What will the future of education look like? A network aims to bring people, technology and nature together to provide answers – and relies on INESC TEC to do so

What will the future of education look like? A network aims to bring people, technology and nature together to provide answers – and relies on INESC TEC to do so

An educational environment that focuses on the interaction of humans with the whole context that surrounds them: this is the objective of an education proposal with INESC TEC’s contribution.  

29th January 2025

Here is a summary of what the last few years have been like: the planet warming has aggravated; technology – and Artificial Intelligence – advanced at a galloping pace, threatening jobs; and, more recently, a pandemic influenced our daily lives and changed the way we relate. These scenarios raise many questions. One of them: how to improve training in ecologically connected contexts (involving human and non-human agents), thus rethinking what we understand by knowledge and how we generate it?

This was the question asked by Eliane Schlemmer, researcher at INESC TEC and promoter of the Rede Internacional de Educação OnLIFE (RIEOnLIFE). This Brazil-based network seeks to set up an innovation ecosystem in education that connects all stakeholders: people, natural environments, technological devices, algorithms and even AI. “Research can provide elements for education systems to better operate in case of disruptions”, she said.

The researcher recently approved the Rede Internacional de Educação OnLIFE – RIEOnLIFE project, seeking to bring researchers, teachers and students together to listen, discuss and reflect on the world around them – and, in the process, create an international education network: OnLIFE.

In this sense, all participants can join efforts in “ecologically connected contexts”. In other words, environments where the interaction between humans, technology and nature happens in an integrated way. Eliane Schlemer explained: “the goal is to adopt RIEOnLIFE and expand and deepen networked research on training in ecologically connected contexts. Research will be supported by the connectivity between humans and non-humans who co-create the data, in the course of research activities and contexts characterised by intervention.”

Here is a practical example of how “ecologically connected contexts” can reconfigure the teaching environment: a school creates a sensory garden, equipping it with sensors. In this scenario, students take care of the plants, have direct contact with nature and can follow real-time data about the state of that ecosystem. Why not go further? The school may even invite farmers to visit the garden and invite them to share knowledge and experiences. These are the types of networks that the project aims to create.

Towards establishing an international education network, this project promotes a collaboration with the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN). INESC TEC integrates the project through the participation of Eliane Schlemer and Leonel Morgado.

The Rede Internacional de Educação OnLIFE – RIEOnLIFE project was approved in the MCTI/CNPq Public Call – Apoio a Projetos Internacionais de Pesquisa Científica, Tecnológica e de Inovação.