Implementation, Challenges and Effects of Internet of Things (IoT)

towards Education

Nurulsyuhada Fatanah Rosdi, Nurul Afifah Arif, Mohamad Lukman Sidek, Nur Syahida Izni
Sidek

Faculty of Education, University of Malaya

1. Abstract
Regarding the adoption of technology-based learning, some modifications need to be
made in order to achieve the vision for the government to provide world class education
system. This is important to ensure that it follows the highest standard parallel with other
developing countries. The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) can be benefited to
improve teaching and learning process, not only at school but also at higher education.
The existing technology like Internet networking together with IoT can be synergised to
help on how educators conduct the classes either physical or virtual mode and it also
help to improve the way students consume the lessons. Other than that, implementation
of IoT technology infrastructure in the class can gain student engagement and this
technology advancement can allow the educator to collect information from class’
activities in real time at the same time evaluate student’s performance. With interactive
learning environment, it is believed that IoT can improve the quality of education and
produce positive outcome toward educators and students performance.

Keywords:​ Internet of Things (IoT), education, technology, technology-based learning

2. Introduction

Today’s fast pace evolving and digitalizing world has influence ways on how people live
and interact within society. Technology can affect life both positively and negatively. New
technology always changes our life very much and takes it to a new level. It is like the
new way of thinking or doing the normal things differently, better and much more faster
with less hassle and at a much affordable rate if we use it in the right way. In any case,
when compared with other industries like manufacturing, automotive, transportation and
healthcare, education sector seem not receiving most recent innovations before this.

Today, with current advancement in technology, education industry start changing slowly
as various educational institutions are now realizing the significance of introducing
technology, especially IoT, into their daily teaching methods (Nurul Ezdiani, 2018). Very
soon, many schools and colleges will have IoT embedded into their day-to-day activities
and there are a few reasons for this.

I. Internet of Things (IoT)

 IoT is a concept that connect all the devices to the internet and let them
communicate with each other over the internet in order to exchange information.
IoT had been applied in many industries including finance, manufacturing,
transportation, telecommunications, and many more.
A smart school (a school that uses IoT), with the facilities operating smoothly
promotes a higher level of personalized learning. The smart devices used in a
campus utilize WiFi network for receiving instructions and sending data.

For example in Malaysia, Sarawak State Council use drone to monitor illegal
lodging in Sarawak. With the use of drones, these illegal loggers will not know
about the presence of the authorities. Using drones, the authorities in recording
their subsequent acts can be convicted.

Other than that, many research had been made by the researcher from
universities on IoT. According to Laupa J. (2017), researchers from Universiti
Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) used Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and
wireless sensor to detect the movement of the object and monitor the
environment. This technology will help in agriculture and manufacturing industry.

I. IoT in Education
When it comes to implementing IoT in the education area, the major reason is the
IoT enhances the education itself, improve engagement and provides advanced
value to the structures and environment. This makes education more interesting
compared to traditional method. Implementation of IoT in education sector surely
will offer many benefits to educators, students and the environment itself. Below
are some advantages after implementation of IoT:

A. Interactive Learning
Today, learning is not limited only to the combination of images and texts
but much more than that. Many textbooks are joined to web-based sites
that incorporate additional videos, materials, animations, assessments,
and other materials to aid the learning process.This provides a broader
perspective to the students in gaining knowledge on new things with a
better understanding and interaction with their friends and teachers. The
real-world problems are discussed in the classroom by the educational
professionals and students are made to find the answers for these
problems.

B. Security
As there will be many students present in a class of any educational
institution, monitoring the whereabouts and activities of each and every
student is not an easy task. IoT can add immense value in terms of
enhancing the security of schools, colleges, and any other learning
 centres. For monitoring the student behavior, intelligent camera vision can
be used in the campus. Recently, computer vision technologies have
improved a loT and can monitor any signature movements. This activity
can automatically can stop any unexpected incidents from taking place.

C. Educational Apps
Nowadays, the increasing of the game application is uncontrollable. Kids
tend not to study and just want to play games. Most of them like to play
games because the games are more interesting compared to books. Kids
not attracted with traditional studies (books) and easily lose focus during
the study.

Mathematics syllabus at the primary school is formally and theoretically,

and very book-based learning. Mathematics subject is not interesting for
children, because it is a serious topic that cannot be learned in a relaxed
situation like playing games. Primary school students at the age of seven
to nine years old learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and
fractions will hardly understand mathematics, and they assume that
mathematics is very difficult to learn if the teacher does not know on how
to attract and promote fun learning to students.

With the aid of instructional technology, digital devices and advancement

of educational mathematics games, teachers can use it in the learning
process in the classroom. Since educational mathematics game has
gained considerable interest in education circles due to its capability of
enhancing the learning process among students, the teachers need to
have their criteria and set goals in order to achieve the desired learning
outcomes.

D. Increasing Efficiency
In many schools and colleges, a lot of time is spent on activities that do
not add any value to the core aim of their very existence. For instance,
attendance of the students needs to be taken several times a day.
Additionally, this data has to be sent to the central office for different
purposes. The IoT can put an end to this inefficient system.

Thus this paper focuses on how to implement IoT in education

environment, what challenges that we might face when implemented it
and lastly the effect of IoT towards education sector.

3. Literature Review

I. How to Implement IoT in education

 Implementation of ​IoT i​ n education is not a new thing to talk about anymore since
it have been talking by many people who know about the changes in technology.
The implementation of ​IoT in education can be implemented in various ways and
with different levels of education. Smart learning is an example of implementation
of IoT in education. According to Hesham, there will be three scenarios where the
IoT can be implemented in the learning process which are smart laboratories with
sensors and actuators for time and resources save, smart attendance systems by
using RFID tags, and libraries with IoT element to provide securable books for
student’s rent.

Besides, the implementation of Iot in education can also be applied in the

learning process in order to have a different level of improvement in learning
environment. Based from Azamat Z., Zhulduz S., Rassim S., and Zhazira K., the
Flipped classroom (FP) is an element of IoT in education. Flipped classroom can
be implemented for university, school and even kindergarten. FP is a model
when lectures activity occurs outside of the class such as home, subway or any
place where the device have an internet. While, student will do homework in the
classroom with the help of instructor and groupmates, exams, seminars and any
other activities. With the implementation of Flipped classroom, students can learn
anytime and anyplace. On top of that, students also can take a break during the
lesson by pause the video of lectures or reply the video if they missed the
lessons (Azamat Z et al., 2017).

The IoT can be used to develop online virtual laboratories for various
faculty specializations, like electronics or automatics (Eugene C., 2015). By
implemented IoT for online virtual laboratories, the electronic circuit testing and
automatization process monitoring and control is possible to include. Hence,
implemented online virtual laboratories, can make the distance learning facilities
even for technical specializations become more convenient and possible. The
important role of IoT which is it provides a suitable framework for developing
online virtual laboratory platforms. The most used approach in getting devices
connected in IoT and receive information is to have an electronic module as a
device which have built -in internet connectivity feature and web service capable
to receive and send data from and to the connected devices (Eugene C., 2015).

II. Challenges to implement in education

There are several possible Drawbacks of this technology, challenges that hold
implication of IoT in education. First, Security and Privacy. The hardest part or
the main challenge of IoT-education alliance would be a matter of security and
 privacy. Of course, data collection is an inevitable element of this collaboration. A
huge number of educational traits are being collected, including a student’s
learning history, location and a number of personal details. So, security-privacy
concerns about IoT in education are among the key issues that need to address
carefully (John Harris, 2019).

Second, Implementation Cost. As many of you can imagine, the cost of

implementation is also a big challenge of IoT in education. These expenses
include the cost to purchase hardware, software licenses, and maintenance
price. The cost of information technologies continues to expand every year as
content and application stacks escalate. These application stacks continue to
grow both horizontally and vertically on instructional technologies, research
computing and enterprise technologies. Beside the information technology fee
and laboratory fee, most universities do not have a strategy for sharing costs and
identifying the total cost of ownership (TCO) for an IoT infrastructure. Although
many schools have successfully secured National Science Foundation funding to
establish research computing infrastructures such as HPC, operational costs
continue to be a burden (Ravi Dhungel, 2015).

Third, Lack of Interoperability. There’re different smart IoT technologies currently

implemented in education sector like interactive whiteboards, attendance
tracking, temperature sensors, etc. Some of these technologies are showing little
interoperability with some other smart technologies. These hurdles may
definitively affect the future development of digitalized education. The IoT offers
unique opportunities to deliver digital courses. However, it also introduces
challenges to maintain the quality of instruction and evaluation of students’
work. IoT educational applications need tools and technologies for
instructors, professors and the scientific community to improve the quality of
research and address ethics issues within higher education (Hanan Aldowah,
2017).

III. Effects of Implementation in education

In this section, the impact of IoT by highlighting new features which should be
considered as a result of the application of IoT. First, reducing cost. Although IoT
has increased technology and maintenance costs in the cost structure block of
the canvas model, it helps the organization to cut costs in different ways by
automating operations. For example, energy managers can access realtime
energy consumption data from the campus and identify energy wastage easily
which can result in dramatic cost reduction. Second, improving comfort and
saving time in education. According to Bagheri, M., & Movahed, the use of IoT in
 higher education saves time and brings comfort to students and staff by real-time
monitoring of people, things and places and providing relevant feedback to them.
Students can track their health conditions. They can access different parts of the
campus by using an RFID tag or an NFC enabled ID card. They can choose a
suitable study room based on their air conditioning requirements such as
temperature and humidity levels.

Third is enhanced safety. According to Bagheri, M., & Movahed, educational

spaces should be safe places for students. With the IoT, access to different parts
of the campus can be managed and monitored centrally without dedicated
security personnel for each part of the campus. For example, out-of hour
laboratory access can be managed by RFID tagged student ID cards and
monitored with smart surveillance systems. Fourth, personalized learning.
High-speed resilient secure wireless networks, have made learning and teaching
possible on any platform at anytime from anywhere both in and outside the
campus. The data that has been collected from smart devices can be used to
offer a more personalised learning experience in real time. This will not only
engage students, but also enables the lecturer to focus his or her attention on
other students who need more face-to-face instruction. The last one is increasing
student collaboration and engagement. IoT has changed the university
classrooms by embedding sensors and mobile devices into the environment. This
has created a unique opportunity for increased student engagement and
collaboration in teaching and learning.

4. Discussion

The quality of education both online and on classroom and the rising cost of higher
education has been hotly debated in recent years. The IoT offers unique opportunities to
deliver digital courses but also introduces challenges to maintain the quality of instruction
and evaluation of students’ work. This instructional digital disruption illuminates students’
ethics around academic honesty and plagiarism, especially data fraud and publication
within scientific communities. IoT educational applications need tools and technologies
for educators to improve the quality of classroom teaching and learning process and
address ethics issues within education. Before applying IoT technology education, basic
problems need to be addressed first, such as internet connection problem, new updated
device and lack of funds and number of teachers.

5. Conclusion
 The education system and teaching activities used in current education system are
affected by technological developments. Information and education technology
advancement exudes the content of the education system and teaching activities in the
educational environment. This scenario make it necessary for teachers to build and use
digital tools to support learning process thus promote technology-support learning
environment. The use of technology in educational field make it more interesting and
research found that student performance increase when using digital tools during the
learning process. It is like the new way of learning or doing the normal things differently,
better and much more beneficial if we use it in the right way. Using technology in
education offers many opportunities like learning centred control and improve motivation.
IoT will be additionally coordinated into the education sector sooner rather than later.
The greater part of the education institution may utilize it to set up their students to turn
out to be very tech-proficient.

6. Reference

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2. ​ ow IoT in education is changing the way we learn.

Andrew Meola​.(2016). H

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Education. Hyperion Economic Journal.

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https://www.nst.com.my/education/2019/01/446212/making-sense-out-stem-and-iot

7. Hanan Aldowah.(2017). Internet of Things in Higher Education: A Study on Future

Learning. Journal of Physics: Conference Series

8. Ravi Dhungel (2015, October 12). The evolving challenges of IoT: Exploring higher
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