By Vinod Malhotra,
While the seeds of the strong technological revolution were sown in the previous century, no one had imagined that the plant would grow at such a frenetic pace and overshadow all other achievements in the evolutionary journey of mankind. This phenomenon was quintessentially seminal in nature, original, important and having great influence on future developments on all areas of human endeavor. Most importantly, driven as it was by changed paradigm of knowledge, it impacted the field of education in a very profound manner.
Information, knowledge, teaching, learning and research are the main hallmarks of education and all these have witnessed a tectonic shift from their erstwhile methods. All these developments therefore are ushering in new Learning ecosystems that are innovative, immersive and have a distinct global flavor. We may examine some of them in an anticipatory mode, taking cues from the changes that have already started happening.
Firstly, the look and feel of the new classrooms will undergo a change. Teachers will have to spend more time with their face towards the students as against the earlier practices of writing copiously on the blackboard. The classroom sessions will become more interactive with greater participation from students. Flipped classrooms will become more endemic.
Secondly, many more learning spaces will be created in addition to the standard classrooms within the four walls of a school. Teaching and learning will happen at multiple locations and in multiple ways.
Thirdly, teaching and learning will also happen anywhere anytime. Technology has proved to be a great enabler of continuing on-line education-teaching, evaluations, examinations in an absolutely uninterrupted manner. Pandemic created an opportunity and the educators demonstrated it. Formal physical schools and the spaces therein will continue to remain preferred options because of variety of other advantages, but many may opt for self-paced mode of receiving and delivering education.
Fourthly, Education will also see greater collaboration, communication and teamwork between teacher and student, and indeed between students themselves. Peer group learning will not happen by default, it will become a norm. Experiential and project-based learning which already find frequent mention in education lexicon will become routinized.
Fifth issue will relate to creating a strong focus on the learning process with the student at the center-stage. While the education fraternity has been talking about student-centric environment, it really has not been actualized because of the very skewed ratio between the teacher and the taught. Future learning systems will have to incorporate a strong strategy to create individualized methods of teaching and learning. “One size fit all” will not work anymore and important stakeholders in the system such as parents and indeed students will demand personalized attention. Thankfully, technology today can enable this through the use of AI and related algorithms.
Sixthly, Future learning systems will be impacted and driven by deep consideration for the end results of education. Education and learning will not be only for the sake of education, for creating a mass of literate populace, unable to actively participate or contribute to the collective growth of society or the country. Excelling in the board’s examination and obtaining hundred percentile marks alone will not be a mark of excellence. The criteria of merit will be built on several factors, including skills-set, strength of character, empathy, environmental sensitivity and co-scholastic achievements.
Future learning systems will evidently rely heavily upon a ubiquitous digital architecture, which will help achieve all the goals with agility and precision. We will however, have to guard against overdependence and not hypothecate all the legitimate roles that our intellect is supposed to perform. Our neural system will have to be kept in an active mode.
The primary objective of any format of education has to be, to prepare a generation of citizens who are empowered to accept and face challenges of life, possess skills to solve them and live a life that is useful for them, and for the world at large.
Future learning eco-system will draw heavily and imaginatively from the past experiences, seek to establish a powerful global connect for exchanging best practices anywhere and create a collaborative platform to share it. It will also seek to evaluate and upgrade itself to stay contemporary and relevant. Needless to mention that it will be evidence-based, research-oriented and relatable to real life scenario.
(The author is Advisor, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions. Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of the FinancialExpress.com.)