Article | Education
Hassan Baickdeli, Lenovo’s Head of Emerging Technology & Solutions A/NZ, reflects on the success of this year’s event.
It was great to be a part of EduTECH again this year. 2019 certainly didn’t disappoint, with hundreds of Educational Institutions, companies and thought leaders, including Lenovo, showcasing their education-oriented technology and skillsets. My key takeout from the whole event – which was attended by a huge range of interested parties, including teachers, Principals, IT departments, the travel and tourism industries and Defence Force – was how everyone really wants to understand how emerging technology is having an impact.
Of great interest was the contextual value of VR. Teachers particularly enjoyed the classroom use – where VR can be used to bring so many things to life, like showing kids how the world looked in the time of the dinosaurs. For the Tourism Industry, out-of-reach implementation, like sending people on virtual trips to Hawaii (or anywhere) was a big hit. And the Defence Force saw the value of volatile situation recreation, like detonating bombs from the safety of a classroom, straight away. The educational possibilities of VR have really captured everyone’s imagination.
The last year has seen usage of VR reality ramp up. From personal education and exploration, immersive gaming experiences to the hyper acceleration of the use of VR in a commercial context – in Tertiary Education, TAFES and industrial settings – VR is blazing a trail for Digital Transformation across the board.
AI was also a major topic of interest. How it can deliver value in the classroom and workplace – from security features like Facial Recognition, to everyday household usage in AI-enabled devices and industrial-scale implementation – AI and the applications of it have only just begun. For educators, it could be useful if they were automatically alerted if a student was late or wasn’t attending class, and parents could also be notified via text and be able to respond accordingly if the child was sick and at home.
The Far-field Mic and AI combination generated a huge buzz among the education sector. Imagine the time-saving benefit of a set up that can record, recognise and assess individual voices in a classroom debate setting.
Probably the most-asked question at the Lenovo stand was “What’s next?”. While I have a pretty good idea, that will be for another article! For now, VR and AI are the leading players in the Digital Transformation of the classroom – and in shaping the workforce of the near future.
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Check out this short clip of Lenovo at EduTECH 2019:
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