| Article written by
Fredric Bouchard.
Bruno de Livre is a professor in the Department of Educational Technology at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (FPSE) at the University of Mons and advisor to the Rector on digital educational strategies. The university institution, which is the only university in French-speaking Belgium to offer training on the use of digital technology in education, has recently carried out a series of actions related to digital technology. During his visit to MTL Connecté, as part of a Belgian delegation honored at the event, the researcher discussed these promising initiatives with Le Lien MULTIMDIA.
First, the professor mentions a four-year project together with the University of Lille, particularly on digital ID cards. The aim of the FPSE is, on the one hand, to support short course graduates by collecting badges in order to highlight the breadth of the courses taken and to have them recognized as a master’s degree. On the other hand, the company wants to help companies identify the profiles that might be of interest to them using these public digital badges.
Bruno de Livre’s second initiative is linked to digital sobriety. “One of my colleagues is an expert in this field and has developed training programs for the entire basic education period, i.e. for students from primary school to the end of secondary school. She is working on a competency framework for digital sobriety,” says the professor.
The use of virtual reality is also at the heart of the FPSE’s concerns. “One of my colleagues at the Faculty of Biology developed 3D animals in his course. With the VR headset we can penetrate the inside of the animal. We work with this department to integrate educational courses that allow you to discover these animals. So we’re going to enter the animal and ask questions. The student must find the solution. There is then a visual interaction in the environment,” describes Bruno de Livre.
He and his colleagues are also investigating ways to stimulate the same dimensions in elementary school students. The aim is to use virtual reality to develop the representation of an insect or an animal in school children.
Artificial intelligence is essential in the faculty’s projects for two reasons: First, for student assessment. “We use ChatGPT prompts in which we incorporate criteria. Using our students’ documents, we try to find out to what extent the ChatGPT evaluation can be automated. That would save time. And so far it seems to be working pretty well! » emphasizes the researcher.
The second area of application for AI is conversational agents. The number of participants in Bruno de Livre’s courses will increase from 100 to 700 students in 10 years. How then is it possible to answer them all? During the detention, the FPSE used Microsoft Teams. She continues to use it with students and has integrated a conversation agent that answers student questions about anything related to the lesson plan, specific definitions given in class, or exercises. “On the one hand, it is the programming that we do ourselves, and on the other hand, it is the artificial intelligence to create an improvement,” explains the professor.
The university institution is also investing in the area of children’s digital skills and is developing teaching guides to explain to teachers what these skills consist of and how they can implement them in the classroom.
Finally, the faculty is working on a MATIS (Mathematics, Arts, Technology, Engineering and Science) project with a pedagogical approach (STEAM in English). She trains teachers on these issues and helps them set up specific activities for young women.
In 2022, MTL connects, the FPSE has made numerous contacts that led to the initiation of various projects. With this new edition, Bruno de Livre hoped to build new bridges and raise awareness of the various initiatives that the company is developing.
“We also want to show that a university produces knowledge and objects. But we are not necessarily in a position to bring these properties to market. Then it is necessary to link up with companies in order to possibly pool forces,” concluded the Rector’s advisor for digital strategies.