Where does the future of education lay and what can be done to ensure that the youth are prepared for their futures?
One of the many consequences of COVID19 and the global lockdown was that it shone a spotlight on the education sector.
The stark reality is that while the 4th industrial revolution is moving ahead at a fast pace, our educators and the education system are not keeping up.
E-learning via educational technology should have been a solution long ago, yet many school children found themselves adrift during lockdown with little to no resources to aid in their schooling.
For a sector that should be future-driven and at the cusp of progress, the education sector is in fact the exact opposite.
Governments cannot do it alone
Traditionally our children’s education has primarily always been a government or school responsibility.
This has also hindered the future of education with slow adoption of educational technology, particularly in government schools, further creating this chasm between private and public school education.
Ironically, educational technology offers the most economical and practical way to immediately provide quality education at a national scale. Educators are often not equipped or trained for this new future of education which means there is a resistance to change underpinned by job-protection and little incentive to innovate.
The challenge for Edtech companies is that their customers – the people they need to convince to adopt their educational technology are not parents who all want the best for their children’s futures, but government officials, school principals or teachers — who in turn see their customers as tertiary institutions or employers.
This ‘teacher-centric’ rather than ‘learner-centric’ paradigm continues to inhibit the future of education and the adoption of powerful learning experiences that can be provided through technology.
Focusing on learners
In the 21st century, the learner should be the primary customer of education.
Content and outcomes should be based on what best serves the learner’s interests in this increasingly uncertain future, by putting learner experience front and centre of architecture.
If schools and government departments do not embrace technology as the future of education, for educators to survive, they will need to fundamentally reinvent the nature of their role.
The education sector faces the prospect of undergoing consumer-led transformation that could lead to physical schools and tertiary institutions being largely disintermediated, forcing institutions and educators consider their relevance.
Edtech is not simply about pushing learning online.
That would simply be a different means of delivery and while the need for this became clear during lockdown, Edtech is destined to disrupt current paradigms surrounding learners are taught.
The learning experience needs to change
Today, learning needs to be continuously compulsive and motivating. A smartphone or tablet cannot engender the same enthusiasm that a connection with each individual is achieved in a classroom by a teacher.
Whether a learner is turning a page in a textbook or scrolling on a mobile device, the result is the same.
Teachers have a massive role to play.
They play a very important role in shaping the future of their students. Right from kindergarten to university, they are the ones who impart knowledge and teach us about everything important.
Teachers are one of the most influential individuals in the lives of our children and a world without them would be chaotic.
Teachers can see the potential of their students when no one else can. When the youth is educated and informed, naturally, the future of the country will be in safe hands.
The role of educators, however, is destined to change as the future of education lies in the adoption of education technology and how quickly it is indeed adopted.
Village Tech has developed a training programme that focuses specifically on the integration of ICTs into the teaching and learning environment in line with technological advancements in other industries.
Read more about or Educator Training here.