Quality of Education: A Means of Optimization

For P2, I am interested in the quality of education and graduates. This may seem like two separate issues, but really the quality of education is the dominant factor in the quality of graduates. A two birds one stone approach. For the purpose of synthesizing the exigence to my chosen stakeholder, the U.S. Department of Education, I am utilizing the following articles: Higher Education: Not What It Used to Be, Growth for Online Learning, and Global Imperatives of the 21^st Century: The Academy’s Response.

Within my issue of interest, I want to solve HOW to provide a superior quality education. This something I have independently been pondering for a while, and I claim that the greatness of any society is the sum of the greatness of its citizens. Reflecting on the world currently and how the future is developing I believe society needs to be better than it currently is. To achieve this, we need to aid people in becoming better than they currently are. 

My proposed solution to the problem is to develop a virtual reality teaching software. This software would project itself onto the real world to provide an immersive and interactive learning experience. Furthermore, with the aid of machine learning the education experience could be personalized and research based. The machine learning component could “read” and analyze every study conducted in educational neuroscience and psychology to determine the most effective and efficient means of teaching someone. Also, the learning component could “observe” the student to determine the most effective way to teach THAT individual. The individual profiles could be compiled into a larger data set, and the algorithm could determine patterns to further improve itself. Providing this as a service would enable a student to engage in an interactive learning environment wherever they happen to be. In a way it would be like providing every student with a private tutor that gets better as it gets to know them. 

To those who lack the technological background this sounds implausible. However, the technology to build such a software already exists. In the VR realm, Microsoft is one of leading developers of interactive VR platforms, such as their HoloLens. HoloLens is a type of goggles that projects 3D images onto your surrounding environment. There is far more in development in the field of VR than most people realize. As far as a machine learning platform that can analyze and use every bit of research and apply it, that exists too. The Watson computer, by IBM, is typically known for beating the champions of Jeopardy, but is used for far more. Medicine is one such field where Watson is used. More than 25,000 research studies and other mountains of data have been uploaded into Watson for it to study. Because of the linguistic capabilities of the system and ability to interact and learn it has already become a huge aid in suggesting effective treatments, and developing medical research. The ultimate goal of Watson in medicine is to become better than the best human doctor at everything from diagnostics to treatment. The following video explains how the Watson system works, and the one afterwards demos what HoloLens can do.

This problem is exigent to the U.S. Department of Education because the education of U.S. citizens directly effects our development and growth as a nation here at home, and our influence as a nation in the world. Both of these are major components of the departments mission. 

The Department of Education is the clear choice of audience because they are heavily involved in providing and advancing public and higher education in the United States. Providing them with such a tool would enable them to give every student with the best education possible with our current knowledge and capabilities.