The Future of Education, Innovations in Learning and Teaching

Education is beneficial and important both for society and for the individual.

Education is important for society because these institutes teach bright young minds about what our species has discovered and invented so far and it teaches them how to access and interpret this knowledge. An uneducated society will not value things such as literature, science, libraries, etc., and will be in cultural decline. Education helps us to pass on and to extend our species’ knowledge base by training future generations by teaching them skills of the mind and academic traditions, which are needed to keep modern civilization chugging along. Innovation is possible in large part due to universities where fundamental research occurs and where people are trained to create the future.

 People also often find their partners and lifelong friends while in college, so education also serves an important role in students’ social lives.

Globalization along with the advent of the knowledge-based economy only makes education more and more important with each passing year as the less intellectual jobs get offshored or automated.

Is online education the future of education?

Well, I don’t think it’ll replace the traditional channels of education but yeah, it shall certainly become a new norm and take a chunk from the Education Industry.

Can think of the following benefits:

Ease and Accessibility: With technology coming in, one of the major things would be the accessibility of quality education to students across the globe. There’d be an ease of learning at any time and place as well.

Analysis: Tech will enable educators to avail all kinds of data on students. Attention span, problem areas, retention, and interest. All these can help educators tweak their curriculum to provide the best and the most effective experience possible. Tech shall also, help take in visual and audio data as we innovate further.

Visualization: With things like animation, VR, and AR coming in, concepts can be visualized in far more effective ways so that a student can understand them effectively.

Gamification: of the entire curriculum becomes easier. This shall encourage students to learn better so students no longer treat learning as a chore.

Real-World Scenarios: Tech shall enable interaction with real-world scenarios not just via story elements but all via AR and VR experiences to promote learning.

Which of the following is a better syllabus: ICSE or CBSE?

Both have pros and cons, but after more than 10 years of passing out from high school and having spent a lot of time in the professional world with people both from CBSE and ICSE, I can say that ICSE offers what the progressive and balanced syllabus should look like.

Not to offend people, but CBSE gives you a very crammed-oriented syllabus which is really not what the job market demands, and thus most global companies often complain of candidates who have degrees but are not hire-worthy and lack innovation in India. That’s because CBSE leaves out little but crucial subjects and topics that help in the overall development of a student.

English is far superior in ICSE is not a debate but a fact, but it’s a misconception that it’s the only thing that gives students an edge. The biggest advantage for ICSE students is application-based learning.CBSE Maths and Science is quite comprehensive for entrance exams, which is what most of us consider true, and to some extent, it is, as most entrance exams in India for science-based fields are based on NCERT base, which is from where CBSE picks most of its topics. But, isn’t the whole point of changing our education system not to produce just hoards of engineers and doctors for the sake of it, but to let people excel in where their talent lies?

If you sit for any international exam, most of them will have an application-based approach, including your interview exams at top companies from Google to Apple. In fact, even the Indian government realizes the same and has made groundbreaking changes to the exam patterns of UPSC, which for a long time was thought to be an exam only crammers could crack.

The future should be a unified board, taking the best from both but realizing that at a time when machine learning and AI are threatening our very existence, you need to develop skills and teach children in a way where they think and not just cram.

what is virtual reality? why it is necessary?

Virtual Reality will have a bigger impact on education than any innovation before it. This is because VR will strip away all of the education barriers that teachers and students are faced with today. This includes geographical location, limited resources, per-student customization, and so much more.

Basically with a headset and stable internet connection students will be able to connect with the best teachers in the world from anywhere, teachers will have unlimited resources to teach with (think taking students on field trips to mars/back in time/into any workspace/etc), and teachers/software will automatically configure to the best learning scenarios/modes for each individual student. Plus teachers are still needed to give a personable touch but now they can focus all of their time on teaching.

What's the next big innovation in education?

It seeks to develop the personality of individuals in a holistic and integrated way. Therefore…

I can actually list out a few things which look very probable in the future:

Online courses: With Coursera, Edx, Khan Academy, and other virtual learning platforms becoming the go-to place for any problem or added qualification related to academics or any skill, these platforms will redefine accessibility to education.

Non-formal education and Informal education- Many parents may opt for the deschooling process. It is the resurrection of the Naturalist philosophy. Moreover, non-formal education, like open schooling offers more flexibility and a wider scope.

Virtual reality- One can experience and visit different places sitting at home. Manipulation of 3D virtual objects becomes possible in place of laboratories.

Psychology in teaching and learning -Advancements in neuroscience and psychology will help the teacher to formulate more individualized learning experiences for the students. Effective methods of learning and advanced mnemonic techniques are possible.

Sustainable education -Educating to preserve our environment for the future generation will assume more importance in the future.

Robots and AI as teachers- Teachers in the 21st century are becoming facilitators rather than sources of knowledge. The task of retrieving and collecting knowledge can be done by AI.

Educational games- Everyone likes to play video games. Making use of this idea, interactive content is being developed for insight learning and participation.