Mani is a HRD specialist in the areas of Education Management, Organizational Behavior and Career Guidance. He is former faculty member of TATA Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) & is also on the academic advisory board of SIES Institute of Management Studies.

As technology is rapidly changing the world around us, many people worry that technology will replace human intelligence. Some educators worry that there will be no students to teach anymore in the near future as technology might take-over teaching our students. However, technology could be a huge enabler and facilitates the learning process as under:

Anytime Learning & At Any Place
Without the wonders of the internet, people wouldn't be able to get access to any type of information at the very moment they think of it. Today, distance learning is one of the most trending learning methods. Virtual lessons are slowly taking the place of traditional lectures. Students can organize their time in a way that works for them, and they can easily gain the knowledge they are interested in. For example, let's say one of your students shows great interest in Astronomy, but the traditional curriculum does nothing to feed that hunger for knowledge. You can recommend him/her to take beginner's course.

Flexible Paths & More Choice of Subjects
By using technology in the classroom, both teachers and students can develop skills essential for the 21st century. Students can gain the skills they will need to be successful in the future. Modern learning is about collaborating with others, solving complex problems, critical thinking, developing different forms of communication & leadership skills, and improving motivation & productivity. What is more; technology can help develop many practical skills, including creating presentations, learning to

differentiate reliable from unreliable sources on the Internet, maintaining proper online etiquette, and writing emails. These are very important skills that can be developed in the classroom.

Project Based & Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is the key factor of acquiring knowledge through experiencing things. It addresses specific teaching methods, which are believed to achieve a beneficial outcome to the learning ability of students. Project-based learning is such a modern teaching method. The core idea of project-based learning is to connect student's experiences with school life and to provoke serious thinking as students acquire new knowledge. While there are some negative implications related to PBL, the method can leverage the advantages of modern teaching techniques. Finally, through experiential learning and in particular through PBL, connection with problems of real world is achieved.

Changing times do warrant a change in the education options that are available to students. I think time has come to radically evaluate existing programmes and reinvent them as needed

Being Paperless & More Computers Based
Classrooms would move towards being paperless & more computers based. Not only that, examination patterns will change completely with increased use of online quizzes, group projects and group discussions. Can you imagine the amount of paper and number of trees that would be saved if every school decided to introduce digital text-books? Of course, that goal is far from realistic at this point, but you can make a change when you start from your own class. For example, you can instruct your students to take online tests and submit their papers and homework through email. You can also encourage them to use eReaders to go through the literature you assign.

Responsible Learning
Student ownership in the learning process will increase and he/she would need to take more responsibility in the learning process. However, the teacher would now be the clarifier and the problem-solving specialist, as mentoring will become more important. Though the students will incorporate so much independence into their learning process, mentoring will become fundamental to student success.

Increasing Importance of Data Interpretation & Data Analytics
As data interpretation and data analytics are the newer form of analysing research based learning it takes you through the process of data novice to data expert. Basic data rules are added like data management, visualization, modelling, machine-based learning and lastly, choice of skill based learning. The reason towards rise in data interpretation and analytics is because it is sourced towards original research and decoding complex decision and results for reaching to a conclusion. Changing times do warrant a change in the education options that are available to students. I think time has come to radically evaluate existing programmes and reinvent them as needed.