The incredible educational promise of information and communication technologies is too often wasted on trivial applications such as electronic texts and video lectures.
To help distinguish between trivial and optimal applications of technology, educators have started using the term “Deeply Digital”. Deeply Digital materials take full advantage of the many ways that information technologies can enhance education. To provide specific examples, two computer assisted drawing (CAD) tools used for analysing buildings that support learning about heat transfer, design under constraint, and the properties of fluids will be demonstrated.
Students learn by using the tool, and teachers can track student learning. The tools log everything that a student does, and the logs can be analyzed to provide detailed information about student thinking and skills development.
Deeply digital applications like these have the potential to transform engineering education.