There are now so many opportunities where digital technology can support the teaching and learning of all subjects. The schools that were shortlisted for the Digital Technology in Learning International School Award 2022 demonstrated this in abundance.
This year’s most successful initiatives included those that shared technology across schools in the local community, developed innovative solutions to support online learning, and delivered exciting artificial intelligence and robotics learning experiences.
Flexible learning for challenging situations
The British School Muscat with British School Salalah were shortlisted for the Digital Technology in Learning Award as a result of their collaboration to develop access to a comprehensive curriculum for senior students living in a remote part of Oman. Here, access to skilled classroom teachers at senior school level was limited.
The initiative involves a blended learning curriculum called FlexEd which is enabling students at the British School Salalah to access online tutoring from specialist educators at the British School Muscat for a range of subjects including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computing, and French. When FlexEd was first introduced in 2020, the concept of children completing their senior year learning online was considered by many people to be a novel concept. Now, two years into COVID, the potential of online learning is well recognised.
Innovative learning with artificial intelligence
Branksome Hall Asia in South Korea was also shortlisted in this category for an initiative that responds to community challenges using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Using problem-based learning, students have the opportunity to apply and extend new skills through the development of meaningful solutions for the community. These innovations have included a machine learning regression model to predict electricity usage, an AI programme to detect whether masks are being worn with an alert when they’re not, and a machine learning algorithm using a gradient boosting process to identify individuals struggling with wellness issues and which achieved an accuracy rating of 90%.
With each challenge, students address the potential ethical implications inherent when computers are learning to make their own decisions.
A mobile marketplace for tech sharing
ACS International Schools Surrey in England was also shortlisted for its inspirational community mobile marketplace initiative. This supports other local schools in the region through the sharing of technology equipment owned by ACS. All technology loans, which include laser cutters, 3D printers, sublimation and image transfer, and design software, are supported by ACS high school students as trainers.
This initiative is not only enabling innovative learning opportunities for students in many other schools, but is also empowering ACS students to develop a range of competences while advancing their learning of technology.
Award winning school designs community robot nurse
The winner of the Digital Technology in Learning International School Award 2022 went to Colegio Panamericano, an international school in Colombia. Students designed and created a robot nurse as part of their digital technology learning.
The autonomous, line-following robot was able to deliver food or medicine to COVID-19 patients, ensuring a caregiver could keep a safe distance from the patient. The initiative provided a powerful learning experience for students that impacted many people beyond the school community. In his acceptance speech, Daniel Yamasaki, Director of Colegio Panamericano said, “Our students were thinking beyond the school to use their robotics learning to address the situation that was occurring in the world.”
Thanks go to Education Perfect for sponsoring the Digital Learning in Technology Award.
To read about these international school initiatives in more detail, find the initiative links at the bottom of this webpage.
