AI in Education: Cheater or Tutor

 

AI in Education: Cheater or Tutor

By

Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma

 

Introduction

In my previous article published in Sunday Observer entitled “Digital Transformation: Avoid paving the cow path”, we discussed about the general benefits of the Digital Transformation to the economy as a whole. One of the very important sectors of this overall digital transformation effort is the Digital Transformation in Education. Digital transformation in education uses the technology to improve teaching and learning. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key part of this transformation. This article attempts to discuss the benefits, challenges and the way forward on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the digital transformation in education. While AI can revolutionize learning by making it more accessible and tailored, concerns about misuse and ethical implications do remain. The question remains: Is AI a cheater that undermines learning or a tutor that enhances it? Let us examine the circumstances that the use of AI in education exemplifies the role of cheater and tutor and how best we could balance these two roles for the best advantage of the society.

AI as a Tutor: Transforming Education Positively

AI’s role as a tutor is demonstrated through its ability to provide personalize education with more efficient and student-centered manner. The AI-based tools can monitor the student’s rate of progress and tailor the learning experience to best suit the student’s ability through Intelligent Tutoring Systems, etc. Such learning systems are highly adaptive and can adjust content delivered in real-time to suit the individual student’s ability and to keep the students engaged and motivated.

Further, AI can bridge the student’s knowledge gaps by offering scalable learning opportunities. Students who do not have access to quality teachers or appropriate resources can make use of the AI tools to avail 24/7 learning assistance from anywhere. AI chatbots can serve as virtual tutors which on demand will answer questions and provide explanations. This democratization of education allows students from underserved areas to benefit from personalized support which otherwise is impossible to receive.

AI can also alleviate teachers’ administrative burdens. AI-powered grading systems streamline evaluation processes, lesson planning, etc., enabling educators to focus on teaching rather than spending time on routine tasks. Further, the analytics from the AI tools can help teachers identify trends in student performance. This makes it easier for teachers to address learning gaps proactively.

AI as a Cheater: Ethical Concerns and Academic Dishonesty

While AI holds immense potential, its misuse raises serious concerns. The rise of AI-powered tools with the capability of generating essays and predicting answers, has made it easier for students to plagiarize and submit work they did not create. Platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc. can generate essays and assignments with simple prompts by the user, and even provide answers to exam questions, allowing students to bypass the real learning process altogether.

The consequences of the above misuses are very serious. The learning outcomes such as ability to apply gained knowledge, ability to analyze, ability to summarize, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and ability to synthesize acquired knowledge and create new work – core competencies that education seeks to develop among learners - are undermined by the overreliance on AI. When students use AI to complete their assignments without having to go through the cognitive processes needed to complete them as learners, it disrupts the long-term learning outcomes that learners need to achieve in the progression of their studies and devalues the integrity of education.

Moreover, distinguishing between genuine student work and AI-generated content is challenging. Even with plagiarism detection tools, AI outputs can often pass as original work, creating a dilemma for educators. This increases the need for stricter academic integrity policies and a re-evaluation of traditional assessment methods.

Striking a Balance in AI's Role in Education

Considering the benefits and risks in using AI in education, it is not possible to label the use of AI, one-sidedly, as a Cheater or Tutor. To determine whether AI is a cheater or tutor, it is essential to strike a balance between harnessing its benefits and addressing its risks.

Educational institutions must focus on fostering a culture of ethical AI use by setting clear guidelines and expectations. Students should be taught how to use AI tools as supplements to learning rather than shortcuts.

Educators can use the AI’s capabilities to develop students as ones who can think critically rather than being rote learners, who are taught to learn by memorizing the information by mere repetition. The use of AI as a tutor needs a great deal of effort and dedication by the educators. Educators can leverage AI's capabilities to create assessments that prioritize understanding and critical thinking over rote memorization. For instance, oral presentations, project-based learning, and open-ended assignments are less susceptible to AI misuse and encourage genuine student engagement.

Furthermore, AI literacy should become part of the curriculum. Teaching students about AI's capabilities, limitations, and ethical considerations can empower them to use these tools responsibly. When used effectively, AI can complement human instruction, fostering a collaborative and innovative learning environment. AI’s ability to serve as a tutor anytime, anywhere solves the problem of one to one tutor support for those who are in need but cannot afford. This could be used to alleviate the issues that comes from the understaffing of schools in certain geographical locations.

Way Forward

AI in education is neither inherently a cheater nor a tutor; it is a tool whose impact depends on how it is used. While it holds the potential to revolutionize learning by making education more personalized and accessible, its misuse poses ethical and academic challenges. Striking a balance requires educators, policymakers, and students to collaborate in developing guidelines that promote ethical and responsible AI use. If harnessed correctly, AI can serve as a powerful tutor, enhancing education and preparing students for a technologically advanced future.

 

(Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma is a Chartered Professional Engineer, Honorary Fellow Member of the IESL, former Director, Academic Affairs at Saegis Campus and Senior Lecturer at OUSL. He holds a PhD in Instructional Design for Computer-Based Learning from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and can be contacted at gamini_pad@hotmail.com) 

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2025/01/12/ai-in-education-cheater-or-tutor/

Government Digital Transformation: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies

 

Government Digital Transformation: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies

Initiatives on Digital Transformation are given very high priority by the new government. While the opportunities and benefits that are associated with Digital Transformation are widely highlighted, the challenges that face such major initiative are not so well identified. The purpose of this article is to highlight Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies relating to the Digital Transformation with a view to providing a holistic view of the subject.

The benefits of the Digital Transformation are widely published in the literature. These publications relate to case studies and other experiences worldwide relating to digitalization in both private and public sector. The experiences in digitalization initiatives in private and public sector have many similarities while they also do differ in some major aspects. In this article, the author will try to focus on the general issues as well as the specific issues which directly relate to the digitalization in governments.

Please use the link below to read the rest of the article:

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2024/11/22/government-digital-transformation-opportunities-challenges-and-strategies/

 

Digital Transformation: Avoid Paving the Cow Path!

By

Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma

 

The importance of digitalization of the economy and particularly the government services is a subject that has been under discussion for a few years now. The National Peoples Power(NPP) too has emphasized the vital importance of the same before and after the election, and actions are currently being undertaken for establishment of a Ministry and other relevant government institutions, and appointment of suitable professionals to lead them.

 In the NPP’s Digital Policy Document published in August 2024, “Implementing rapid digitization programs for all government institutions to increase their efficiency, transparency, and make them paperless” is stated as a major goal under the Transparent and Efficient Governance section. This is one of the significant goals among the eleven or so other goals mentioned there under different subheadings. However, the author feels that the word ‘digitalization’ is more appropriate than the ‘digitization’ for the context stated in the document.

While Digitization refers to the process of converting analog data into a digital format, digitalization involves the integration of digital technologies into business operations to optimize processes, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation. Digitization serves as a prerequisite to the Digitalization which incorporates the infusion of digital product or service in to the organization’s processes, resulting in Digital Transformation.  Digital Transformation represents the innovative restructuring of organizations, greater customer satisfaction and greater value addition to the business, originated from digital diffusion. This overall process is known as the Pyramid of Digital Transformation.

While there are many policy, procedural and institutional matters that need to be discussed, formulated, established and implemented to ensure a successful and sustainable journey of digital transformation at the national level, this article attempts to emphasize some critically important prerequisites that are necessary for successful implementation of digitalization of any government processes or services.

It is essential to conduct Business Process Reengineering (BPR) for any process or service that is to be digitalized. This has to be done prior to applying the digital transformation tools. We have seen many failures in the past in relation to automation of processes and services, which were attempted without proper business process analysis. It is typical that many organizations place undue emphasis on adopting new technologies to “go digital” rather than focusing on the actual transformation through a proper analysis of the subject processes that need to be improved and documented, prior to applying the digital tools on them. Obviously, the improvements to the processes also need to consider the capacity and benefits that the digital tools can provide in improving the reliability and the user-friendliness of the process that can be shared with the customer.

Business processes, and the documents, people, and systems linked to them, are at the heart of how every organization operates. But the fact is, most businesses are wildly inefficient. Paperwork and manual tasks tie up employee’s time, poorly managed information kills productivity, every department has their own system for storing data, and the list goes on. This often leads to delays, inaccuracies, and widespread deviations where work happens differently every time. As a result, the citizens are dissatisfied and start to complain about the inefficiency and delays in availing the required services from the organizations or businesses.

The title of this article, Digital Transformation: Avoid Paving the Cow Path! was coined intentionally to emphasize the importance of the Business Process Reengineering that need to be carried out prior to any digitalization as its relevance has been largely ignored. Most of the processes we use in our government offices are ancient and some of them still have the resemblance of colonial era practices. These processes need to be revamped or reengineered to incorporate today’s technology and customer expectations, productivity and reliability expected, reduce employee discontent, provide a respectful image about the organization, etc.

For those who are not yet familiar with the above phrase involving the Cow Path, let me shed some light on it. This phrase refers to the common practice of using new software, etc. to automate old and inefficient business processes. The emphasis is to avoid recurrence of such practices and to take time to analyze the current business processes critically to suggest improvements to be more productive, customer-friendly which also add more value to the business, etc. The improvements to the process need to be discussed and agreed upon by all the stakeholders of the process. These discussions are usually held by the process owners (who are responsible for implementing the process) with the participation of the recipients of their service (customers), other relevant stakeholders, and experts from the organization’s digitalization initiatives from both IT and BPE backgrounds, etc. Business Process Reengineering thus carried out provides recommendations for restructuring the processes and any new technologies with everything properly scoped out and prioritized. These discussions between the process owners, subject matter experts, digitalization experts, customers and other stakeholders need to be conducted in a professional and structured manner. These discussions need to be supported by the top management and also necessary training for the personnel should be provided. There are many useful management techniques involved in Business Process Engineering such as data analysis techniques, customer survey, benchmarking, flowcharting, process mapping, SWOT analysis, cost-benefit analysis, etc.  

It is essential to provide the necessary resources and training to the concerned employees to be able to actively participate in the digital transformation initiative. The all government sector employees should have adequate awareness of the government’s digital transformation initiative and should be motivated to provide their support to the same. The change should be properly managed by assigned change managers or change champions at the operational and executive level. The higher management should always support the initiative, monitor the progress and provide necessary support to sustain the momentum. The fear of using new technology should be tackled appropriately. As the transformation effort will take place, there should be continuous and cordial dialogue between the employees, citizens and the organization. The feedback from the employees about the transformation should be regularly solicited, duly analyzed and action taken.

The primary benefits of digitalization range from increased operational efficiency and improved employee productivity. Digitalization also reduces costs associated with physical document management, manual processes and travel. In terms of intangible benefits, the digitalization of business processes optimizes customer satisfaction and information management. Organizations equipped with an agile digital infrastructure can swiftly adapt to changes in the environment, leading to improved performance and customer satisfaction. Like any other management initiatives involving major structural changes on how the business is carried out, the digital transformation should also be subject to continuous improvement through use of customer feedback, incorporation of changes in technology, etc. Further, Digital infrastructure is the foundation of any connected business. It enables success, powers transformation and connects people around the world. It is therefore, mandatory for the government and private sector to provide such infrastructure facilities to its citizens with appropriate bandwidth, reliability and at a reasonable cost for the Digital Transformation to succeed.

 

 

(Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma is a Chartered Professional Engineer, Honorary Fellow Member of IESL, former Director, Academic Affairs at Saegis Campus and Senior Lecturer at OUSL , and holds a PhD from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand) 

https://www.sundayobserver.lk/2024/11/03/news-features/36666/digital-transformation-avoid-paving-the-cow-path/

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/241201/education/digital-transformation-avoid-paving-the-cow-path-579253.html

Advice to Graduating Students: Balancing Hard and Soft Skills

https://www.dailynews.lk/2021/09/07/features/258589/graduating-students-balancing-hard-and-soft-skills

Background 

 Graduating from a university or any higher educational institution marks a very important milestone in one’s life. It is a very significant event not only for the graduate but also for the family members and well-wishers who supported the student during the studies, morally, financially and otherwise. Studying for a degree is an endeavor involving heavy investment of time and money, great sacrifices and many opportunities gained and lost. With such a great investment of time and money, and sacrifices, one is expected to be successful in the years after graduation by getting a rewarding employment or starting an own business, and providing mental satisfaction and happiness to him and to all those who supported him. What sort of advice can the seniors with lifetime experiences provide to graduating students so that they could derive appropriate rewards for their years-long strenuous efforts? We often hear, and some of us have actually experienced how the non-availability of timely and appropriate advice has hindered progress of many graduates. Based on experiences of those who have gone through this process (“the mill”) during their careers, many advices can be generated. It is difficult to address all the areas that a graduating student should pay attention to in preparation for the next phase of their career, i.e., employment, in a short article such as this. However, this article intends to cover a few important aspects relating to the skills that a graduate should possess and sharpen to lead a successful professional career. Required Skills It is recognized that for a graduate to secure a job and keep it, certain skills need to be acquired and maintained. These skills are known as Hard Skills and Soft Skills. It is also established that a good balance of the two types of skills is a prerequisite for a successful career. The actual balance between the two types of skills necessary to be successful could depend on the type of business you are in, the level of the corporate ladder that you are placed at, etc. What are the hard skills and soft skills? Hard Skills These are the core skills that graduates primarily gain through their education and training at their academic institutions. These skills would vary from profession to profession or business to business. They can include skills such as engineering design, accounting strategies, computer programming, clinical diagnosis, criminal investigation, legal analysis, etc. These are the skills required to carry out the core business of an organization and to get the job done. Hard skills are teachable and measurable. In practice however, it is proven that the hard skills alone are not sufficient to run a business successfully or a graduate to be professionally successful. A set of soft skills is also needed. Soft Skills Soft Skills are also known as People Skills or Interpersonal Skills. They are not easily teachable as compared to hard skills. Soft skills are similar to emotions or insights that allow people to ‘read’ others. Most of the soft skills are learned through practice and experience. They are much harder to be measured and evaluated. What are the types of soft skills that graduates need to acquire and maintain? Following is a list of some common soft skills that most of the young graduates need to acquire and practise: • Communication Skills • Flexibility • Dependability • Teamwork • Work Ethics • Positivity • Time Management • Problem Solving • Critical Thinking • Conflict Resolution • Project Planning There are many more soft skills. The above is a representative list of soft skills that are more relevant to day-to-day work. It is important for the fresh graduates to be aware of the importance of these skills and learn them and practise. The graduates will start realizing that their services are better valued by peers and seniors as they begin to complement their hard skills with more and more soft skills. The important point is that most of these skills which one learns and sharpens during their employment can be transferred to any future jobs. The recruiters usually look for and value the transferable skills that a prospective employee could bring into a new job, from their prior experience. Transferrable Skills Transferable skills can be from both hard skills and soft skills. For example, a transferable hard skill could be a mastery of a particular software or a coding language that can be used in various business settings. However, soft skills are more easily transferable due to their generic nature and universal applicability. Some of the most common soft skills that are transferable include: • Leadership • Communication Skills • Teamwork • Time Management • Problem Solving Balancing Hard Skills and Soft Skills While appreciating the importance of both hard skills and soft skills, graduates need to strike a balance between the two types. Further, they need to be aware that what weightage the recruiters or managers assign to these two types of skills, respectively. The preference may be skewed towards hard skills at the beginning of one’s career and may gradually shift to soft skills as one moves higher in the corporate ladder. Various surveys conducted in the USA and elsewhere indicate that recruiters tend to give equal or more weightage to soft skills than to hard skills. Graduates need to be aware of this and give necessary priority to acquiring and maintaining soft skills in addition to the hard skills they learned during their higher studies. It is generally believed that hard skills help you get a job and soft skills help you to keep it and progress. Skills Gap Due to rapid technological changes taking place around us and also due to somewhat outdated curricula followed by some academic institutions, there exists a Skills Gap. The Skills Gap is the divide between the skills employers expect employees to have and the skills employees and job seekers actually possess. Advice to graduating students Graduating students need to be aware of the importance of hard skills and soft skills needed to be successful in getting a job and maintaining it. Due prominence and emphasis to the skills possessed need to be given in their resumes when applying for jobs and attending job interviews. Both hard skills and soft skills need to be developed, kept up-to-date and sharpened all the time. The balance between the two types needs to be maintained depending on the job environment. Also, it is important to keep an eye on the Skills Gap and try to bridge this gap by one’s own additional efforts. The following quote puts the discussion in context: “There’s not one specific thing or skill people have to have to work for us. But I can tell you why we fire people: soft skills. We hire for hard skills. We fire for soft skills. …” Rick Stephens, Senior Vice President of HR, The Boeing Corporation Author: Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma, Chartered Professional Engineer, Honorary Fellow Member of IESL, former Director, Academic Affairs at Saegis Campus and Senior Lecturer at OUSL, holds a PhD from the University of Canterbury, NZ. email: gamini_pad@hotmail.com

Online Education: How we can get the next phase right

 

 Background

Online Learning has become a household term and is becoming a way of life. Schoolchildren including those from some primary classes and more mature students from state and non-state higher educational institutions, along with their teachers and lecturers have started experiencing online teaching and learning hands on during the last several months. Although online teaching and learning existed in a very limited scale prior to the onset of Covid-19, a rapid transition to online teaching and learning occurred following the closure of educational institutions in connection with the spread of the virus. The way and the speed with which the state and non-state educational institutions adapted to the change and faced the challenges of shifting to online learning are commendable. State and non-state higher educational institutions and schools, private tuition providers and other academic and professional bodies have implemented online teaching and learning to varying degrees of success during the past period. The general satisfaction level among the students and teachers about the new mode of learning seems to be somewhat satisfactory subject to certain shortcomings such as internet connection issues, costs associated therewith, lack of suitable devices to practise online learning, suitability of learning material, etc.

 

Definitions and context

Online learning can be defined as education that takes place over the Internet. It is often referred to as “e- learning” among other terms. However, online learning is just one type of “distance learning” - the umbrella term for any learning that takes place across distance and not in a traditional classroom. On the other hand, distance learning is described as any format of education provided to students who do not need to be physically present at an institution; previously materials were sent to students but now materials are provided via computer conferencing, video, Internet, and other electronic means.

Online learning can be used in both distance learning and in blended learning, which uses a mix of online learning and traditional face-to-face learning approaches. This however, makes it necessary for the online learning material to be prepared with appropriate design features to ensure self-study, student engagement, provision of feedback, opportunity for self-assessment, etc. It is not appropriate to use teaching material prepared for face-to-face settings in online teaching without modifications as the two teaching and learning contexts are quite different.

 

Current Situation

The common approaches to online teaching have been to use free videoconferencing software such as Zoom to organize online lecture sessions where the teacher or lecturer explains the subject matter using PowerPoint slides or directly working on whiteboards. Lecture notes are sent to students electronically in advance with the expectation that students read same and come prepared for the Zoom session on a specified date.  During the Zoom sessions, the teacher explains material, solves selected problems, questions students, answers student queries, etc. In some sessions, video and audio clips are played with or without teacher intervention, and/or sent them for use by students at their own time.

In many higher educational institutions, Learning Management Systems (LMS) are used for routine course administration purposes including sharing and uploading assignments, receiving answer scripts, project submissions, conducting surveys, checking attendance, setting discussion forums and chats, etc.

Notes, hand-outs, etc. prepared for face-to-face teaching may not be attractive to all the online learners. There are different types of learners in any given student cohort. Four primary types of learners are identified; Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing preference and Kinaesthetic. Appropriately designed online lessons shall meet most of these learner types. If one particular learning material cannot meet all types learner styles, there shall be other complementary material which can meet the unmet learner styles. Ideally, there shall be different learning material which caters for different types of learners. At least, two or more alternative media components should be provided to the students so that they could choose the best medium that suit them, e.g. visual, audio, text or practical or experiment-based, etc. Attention also needs to be given to learners who have visual, auditory and other impairments.

The above emphasises the importance of appropriate design of instructions to suit online learning. In order to achieve desired learning objectives the lessons need to be designed using appropriate instructional design strategies and models.

While the access to many institutional web servers has been made free by many educational institutions in collaboration with telecom providers, the poor internet connections experienced by students from rural areas, costs associated with internet access to other websites, heavy dependence on mobile phones (with attendant limitations such as small screen sizes, difficulty in reading and typing long texts, etc.) for online learning due to non-availability of better devices such as tabs or laptops, have not helped to make the online learning a pleasant experience to a significant portion of learners.

 

What comes next?

Now that the first phase of online learning has passed, what comes next? Following are a few specific actions that universities and other educational institutions could take in the next few months to help improve student learning, engagement, and experience while operating remotely:

These moves may inspire institutions to pilot new initiatives, learn what works, iterate, and position themselves to create capabilities that will enhance instruction permanently. However, the educational institutions may not be able to handle all of them on their own. Due organizational, professional and financial support need to be provided by the government, public and private sector corporations, non-governmental organizations, professional institutions, philanthropists, specialists, consultants, etc.

Focus on access and equity: Moving from on-campus to remote learning raises issues related to access and equity. There are the immediate logistical challenges of ensuring students have the basic technology they need to learn remotely. Some possible actions include: offer stipends for internet access and laptop rentals or purchases. Provision of loaned equipment and hot spots for internet access to under-resourced students.

Consideration also needs to be given to effects on mental health and stress created by the epidemic, and also to mitigate the additional difficulties encountered by physically impaired learners due to shifting to online education, e.g. provision of recorded lessons with captions, etc.

Support faculty: Most academics are working hard to respond creatively to teach their students to the same standards, even as their own lives are disrupted. What methods work best in a remote environment will differ by discipline and the technology available. There are a few broad ways that institutions can help.

Offer more teaching support. Many institutions have centres that offer support to faculty in their teaching; these should be scaled up as much as possible and shift their orientation to proactively support the academics in educational technology and preparation of necessary media components and lesson material.

 

Use social media and online forums so that faculty can share best practices. Collaboration forums can get early momentum when “seeded” with ideas from influential academics. Highlighting and explaining successful remote-teaching practices during faculty meetings can cultivate a sense of camaraderie, as well as a culture of sharing and improving.

 

Set up a structure for the faculty to get regular feedback on their teaching. Two sources for this are: short student surveys and engagement data derived from the institution’s learning-management system. Student surveys need to be short and specific, with pertinent questions, such as how well professors explain the concepts or cultivate a sense of connection. These surveys should be used not to judge professors, but to give them information on how students are responding and where they can improve. Survey results can also give administrators a sense of where they might need to intervene to support student learning.

 

Create online student centres.  As institutions move to remote learning, they can think about how to use existing tools to move in-person gatherings online and open up spaces for discussions, events, wellness classes, and other interests. The idea is to offer virtual spaces in lieu of physical ones to enable the university community to continue to connect. These centres also could be used to organise study groups and online tutoring.

 

Activate stakeholders.  One way to start is by identifying and activating tech-savvy students and staff to coach faculty and other students to use online tools. Another possibility is to ask alumni and community members to provide remote mentorship and coaching to support students with remote learning, career discussions, and virtual internships. In addition to professional support, financial and logistical support also can be sought.

 

Invest in cybersecurity to ensure the continuity of teaching and learning. The rushed efforts to move learning online have increased the risks of cyberthreats. Universities can prevent such problems by ensuring their cybersecurity teams are up to the task, closing the gaps that attackers can exploit, and making investments required to ensure security and data privacy while enabling teaching and learning to go on.

 

Summary            

Often with limited experience and training, our educational institutions have hurriedly shifted to online learning and teaching. Many have done so in an exemplary manner; others have not been as successful, at least so far. This forced and abrupt move to remote learning has not been easy. However, it can provide institutions with an opportunity to experiment and innovate. Universities may find that they have a new remote-learning capability that can be integrated with on-campus instruction, to everyone’s benefit, when this crisis has passed. This added capability goes hand in hand with the government’s commitment to enhance the intakes and provide access to university education to all those who qualify.

 

Author:

 

Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma, a  Fellow Member of IESL and a former Senior Lecturer at OUSL, holds a PhD from the University of Canterbury, NZ. His PhD thesis was on Instructional Design for Computer-Based Learning. email: gamini_pad@hotmail.com

Robotics: Background, Influence on Everyday Life and Future

https://epaper.dailynews.lk/Home/ShareArticle?OrgId=a6a70679&imageview=0F

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2020/07/29/robotics-background-influence-on-everyday-life-and-future/


The term Robotics is often mentioned these days. There were many local inventions that were presented in mass media recently highlighting the possible use of Robotics in health care industry to meet the challenges faced under the COVID -19. The local innovators need to be congratulated and supported to ensure their prototypes are developed and converted in to fully commercially viable ventures.

Unimate-the grandfather of industrial robots

Background

The word “Robot” in Czech language, meaning forced labour, has served as the root for the word Robotics. Per ISO 8373:2012, industrial robot is defined as an automatically controlled reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator, programmable in three or more axes, which can be either fixed or mobile for use in industrial automation applications.

Robotics is known as an interdisciplinary field at the interface of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of Robotics is to design intelligent machines that can help and assist humans in their day-to-day lives and keep everyone safe. Robotics draws on the achievements of information and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering and others.

There is evidence to show that mechanised human-like figures date back to ancient times, to Greece. The concept of an artificial man is found in works of fiction since the early 19th century. Despite these initial thoughts and representations, the dawn of the robotic revolution has begun in earnest in the 1950s. American inventor, George Devol, created the first digitally operated and programmable robot, named Unimate in 1954. This ultimately laid the foundation of the modern Robotics industry. Many significant and gigantic developments in the timeline of Robotics happened thereafter, which led to the modern commercial and industrial robots.

As an academic discipline

As an academic discipline, robotics is a relatively young field with highly ambitious goals, the ultimate one being the creation of machines that can behave and think like humans. This attempt to create intelligent machines naturally leads us first to examine ourselves – to ask, for example, why our bodies are designed the way they are, how our limbs are coordinated, and how we learn and perform complex tasks.

Usefulness

Modern commercial and industrial robots are widely used performing jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy and reliability than humans. Robots are used for jobs which are too dirty, dangerous or dull to be suitable for humans. Robots are widely used in manufacturing industry, transport, earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry and laboratory research.

One key feature of robots is the ability to learn from a human and play back. A skill of a well-trained painter, for example, can be transferred to a robot. This can be done by ‘teaching’ the robot through conducting a painting job by the skilled worker while holding the arm of the robot. The robot will learn all the movements, paths and forces applied by the human in doing the job and remember. Robot can repeat the painting work the same way as the skilled worker when instructed. Of course, some fine tuning need to be made before a perfect result can be achieved.

Applications in Everyday Life

Following are some examples of the use of Robotics in everyday life, further to their widespread use in different Industries:

• Automated Transportation (Self-driving Robot)
The day is not that far when human drivers won’t be needed for driving vehicles. As a result, the accidents happening today due to human errors may be reduced.

• Security, Defense, and Surveillance
Robot monitors homes when people are away from their homes. These Robots help people to monitor the skies, ground, and water from a remote location.

• Medicine

Robots are capable of doing things which need precise and accurate performance. For drug delivery system (targeted drug delivery), robots can locally concentrate therapeutic payload (dosage of medicine) around pathological sites (where actually treatment is needed) so that they can reduce the dose of administrative drugs and side effects caused by them.

In the case of robotically-assisted minimally-invasive surgery, instead of directly moving the instruments, the surgeon uses one of two methods to administer the instruments. These include using a direct telemanipulator or through computer control, allowing the possibility for remote surgery.

• Education

Robots can help the students attend their classes remotely. The robot performs as a person in the classroom which is controlled by the person himself. Robot’s cameras are his eyes, and its body is for interacting with other students and teachers. So, the person can see and do everything in the classroom that he wants to do, from a remote location.

There are many other areas in everyday life that Robots can and will be able to assist in the near future, including home maintenance, cooking and acting as friends to humans.

Future of Robotics

As technological developments have done in the past, the next generation of robots, utilising artificial intelligence and automation to streamline processes currently handled with the assistance of human workers, will significantly alter the job market.
Robotic engineers are designing the next generation of robots to look, feel and act more human, to make it easier for us to work with them. Realistic looking hair and skin with embedded sensors will allow robots to react naturally in their environment. For example, a robot that senses your touch on the shoulder and turns to greet you.

Blended Learning: A way to assist learners in rural sectors

The term “Blended learning” is used frequently along with the term “e-Learning”. Is it just another buzz word or an old wine in a new bottle? 

It is relevant to review the present situation in the country with reference to computer literacy and the percentage of households owning computers in different sectors, urban, rural, estate, etc. Computer literacy/Computer ownership as a percentage (Sri Lanka: 30.1/22.2, Urban: 41.5/38.3, Rural: 28.6/19.9, Estate: 13.7/3.8), as per the published statistics.

The above statistics clearly indicate a vast disparity within the sectors in computer literacy and ownership of computers by households. Under such situation, a heavy emphasis on e-learning or technology based education could worsen the present relative social standing of rural and estate sectors. While actions need to be taken to reduce the above disparities in the longer run, it is imperative that less privileged sectors be provided with facilities such as blended learning to mitigate the disparities currently exist.

Blended learning is defined as a combination of multiple approaches to pedagogy or teaching. It is achieved through the combination of virtual and physical resources. Blended learning is a blend between e-Learning and traditional delivery methods such as traditional class rooms, printed learning material, etc. 

Most learners are familiar with how teachers use different delivery methods to achieve learning outcomes, e.g. lectures, discussion groups, drills and practices, role plays, audio/video clips, computer-based tutorials, etc. Therefore, it can be said that blended learning is a new name for an old concept.

Blended learning can cater to a large cross section of learners including rural and estate sectors in achieving their learning goals by accommodating different modes of delivery, models of teaching and styles of learning. All students do not learn in just the same way nor do they have same accessibility to technology; therefore, it is important to provide different methods, media and approaches to learn the same content by different students.

With regular Internet, TV, radio, etc., it is possible to deliver educational and training content for the benefit of the learners throughout the country. The content could include material for school and university programmes, improvement of general skills such as English knowledge and computer literacy, vocational skills such as repair and maintenance of automobiles, computers, etc. However, those who are familiar with distance learning are aware of the main hardships the learners face; the lack of tutor support and feedback.

The "theory" part of the learning task can be delivered through the technology mentioned above. How can the tutor support and feedback be provided? The way to proceed may be to use a blended learning approach. It is possible to meet the above learner needs through a combination of online and face-to-face tutor support. Face-to-face tutor support can be provided at venues such as Open University's regional centres, University of Vocational Technology, technical colleges, and other suitable public and private sector educational establishments. This is a feasible approach that would directly benefit the rural sector learners.

The learners would choose the method that suits them best based on preference, accessibility, affordability, etc. Different approaches in delivery are also necessary due to different learning contexts (traditional learning, distance learning, etc.), learner types (auditory learners, visual learners, etc.) and leaning tasks (facts, concepts, etc.). Also, when the technology is not equally accessible to the entire cross-section of learners, blended learning could provide alternatives to choose from.

The factors that influence the blend of methods and technologies used to achieve desired learning objectives include: learning context, type of learners, learning task, availability, accessibility and learner attitudes towards using technology for learning, time availability for learning, language and subject proficiency levels, pace at which learning goals are to be achieved, the pedagogical approaches.

The actual making of the ‘blend’ should be based on proper study and evaluation of the learning situation. Such study is called Instructional Design. A typical instructional design process includes five stages; Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE). The most critical of these stages is the first stage, Analysis. Analysis is the basis for design of instructions and their delivery. The Analysis stage consists of three components; analysis of learning context, the learner, and the learning task. The selection of the type of instruction and the mode of its delivery is based on the findings of the instructional analysis. Analyses of the learning context and the types of learners will provide information on: gaps in knowledge, learner background, preferred styles of learning, performance levels, language proficiency, computer literacy, access and attitude towards technology, time constraints, etc.

These findings have implications on the design and delivery of instructions. For example, if most of the learners are either auditory or visual learners, the design of instruction should include audio and video components. Similarly, if the learners are adults who work full-time or part-time, face-to-face delivery of instruction is not suitable as the primary mode of delivery. In this case the design and delivery of instruction should be made to suit a distance learning environment. Then, the question arises as to what type of distance learning is affordable. Does the learner have access to ICT where instructions can be delivered in the form of offline content or online through the Internet? If the learners have no access to ICT, then the option will be to provide the learners with print material designed for distance learning or media broadcasts. If the analysis shows that a good part of the learners have access to ICT, then the delivery of learning content should be made through both ICT, print material and/or media broadcasts. This is just an example of blending different methods of delivery of instruction to suit different types of learners and learning contexts.

Blended learning methods also become relevant when implementation of different steps in the learning process is considered. The different steps that a learner needs to go through to accomplish a learning task are known as Events of Instruction. There are nine events of instruction: Gaining attention, informing the learner of the objective, stimulating learner’s attention, stimulating recall of prior knowledge, providing learning guidance, eliciting performance, providing feedback, assessing performance, and enhancing retention and transfer. Different approaches or media could be used to achieve each event of instruction. 

The type of learning task too has a bearing on the methods of delivery. Design of events of instruction varies from task to task. Providing learning guidance, eliciting performance, giving feedback, etc. will be dependent on the type of learning task and mode of delivery. Giving feedback on learner performance will be quite different in a computer-based learning environment as compared to a face-to-face learning environment. Also, intelligent tutoring systems can evaluate the learner input and suggest possible routes for solving a problem or task. It is the instructional designer’s task therefore to select the appropriate mix of media to ensure effective learning under a given learning situation. 

However, the challenges associated with such an endeavour include the design and development of suitable indigenous learning content suitable for delivery through technology and design and implementation of pedagogically sound blended learning environments that will result in successful learning outcomes.

With such blended learning settings, a large portion of the country's population including those in rural sectors can benefit from the new technology and the country can steadily move towards its vision to become a knowledge-based economy with a more equitable society.

Author:

Dr. Gamini Padmaperuma, a Chartered Professional Engineer and a former Senior Lecturer at OUSL, holds a PhD from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand in Instructional Design for Computer-Based Learning. Email: gamini_pad@hotmail.com