How technology is changing education

Forget how you create personalized smileys – you can now create yourself in digital world and live a complete alternate life….absolutely like the movie – Avataar. This is now a reality called “METAVERSE”.  

Technology has become all pervasive and does not know any age limits. K-12 and adult learning have all become non-limiting with information and knowledge available on students’ finger tips. 

• Learning new languages with experts of the local countries virtually is quite common.
• Indians abroad are using teachers from India virtually to learn Maths and Sciences /Music/ Robotics & Coding just over the internet itself and finding a lot of value from it. 
• Students in a classroom for example, can learn about the Arctic by following the expedition of a team of scientists in the region, read scientists’ blog posting, view photos, e-mail questions to the scientists, and even talk live with the scientists via a videoconference. Students can share what they are learning with students in other classrooms in other states who are tracking the same expedition. Students can collaborate on group projects using technology-based tools such as wikis and Google docs. The walls of the classrooms are no longer a barrier as technology enables new ways of learning, communicating, and working collaboratively.
• Massive amounts of information (books, audio, images, videos) are available at one’s fingertips through the Internet, and opportunities for formal learning are available online worldwide through the Khan Academy, MOOCs, podcasts, traditional online degree programs, and more.
• Technology has also begun to change the roles of teachers and learners. In the traditional classroom, the teacher is the primary source of information, and the learners passively receive it. Because of Google and Internet and educational opportunity that technology has enabled, in many classrooms today we see the teacher’s role shifting to the “guide on the side” as students take more responsibility for their own learning using technology to gather relevant information.
• Student attentiveness apps, online examination monitoring tools are also now being used by Schools. 
• Schools and universities across the country are beginning to redesign learning spaces to enable this new model of education, foster more interaction and small group work, and use technology as an enabler.
• School infrastructure also includes use of new age digital board which are completely AI enabled for not only connecting and displaying content but also dynamically changing content depending on students interest levels through face reading and questions being asked. 
• Education 4.0 now and 5.0 are clearly technology focused bringing in more experiential learning, changing the way that education is now being consumed by students, making assessments now merely as a progressive tool and not as a success measurement tools are some of the tailwinds that is driving technology adoption. 
• Learning is just now just limited to schools – it is now transcending to learning on the go… and the fact that content discovery along with price discovery with certifications from prestigious colleges and institutes are clearly enabling the students in the lower end of the strata now being part of mainstream learning as long as they have a device in their hand that can connect to the internet. 

Technology is a powerful tool that can support and transform education in many ways, from making it easier for teachers to create instructional materials to enabling new ways for people to learn and work together. With the worldwide reach of the Internet and the ubiquity of smart devices that can connect to it, a new age of anytime anywhere education is dawning. It will be up to instructional designers and educational technologies to make the most of the opportunities provided by technology to change education so that effective and efficient education is available to everyone everywhere.

The article has been written by Shekhar Jain - Co-founder, OMOTEC (On My Own Technology)