With the increasing dependence of technology in education there is a new dimension of learning in education. Technology enabled education was prevalent even before the pandemic but its acceptance as a reliable medium of learning was visible during lockdown, apparently when the students had to be at home. Nevertheless it’s still a debatable topic where the old school of thought is not ready to accept the new normal.
Let’s talk a little about the past belief
Since early 2012 there has been an excessive inflow of online open courses this even made people believe that it might transform the education system. But gradually it remained as a reference material. It was believed that these online courses are scalable and allow optimum utilisation of resources and not time bound.
Current Scenario
With the advent of the pandemic there has been a tectonic shift in the mindsets if the educators as well as the students. The purpose of education in this phase is preparing the adults of today to deal with the unpredicted world of the future. To adapt to intonation points such as the pandemic, educational institutes must be dexterous and decisive, espousing change at all levels. One such revolution is the use of blending technology with offline learning as a key element of School education. The pandemic has pushed us all in the digital world. Blended learning existed even earlier, but for the university students, a research study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the US confirmed that students performed just as well with blended learning where the conventional teaching acted as a supplement to the whole process.
Navigating through augmented reality will not be a cake walk for us but will be a new normal in every aspect of human life and behavior; School education will be no exception.
What has the tech-Ed to offer to Students?
Artificial Learning (AI): Yes, it’s AI that will rule the future of education globally. The experts are working day and night to design tools on adaptive learning ie to offer personalized teaching to the learner’s requirement. A conducive tool to be devised to assess the skills and knowledge of an individual to recommend what courses next can be pursued by the individual to achieve proficiency in his domain of interest.
Teacher as an enabler: The online classes could be more of a discussion where the student becomes the center of the discussion and the teachers as a curator/ enabler.
Assessment: A competency based assessment tool could be devised where the assessment would be based on the skills, performance and analysis of knowledge for the attainment competency based outcome.
TransEducation: When I talk of “TransEducation” I mean a transparent means of executing the processes in the education system for studies. Use of technology will definitely make the system transparent and viable.
Timeliness: With the use of technology comes in timeliness whether during the classes or during the examination process, every aspect becomes time driven.
One World One Family: Of course with the use of technology the world will come closer and an ocean of opportunities will be available in the remotest locations of the globe.
Navigating through augmented reality will not be a cake walk for us but will be a new normal in every aspect of human life and behavior; School education will be no exception. Some may perish in the coming few months and only those who adapt to the new change, invest heavily into technology, re-train their teachers, maintain strong partnership with parents, and reinvent themselves into newer learning styles which will combine technology and face-to-face education will survive. The institutions will need to cater to the 3 types of students when the school re-opens; students who will attend School, students who will partially attend School and students who will not attend until the vaccine is introduced, therefore keeping this in mind we as institutions will need to evolve and migrate to technology enabled learning.
On a positive note I would say that Education will not be the same, it will be bigger, better and deeper post pandemic. COVID 19 may be the beginning of the most needed reform in the Indian education sector with blended education as the new normal.
