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Frontiers of cyberlearning : emerging technologies for teaching and learning
Spector J., Kumar V., Essa A., Huang Y., Koper R., Tortorella R., Chang T., Li Y., Zhang Z., Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated, New York, NY, 2018. 246 pp. Type: Book
Date Reviewed: May 4 2020

This book would work well as the first volume in a series on this subject, with new editions released every three to five years due to rapidly changing technologies and the convergence of technologies that provide new forms of deployment in education. Learning to adapt to the emerging and frontier technologies surrounding work, daily life, and social activities is the ultimate task. Several emerging technologies directly impact learning processes, transforming methods, tools, and the creation and presentation of content in learning systems. These technologies cover virtual reality, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data. Hence, the book focuses on big data and cloud computing, highlighting the need for future editions that cover new technologies based on virtual reality and AI, as well as other converged technologies that mix with content and pedagogy to provide cyberlearning environments.

As an edited compilation--13 chapters by many authors--it is clear that big data technology presents both advantages and challenges. It plays a key role in the education process, providing institutions, teachers, and students with better quality, enhanced, and predictive teaching and assessment strategies. The authors agree that big data technology deployment in the education process transforms traditional education into a digital experience. However, this emerging technology also creates several challenges related to its full implementation, such as security, privacy, ethics, and a lack of skilled professionals. An additional helpful note from the presented research is the assumption that, in spite of the important possibilities for big data and cloud computing in education, implementation comes with questions about what the content can provide, the real costs of training and equipment, and easily usable tool designs for students.

Several chapters deal with big data analytics for discovering the context and meaningful use of automated reports and facilitating increased efficiency, better insights, and improved awareness in education services. Some chapters focus on the real-world deployment of data analytics to increase efficiency and effectiveness in educational processes. A helpful contribution refers to the pedagogical strength of big data, providing students with applicable tools for developing competence and skills. It is worth noting that current technology trends are not fully implemented due to the complexity of identifying relevant data, a task which requires additional knowledge, resources, and time.

Now more than ever before, teaching and learning are being mediated by emerging technologies, and institutions, educators, and students should integrate these technologies into the classroom to achieve more personalized, interactive, and adaptive learning experiences. The importance of big data technologies for mining large educational datasets is clearly shown. Furthermore, the book presents very significant observations related to big data and cloud computing, for example, cloud computing is not the ultimate solution to educational computing problems. Although the use of cloud computing in education has many possibilities, there are also many visible drawbacks and limitations that need to be solved.

The real-world deployment of big data and cloud computing in the education process is evolving, especially with the convergence of new technologies. However, as the authors suggest, readers should understand the existing big data technologies that will allow education systems to adopt new technologies in the future. Thus, this volume covers real-world deployment issues--although some recent solutions are missing, so we could expect new editions on this subject. This excellent book will be helpful to educators, students in educational technology disciplines, and educational tool designers.

Reviewer:  F. J. Ruzic Review #: CR146960 (2011-0262)
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