Role Of Technology In Transforming The Education Sector In India
While pursuing a Masters in Economics, Karan co-founded an Edtech company in 2012 with the vision to empower teachers and improve classroom learning, and under his leadership, the brand has enrolled an educator community of 200+ schools with it and marked its presence in 25 countries
Education the world over has increasingly and incessantly become influenced by the penetration of technology at our fingertips and our retinal fronts over the last decade. Tech has brought along efficiency in tailoring human output and in refining otherwise monotonous processes. To our surprise or not, it has streamlined the ‘seeking and learning’ fabric of our brains and made the ‘hard-to-understand’ long sentences click in a jiffy through graphics and sounds.
An Indian classroom, not too long ago, was represented by students sitting through half-an-hour to an hour-long of teacher monologues. However, technology is making life easier for students and teachers. Schools have been increasingly adopting pedagogies that engage the new generation of tech-savvy students. EdTech companies have digitized dry and wordy concepts often confronted by students from a textbook, to suit visual learning styles. The digitized content unravels connections to real-life and current events, and emphasizes learning through games, stories and treasure hunts that keep students focussed and engaged!
A sky-rocketing growth in the number of smartphone users, improved internet infrastructure and access, and increased interest and participation from the Governments has led to the growth of the digital market in India. Data-driven edTech solutions help in assessing student as well as teacherperformance and help education institutions make decisions that benefit student learning. Cloud-based platforms that promote collaboration and also go paperless are also finding takers. The near-future ICT-inspired classrooms would be looking at integration Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Adaptive Learning supported solutions to increase student interest and learning outcomes even further.
The ever increasing digital literacy in the country has resulted in ICT solutions gaining momentum in driving quality education to its nooks and corners. Innovative deployments of ICT have been instrumental in transcendingmany barriers in making access to such education more accessible in India. Public initiatives such as ‘Digital India’ that envisions to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy paves for ICT to play this critical role in promoting digital literacy and education that is very much ‘out-of-the-box’.
Virtual reality allows students to explore, travel without having to leave the classroom, peek into anything from the micro-world of bacterial cells to scaling the macro world of mega structures. Students absorb information muchbetter while being immersed in a 3D environment that makes everything all the more fun, exciting and enjoyable. For instance, students can time-travel and witness palaeontological events such as what happened with prehistorichumans, and also take a deep dive into the human body!
Augmented Reality’s introduction into edTech lets students interact with their surroundings in which they can run physical experiments or decipherinscriptions at archaeological sites all with something as small yet powerful as a present-day smartphone. A popular AR smartphone application which I like is Night Sky that lets one interact with the sky realtime.
Adaptive Learning is a technology that uses computer algorithms to orchestrate its interaction with the learner. It provides learning activities to students, based on their needs and learning style. Adaptive Learning as technology adapts to every student’s topics of interests, unique learning paths which are heavily based on their interests and learning ability. Through latest and proposed enhancements in wireless technology such as the much anticipated game-changing 5G wireless infrastructure, edTech products would be supported with nonpareil connectivity unlikeever before. Students are more likely to benefit from this unique innovation that promises high speed and low latency wireless technology that would enable quick multimedia file downloads and support more powerful networks.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has made remote learning/working and virtual meetings the new norm. This has naturally led to the introduction of yet another technological spin-off -virtual classrooms! It can be rightly said thatthe coronavirus pandemic has not broken the education system but it has disrupted the same to make amends to how knowledge can be imparted. Schools and universities across the globe have started to realize that education need not take place within just physical buildings. The idea for virtual classrooms is to do away with the need to gather within the same space physically and let students and teachers connect remotely. Through virtual classrooms, the students can connect with educators and collaborate with peers from around the globe, thus also serving as a space for cultural exchange. They can attend lectures and demonstrations conducted anywhere in the world from their classroom or home, thereby increasing the reach of education.
Further, the launch of a plethora of IT related platforms has generated huge entrepreneurship opportunities, and many education start-ups have sprung up with new and improved versions of e-learning modules to cater to the demands and ever-changing needs of the present-day student. E-learning contents are designed to present a holistic image with audio supplements, which makes learning a lot more engaging as students now use both of their visual
and auditory senses.
The world in 2020 is witnessing a technological transformation, a paradigm shift wherein industries and institutions across avenue are embracing the digital revolution. It would not be long before a rural village in India, without electricity or network infrastructure or a government school, yet home to children studying on a smartphone provided free-of-cost either by the government or an NGO could materialize. This magnitude suggests the truepower and potential of online learning platforms; transmitting knowledge to the remotest and marginalized corners of our country. edTech penetration is certain to be a boon for a more equitable and progressive young India.
Education the world over has increasingly and incessantly become influenced by the penetration of technology at our fingertips and our retinal fronts over the last decade. Tech has brought along efficiency in tailoring human output and in refining otherwise monotonous processes. To our surprise or not, it has streamlined the ‘seeking and learning’ fabric of our brains and made the ‘hard-to-understand’ long sentences click in a jiffy through graphics and sounds.
An Indian classroom, not too long ago, was represented by students sitting through half-an-hour to an hour-long of teacher monologues. However, technology is making life easier for students and teachers. Schools have been increasingly adopting pedagogies that engage the new generation of tech-savvy students. EdTech companies have digitized dry and wordy concepts often confronted by students from a textbook, to suit visual learning styles. The digitized content unravels connections to real-life and current events, and emphasizes learning through games, stories and treasure hunts that keep students focussed and engaged!
A sky-rocketing growth in the number of smartphone users, improved internet infrastructure and access, and increased interest and participation from the Governments has led to the growth of the digital market in India. Data-driven edTech solutions help in assessing student as well as teacherperformance and help education institutions make decisions that benefit student learning. Cloud-based platforms that promote collaboration and also go paperless are also finding takers. The near-future ICT-inspired classrooms would be looking at integration Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Adaptive Learning supported solutions to increase student interest and learning outcomes even further.
The ever increasing digital literacy in the country has resulted in ICT solutions gaining momentum in driving quality education to its nooks and corners. Innovative deployments of ICT have been instrumental in transcendingmany barriers in making access to such education more accessible in India. Public initiatives such as ‘Digital India’ that envisions to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy paves for ICT to play this critical role in promoting digital literacy and education that is very much ‘out-of-the-box’.
Virtual reality allows students to explore, travel without having to leave the classroom, peek into anything from the micro-world of bacterial cells to scaling the macro world of mega structures. Students absorb information muchbetter while being immersed in a 3D environment that makes everything all the more fun, exciting and enjoyable. For instance, students can time-travel and witness palaeontological events such as what happened with prehistorichumans, and also take a deep dive into the human body!
Augmented Reality’s introduction into edTech lets students interact with their surroundings in which they can run physical experiments or decipherinscriptions at archaeological sites all with something as small yet powerful as a present-day smartphone. A popular AR smartphone application which I like is Night Sky that lets one interact with the sky realtime.
Adaptive Learning is a technology that uses computer algorithms to orchestrate its interaction with the learner. It provides learning activities to students, based on their needs and learning style. Adaptive Learning as technology adapts to every student’s topics of interests, unique learning paths which are heavily based on their interests and learning ability. Through latest and proposed enhancements in wireless technology such as the much anticipated game-changing 5G wireless infrastructure, edTech products would be supported with nonpareil connectivity unlikeever before. Students are more likely to benefit from this unique innovation that promises high speed and low latency wireless technology that would enable quick multimedia file downloads and support more powerful networks.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has made remote learning/working and virtual meetings the new norm. This has naturally led to the introduction of yet another technological spin-off -virtual classrooms! It can be rightly said thatthe coronavirus pandemic has not broken the education system but it has disrupted the same to make amends to how knowledge can be imparted. Schools and universities across the globe have started to realize that education need not take place within just physical buildings. The idea for virtual classrooms is to do away with the need to gather within the same space physically and let students and teachers connect remotely. Through virtual classrooms, the students can connect with educators and collaborate with peers from around the globe, thus also serving as a space for cultural exchange. They can attend lectures and demonstrations conducted anywhere in the world from their classroom or home, thereby increasing the reach of education.
Through latest and proposed enhancements in wireless technology such as the much anticipated game-changing 5G wireless infrastructure, edTech products would be supported with nonpareil connectivity unlike ever before
Further, the launch of a plethora of IT related platforms has generated huge entrepreneurship opportunities, and many education start-ups have sprung up with new and improved versions of e-learning modules to cater to the demands and ever-changing needs of the present-day student. E-learning contents are designed to present a holistic image with audio supplements, which makes learning a lot more engaging as students now use both of their visual
and auditory senses.
The world in 2020 is witnessing a technological transformation, a paradigm shift wherein industries and institutions across avenue are embracing the digital revolution. It would not be long before a rural village in India, without electricity or network infrastructure or a government school, yet home to children studying on a smartphone provided free-of-cost either by the government or an NGO could materialize. This magnitude suggests the truepower and potential of online learning platforms; transmitting knowledge to the remotest and marginalized corners of our country. edTech penetration is certain to be a boon for a more equitable and progressive young India.
