By Geetika Goel, Head of Technology, Hero Vired
During the past two years, while the world came to a standstill, it also pushed us to reimagine the future differently. While every sector was affected, education was one industry that benefited from it and took
up the challenge to rewrite the way students learned and teachers taught, bringing online learning to par with mainstream education.
Tech-driven learning presented us with myriads of opportunities to leverage digital tools and changed the mindset about online learning. Chalk and blackboard classrooms transformed into virtual setups, making education accessible from the comfort of one’s home. With the use of cutting-edge technologies, like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and much more, learning programs have become personalized according to the learners’ pace, making them more collaborative and engaging.
However, the backbone of the educational system – teachers – the focus needs to be given to upskilling them too with the digital products that have suddenly sprung up. It is unwise to expect that teachers will automatically be experts at using these tools.
Empowering teachers with technology
India had over 749 million internet users in 2020. This is projected to grow further to over 1.2 billion by 2040. Providing learning opportunities to millions of students across the country, including the rural areas is a task that can be fulfilled through tech-driven learning. Teachers are no longer just educators; they have taken the role of mentors and learners themselves. And digitally empowered teachers can help us achieve the goal. The emergence and acceptance of new digital learning tools have empowered teachers to teach effectively and changed the dynamics of student-teacher relationships. The need of the hour is to upskill the existing and potential talent to make them future-ready.
This will not only help them be more productive but helps in creating
enhanced and immersive content for students, further enhancing the teacher-student relationship. In fact, as a part of the Skill India Mission, organizations like National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) have been developing programs for the development of teachers and educators.
Creating new opportunities
With teachers becoming digitally empowered, it opens up access to a large pool of teachers who have in the past been unemployed or underemployed. With online learning taking center stage, these high-quality graduate teachers now have the opportunity to reach millions of students across geographies and create a real impact.
Online learning platforms not only inspire teachers but also expand their bandwidth for teaching. They allow teachers greater access to students and an even bigger opportunity to impact lives. Moreover, the flexibility of remote teaching has empowered women teachers to follow their passion and manage domestic responsibilities simultaneously.
While students are adept at technological tools, teachers too are harnessing the power of technology to create the element of interactivity. Technology is creating new opportunities for teachers to be a part of an education revolution – creating visually immersive and engaging content, and coming up with new ways to leverage the digital tools to enhance, educate and enable young minds.