Cognitive Computing & Education: IBM HorizonWatch 2016 Trend Brief

© 2016 IBM Corporation
IBM Market Development & Insights
Note: This report is based on internal IBM analysis and is not meant to be a statement of direction by IBM nor is IBM committing to any particular technology or solution.
Cognitive Computing & Education
IBM HorizonWatch 2016 Trend Brief – External Version
Bill Chamberlin, Principal Client Research Analyst / HorizonWatch Community Leader
May 11, 2016

About This HorizonWatch Emerging Trend Brief
2 Cognitive Computing & Education: HorizonWatch 2016 Emerging Trend Brief (External Version)11May2016
 Purpose: The slides provide a quick overview of how the Cognitive Computing Era might
impact the future of Education. The slides provide summary information, a list of trends
to watch and links to additional resources
 How To Use This Report: Use these slides as a learning document and a springboard
to further research and reading on this trend. You may want to view the slides in
slideshow mode so you can easily follow the links
 Available on Slideshare: The latest version of this file (and other HorizonWatch Trend
Reports for 2016) will be available publically on Slideshare at
http://www.slideshare.net/horizonwatching
 Please Note: This report is based on internal IBM analysis and is not meant to be a
statement of direction by IBM nor is IBM committing to any particular technology or
solution.

Overview: Cognitive Computing and the Future of Education
Cognitive Computing and the Future of Education refers to
the application of cognitive technologies to influence and/or
transform education.
The application of Cognitive Computing to Education will
result in learning activities that will be customized to each
individual. Future teacher assistants will be the cognitive
coaching apps on personal devices. Those apps will know
the student better than the teacher does. The apps will factor
in all the data available, including student learning goals, their
current level of knowledge and their past learning
experiences. Those apps will be able to access the full body
of educational knowledge on topics and be able to provide
personalized learning modules and experiences - all tailored
to the student.
3
Enabling Technologies:
The foundation of cognitive computing within education will
be built upon technologies related to data collection, data
mining, pattern recognition through predictive analytics and
natural language processing systems. Cognitive computing in
education will involve machine learning that uses data mining
to improve learning programs for educators and for students.
Cognitive Computing & Education: HorizonWatch 2016 Emerging Trend Brief (External Version)11May2016
“By deploying cognitive, mobile, and
analytics technologies in poor districts,
educators can create an early warning
system to identify which schools – and even
which students – are most at risk to fail.”
Forbes How African Schools Are Using Cognitive
Systems To Help Shape The Future Of Education
Source: MD&I, TBR
IBM: Personalized education
“Ultimately, education experiences will be
improved when data can accompany the
student throughout their lifelong learning
journey.” IBM: Personalized education

Cognitive Computing & Education – 5 trends to watch in 2016
1. Personalized learning is the future. Students need a
customized approach to help them learn and information
based on a method that is suited to them, not the whole
class.
2. Cognitive apps assist the learning process: In
classroom robots and mobile device personal assistants
interact with students and teachers, understand their
emotions & learning challenges and help develop better
lesson plans tailored to each student.
3. Focus on improving retention. Learning systems will
begin to retain and mine social interaction, personal
experiences and viewpoints at a personal level, helping
each student in the process of transforming information to
knowledge.
4. Mining the growing library of education content. Big
data, analytics, and cognitive systems will digest all this
content and more to help educators and researchers with
their decisions.
5. Improving students’ experience outside the
classroom. Transactional systems that collect student
data (i.e. parking systems, dining solutions) can be used
to improve on-campus amenities and enhance overall
education experience.
4
“Personalizing Education can change a kid’s
life. It can keep the advanced ones from
getting bored and the struggling ones from
falling behind, because every kid, no matter
their level of proficiency, is encouraged to
move at his or her own pace..” Wired: This
robot tutor will make personalizing education easy
IBM Watson Blog: How cognitive systems will
make personalized learning a reality
Gartner: Gartner Highlights Top 10 Strategic
Technologies for Higher Education in 2016

Cognitive Computing & Education Adoption Challenges
 Privacy concerns. To properly implement adaptive
learning, cognitive learning systems will need access to a
diverse range of data sets, including in some instances
private student data and records. Before any technology can
be implemented, vendors and institutions need to address
the privacy concerns that face the implementation of
cognitive technologies.
 Skills of educators. Often times when educators are asked
to implement new technology into their classroom, they are
not provided adequate resources for implementation. This
decreases the likelihood of students receiving the benefits of
the new technology, which in turn impedes investment value
and creates more hesitation by decision makers toward
implementation of new technologies moving forward.
 Cost. Implementing technology requires institutions to
invest in hardware, software (this includes security software
as well) and in some cases re-architect the overall physical
design of the classroom. Institutions will also need to invest
in a more robust IT workforce to support the expansion in
technology as well. Schools, limited by their budget, are risk
averse and are hesitant about investing excessively in new
and unproven technology systems.
5
“Higher education is still mostly considered a
conservative and slow-moving industry, with
the majority of innovation coming from outside
the traditional education IT organization.”
Gartner: Gartner Highlights Top 10 Strategic Technologies for
Higher Education in 2016
Pearson: Personalized Learning and
Student Privacy
Campus Technology: 6 Major Barriers
Impeding Technology Adoption in
Education

Selected links to IBM external resources
• IBM: Personalized education
• IBM Watson Blog: How cognitive systems will make personalized
learning a reality
• IBM: Education Technology Solutions
• IBM Research: The classroom will learn you
• IBM: Personalized Adaptive Learning
• IBM: Cognitive Learning Assistants (presentation)
• IBM: Are Learning Institutions Embracing Cognitive? (blog)
• IBM: Watson for Education (blog)
• IBM: Personalized Education to drive individual and societal
success (blog)
• IBM: Cognitive Learning Content: A vision for how to make
learning deeply engaging as well as intuitive (blog)
• IBM Government Industry: Big Data, Watson, and Cognitive
Computing: Improving Education and Regional Competitiveness
(blog)
IBM: Are Learning Institutions Embracing
Cognitive?
“Ultimately, the vision for this initiative is to
usher in not only the era of personalized
learning, but also to an era where deeply
immersive, interactive and intelligent
content which is carefully designed to
engage learners and drive better
outcomes is deployed to the benefit of
learners everywhere.” IBM
“Deeply immersive interactive experiences with intelligent tutoring systems can transform how we learn.”
Satya Nitta, Director, IBM Cognitive Sciences and Education Technology (as quoted in IBM paper: Personalized education)

Selected additional resources
 Campus Technology: 9 Ed Tech Trends To Watch in 2015
 EdSource: Major education issues to watch in 2016
 EducationDIVE: 2016 predictions and higher ed's unbundling
 EducationDIVE: The new face of personalized learning is a computer
 Education Week: The Future of Big Data and Analytics in K-12 Education
 Educause: 7 things you should know about personalized learning
 Educause: Analytics in Higher Education, 2015
 Educause: 2016 Horizon Report
 Eduventures: 2016 Higher Ed Predictions: A Year to Unite
 FastCompany: 5 Big Ways Education will change by 2020
 Forbes: The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Education
 Getting Smart: 8 Ways Machine Learning Will Improve Education
 HackEducation: The Algorithmic Future of Education and slides here
 HackEducation: The History of the Future of Labor and Learning
 Ithaka S+R: An Overview of Adaptive Learning Solutions for Higher Education
 KMWorld: Cognitive computing: Talking toys will shape education
 KnowledgeWorks: The Future of Learning
 iNACOL: Predictions and Changes Ahead in K-12 Education
 NPR: 6 Education Stories To Watch In 2016
 TheJournal.com: 6 Technology Challenges Facing Education
 Washington Post: Eight education predictions for 2016
 Wired: This Robot Tutor will make Personalized Education easy
“Personalized learning aims to build a
“profile” of each student’s strengths,
weaknesses, and pace of learning -
similar to how learning analytics monitors
student performance, looking for
patterns likely to predict how students
will fare - and customize educational
experiences and support accordingly.”
Educause: 7 things you should know
about personalized learning
Forbes: The Future of Artificial
Intelligence in Education
EducationDIVE: The new face of
personalized learning is a computer

Cognitive Computing & Education: IBM HorizonWatch 2016 Trend Brief

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Cognitive Computing & Education: IBM HorizonWatch 2016 Trend Brief