Grand challenges for pervasive technology to transform pervasive education.

Abstract

Technologies already provide people with sophisticated and powerful digital ecosystems for life- long and life-wide education. This paper identifies Grand Challenges for ubiquitous and pervasive computing researchers to transform future education. It begins with a scenario to characterise learning on a day in 2030. Then it overviews broader educational needs and the pervasive com- puting elements for realising them: mobile devices; embedded devices; importantly pervasive data infrastructures; and multi-disciplinary foundations. Then it presents the Grand Challenges: (1) Smart learning environments that feel safe, trusted, scrutable and controllable; (2) Harness long-term, rich data for self-knowledge and shared understanding; (3) Long-term personal digital learning companions; (4) Augment classroom teacher’s awareness and memory; (5) Smart class- rooms that seamlessly fit into teaching and learning; (6) Meta-research to understand if and when technology really supports learning.