Table 3 Enabling information technologies for smart education
Information technology | Definition |
|---|---|
Learning management systems | Learning management systems are software applications or systems designed to create, communicate, manage, and deliver education and training programs |
Smart classrooms | Smart classrooms are physical educational environments supported with information and communication technologies. Smart classrooms may utilize ambient intelligence technology |
Virtual classrooms | Virtual classrooms are educational environments in which educators and learners meet virtually |
Cloud computing technology | National Institute of Standards and Technology defines Cloud computing as on-demand access to a shared pool of computing resources. The technology enabling services on the cloud is called cloud computing technology |
Extended reality (XR) | Extended reality is the term referring to all real and virtual combined (immersive) environments in the spectrum including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) |
Virtual environments | A virtual environment is a computer-generated environment to replace the real environment with a virtual one |
Augmented reality | Augmented reality is the technology dealing with enhancing the user’s sense of the physical world with computer-generated sensory data in real-time |
Web 2.0+ | Web 2.0+ are technologies after Web 1.0. After Web 1.0, web technologies offer interactive, semantic, and intelligent web services |
Social networks | Social networking sites may be defined as the online platforms enabling social interactions between users having profiles |
Educational resources | Any type of learning and teaching material including educational presentations, e-books, interactive books, academic and corporate video tubes, etc. If these resources are open to the public then they are called open educational resources otherwise they are private to specific institutions |
Academic and corporate tubes | Academic or corporate tubes are online video-sharing platforms for education and training purposes |
E-books and interactive books | E-books and interactive books are digital books enhanced with user interaction ability |
Mobile technology | Mobile technology is the information and communication technology enabling portable mobile devices |
Serious games | Serious games are computer games used for instructional purposes |
Learning and academic analytics | Learning analytics is about the collection, measurement, and analysis of data about learning activities. Academic analytics utilizes business intelligence tools and strategies to guide educational decision-making |
Educational data mining | Educational data mining is to analyze data obtained from educational environments to understand patterns of learner behavior and to improve educational settings |
Educational robots | Educational robots are robots used for educational and training purposes |
Gesture-based computing | Gesture-based computing is the technology aimed at understanding human gestures |
Ambient intelligence | Ambient intelligence is an emerging paradigm that brings intelligence into our lives with the help of intelligent interfaces and smart environments |