Dublin resident Professor Deborah Lemon speaks at Harvard University on Future Trends of Language Learning

Dublin resident Professor Deborah Lemon (Ohlone College) recently spoke at Harvard University’s 2015 FLEAT VI Conference on the Future Trends of Language Learning. Her presentation addressed important trends in industry, communication and entertainment that impact all fields of learning and training.

In his opening keynote address, Peter K. Bol, the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning and the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, presented data regarding the persistent trend of declining enrollments. During the Q & A afterwards, Lemon came forward and commented, “Declining enrollments in any field, especially when requirements are reduced or eliminated, is the clearest indication that what we are doing isn’t working. We have to do something else.”

Something else for Lemon means experimenting with formats, delivery, and platforms. “We need to be exploring all of these new environments, especially Augmented, Mediated, and Virtual Realities. We need to build learning environments on social structures. And we need to think outside of the established “Education” paradigm. It’s standing in the way of Learning.”

Her presentation, a Henderson Plenary Award Finalist, entitled “To Boldly Go..: Facebook, Augmented Reality and the Future of Language Learning”, offered concrete examples of how she has created these environments, and how they support her transdisciplinary projects in which she coordinates fields such as Engineering, Business, Spanish, Social Media, ESL and more. She traced the journey of her learning environment designs as well as highlighted the remarkable responses from her students. She has been using Augmented Reality (AR) to create “AR-portfolios” where students coordinate their project materials. Lemon then discussed her future plans for redefining learning experiences and course parameters. She also addressed the burgeoning Gaming Industry: “This is an amazing industry with its own culture, language, skillsets and structure. Gaming needs to be taken very seriously.”

As a futurist and communicative learning environment strategist, Lemon feels that the new media environments offer even more opportunities for collaborative, specialized learning and training. As a speaker at this year’s Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, Lemon discussed using Augmented Reality for building collaborative projects and emphasized the importance of the social aspect of AR and VR. “You have to be able to share these experiences.” Lemon explains. “We try something, and the first thing we do is turn to someone else and say ‘That was amazing/awful/surprising’. We post [it] in social media. The act of sharing gives our experiences validation and meaning.”

Lemon is well-known for her years of work teaching courses completely within Facebook. “Facebook is all about communicating at every level. It is a perfect environment for both large-scale interaction and small-scale conversations,” Lemon notes. “It is an amazing environment in which so many other materials and applications can be shared. Facebook’s Oculus Rift is going to add an entirely new dimension to Social Media.” With the Oculus Rift and other VR hardware and programs on the event horizon, she anticipates serious changes in the education framework. Her most important goal is to get students away from their desks, out of the classrooms, and into experiential learning. “I’m already designing how I will work within these environments.” Lemon smiled. “Change is a startling, and fascinating, adventure.”