‘We should focus on the effect of the technology rather than the technology itself’
How much tech is helpful in the classroom? Highlighting both benefits and drawbacks, John Komar explains how computer vision and AI can reinforce personal connections and interactions between teacher and students
John Komar
Created in partnership with
Created in partnership with
A few years ago I led a team that developed an online feedback system for students. They could scan a QR code (see figure 1) that linked to a web application and provide feedback on their understanding of the lesson content and ask the lecturer open questions. At first, the tool seemed useful, and the students liked it.
However, I noticed that the easy way to ask questions online killed human interaction during the lessons. The classroom and lesson time should be perceived as a safe space for students to speak in public, ask questions, make mistakes and learn. With this new system, the students were indeed asking more questions but they were writing them in a different channel. The technology didn’t help them learn how to speak in public and ask questions verbally.
In the end, we decided to turn the system off on the day of the lesson, and turn it back on for the rest of the week (when the students were doing their homework).
As an educator, I am both excited and apprehensive about the potential benefits and drawbacks of integrating technology, including AI, into the classroom. Mainly, I believe that we should focus on the effect of the technology rather than the technology itself.
My current project uses computer vision and AI in the classroom to automatically detect the teacher’s activity and the students’ responses. Our vision behind this project is that there is no ideal way of teaching, but that good lecturers efficiently adapt their teaching style to the audience. The system is transparent for the teacher and the students, mainly using microphones and cameras located in the classroom.
The system creates a simple report for the lecturer, showing what activity he or she deployed during the lesson and the students’ response. The goal of this project is to highlight and reinforce the relationship and interactions between the lecturer and the students. In that sense, the system uses AI in a transparent way to emphasise the teacher-student relationship, and it provides feedback on this. If the teacher lectures for two hours non-stop but all the students stay highly captivated and active during those two hours, there might not be a need to change. However, if after 20 minutes of lecturing, all the students are starting to fall asleep and stop paying attention, the teacher should adapt their teaching approach. Otherwise, they are not keeping this relationship alive.
When I was a student, my own involvement and participation in the classroom were strongly associated with my relationship with the lecturer (good or bad); teaching is, above all else, a personal relationship between individuals, and technology should focus on fostering this. Our pedagogical philosophies, innovative ideas and approaches should drive our teaching activities, while we use technology and AI to enhance their implementation.
- Spotlight guide: Bringing GenAI into the university classroom
- DeepSeek and shallow moats: what does it mean for higher education?
- How to create a higher education AI policy
Implementing technology and AI solutions in the classroom also requires the teacher to undertake a continuous exploration process. If using technology has clear benefits, when it allows the teacher to get the students more involved in their tasks, to provide a more individualised teaching approach or to improve students’ intrinsic motivation towards learning, it is a positive development. But with benefits come an associated cost – for example, using new technology takes time. If learning how to use the system in a mathematics lesson takes longer than the time students have to practise and learn maths, it is counterproductive. Multiple factors, including teachers’ and students’ technology and AI literacy, can also have an impact.
In that sense, like any pedagogical approach, there is probably no magical solution when it comes to the best uses of technology for education. What works in the morning lesson may not work as well in the afternoon; what works with one group of students may not work with another group; what works in Asia may not work in Europe.
Teachers should always be reminded to use technology carefully when it comes to teaching and learning, constantly balancing the benefits and the costs (losing human relationships through the use of technology is a cost). Similarly, new tools and technologies should be co-created by teachers and engineers to ensure that the latest technological advances are available to the teachers, and to ensure that the engineers who develop this technology do so in an optimal way to serve a useful purpose for teaching and learning.
John Komar is assistant dean of research support in the Office for Research, and assistant professor in the National Institute of Education – Physical Education & Sports Science at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
This is an edited version of the blog post “Balancing technology and personal connections in the classroom”, which was first published by NTU’s Institute for Pedagogical Innovation, Research & Excellence.
If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.
