. It is an
interdisciplinary field
spanning computer
science, psychology,
and cognitive science.

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IoT for
professors
to teach
Affect can significantly influence
learning. Thus, understanding a
student's affect throughout the learning
process is crucial for understanding
motivation.
With the advance of affective computing technology,
professors are able to objectively identify and
measure a student's affective status during the entire
learning process in a real-time manner, and then he is
able to understand the interrelationship between
emotion, motivation and learning performance.

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IoT for
professors
to teach
Research issues:
affective computing and
education

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IoT for
administrators
to manage

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IoT for
administrators
to manage
At the entrance of a school/classroom,
student attendance is automatically
tracked.
Inside the school, airflow, air quality,
temperature and humidity are constantly
monitored and optimized in every
possible learning space.
Outside of the school, buses are tracked
and activities running in different spaces
used for learning (Zoo, museum, …)

42. 25/10/2017
IoT for
administrators
to manage
Smart identity cards with biometric
features for all public school
students to improve service delivery
(Nigeria).
Biometric clocking device to
improve teacher attendance in real-
time (South-Africa)

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IoT for
administrators
to manage
Research results found in the
context of “smart cities” and
“smart homes” can be
adapted to the education
institutions

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Wearables
technologies

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Wearables technologies

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Wearables technologies
• Wearable technologies can incorporate a wide variety of
sensors for measuring:
– mechanical information (position, displacement,
acceleration, force),
– acoustic information (volume, pitch, frequency),
– biological information (heart rate, temperature, neural
activity, respiration rate),
– optical information (refraction, light wave frequency,
brightness, luminance),
– environmental information (temperature, humidity).

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Wearables devices
• Wearable devices may recognise, adapt and react to
their owner, their location and the activity being
performed.
• Wearable digital devices may incorporate wireless
connectivity for the purposes of seamlessly
accessing, interacting with and exchanging
contextually relevant information.

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Affordances of wearables technologies
To harness the pedagogical opportunities of
wearable technologies it is crucial for professors
to develop an understanding of their potentials,
or ‘affordances’.

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Affordances of wearables technologies
• In situ contextual information : the ability to provide in
situ contextual information. This could include “giving the
student the ability to search for additional background
information, or using links to the real world to trigger
augmented events”.
• Recording of information : Students could “record not
only class sessions, but could also use wearable technologies
out in the field to show what they are doing, either as
individuals or as a group. WT can be used, for instance, to
automatically scan (record) and index notes taken in class.

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Affordances of wearables technologies
• Simulation : It could enable students to “experience riskier
scenarios and perhaps fail at them, without suffering real
world consequences”. Example simulation scenarios included
surgical procedures, providing a working engine of any size,
enlarging and manipulating very small objects (such as
molecules), ...
• Communication : It includes the opportunity to integrate
communication streams into the daily work routines of study
and participatory learning. For example students could “work
together in the field, on study tours of institutions, on work
placement, and in focused study activities/projects”.

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Affordances of wearables technologies
• In situ guidance: This extends upon the provision of
contextual information to provide “real time guidance” of a
process.
• Feedback : the ability of wearable technologies to provide
discreet and contextualized feedback. For instance, teachers
could “receive instant feedback during lectures from students
via “local chat”, enabling the flow of the class to continue
without question interruptions, but still providing students
with answers to their questions”.

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Issues relating to the use of wearable
technologies
• Privacy
• Cost
• Distraction
• Technical problems
• Cheating
• Overreliance on wearable technology
• Technology before pedagogy

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Source : http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.07.013

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Some research issues
• How to determine what can and should be measured with
wearables in order to support the learning process?
• How to develop measures that are relatively light touch,
because if it is too much effort students will not provide
enough data to the smart learning system?
• How best to develop systems which enable
students/professors to engage with the data to ensure
maximum learning/teachning benefit?
• How to address legal and ethical issues when combining
student’s data from multiple data sets?

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Augmented
and virtual
reality

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Mixed Reality Continuum
• Its a spectrum which covers all possible variations and compositions of real
and virtual objects. On the spectrum, beginning from far-left, is the real world
where nothing is computer generated. The most-right point on the spectrum,
is the virtual environment where everything is computer generated.

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Augmented reality
Augmented reality brings aspect of the
virtual world into the real world.
AR users remain in the real world while
experiencing enhanced virtually created
visuals, aurals, and feelings.
AR does this by layering virtual information
and/or graphics on top of a user’s view of a
real world scene.

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Types of AR
technologies
Handheld
mobile devices such
as mobile phones or
tablets

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Types of AR
technologies
Wearable AR
(glasses)
AR glasses permit to
display 3D objects
and information in
front of the user, and
manipulate them
using gesture or
voice.

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Types of AR
technologies
Spatial AR
permit to display an
augmentation directly
in a space or on an
object.
It’s based on many
technologies such as
projective displays or
holograms.

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Virtual reality
A medium composed of
interactive computer
simulations that sense
the participant's position
and actions and replace
or augment the feedback
to one or more senses,
giving the feeling of being
mentally immersed or
present in the simulation.

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Types of VR
technologies
Desktop VR
displays
is a computer that has
the ability to generate
stereoscopic display,
often combined with
other devices such as
mouse and camera, to
track the user
movement.

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Types of VR
technologies
Head Mounted
Devices
They are adapted to
individual users, they
adapt the image by
tracking the user’
head or eyes.

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Types of VR
technologies
Workbench
Operates by projecting
a 3D image onto a table
surface that is viewed
by a group of users.
Using stereoscopic
glasses users observe a
3D image displayed
above the tabletop

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Types of VR
technologies
Immersive room / cave
It is a small surround-
screen projection space in
which audio and visual
media are projected in
order to present users with
a walk-in feeling, as if they
are in a certain
geographical or historical
space.

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AR/VR technologie for education

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Learning benefits from AR/VR
• Makes students highly motivated, they enjoy learning,
they retain lessons and understand spatial structures ;
• AR/VR is a good tool to promote collaboration between
peers and encouraging discussion and interaction among
them ;

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Learning benefits from AR/VR
• AR/VR permits learning situations that are :
– too expensive to implement in reality ;
– Dangerous (chemical or radioactive experiences)
– where the internal structure is important to help understanding (the
internal functioning of a machine) ;
– where phenomena are not normally visible to the eye: macroscopic
and microscopic (eg, astronomical events and molecular motions);
– Where phenomena are very fast or very slow (e.g. explosions and
drift of continents);
– in which to explain abstract and / or complex concepts (magnetic
fields) ;

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Limitations
• The use of AR/VR systems can pose a problem for lesson
administration and monitoring students' progress ;
• Some systems are beyond the scope of most school budgets
• Social isolation of the students who are not aware of their real
surrounding environment (handheld device) ;
• Difficulties of the professors to redefine the objectives of “on
the shelf” AR/VR systems ;
• Other limitations : Health issues (VR), technological issues,
distraction issues

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Research issues
• Are these technologies good enough to improve the
learning of students or are they simply “gadgets - toys” ?
• Which is the best AR/VR for education ? And in which
learning situation or scenario ?
• How to simplify the usage of these technologies for
students and professors who are not techies.
• How to enrich the school LMS with students data coming
from AR/VR technologies ?
• …

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Other research
issues
Architecture of
Internet of
Learning-Things
IA (chatbot,
pedagogical
agent)
Serious games
and gamification
Web of objects
Learning
Management
Systems
3D holographic
and telepresence
interfaces

83. 25/10/2017
My convictions for the future of education in
the world for the next two decades
• It is difficult to predict the future knowing that the hallmarks
of the modern world are uncertainty and complexity.
• Schools and universities will remain the main places for
education and learning ;
• Face-to-face education will still be the preeminent type of
training mainly for primary and secondary levels ;
• Technology will play an important role in the future but not as
disruptive as you can imagine ;
• Quality of pedagogical contents and privacy will be the main
problems facing all education actors.

84. 25/10/2017
My team work
• Future Smart Classroom – Future Smart School
– Ayoub Assaid
– Houda El Koubaiti
• AR/VR in education
– Houda El Koubaiti
• Assessment with IoT devices
• Gaming and gamification with IoT devices

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Thank you
Pr. Radouane Mrabet
https://twitter.com/radouane_mrabet
http://ma.linkedin.com/in/radouanemrabet/