View: Role of technology in achieving self-reliance

Schools have restarted in many parts of the country, bringing students back to classrooms after several months of attending classes online from their homes. We have all been waiting for this Better Normal. The Better Normal has been aided by a massive and unexpected digital shift. Despite the challenges, students, teachers and parents, governments and education institutions put their best foot forward and collaborated in various ways. These included innovative ideas to connect students with their teachers, create study material and make them available digitally. An entire generation of students did miss out on traditional brickand-mortar classroom learning. But effective use of digital channels also showed us how we can use technology to give children access to quality education even in locations where it is difficult to set up physical schools. The potential of unleashing a game-changer in education will rest on three pillars. The first is creation of high-speed networks across the country. 5G networks are around the corner, and they have the potential to transform the education sector, offering seamless remote-learning opportunities in every corner of the country. At the moment, it is a daunting task to ensure teaching quality is uniform across the country, especially in rural areas. 5G can bridge that gap by making streaming of high-quality interactive virtual classrooms and content a reality. Second, students should be provided with high-quality devices at affordable prices to access these teaching aids through a special incentive policy for device manufacturers. And, third, support and training of the teacher community will be required to prepare education for the schools of tomorrow. This would involve training them on how to use digital pedagogies with technology products to enable more engaging learning approaches in the future. The lockdown has resulted in the emergence of a variety of new jobs, the ‘gig economy’ and the likelihood that the careers of 2025 may not have even surfaced yet. The new educational and digital learning environment will require development of a novel syllabus and academic process. Today, dozens, if not hundreds, of books worth of information can be stored on computers or tablets. The same devices can be used to design presentations, do course work and partake in group projects and classroom discussions. This translates to a need for enabling even the most underserved citizens in remote locations with modern methods of learning, new information and the tools that facilitate their exchange. While this is a challenge in the short term, once built out, there is no reason why 1,000 or even 10,000 schools cannot come to study together at the same time with more children enrolled in the educational system than ever before. The point of that would be uniform education thanks to stable technology networks that offer a level playing field to one and all. There is a huge scope for growth. The National Sample Survey (NSS) data shows that only 12.5% of the households of students in India have internet access at home, with a sharp urban-rural divide — 27% have access in urban areas and only 5% in rural areas. Also, only onethird of households have some member with access to the internet. In fact, only half of the households with any access to internet own a computing device, smartphones included. This means everyone at home may not have access to the internet. The road to self-reliance is only just beginning as technology makes rapid strides towards the future. The world of tomorrow will not just feature schools and colleges that have managed to harness the power of digital connectivity and knowledge-sharing. Internet of Things (IoT) has ensured that we will have the internet running through software in our devices at home, office and cars, and with the ability to communicate with each other. Building out a robust network to support digital education does more than benefit those who provide education and services and products on it. Most of all, it empowers those on the receiving end, as it transforms their lives from the have-nots to the haves.(The writer is CEO-president, Samsung Southwest Asia)

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/31rk4S5