Desmond Tutu having said, "A time of crisis is not just a time of anxiety and worry. It gives a chance, an opportunity, to choose well or to choose badly. Corona virus pandemic has changed the way education used to be and the new education solutions are extremely innovative, changing how millions across the globe are getting educated. The pandemic spread has widened the digital divide amongst those having technical gadgets with a good internet connection while keeping those completely void/cut off from education that does not have digital devices or reliable internet connection. And the gap will stay long.
A Long-lasting Move
Moving the whole students' community of the world online is a drastic and transformational change not only for the students but also for the teachers who are also learners for this kind of technological reform.
The crisis has deepened the inequalities of educational strategies and the impact is not just because of the device and bandwidth differences but also because of the skills to the self-direct learning process. The ability and time feasibility of parents to spend time assisting the learning process also has an impact on student’s education. In all, the consequence of this unique situation is having multidimensional impact on educational care and coaching.
Why Has There Been A Necessity For The Immediate Closure Of Educational Institutions?
Immediate announcements for suspending schools and university attendance have been a decision to mitigate scenarios like a full-blown pandemic.
Within a few weeks of corona virus spread, there has been a remarkable change in how students are educated around the world. In March itself, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimated that over 421 million children would be affected worldwide (in 39 countries alone) due to shutting down educational institutes, with an implementation of an announcement (regarding suspending attendance at educational institutes). The risk control measures followed by governments worldwide have led to millions of students to be confined in their homes temporarily. And home-schooling in the countries like China, Iran, Italy, South Korea, USA, India has been the only resort to continue with the educational programs. The changes in educational structure have certainly caused a great degree of inconvenience but on the positive note, they have also prompted new examples in the forms of innovation for educational reforms.
Listed below are five ways in which corona virus pandemic will reshape education
1) The New Education Solutions Are Coupled With Innovations
Acting as a catalyst, COVID-19 has forcefully brought in innovative changes in education in a relatively shorter period. It is too early to determine whether the COVID-19 impact on the education system around the world would do good for society or not? However, there have been signs indicating that the changes would have a restructure the pathway of learning and the trajectory of digitalization.
Educational institutions have been forced to adopt lecture-based approaches to teach that out-models traditional classroom. Interactive apps and live television broadcasts are the latest means of parting education.
Higher education is using asynchronous online learning tools such as Google classroom, zoom meeting, etc. as standard access to learning material augmented with synchronous Face to face video instruction with students.
For example: - As part of innovative strategies, students shoot videos of their athletic training and sports, send them to their teacher as a part of homework in one school in Lebanon. This kind of indulgence in technology has enabled students far to learn new digital skills.
Since 5G technology is rapidly gaining ground in countries like Japan, the US, and China, education solutions are truly embracing the 'learning anywhere anytime' concept through digitalization, foraying into the education system via different formats.
The traditional in-person classroom learning is now an interactive digital class with new learning modalities ranging from live broadcast to educational influencer providing virtual reality experiences. This means learning is becoming a habit incorporated in our daily routines and becoming a part of the lifestyle.
2) Role of Schools outside Education Before pandemic, schools have not only been a place of learning but for socializing, caring, and coaching of future generations and acted as a shared space. But in the post-pandemic situation, schools need to adapt not only how to teach but also how to feed their students who depend upon them for free food and education amenities. One of the largest school districts in the US, Gwinnett County, Georgia is feeding 90000 students every day becoming part of the social fabric of America. And this is just one of an example; the list is quite big. Many of the educational institutions were turned into quarantine centers with several teachers giving up their half wages to feed disadvantaged background classes and private educational institutions providing financial alms. Education is being coupled with sentimental reforms for the overall benefit of society. 3) Strengthened Bond of a Public-Private Educational Partnership
The world is witnessing learning consortiums and coalitions shaping up involving stakeholders including government, publishers, education professionals, telecom network operators as well as technological geniuses; for the best utilization of digital platforms as a temporary solution crisis. This sets in trend for better future education even in the public sector which due to lack of funds and technological advancement has not been able to provide upscale education.
For Instance
In China, a group of diverse constituents has been assembled to develop a new cloud-based online learning and broadcasting platform along with the upgrade of a suite of educational infrastructure.
Similarly, Hong Kong-based read together.hk form is a consortium of over 60 educational organizations, entertainment industry professionals, publishers, media personalities, and many more people associated with education to provide more than 900 educational assets inclusive of books, videos, chapters, assignment and counseling services for free with the intention of continuing using and maintaining the platform of education during COVID-19.
4) Sea Changes in Education Policies Educational institutes are primarily focusing hybrid models of educational programs. Current online teaching programs are providing universities with real-time data about which aspects of their educational models can be substituted, complemented or increased, and also those that cannot be replaced by the digital medium.
For instance:- The basic concepts of mass, length, and time in physics have been problematic areas for academically weaker students. But with the audio-visual techniques usage, they can learn at their own pace, repeat as many times as required, do extensive related searches, rearrange teaching modules based on the own skill levels an much more.
5) Shift to Global Platform Teaching is shifting from local to a global platform and fundamental concepts of teaching have changed. For instance, a student in India can now easily join across from Harward without leaving India. Educational institutions collectively are creating knowledge for the whole world which is not used only by student genre but for all those who want an education but cannot afford to travel. This current educational system is boon for a country like India where digitalization hasn’t entered into the educational field much. In the western countries schools have already gone virtual with teachers being highly interactive, applicators, and innovative in their new classrooms.
This virtual teaching is the future of education and students are practically dreaming big, chasing their dreams, and making themselves more resourceful with global competition as the motivating force and strong communicator.
Takeaway Pointer
The educational front, we have to focus on teaching students ‘how’ to cope with different situations besides spreading about awareness about the same. Entire mind shift will have to happen to take us all to the new heights of success in academic fronts and on emotional front; with inbuilt capabilities to deal with new challenges.
It’s time for us to act and prepare more customizable and affordable education for the benefits of masses.
