Our schools are just getting smarter

Education has remained, from time immemorial, the basis of all change, development and progress, whether societal or individual. It is, therefore, interesting to see that education itself is being enveloped by change, as the digital revolution re-engineers almost every aspect of it, from content to delivery to evaluation.

Globally, education is unrecognisable from its earlier avatar except in the fundamental dynamics of the teaching-learning process. That too, some would argue, has undergone a transformation so dramatic that teaching and learning are no longer what they used to be and a new set of variables are dictating the mechanics of this relationship.

The IT-enabled ecosystem with its attendant features such as the digital classroom, content-on-demand, interactivity, dynamic progress mapping and new metrics of evaluation have transformed it into a digitalised, modern concept where outcomes matter most.

Century old notions of education are breaking down in favour of a system that is rebuilt from ground up to include a technology platform that ensures individual learning, creativity and collaboration at every stage of the education ecosystem.

The typical classroom which was once characterised by boring hour-long sessions, has now transformed into an interesting, challenging, multimedia environment. Projector screens are the new blackboards and content is designed to impact, engage and interest, holding attention, easing comprehension.

Learning has become seamless and students have become more attentive to the subject on the plasma screen or the interactive whiteboard. At the same time, teaching has morphed into a strategic management task. Technology has freed teachers from rote-based teaching and allowed them to focus on managing student performance, and aiding, mentoring and monitoring progress. It has also allowed teachers to provide individualised instruction based on student needs.

Technology-aided education not only provides schools a potential mechanism to improve outcomes, but also radically transforms the teacher-student-parent collaboration model.

Ideas like the Integrated Learning System (ILS) — an IT-based education programme that controls the delivery of the curriculum, provides inclusive feedback to the learner and assists teachers to meet the challenges of delivering high quality instruction — will define this new order. ILS is a means to improve students’ academic performance and teachers’ productivity in classroom with simple, practical and meaningful use of technology.

ILS includes the use of various apps which help in increasing the student’s attentiveness and participation. The primary advantage of ILS remains the potential to respond to the needs of individual learners. Through ILS, the curriculum can be tailored to meet the academic objectives of the students who, being quick adopters of technology, get a better understanding of curriculum, concepts and visual learning strategies.

With over 50 per cent of students today using a smart phone device or connected to the internet, it is no surprise that students are taking to learning through technology like duck to water.

Today, the digital classroom experience is metamorphosing into a new, integrated technology architecture that helps schools in enhancing the quality of learning and increasing learning outcomes by extrapolating the positive experiences of the smart class.

The key drivers of this transformation are modern, pioneering ideas like the SmartSchool concept. SmartSchool looks at the school as an integrated learning ecosystem, where layers of technology interventions at various delivery points create a 360 degree education experience that encompasses content, delivery, access and assessment.

SmartSchool provides never-seen-before features, allowing schools to integrate, create and enhance a 360 degree relationship with all stakeholders while keeping the student at the centre of the learning experience.

India has had the unusual advantage of being relatively in step with global trends in digital education, at least as far as urban centres go. The internet is freeing up learning like never before.

Time, space, distance, geography, faculty are no longer a limitation and anyone, anywhere can acquire any quality of education any time. In a shift such as this, it becomes necessary for education policy drivers to provide enabling administrative and regulatory mechanisms so that the millions of our young students can get the best the world has to offer.

The writer is the CMD of Educomp Solutions

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