✍ D. Ramakrishna Rao
Technology is now playing a bigger role in the present-day world. Now that it has engrossed every aspect of our lives. It is also being used by adults and children alike in day-to-day life through web surfing, social networking, interactive games and also in many more ways of-course in teaching-learning activity it has become a high priority input proving that technology and education can work in synchrony to shape an all-inclusive classroom.
Advantages:
- Improving competencies: For improving standards of students and achieving competencies along with desired learning outcomes, technology integration is a handy tool. It can transform the class room into an interactive and communicative environment.
- Provides meaningful learning experiences: Technology provides meaningful, purposeful and desired learning experiences by designed engagement and hands on opportunities, which better be integrated to the curriculum and syllabus leading to activity-based text books, lessons and workbooks.
- Employment provider: Most jobs today require inevitable use of technology. Upskilling, updating technical skills shall make a person a better job seeker and he becomes market friendly.
- Impact on levels of achievement: More study results observe and indicate that students exposed to information and communication technology (ICT) at home and school had very much a positive impact on their subject achievement levels and scores.
- Developing 21st century skills: Technology is a big tool for establishing meaningful projects to engage and involve students in acquiring critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Increased students’ motivation: Tech-enabled learning increases students’ engagement, involvement and motivation, even for the children with learning-challenges, visual handicaps and others.
- Eradicating inequalities: National Digital Education Architecture (N-DEAR) – provided across – is likely to help eradicating inequality in education system of Bharat. Even for students in remote village areas tech-enabled learning is a boon.
- Confidence levels go high: Wide and growing acceptance of technology enable pedagogical benefits, improved digital skills did improve the confidence levels of educators and education along with widespread willingness to embrace it for all future activities.
- More visual learning: Learning applications resembling gaming applications make learning more visual which helps students to comprehend abstract concepts, as they have different learning styles. Even for a person with hands-on experiences with technology aids like STEM, maker spaces and Robotics etc. network us to new world.
- Towards a blended & hybrid learning: Now there is to be a big strategic shift towards blended learning for meeting future education challenges. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in higher and secondary education necessitates digitalisation platforms to reach new areas and audience.
Challenges:
- For students, staff and institutions.
- Delivery, Design, Data Infrastructure and differentiation.
- Technological innovations which dominated in the areas of resources, delivery support and market map.
Way ahead:
- Selecting judicious edu-tech investment-approach.
- Institutions in finding their own way and strategy.
- Guidelines for learning, development practitioners, organisations, policy makers and academicians are to be provided by the government.
- For all stake holder’s usability and stability stand as a fundamental challenge.
As future citizens are global citizens, requiring them to be more knowledgeable, skilful and intelligent to meet all the challenges. Newer technologies definitely stimulate a resurgence of interest in diversifying methods. Bharat is emerging as global leader leaving its earlier stance of a global player. Let us exploit the full potential of the available technological assets.
(Author is Retired Principal and National President of Vidya Bharati.)
Read More : Teachers & ICT – Information and communication technology