By Dr. Crystal Roe
In December 2018 HAEd in Boston hosted a compelling event together with Techii, Harvard Graduate Business Club at the Harvard Science Center to examine cutting edge inventions and innovations that are shaping the future of education entitled 21st Century in Education. This was a panel discussion style moderated by Dr. Crystal Rose and Emily Pope, Co-Leaders of HAEd Boston and featured three cutting edge guests sharing their educational technologies and a neuroscientist from MIT Media Lab. Very often we may wonder about what the future of education in the EdTech space will entail. It is also fascinating to have a sneak peak at cutting edge technologies as well as the research which will have the ability to transform learning as well as the educational experience in the 21st century. We had access to all of these at this event. Not only did we learn directly from founders and developers of these technologies, we also listened to a world renowned scientist who shared about how we learn and ways to improve upon the learning process.
The first speaker was a doctoral candidate and well respected neuroscientist, Alexandra Rieger of MIT Media Lab who walked us through newly published research underlying the multi sensory learning process and how educators and students alike may improve upon the teaching and learning experience. Next we got to hear from Dr. Dee Kanejiya, CEO of Cognii. Cognii has won multiple awards including National Science Foundation Award as this technology leverages AI technology to the benefit the education and training industries. Cognii is billed as the leading provider of individualized as well as adaptive AI instruction as it is able to decipher open ended questions and lead the user on a path to mastery of any given subject. It was exciting to learn about this technology which makes learning and education more accessible and hopefully more affordable in the long run. Next on the panel was the Co-Founder and developer Brandon Zararoff of an EdTech company by the name of eBlocks Learning. This program is focused on toddlers to prepare them for Kindergarten and uses wearable technologies as well as sensors in a variety of play-based learning applications such as blocks, puzzles and toys so that parents can see their child’s progress which is interpreted by leading researchers in early childhood development. Imagine looking at the dashboard which displays how your child is playing and acquiring skills in a variety of learning situations! This is something that may seem far fetched now but guaranteed in the future, preschools will be sure to offer this as one of their services to keep parents informed as to their child’s development when they are away from them.
You may find pictures of the event on the Techii Facebook page here. And thanks to Emily Pope also did a twitter takeover on the HAEd twitter page, feel free to retweet and comment. We really appreciate it. Also, if you have any questions about this event or others, feel free to email us at haedboston@gmail.com.