Three Technology Changes That Should be Here to Stay

With all of the technological changes that occur every day, there are three types that should be on your To-Do List of things to explore. All three will be around for the foreseeable future, all three have purposes both during the school day and after school and all three will expand your students’ experiences in multiple ways. And yes, all three will require some funding to put into place, but those dollars become easier to locate and allocate when the potential value of the purchase is clear. Here are the suggestions and some ways they can benefit your students.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now a part of every day for most people – from Google searches to helping you write that email or article or book report to managing what appears on your devices and how it is presented. Education is dealing with how AI can be used as a shortcut by some students to avoid learning, avoid doing the work, avoid the reading. But it can be an amazing tool that can support your students’ passions as well. By using AI to expand upon what the student has created allows them to consider and explore new ideas. Those new ideas are directly connected to their thoughts and the direction they want to take their project.

Afterschool activities in the fine and performing arts can use AI to connect to famous artists, examining and learning from how they created their most famous works. It can take what a student has created and embellish it in multiple ways to expand how the student views what they have created. This technology can take a student’s initial concept and generate the finished product so the student can see how changes made to the design will affect the outcome.

In music, AI can play the accompaniment so that a student can perform their composition as they wrote it, for small ensemble, band, orchestra, chorus, etc. Using AI does not replace the student’s creative thought process, but enhances it by allowing them to explore a variety of paths forward without needing the equipment or personnel to make the finished product.

In digital media, a student video project can include animation, motion, altered background, green screen shots and incorporate video from multiple sources to bring the student’s vision to life. A completely animated project could be done based on the student’s concept, character creation and story line. Photographs can be combined into a myriad of display types through the use of AI to make the connections. Individual shots can be used to then look at all of the other possible ways the photo could be taken, encouraging the student to try different angles or lenses to get the effect they already had in mind. And the technology can direct the student to use features on their camera gear that they did not know were there or how to operate as well as suggesting any number of special effects or conditions for the student to try.

3D: The technology supporting 3D printing continues to move forward at an incredible rate. High quality printers with increasing capabilities using a wide variety of materials are being offered at lower and lower prices. Having a 3D printer for your students to learn on, create with and support others using makes the investment a wise one. Often connected to the Robotics Club, and using existing computing gear, the programming and maintenance is a learning experience in itself. Using it to build what others have created and designed takes the possibilities further and adds the fine arts to the tech side of 3D printing. And making something useful, filling a need for another student population or curriculum extends its reach to all aspects of the school. Combining the creative and technological to design and create game pieces or figurines or sculptures brings a wide variety of students together. Have the printer create functional items like test-tube racks for the chem lab or bookmarks for the humanities, a xylophone mallet for the band or a set of hooks for maintenance. The possibilities are endless and each requires the expertise from the technical side be combined with the creative from the design side.

Virtual Reality (VR): The most expensive to begin with is likely providing a Virtual Reality experience for your students. That experience, along with Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR), will require an investment in technology that most schools do not already have. But a VR Studio can extend your students’ experiences in ways that support the academic, athletic and activity side of the school day. From helping students with their public speaking to practicing their batting or golf swing to performing a piece of music with a large ensemble, the VR world can bring any number of people or situations to life for your students, matching their passions and giving them an opportunity to learn and shine. And even if your school cannot fund one, there may be one in your community that can be utilized to support students’ extraordinary efforts. Bat like Shohei Otani, sing like Lady Gaga, orate like Abe Lincoln. All are possible in a VR Studio.

What’s available now will change by tomorrow. What is impossible today will be routine next week. To support students as they prepare to become engaged citizens in a world that changes so rapidly is the goal of all educators. And they share that goal whether through their classes during the day, their interaction with students in the hallway, or their advising or coaching an activity or sport after school. To not include the latest and greatest technology in that effort because of the cost today and the obsolescence tomorrow robs our students of the most important skill we can teach them; How to manage change.

“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” – John Maxwell

“Education is the most powerful tool which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

Steffen Parker is a retired music educator, event organizer, maple sugar maker, and Information Technology specialist from Vermont who serves as the Performing Arts/Technology representative on the NFHS High School Today Publications Committee. He received the NFHS Citation Award in 2017 and the Ellen McCulloch- Lovell Award in Arts Education in 2021.