Using IoT to Deliver Digital Learning

Keeping in mind the use of technology in our daily life, the Internet of Things is becoming the inclining theme on the planet. Internet of Things prominently called IoT is the inter-networking of inter-connected gadgets over the web with no human interaction. This creates a huge scope for the education domain in the world to be responsive towards various upcoming IoT innovations.

IoT in the education domain has demonstrated to be a distinct advantage as many schools and institutes are utilizing different electronic gadgets to provide e-learning options. From an online course to the idea of online classrooms, IoT in the education sector has extended the scope of teaching methodologies and given opportunities to instructors to implement the paradigm of ‘Learning with Ease’ in real-world scenarios.

As of today, E-learning is being executed using various systems and approaches. IoT has introduced smart gadgets and applications for schools and institutes. The potential is genuinely boundless: we could change the way of tracking attendance for our educators, instead of manual attendance in the classroom create advanced and digitized ID cards for students, extend smart devices to be more intuitive.

The wide use of IoT gadgets permits schools to improve the security of their campus area, monitor important assets and resources, and increase the availability of students' data to teachers. Instructors can even utilize this innovation to make ‘smart courses’, instead of imparting the lessons in an orthodox manner.

IOT APPLICATIONS IN DIGITAL LEARNING

Until now, e-learning was limited to virtual classrooms, video lectures and animations, online tutorials, and study materials. But the introduction of IoT in e-learning could really help to transform the education process.

There are certain IoT products which can create a great impact on E-Learning. Following IoT applications can prove how it can transform education.

• Smart Boards: A Smart Board is a large intuitive display to be used in place of a whiteboard. Smartboard permits the educator and students to access the same learning resource in the form of a document and share it with the whole class simultaneously.

• RFID Chips: RFID chips can be used to track any physical object, even plants and animals to gather information about these objects and store it in the cloud. This information can be later analyzed for various purposes. An RFID based attendance framework would consequently log student's participation during class with exact occasions - all transferred to the cloud.

• QR Codes: Quick Response (QR) codes have advanced into the schoolbooks. These codes can be inserted in books to get to any extra assets or students can install them in their offline work which can be connected to an online device for the task. Notes, exercises, and extra information become effectively accessible to students while scanning the QR codes with their cell phones.

• Cloud Devices: Cloud-enabled devices empower teachers and students to control and access information by means of the Internet. The primary use of the cloud-based education system is to incorporate students and faculty to proceed in parallel. Instructors can transfer their class tutorials, tasks, and exercises on the cloud server and students can have 24X7 access to all the learning material online, both at home and school.

• Students with Special Needs: Students impaired in hearing and speech, use gesture-based sign language to communicate. To include such students in lectures, teachers may use an arrangement of gloves with sensors to make an interpretation from gesture-based communication to help in understanding and preparing notes in parallel for these students.

Students having far-sightedness can be given specific cards which can be used to detect separately and can guide connected gadgets to show text at a larger font or can zoom in the display screen. Utilizing IoT gadgets and frameworks is a valuable method to give instructive help to especially abled students.

• Simulated Intelligence Devices: AI and ML can be utilized to connect different data stores, verify research information, and get experiences that expedite the research further. As most of the research part is taken over by these interconnected frameworks, researchers can concentrate on the exploration part better. IoT gadgets are the path towards inventiveness and for younger students, this is an incredible medium to understand, control and build such frameworks themselves.

BENEFITS OF IOT IN DIGITAL LEARNING

● Effective Utilization of Resources: IoT frameworks utilize different sensors and gadgets, apart from software, to gather and process information progressively. With IoT, educational systems can permit students to utilize their cell phones and tablets to and learn through online courses, conversations, discussions, and exercises. There is no need to retain data from a physical coursebook with the use of IoT.

● Student’s Involvement: Since IoT is an intuitive innovation that interfaces offline gadgets to online gadgets, it naturally presents greater intuitiveness and commitment in its applications. Students can get more input on their work, while intelligent education programs enhance innovativeness, interest, and energy for the student. For students that are lagging, IoT can recognize where the problem is happening in the material, advise the instructor of the issue, and give the student more data to help come to an obvious conclusion quicker. IoT additionally offers instructors to plan their own intelligent learning modules to customize the experience for each group of classes.

● Benefits for Impaired Students: Students with special needs often lag in the traditional manner of education. With AI and IoT, impaired youngsters can be involved more and be responsive effectively in their learning.

● Offerings for Educators: By utilizing IoT in the classroom, instructors can concentrate on saving some time utilizing the computerized process of reviewing assignments and managing attendance. Face detection innovation is being utilized to follow students' ability to focus, identifying confused or diverted faces, to help the educator to improvise quicker during a lecture in the classroom, making delivery of education effective. Smart amplifiers interpreting the educator's lecture could record the audio for students to playback later while revising the lesson.

CONCLUSION

The need and importance of IoT, its applications with an explicit spotlight on E-learning offers immense value that the education sector can clearly benefit from. The potential of IoT can be leveraged to implement a smart learning environment that facilitates better learning, greater retention rates and help strengthen skills and knowledge.

With youngsters being involved, there needs to be adequate checks and systems implemented with clear demarcation and accountability on shared information before the technology is deployed. Schools and universities should assess their systems' security and devices and review platforms or e-learning management systems to ensure that there is appropriate security, given the current risks.

In any case, making IoT a piece of standard education will require a significant investment of time and resources. The most imperative factor in this is making important innovations both available and simple to utilize. Even though there is a clear promise that IoT technology offers for the education sector, the effective execution of IoT will rely on the successful implementation of privacy and security. IoT stands to alter drastically the way academia works and improve student performance and engagements in many fields.

By Sankalp Katiyar, Consultant-Engineering, GlobalLogic