The interactive nature of offline classes was hard to replicate in the virtual setup, which brought down the student engagement levels resulting in weak conceptual clarity.
The past year has spurred a high degree of innovation in the education sector. Great advancements in technology were made to augment both the teaching and the learning process. The year 2020 has been a landmark year that showcased how the future of learning with technology could possibly accelerate the delivery of quality education.
Virtual learning has now become an integral part of school education. Owing to a constantly evolving world, teachers too have begun to adopt smarter technology to impart better learning in classrooms. Therefore, the onus rests on the school management to train and equip teachers with the right digital tools for in-class engagement and effective after-class learning.
But, before we discuss how to empower teachers with technology in classrooms, it is important to first highlight some of the issues that both students and teachers are facing in the new learning environment.
Initial challenges
At the start of the pandemic, there were two major issues plaguing virtual classrooms - student engagement and syllabus completion. Firstly, the interactive nature of offline classes was hard to replicate in the virtual setup, which brought down the student engagement levels resulting in weak conceptual clarity. Secondly, the interaction time between teachers and students during virtual classes got reduced to a great extent, leading to partial syllabus coverage and subsequently hampering the academic growth of students.
EdTech to the rescue
At a time when school administrators and educators were scrambling to navigate the complexities of the digital landscape, technology played a key role in addressing the aforementioned challenges. With new-age platforms offering ready-to-use, customizable tech-powered solutions, school authorities could finally implement a standard framework to ensure seamless learning of students as they moved online. Be it digital content in the form of videos, stories and curriculum-tailored presentations for improving teacher-student interaction; or automated attendance tracking systems to ease teachers’ burden, technology was surely a boon in these unprecedented times.
It goes without saying that technological interventions have been a game-changer in improving educational standards in schools. As the pandemic brought in a whole new set of challenges to the K12 education landscape, it was the EdTech companies that rose to the occasion and provided end-to-end support to schools in their digital transformation journey. By providing digital assistance to educators through personalized courses, video-based learning modules and integrated applications, the role of EdTech in helping India prepare for the e-learning revolution that took place as a result of the pandemic cannot be overstated.
The road ahead
As the majority of schools continue to conduct classes virtually, we need to build upon our learnings from last year and continue to rethink teaching and learning methodologies. The novel learning experiences in school education will pave the way for the hybrid classrooms of the future, where the best of the online world is combined with the effectiveness of in-person interaction. As technology continues to transform conventional teaching and learning methodologies, it will be interesting to see what new changes await us in the ever-evolving education landscape and what role EdTech will play in bringing those innovations.
Written by--By Rajshekhar Ratrey - SVP, Product at Toppr School OS
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