Top 10 innovations set to influence the future of education

The top 10 innovations that researchers at The Open University (OU) and Vanderbilt University believe will influence the future of education, are outlined in a new report now live.

Innovating Pedagogy 2024, a report now in its 12^th year, brings together 10 ideas that were developed through multiple drafts and peer review, by a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology at the OU, who collaborated with researchers and practitioners from the LIVE Initiative at Vanderbilt University in the US.

The 10 innovations are:

1. Speculative worlds
2. Pedagogies of peace
3. Climate action pedagogy
4. Learning in conversation with generative AI
5. Talking AI ethics with young people
6. AI enhanced multimodal writing
7. Intelligent textbooks
8. Assessments through extended reality
9. Immersive language and culture
10. Exploring scientific models from the inside

According to the lead authors, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Professor of Learning Technology & Communication at the Institute of Educational Technology at the OU, these 10 innovations are already in currency but have the potential to exert a greater influence on education.

For example, learning in conversation with generative AI is applicable in all education or training sessions at the moment and in present work on chatbots, AI in teaching and learning and the use of intelligent assistants.

The Speculative worlds concept, which encourages a wider range of people to participate in (re)imagining diverse possible futures, and which connects with topical themes of equity, diversity and inclusion, is also an innovation which the authors believe will appeal to many.

Commenting on the whole range of innovations in the report’s introduction, the authors said:

“We are pleased to share in this report the outcomes of another fruitful collaboration among a group of authors who have come together to identify a further set of powerful pedagogies that hold the promise of transformative change. It is again very clear that consideration of important contemporary societal issues can lead to richly educational experiences that provide opportunities to imagine a range of possible futures.

“Challenges such as the climate emergency, the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the fragility of social trust can motivate educators to seek out approaches that will engage their students, and in doing so, lay good foundations for the future.”