In this continuing series, prominent individuals take a look the Covid-linked changes in our life and times. —EDITOR
It’s 8 o’clock on in the morning in the middle of May, the hot summer month. Mrs. Behera, a high school Mathematics teacher in a public school in Bhubaneswar, is all set to start the online class for students of Class X from her school.
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In ordinary times, this would have been the time of the year when the entire school would have taken a break for the summer vacation. This, however, is an unusual year in an unprecedented time, and remote learning, apparently, is the only saviour for an academic session stalled abruptly – especially for the batch of students that prepare to appear for a board examination (Graduation).
Sitting at her home, the teacher taps the Cisco WebEx app on her smartphone and is immediately logged onto the virtual classroom where all her students, sitting at their respective homes, are waiting for the day’s lesson. Welcome to LFH – Learn from Home — the new norm for learning in Year 2020, in corona season.
An overnight transition to a lockdown mode poses extraordinary challenges to the nation. Some sectors are better-prepared than others. The education sector has undergone rapid transformation during this lockdown and has opened up newer possibilities, for now, as well as post COVID-19.
Applications like Zoom, Google Hangouts, Cisco WebEx have come to the rescue of teachers trying to remodel lesson plans designed primarily for classroom delivery. The government has also tapped the national television network to reach a large section of students who do not have access to the internet. With the initial issues, like scaling up and security now pretty much out of the way, here’s a look at some of the facets of these recent developments.
Uninterrupted access to learning from the comfort of their homes ensures that students can continue to learn remotely for as long as necessary. This would be crucial if there are subsequent waves of virus outbreak and classes would need to continue to be held off the premises.
Digital classes open up huge opportunities for analytics to better serve students’ needs. This is also a great time for Education Technology companies in India, serving the primary and high school student categories, to bring advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the mainstream. AI would be a major game changer not only for on-the-fly learning assessment but also play an equally important role in tailoring content. AI-based evaluation, scoring and grading systems can greatly reduce the time currently spent by teachers in such activities.
As with all good things, there would be a fair share of challenges that would accompany. Sudden drop in enrolments could be immediately evident in many schools that cater to the lower and underprivileged socio-economic strata. Among others, this could have a direct impact on the sponsorship of technology enablement initiatives – a catch-22 of sorts, as enrolments account for most of the funding in education systems in India.
In order to be better-prepared for future crisis, educational institutions might establish parallel open learning and accreditation systems for seamless transition; a move that can help students during emergencies but could also substantially reduce human resources involved in support and administrative functions.
The concept of an immersive classroom experience might get a huge makeover. Additionally, due to increased isolation levels, mental wellness issues could be on the rise.
Technology is poised to flatten the world of education in a major way. Whether in New York City or a nondescript village in rural India, digital learning has arrived as the great equalizer. Perhaps the only silver lining of this pandemic is its contribution towards forcing the world in reimagining education technology. As the world prepares to regroup on the other side of Covid-19, interesting times are ahead for educators and learners across the world.
The writer is a content writer based in Bhubaneswar.
