Rebooting young Indian minds with digital education

Digital education is now more of a rule than an exception, given the increased access to technology. Almost every public school in the country now likes to be regarded as a technologically advanced school. Digital education has made this possible.

Digital Education solves some very pressing problems facing the Indian education system today. Digital classrooms offer the same world-class education for every individual student, regardless of background or financial ability.

They also allow school administrators to achieve scale leading to better utilization and service fulfilment. Gone are the days when a student aspired to be just better than their peers — students now regularly aspire to be the best in the world.

With the rising demand from schools for digital education, a lot of companies are emerging to ensure that there is a continuous supply. The digital education space currently has players of various sizes, each with its unique expansion strategy.

The key to success in this industry will be scalable growth that is based on sound engineering and technology benefits. A lot of companies promise the moon to customers, but run away when the time comes to honour their contract for a five-year period.

Despite this rise in the demand for digital education products and services, there is no denying the fact that technology cannot replace teachers. In fact, with the help of digital education, teachers can make classroom learning more interactive and engaging than ever before. Features such as online assignment and video lectures can make learning fun, and the tedious task of committing complex concepts to memory becomes a breeze for the students.

Technology also gives the teacher much more time to actually work with their students, by automating mundane tasks like record keeping, lesson planning etc. Teachers can also look at individual student records to offer personalised coaching and advice, and communicate specifics with parents.

Through hands-on activities and ‘learning by doing’, students can understand concepts better and become more interested and curious in the process. Digital learning also helps introverted students voice their views in the classroom. Gone are the days when the shy ones would have to swallow their questions or curiosity for fear of being ridiculed.

With the help of web tools like message boards, forums and online lectures, even self-conscious learners can access teachers and get their questions answered. Cutting-edge apps, collaboration tools, videos, interactive software, e-books and online interactive electronic boards have made classrooms student-operated, learner-friendly, and info-packed.

It comes as no surprise that students prefer interactive learning management systems, online videos or game-based learning to the traditional framework of education. It is important to remember that technology is a part of their daily lives anyway. Extending this technology to education is crucial, else we run the risk of alienating learning altogether. Besides the advent of technology into primary and secondary education, higher education is also witnessing its proliferation through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

For a significant number of Indians who could not complete their education, MOOCs have been a boon, enabling them to be a part of an educational revolution. The Internet has brought high-quality learning to their fingertips. There are millions of Indians who have no access to higher education for various reasons, one of them being that there are more applicants than seats in universities.

India is not new to the IT scene; in fact, it has been a part of the IT revolution for some time now, but the way our education sector is embracing it and benefitting from it, is truly a great sight to behold.