The ongoing Covid-19 crises and the resultant lockdown over the past few months, has accelerated the adoption of technology across sectors, including education. So while businesses are adopting work from home and virtual meetings, schools too are leaning heavily on digital platforms and Ed-tech tools to ensure a consistent and effective education. Apart from K-12 education, professionals and students pursuing higher education have also turned to Ed-tech for vocational training, skill up gradation and several hobby based learning courses, which has further added to the growth of the sector.
Now, even as governments and healthcare professionals are working towards solutions which can help restore pre-covid normalcy, the Ed-tech trends formed during the lockdown, especially those for K-12 schools, are set to shape the future of Education, creating the new normal.
Some of the 6 key factors that are here to stay for the long run, can be summarized as follows:
Virtual classrooms are here to stay: Even as the world battles uncertainty and fear around the pandemic, parents are more than getting used to the concept of virtual classrooms where their child can have a consistent education from the safety of the home. Although this also demands increased parent involvement and a more hands-on approach to teaching, it is something that has found its place as a household phenomenon.
And long after the pandemic, once the lockdown is eased and schools do finally open, a lot of parents may opt for complete or partial provisions for home schooling via virtual classrooms. This may be extended to private tuition where minimizing social exposure for their children is going to be a top priority for parents.
Digital learning with on-demand content: Apart from virtual classrooms, a lot of parents and teachers are turning to enhanced digital learning aids that can leverage Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence, to create interactive, on-demand content. As a result, a lot of Ed-tech innovations are now focussed around helping teachers to create impactful videos that can then be showcased either during the virtual classroom sessions or sent separately as additional learning material and can be accessed on-demand.
Online exams/assessment: Online assessment, conducted either at home (during lockdown) or at school, is another important trend that is set to stay on post covid, as most parents and schools will prefer to adhere to social distancing norms. Although nascent in India, online assessments are gaining popularity quickly as it offers a secure, credible, automated, and well regulated examination environment. Apart from eliminating the chances of disorderly conduct through simple technical modifications in the tech platform, the process also promotes a more understanding based approach due to new format of question sheets.
Digital operations: With the lockdown, just like teaching online, schools have also learned to move their administrative and operational functions to the digital world. From online calendars, class and teacher allotments and time tables to monetary transactions around fees and salaries done on secure digital payment gateways, Indian schools have briskly moved online. While most schools have already adopted the ‘computer’ for keeping accounts and building database of students etc., the lockdown inspired digitization has led them to make a complete shift, from tech supported to tech-first operations. And this trend is set only to improve over the coming months.
Assisted tools for building competency: Although the STEM, AI and ML have made their presence felt on the K-12 education system, the lockdown has inspired several innovations that are designed to drive tech enabled performance enhancement models for helping children build a cognitive and analytical thinking process. From critical thinking, creative problem solving, and logical analysis to building solutions that can impact real world problems, Ed-tech has truly created a holistic and integrated learning ecosystem for children.
Online proctoring/mentorship: In addition to school education that is well defined through board syllabus and explained through virtual classrooms, a new and emerging trend in Ed-tech is access to expert mentoring through the online platforms. This can be a game changer in the sector as it opens doors for children to seek, find and learn from the best experts in their field, sitting anywhere in the world.
(The author is founder of School Diary . This article was first published in India Today on Aug 18,2020)
