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by Ana Shuleva (LTXD)
They’re everywhere. Some have become so ubiquitous that they hardly ever draw a second glance from passersby’s, – such as the Apple Watch, which is almost as commonplace as sneakers, and can be spotted adorning the wrists of high strung businessmen, yoga moms, and over-caffeinated college students alike. Others, like the Oura Ring, have collaborated with big name brands such as Gucci, to create a wearable that boasts a frankensteinian mix of luxury and sleep metrics, and caters to that oh-so-specific buyer who believes that the best way to optimize their REM cycle is with the support of a $950 titanium band (monthly membership plan to actually track the sleep metrics not included). One in-particular, the Apple Vision Pro, has become fodder for memes, TikToks, and futurist imaginings, as it offers wearers an infinite canvas to magically merge their digital and physical realms.
As the global wearable technology market is projected to reach 265.4 billion by 2026, it may seem that wearables have completely saturated our world, yet the relationship between education and wearable technology is still in its infancy.
The Role of Wearables in Education
The Role of Wearables in Education
According to Bower and Sturman, wearables can be defined as “digital devices that incorporate wireless connectivity and provide opportunities to access, interact with, and exchange contextually relevant information, with the key advantage of providing real-time feedback to the user.”
Wearables can take the form of smart jewelry, VR headsets, body-mounted sensors, and smart clothing – just to name a few – and have a myriad of uses. Within the realm of education, it's been argued that wearables can provide both educators and students with personalized and interactive learning experiences, health and fitness tracking, deeply immersive learning experiences, and real-time learning analytics that can shed meaningful light on the performance, engagement, and comprehension of students. Professor Wild, who teaches Technology Enhanced Learning at Open University states that “there are a lot of companies working on the vision of an educational future, [...] but now we are at a stage where we can lower the production cost by putting intermediary systems in place that help to scale up operations. A good example of this is the invention of email. The invention of email has changed something in teaching. With the invention of email educators started trading material, and naturally this led us to the use of VLE’s [...] AR is at a similar stage in terms of technology to what email was, with applications and smart glasses displaying how good [learning with AI technology and wearables] could be”. However, finding creative ways to integrate wearable technology into education in a manner that honors student privacy and works to advance student learning outcomes, is no small feat.
Challenges and Risks in Educational Wearables
Challenges and Risks in Educational Wearables
In 2016, both Dartmouth and MIT developed educational behavioral apps and wearables aimed at collecting “contiguous streams of data from student users” including physical activity, sleep patterns, and geographic location. The ultimate goal of these projects was to allow researchers to “form conjectures about social and academic behavior”. However, while the projects presented the inklings of what transformative technology can look like within the education sector, outcomes related to enhancements in students’ education remained unclear. It is important to note that the significance of privacy, accessibility, and ethics cannot be overlooked when integrating wearable technology with education.
Privacy and Equity Concerns in Wearable Integration
Privacy and Equity Concerns in Wearable Integration
In an increasingly digital world, there are many risks involved with integrating wearables and the education sector. Concerns surrounding privacy, data security, inequity, safety, and the ethical use of data, all need to be addressed in order to ensure that wearables do not cause more harm than good. For example, as it relates to privacy, users need transparency into what data is being collected from them, as well as assurance from the educational institutions that they belong to that their private information is being safeguarded. When considering equity, it is paramount to understand that greater integration of tech into the classroom setting can widen the already sizable achievement gap – especially in districts that lack basic resources. In addition to concerns of equity, educators and designers must appropriately assess the risk of data being used improperly, such as for profiling, discrimination, surveillance, tracking, and data breaches.
Opportunities for Wearables in Education
Opportunities for Wearables in Education
The wearable market presents designers with a myriad of exciting opportunities to enhance learning by providing students and teachers with digital experiences, metrics, and accessibility offerings that can radically transform pedagogy. Either through personalized learning experiences that leverage wearables' ability to gather real-time data to tailor educational content to student needs, or AI and VR assisted learning, wearable technology offers an exciting new way to meet the ever-evolving needs of our modern learners.
References:
How wearable devices can improve online learning | Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University. (n.d.). Iet.open.ac.uk. Retrieved April 26, 2024, from https://iet.open.ac.uk/research/how-wearable-technology-can-improve-digital-learning
Lowe, H. (2016). Educational Behavior Apps and Wearable Devices: Current Research and Prospects. Educational Technology, 56(4), 30–33. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44430474
Wearable Technology Market Size, Share & Industry Report 2026. (n.d.). Www.marketsandmarkets.com. https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/wearable-electronics-market-983.html#:~:text=The%20global%20wearable%20technology%20market
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