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Essay on virtual classrooms: present and future

Essay about virtual classroom: their present and future

Carlos Arredondo Herrera

Universidad Tecnológica del Norte de Coahuila, Mexico
con_cafecito@hotmail.com

Summary
Distance education, which began more than three decades ago with the media of the time
(radio and television specifically), has now evolved to increasingly personalized, attractive,
efficient and specialized levels, just to mention some of the benefits.

Today's virtual platforms offer more and better teaching resources while taking advantage
of information technologies such as video tutorials, podcasts and social networks. Today a
person can train in courses, get a degree in a variety of online careers, even obtain
certifications, master's and doctoral degrees remotely.

This progress has generated limitations and obstacles of various kinds, so that teachers and
specialists have designed a series of techniques both to awaken the motivation of the
student "On-line" to develop understanding and study skills, as well as the efficient
management and security of the entire process of teaching learning, such as changing
curriculum designs, mobile applications, simulators, etc.

Vol. 5, No. 10 July - December 2018 PAG

All this modern educational technology seems to be aimed at acquiring knowledge more
quickly and efficiently, by incorporating other technologies that grow along with it.
Nowadays, a geology student can already practice at a distance (make calculations,
estimates, statistics, etc.) of inaccessible lands or areas, through applications that

use the GPS in real time. On the other hand, the use of the "Internet of everything" is
already being developed to obtain information from sensors of temperature, humidity, light,
etc., as well as from the manipulation of machinery and mechanisms thousands of
kilometers away in real time, greatly promoting significant learning.

With this dizzying progress, it is not surprising that in a few decades future students will
achieve their degrees and engineering degrees at an early age. They will graduate as
certified specialists, engineers and graduates probably between the ages of 15 and 20, and
Masters or PhDs between the ages of 20 and 25. This would significantly affect, in one or
more ways, the social dynamics of the future.

Keywords: Virtual Platforms. Podcast. Social Networks. Internet of the whole. Mobile
Applications

Abstract
The e-learning concept, which started around three decades ago, with the electronic
communication media at that time, (radio and television specifically), has grown actually to
a even more and more personalized, attractive, efficient and specialized levels, just to
mention some examples.

Virtual e-learning platforms offers even more and better teaching resources, taking
advantage of, - at the same time - as Information Technologies evolve, just as video
tutorials, podcasts and social media. Actually, a person can learn in courses, workshop;
getting an engineering degree in an on-line career, even can get certification, master and
doctor degrees.
This educational progress has bring limits and obstacles of different matters, so academic
specialists have designed several techniques for motivating on-line students to learn, as for
develop understanding and study abilities, as for security and efficiency of teaching-
learning process; adaptive curriculum, mobile apps, simulators, etc.

All of these modern learning technology it seems to go further faster and efficient to get
knowledge, as the way they add another new growing technologies. By the time, a geologist
student can make a lot of practices (making calculations, instrument measurements,
predictions, statistics, etc.) of remote and/or inaccessible lands thru GPS real-time apps. On
the other hand, the use of "IoT" -Internet of Everything- it's actually developing in order to
get sensor´s readings of temperature, humidity or light presence, as handling and
controlling machinery and mechanisms miles away of distance, boosting the significant
learning enormously.

With this intense educational forwarding, is not rare that in a few decades, future students
will reach engineering degrees at short age. Certified specialists, and engineers will
graduate probably in ages between 15 - 20 years. So, will have Masters or Doctors people
in the range of 20 - 25 years of age. This will affect importantly in some or several forms,
future social dynamics.

Keywords: e-learning. Podcast. Social Media. Internet of Everything. Mobile Apps.

Date of Reception: February 2018Date of Acceptance: June 2018
Introduction
In recent years, those of us who work in the education sector have seen how distance
education has been transformed from the old television system where there was little or no
student participation with the instructor, to the recent online universities, where we find not
only courses and workshops, but also careers, master's degrees and even post-doctoral
studies.

On the other hand, teachers are also in a process of change, moving from physical to virtual
classrooms, as they are a tool that significantly enhances the way our students learn,
especially if Competency Based Learning is fully implemented.

Because of the growing supply and demand of ICT resources for e-learning that we have
seen year after year, and how these have revolutionized the way we learn and teach
worldwide, it is necessary not only to understand and adapt to these changes, but also to
take a look at the future goal based on realistic trends, towards the transformation that these
technologies could lead to. What then, would be the usefulness of this vision?

In principle it seems that it is precisely technology itself that drives us towards this
adaptation of new educational environments more than the creativity of teachers. Let's
remember how the first resources that made us faster in tasks, works, consultations were as
simple as e-mail and the now extinct diskette. Today we have more advanced resources
such as simulators and mobile software applications for the teaching and learning process.

It is logical to assume, then, that there will be new ways of learning every decade, with a
deeper impact at the global level. But the most important thing will always be to increase
the speed and quality of student learning. This could change over time, the length of careers
and the age at which students can have an engineering or graduate degree. Let's imagine
young people finishing an engineering degree at 17. Or that the
Would it be impossible to achieve this through the use of technology?

In order to analyze the present and future trends of distance education, and the new
challenges that this entails, we would first analyze the aspects related to the central
characters in the educational system: The teacher and the student. Although it is true that
technology has developed creative spaces, and that for significant learning it is the teacher
or instructor who must be trained in educational technologies so that they can adapt the
contents of their teachings to the environment of applications in electronic devices and
cyberspace. The teacher is learning to consider and shape the workspaces, software tools,
times and codes that the student will learn to manage.
In this era of the new millennium, our common language has incorporated new terminology
that has been driven by the use of modern electronic devices and especially computer
application software. Our young people today are growing up naturally using words from
the technology and social networking fields such as: "email", "wattsap", "cloud upload",
"follow", "download", "share", "bluetooth", "facebook", "hashtag", etc. Communication
and information resources which, for the most part, did not exist just a decade ago. Since
the appearance of these novelties, our way of seeing the world and our sense of using
information has changed radically in hundreds of aspects. Most of them are here to stay.

This is how we came to have companies fully dedicated to the exploitation of the Internet.
Fortunately, we find that this valuable resource also provides invaluable help as the so-
called "shareware" resources. The free software, has facilitated our understanding and use
of technology to improve our living conditions.
It is thanks to this free availability that thousands of people around the world have had
access to education and specialization without leaving home. The tools (computer systems)
called LMS, SMLS, MOOC etc. that are offered for free on the net, have opened up a world
of possibilities in Educational Technology that will eventually be reflected in a more
intelligent, creative and prosperous social world. This is a great commitment for instructors
and teachers: To create new and more efficient ways of teaching based on Tics.

Looking at this overview, some questions arise: What can we expect in the future of
education for the coming decades? What other technologies could further boost learning?
Will traditional classrooms one day disappear?
What components will the new educational software have? What level of preparation will a
teacher require to work with future teaching technologies?

To help us form as faithful a vision as possible of future educational trends, we would have
to start from the certainty that technology will not stop investigating and revolutionizing the
way we adapt and appropriate knowledge.

Just as we were affected by the appearance of the first computers, and the subsequent boom
of the Internet, -for example- : bringing our young people up to date on subjects that we
adults knew at a more mature age than they did-, in the same way the social impact of the
next change in the Tics, will undoubtedly create a social culture that at a very early age will
realize more and better productivity in all areas than in dozens of years of social evolution.
Development

To address the issue of ICT trends in education, it is necessary to consider the analysis of
four central elements of the educational system: the instructor, the student, the educational
model and the resources of the educational platforms. This will give us not only an
overview of the current state of virtual classrooms, but where this dizzying educational
trend is heading.

The student
As we know, in the models of Distance Education, students are motivated to encourage
self-learning, respecting the learning rhythms of each one.

Constructivist theories are fully applied in virtual education, this is a strategy of

considerable demand for skills for its users. It is of utmost importance to shape the
development of comprehensive reading skills. Recognize and solve problems. Analyze.
Research and publish results appropriately.

In the course of fulfilling the activities that the instructor requests, it allows space to create
work groups, which allows us to interact with people from other countries and cultures. As
well as the teacher-student relationship, in this case the modality and frequency of
communication changes and the teacher becomes a facilitator. In a counsellor, or learning
guide that allows the student to develop skills necessary for learning.

ICTs are in line with the constructivist model, as they provide more appropriate
environments for more complete learning than the classroom. As Rodriguez F. proposes.
(2009) "Cognitive theorists such as Jean Piaget and David Ausubel, among others, stated
that learning was the consequence of imbalances in a student's understanding and that the
environment was of fundamental importance in this process" (p. 127).
Nor does constructivism pretend that all learning is provided by the teaching environment.
It is rather a psychological set of experiences that condition the student to elaborate
reasoning and feelings both personally and socially, in order to arrive at a determined
formation (attitude) about what is being learned. ICT then fulfils the part of the object of
knowledge. What ICTs cannot do is promote in the subject the strategies that will lead him
to the formation. This is already the field that belongs to the teacher.

The teacher
The evolution of learning through computer technologies would not be possible, of course,
without the participation of the teacher. But the first challenge we face is that of modifying
the curriculum. The teacher must not only focus on developing the topics inherent to the
subject to be taught, but on adapting these to teaching strategies through computer
resources. A student who uses a virtual educational platform or any software to learn a
subject only sees the interactive part with which he or she interacts. Behind these resources,
there is a whole body of knowledge that is partly developed by programmers, but for the
most part, it is used by teachers and instructors to define how to learn, what topic, what
objective and through what type of resource.

For several years now, multimedia electronic devices and tablets have been used in
different educational institutions at different levels. In a research conducted with students
from a particular university in Ecuador, they found that 99.9% of students use the tablets to
access the platform and download e-books (Agila, Ramirez, Garcia and Samaniego (2017).

Students who are starting a specialty use robotics workshops and create 3D videos, as well
as creating applications that are more sophisticated than others, to accelerate their own
learning. This has resulted not only in lowering the school dropout rate, but also in the
increasing use and evolution of ICT resources.
The teacher then becomes more of an instructor, a companion, a motivator and an almost
personalized guide so that each student is able to develop his or her learning through their
own interests. It is obvious that the teacher must fully master the contents and feel
identified with the particular science area. But in addition to this, the teacher must learn to
develop methods to motivate learning because learning by competencies is focused on self-
learning. Most of the learning techniques with which those of us who are now teachers
were taught to learn should no longer be taken as the basis for teaching. Therefore, adapting
to a new structure with which we did not learn at an early age requires a special effort and
dedication.

Academics will continue to play a leading role, while a guide will be required to facilitate
learning, for example by indicating which learning paths in the subject lead nowhere or are
too long.

Now the training of the teacher, is in developing the skills to create learning opportunities
and for that will help him be a student from time to time, applying the new strategies.

The educational model

What is the educational model in virtual classrooms like?
It is important to emphasize that the advantages of using ICTs within universities and open
institutions and online, are many. They affect both the instructor and the student in ways
such as the following:
• They encourage the learning of reading, by obliging learners to read in order to be
informed about the different topics covered by the activities.
• Develop writing skills.
 The use of ICT, through virtual classrooms gives the opportunity to many people to be
trained but without the obstacle of time and distance.
• They are based on the certainty of a development of meta-cognitive processes.
• It encourages students to build their own learning, equivalent to personalized education.
• ICT motivates and creates interest in the activity. They enable learners to know and use
multiple software tools that facilitate understanding and learning.
• Fomentan learning to read, by forcing learners to read in order to learn about the
different topics covered by the activities.
-Develop writing skills.
• They are also based on cooperative learning, as they allow students to interact with peers
from other countries and cultures.

It can also be observed that self-study is motivated. Since a great capacity of attention is
required when one wants to carry out the assigned tasks. The obligation to learn falls on the
student. He must plan his time periods and manage his tasks. The student must also learn to
be constant and firm. Since there are many distracting factors that may appear and that
could take him away from the concentration needed to finish his tasks.

The use of ICT gives opportunity to the execution of software with different levels and
complexities. However, experience has shown that most of the problems in the pedagogical
area are related to the misuse of resources, design and process control.

It is therefore necessary to seek to improve the quality of the processes. The creators of the
study materials must design better practical and theoretical contents to be taught. Software
developers create more efficient, dynamic and secure applications. All personnel involved:
teachers, evaluators, tutors, technical instructors, support staff, and managers, as well as
educational institutions offering virtual classrooms, must be fully qualified and aware of
this type of modern teaching.
It should also be noted that some authors propose a different relationship of students with
knowledge, with new operating codes, becoming aware of how they appropriate their own
knowledge. Let us consider the classic example of commissioning a consultation task and
"uploading" it to the virtual educational platform. The student will now be taught to consult
on the Internet in the most reliable sources. He will read and verify that the information he
is asked for corresponds to what is requested. He will take important notes for later use. and
will manage different software resources to create or modify the topic. You will also learn
how to learn with relatively little guidance from the instructor, for example, the different
ways to write a document or create a video or podcast that will reinforce your learning.

The great advantage in terms of the development of educational software is that this stage
of analysis and adaptation to the way students learn is already in mature stages (for
example: LMS and LCMS), although these will still be improved and evolve. For their part,
teachers are now learning and applying these resources with increasing skill.

This training in Tics allows teachers to develop skills for:

 Manage meaningful content

 Offer Web 2.0 resources
 Fostering social communication
 Request tasks / activities
 Prompt and effective learning assessment

...among others.

We can already find teachers who are going further, for example by conducting research to
improve management and decision-making through information management. As well as
the implementation of virtual laboratories and remote laboratories for engineering
education. We are becoming increasingly familiar with the term "online pedagogy". The
teachers who have access to the educational platforms, in less than a decade will teach their
courses in a way
considerably different from the one we started in this century. So what would be the new
challenges for education with ICTs?

EDUCATIONAL PLATFORMS

Today we see that virtual universities have expanded thanks to the emergence of extremely
versatile and creative platforms such as "Moodle" or "blackboard". The LMS "moodle" for
example, emerges on August 20, 2002. This useful tool and its use and applications has
expanded rapidly. There are different types of software systems for educational platforms
according to performance: LMS, KMS, ERP, CRM, CMS. The most common is the LMS
(Learning, Management System).

The New York Times magazine called 2012 "The Year of the MOOC", and already today,
there are multiple educational platforms, both free and not free. Below, we list some of the
most popular educational virtual platforms for learning:

 MiriadaX (https://miriadax.net/home)
 Uned (http://ocw.innova.uned.es/ocwuniversia/)
 Udemy (https://www.udemy.com/
 Khan Academy (https://es.khanacademy.org/)
 NextU (https://www.nextu.com/
 Educaweb (https://www.educaweb.com/)
 Ilias (http://www.ilias.de/docu/goto_docu_root_1.html
 Swad (https://openswad.org/)

On the other hand, here is a list of some platforms to create classes, courses, etc. (learning
management) (LMS):

 Chair (http://catedra.edu.co/)
 Voluxionhttps://www.voluxion.com/lms-voluxion-language-centers/
 Nubily (https://www.nubily.com/crea-tu-negocio-de-ensenanza-virtual-y-vende-tus-
online courses/)
 Moodle (http://moodle.net)
 Chamilo(https://campus.chamilo.org/)
 D2L (https://www.d2l.com/)
 BlackBoard(http://www.blackboard.com/)
 Dokeos (http://www.dokeos.com/)
  Canvas (https://www.canvaslms.com/
 Emodo (https://www.edmodo.com/)
 Claroline (http://www.claroline.net/)
 Peg(https://mypeg.net/es/index.php)

It is also evident that in many cases, digital resources are available to students and
instructors. For example, Google works with a suite of solutions called "Google Apps" for
education, which offers specific services for educational environments with a focus on the
Internet.

In different parts of the world, a variety of experiences - supported by technological

possibilities - are abandoning traditional models of education.

Through the Internet, parents and children know about the student's work at school, their
evaluations, their rhythms or their support needs. Another revolutionary idea is Khan
Academy, which set up the most popular educational platform in history on YouTube, or
the educational experiments of Professor Sugata Mitra in teaching without teachers and
with basic technological elements and an Internet connection.

We can also say that there is no significant variation between face-to-face and distance
education in terms of the content that the student should know. In both modalities students
learn since the only differences are in the means used to establish communication between
teachers and students and the need that each student has to have access to a computer with
internet and the availability and accommodation of time, because this type of learning
requires the student to be very responsible with the duties assigned by the tutor.
Conclusion

As educational technology matures decade by decade, it is easy to conclude that we will

have early childhood experts who will attend to all scientific areas, supported by multiple
practices and case studies. It will be decisive for science that these young minds prepared to
learn more quickly and effectively, do so at an early age, because they will develop projects
or experimental bases much sooner -in physical terms- than scientists in the past decades.
In my view, we are in the social information age. And that the next revolution will be that
of science.

On the other hand, instead of worrying about how to distribute scarce educational
resources, the challenge we have to start facing with the era of social structured learning is
how to attract people to participate in the growing movement of learning resources and how
to do it in an equitable way, in order to create more opportunities for a better life for more
people.

There are teachers who suggest the teaching of mobile device programming languages in
high school education, as Monsálvez (2017) points out. This suggests the idea that in the
future and with the ICTs of the time, it could be taught at the secondary level.

It is very highly probable that in the coming years new ICT technologies will be supported
by the IOE (Internet of Everything) technologies, Martinez, (2015) increasing the learning
capacity through the operation of physical distance devices, integrated to the databases,
applications and statistics of a city, a country or the world.

The IOE is already a reality that we can see with the various uses such as citizen cameras
and in cars. The information taken or controlled to remote devices, is shared with software
of permanent applications, which manipulate the obtained data registering them in diverse
databases. This information is instantly sent to departments and areas of security, services,
statistical control, etc. As examples we have the control of equipment and cars by GPS. The
remote control of machinery and processes by means of wireless networks wi-fi or cellular
in companies
as in the resources of a modern city. By means of a simple camera at a traffic light, you can
register the license plate of a vehicle. With it, the stored data of the person to whom the unit
is registered are obtained. Knowing if he has a criminal history, financial debts, including
taxpayer data in the tax administration.

It would not be surprising then, that in a few years students could interact with physical
mechanisms at a distance in order to learn and train in their use, as is currently done for
example by anti-bomb equipment or personnel handling radioactive products by means of a
computer-controlled robot, or flight or traffic control simulators. While recording,
manipulating and observing data, calculations, statistics, important and real, of the remote
instruments they are using.

Our future engineers will master their field of action by handling machinery and equipment
that is thousands of miles away.

For their part, as there are no distance limits, the collaborative groups will be able to
exchange working practices and solution strategies at any time of the day, in any country,
training each other with minimal instructor guidance and abundant tutorial resources, as is
already the case today.

The new algorithms and future computer equipment will use AI (Artificial Intelligence) to
recreate better and more effective learning scenarios, tests and data analysis and prediction
practices that would give the student more knowledge in a few hours, in contrast to the days
or weeks that could be taken today.

As far as neuro-electronic technology is concerned, we cannot rule out the possibility that
the first inter-brain sensors will be completed. Perhaps in less than 10 years we can count
on learning through sensory stimuli and neuronal responses that affect some basic functions
of the brain's reasoning and logic. Although this conception could fall into the realm of
science fiction, it is not so unthinkable since it is known with certainty about the first
electro-neural prostheses for people with different abilities. How could such a device affect
classrooms
virtual? Perhaps we cannot yet imagine the impact that such a thing would have on the
education of the future. But let's bear in mind that about 20 years ago, we didn't conceive of
a social site like "youtube" or the ease with which free video tutorials would bring us to
learn a subject. Or of doing surgery remotely, or of having instant photographs on our
family members' cell phones sent from somewhere else in the world. Technology seems to
join education at several points. And just as both have impacted society in the past, it will
most likely do so with greater intensity in the near future.

References

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http://recibe.cucei.udg.mx/ojs/index.php/ReCIBE/article/view/68.

Rodríguez, F. Jesús, L. Martínez, N. Lozada, J. (2009). ICT as a resource for constructivist

learning. Journal of Arts and Humanities UNICA. 10(2), pp. 118
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Agila, M. Ramírez, M. García, A. Samaniego, J. (2017). Use of the digital tablet in

university distance learning environments. Ibero-American Journal of Distance
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García M. (2017). Python as the first textual programming language in Secondary

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