Today and Tomorrow – Can ICT Assist Learning and Living?
Margaret Ross
Southampton Solent University, Faculty of Media Arts and Technology, East Park terrace, Southampton, SO14 0RD, U.K.
Keywords: E-Learning, Blended Learning, CAS, MOOCs, Africa, Embedded Chips, Ageing Body Suits, Robotic
Carers, Living Wills.
Abstract: The paper considers the current and future possible developments in education, health and living from the
perspectives of students, the elderly, educational establishments, organisations and governments. Various
legal and ethical issues are also considered.
The changes from 2014 to the English school curriculum relating to ICT, the introduction of Higher
Apprenticeships and the need to address employers' requirements, together with the introduction of
MOOCs, possibly affecting universities, are discussed. The combination of these could lead to new
developments in e-learning, including in developing countries.
Some current and potential future medical developments, together with their ethical issues, are addressed,
including the Internet of Things, embedded chips and robotics. The methods to change the views of those
working directly and indirectly with the elderly are considered. These include the use of “ageing suits” to
make those more aware of what it is like to be elderly. These are used by medical and care workers, and
designers of clothes, goods, furniture and accommodation, suitable for the disabled and the elderly. The
experiences involving these and other aging equipment at Southampton Solent University are discussed.
1 INTRODUCTION
In this fast changing world of IT, everyone is
affected, from students to the ever increasing
population of elderly people. There is a need for
students to understand and address the needs of the
elderly and disabled, ranging from issues of using
technology to understanding how IT could address
the needs of the elderly.
By increasing the understanding and knowledge
of computer science by pupils from an early age,
they can maximise the advantages of technology by
understanding its potential. Changes in education
could help in the near future in caring for the elderly.
In England from September 2014, the majority of
schools introduced computer science for all pupils
from the age of five to sixteen as a compulsory
subject. Online resources and support are provided
by CAS (ND) (Computing at School) which is part
of the professional body, BCS, The Chartered
Institute for IT (ND). In primary schools, the
students use the Scratch language whereas in the
secondary schools the pupils use either Python or
Java. In some schools they have introduced, in
addition to conventional equipment, technology such
as 3D printers. At the age of 16, students are able to
progress to A-levels or alternatives, or can undertake
an IT apprenticeship with companies where they
would gain practical experience, receive training and
also a salary. Choices are also offered at the age of
approximately eighteen for students to progress to
university degrees, some with a full year placement
between the second and final year in industry and
students often undertake projects that are industry
based. Alternatively from the age of eighteen,
students could undertake a form of higher
apprenticeship where they gain practical experience,
study subjects leading towards a degree of particular
relevance to their employers, who will also provide a
salary and pay for their tuition, usually at a relevant
university.
Many courses now use a blended approach
where the students work with Activity Based
Learning and that they have material made available
to them through a system such as Moodle. Many
lectures are now being captured directly through
systems such as Panopto, whereby the student can
replay sections that they had problems
understanding (Griffin and Ross, 2015). These
recorded lectures are particularly useful for students
whose first language is not English or those with
particularly learning, hearing or sight disabilities.
Hand-held devices or the student's own mobile-
phones are also used by some lecturers to enable all
Ross M.
Today and Tomorrow - Can ICT Assist Learning and Living?.
DOI: 10.5220/0006811700010001
In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2016), pages 19-22
ISBN: 978-989-758-179-3
Copyright
c
2016 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
students to individually respond to multi-choice
questions, allowing the lecturer to assess if it is
necessary to further explain certain topics.
2 USING TECHNOLOGY TO
RAISE AWARENESS OF THE
PROBLEMS OF THE ELDERLY
To assist students to understand the problems of the
elderly and disabled, some students at Southampton
Solent University, are given practical experience of
problems relating to sight, hearing and mobility.
This involves the students experiencing these
problems themselves, so the requirements of the
elderly can be understood so more accurately
capturing their requirements. The students put on
"ageing suits" which restrict their movements,
ranging from the ability to sit comfortably, rise from
a chair, walk, reach high or low objects, to open
containers and use a keyboard. By the students
wearing special gloves attached to batteries, their
hands develop a tremble, so the problems of writing,
pouring or trying to drink liquid can be experienced.
By blocking their hearing to different levels and the
use of specialist glasses, other health problems can
be experienced. These range from their sight being
affected with diabetes to cataracts. The opportunities
to experience these have been used by students on
various courses, from computing, construction,
interior and exterior design, including the design of
packaging. These experiences have been arranged
both within the courses and by meetings of the BCS
(British Computer Society), which also enables these
activities to be open to the general public.
An example of the use of these was linked to
fashion and marketing students, when they
experienced the problems which, in some cases were
insurmountable, in dressing and undressing while
wearing these ageing suits, also trying to put on
make-up using the other additional devices. The aim
was to encourage them to consider the physical
requirements of the elderly and disabled in their
future roles, especially as the worldwide increasing
elderly population provides a market for elderly and
disabled friendly articles. These in turn should
increase the well-being, both physically and
mentally of this ever-increasing sector of the world
population. These ageing suits and other equipment
are used at some hospitals including St Mary's
Hospital on the Isle of Wight, in training courses for
nurses, doctors, porters and clerical staff to
understand the problems of the elderly. There is a
very high proportion of elderly living in the Isle of
Wight and on the South Coast of England as this is
viewed as a popular retirement area.
The opportunity to use technology directly,
through body scanners and 3D printers, could
provide in the future, clothes at low cost,
personalised for the individual elderly or disabled
person to fit their changing body shapes, whereas
commercially marketed clothes are designed to
expect the population to stand "up straight". By
producing individually constructed clothes, this
would allow the wearer both to look and feel smart
and comfortable, and should encourage a more
positive approach to ageing.
3 E-LEARNING AND HOW THIS
COULD HELP THE AGEING
POPULATION
With the increasing ageing population, there is a
growth in various types of Universities of the Third
Age. These often provide courses and one-off
lectures, usually led by volunteers, at the cost for
attendees of only the refreshments and the hire of the
room. These provide both mental stimulation and
social interaction. The former is provided are also by
games, such as Scrabble, which can be played
individually or through the Internet with players
anywhere in the world, possibly having met through
this medium.
Another means of encouraging mental agility is
undertaking remote on-line study. By interviewing
various retired people, many of whom have
undertaken courses such as those run by the Open
University in the UK, to obtain new skills and
develop their hobbies in greater depth, and in some
cases obtaining university degrees. Other elderly
have chosen to follow MOOCs (Massive Open
Online Courses) related to their interests (EC report,
2014). These MOOCs, often provided by
universities in various parts of the world, are usually
free but with mainly peer support and only limited
tutor assistance. Interviews were undertaken by the
author, with some of these elderly MOOC users.
Some comments were:
It assumed too much pre-knowledge,
It over-simplified certain topics so I did not learn
anything new,
It was easy to pass the self-assessment tests, by
just checking back on the material,
I had technical problems with slow or missing
Internet connections.
In most cases the elderly interviewees did not feel any
positive social interaction through these courses.
MOOCs do not normally have any accredited
qualifications, although one university in Germany
has created a direct link with a MOOC (EC report,
2014).
3.1 E-Learning and Third World
Countries
MOOCs, by allowing self-study, can be used as part
of preparations for a professional qualifications,
such as those of the professional bodies such as the
BCS. These qualifications can be taken at various
global locations. Many of the Foundation qualifica-
tions are online multi-choice, internet based and are
equivalent to the first or second year of a degree
course, and range from Business Analysis to
GreenIT. Various charities, such as MOOCs Africa
and TULSA, have been established to assist learning
for children and adults, especially women, in rural
Africa. Local schools and colleges can use these
MOOCs as part of their teaching, and, by following
a selection of relevant MOOCs, learners can be
prepared for these globally recognised professional
examinations (Dewar et al, 2014)..
The tutors could provide extra material if
required, and could run short one or two day
sessions, utilising buildings on days when these are
not in use (Uhomoibhi and Ross, 2015). The
increasing use of mobile phones in Africa provides
an ideal base for using MOOCs. This provides a
further opportunity for the elderly, with the relevant
skills, to assist with MOOCs support to others,
possibly in Africa, and also by doing so, promoting
their own mental well-being. MOOCs are also being
developed to increase be understanding of basic
health care, prevention of disease including HIV,
and issues such as pregnancy, particularly for
women in Africa.
4 MEDICINE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Technology is being used to scan patients, such as in
Southampton hospitals, then using 3D printing to
produce a model of the damaged body part, such as a
hip joint or showing the position of a kidney stone.
These have been used to explain to the patient, the
nature of the problem and facilitate discussion of the
various treatment options. It was reported that this
was particularly useful with complex operations,
allowing the surgeon to pre-plan the operation in
greater depth, so reducing the time in one case from
ten to seven hours which then also reduced the cost
of the operation and the risk to the patient.
Embedded chips in the body have been used for
a number of years for humans as well as pets. In
England, from April 2016, dogs are legally required
to have an embedded ID chip.
Embedded chips can be implanted to monitor
and administer medication such as with pregnant
women and diabetics. It was reported that US Vice
President Dick Cheney was not allowed by the US
security services, to have a remote heart transplant
monitoring system in case it was remotely hacked
(Internet Murder, 2014).
With the increasing ageing population, patients
with dementia could be identified if found with a
"passive" embedded chip. In the future, with the
increasing power and reduced size of batteries, an
"active" embedded chip could identify quickly a
missing sufferer of dementia. These are currently
used to track pets, as the chip can be fixed to the
pet's collar so the location, linked with GPS, is sent
directly to the owner via an App on the owner's
mobile phone. The concept of embedding such an
"active" chip in the body raises considerable ethical
issues, especially if the idea was extended to locate
missing children. For adults, a "living will" would be
needed in preparation for the possibility of becoming
a sufferer of dementia. Risks of hacking, computer
viruses, remote interference with the embedded
chips, in addition to battery life, and the risks
associated with confidentiality of the person’s data,
as in todays world data is more widely "joined-up",
would be some of the issues to be balanced against
the health and safety benefits of embedded chips
(Ross, 2015).
5 ROBOTS AND THE AGED
POPULATION
Robots are already available to assist mankind, from
meeting and greeting at a hotel to carrying heavy
bags for the humans. They can also help the disabled
to walk and assist in many ways. Robots could
become the pet that could be more widely used to
provide "companionship" for the elderly and to those
in hospital to replace or supplement the hospital’s
"visiting" dogs. These robotic pets could also
supplement the highly trained "hearing" or "seeing"
dogs, with the added advantage that if the owner
apparently needed help, they could transmit full
details of the problem, the exact location to under
one metre and possibly a view of the problem. This
could quickly result in summoning the appropriate
assistance. Again ethical issues are raised, about the
privacy of the individual, so perhaps this would be a
situation to be included in a "living will" agreeing to
some elements of surveillance by their "pet".
Robots could play a further part in assisting the
elderly and disabled to live independently, replacing
in part, the visiting human carer, in their roles of
distributing and ensuring medication is taken. This
could be undertaken by a robot, reporting back to
"control" if the robot does not "see" the medicine
being swallowed. Again this might be viewed as an
infringement of the person's privacy, despite being
possibly essential for their health. The human carer
usually would help their "patient" with washing,
assisting them with dressing and undressing, as well
as the very personal role of helping them in the
toilet. Robots are capable of undertaking these roles,
but would this be acceptable to the "patient". The
carers in the UK, provided by the local authority,
now have been asked, in many cases, to reduce their
visits to fifteen minutes or thirty minutes per visit,
whereas the robot would be available 24x7 for the
patient. Elderly independent livers are often
delivered cooked meals, often by volunteers, to their
homes, but with very limited choice of timing or
menu. Robots could provide freshly prepared meals
on demand, and assist the "patient" to eat, and also
recording any problem or abnormal eating
behaviour. Again there are major benefits in addition
to ethical dilemmas. The "patient" would probably
like human visitors so by using these robots, the
human visitor need not be a highly trained carer but
could possibly be provided by links to local colleges
or charities. Additional human social interaction
could currently be provided through the Internet,
with human friends who might be globally separated.
The quality of this type of care could be seen to be by
some as better than the human carer (Ross, 2015).
The acceptability, rather than the technical
ability of such robot based caring, is a major
consideration. The willingness to undertake such
care, where provided at home, at a retirement
establishment or at a hospital, needs to be addressed,
not only by the person, again in a "living will", but
also by the authorities. These must not be influenced
only by the potential financial savings to the state.
The use of robots as a nanny with the care of
children is even more of an ethical dilemma, with
legal implications for the parents and guardians.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Students of today need to understand both the
current and future applications of technology, but
also the ethical decisions, which could be more
difficult to solve than the technical problems.
With the increasing availability of e-learning,
both for initial learning at colleges or as self-study,
e-learning can now be used to "up skill" throughout
to the whole career and during retirement. It can be
accessed easily through mobile phones and other
technology throughout the world, personalised for
individuals, and at times that are convenient for the
user. This compares to attending conventional
courses, which might not be available locally or are
too expensive. This can change the e-learning
pattern lifelong, to provide a means to enhance the
mental capacity of all, including the elderly.
This could also help to address the issues of
dementia, providing an option to mentally stimulate
the elderly, those with learning difficulty and also
those separated from other regular human contact.
These e-learning opportunities can now be provided
in a form suitable for all, especially those with
disabilities, including the blind and the deaf.
The current and future technology offers
wonderful potential to assist all, regardless of age,
ability and location, but, as with all good things,
there is a possible "down side". In this case, rather
than issues of cost, the ethical issues could be a need
for consideration now and in the future.
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