We are an information abundant society today, and knowing too much does not necessarily mean we will progress faster. Children need to have critical thinking, analysing skills and assessment acumen, says Hardik Shah
Education has been the most sought after sector and has been changing the way it is communicated with its peers especially in the recent times. India, a developing nation with challenges of accessibility in terms of infrastructure or the content itself, digital education is paving its way globally to letting users, teachers and students to collaborate and facilitate educational sessions in much more meaningful level for learning.
It is now true that in the 21st Century, students will be digitally literate citizens who will incorporate technology into their everyday life and work and not simply be a passive consumer of technology.
Since past few years, there has been a considerable rise in digital education in classrooms. Children are exposed early on to technology and are able to seamlessly adapt to e-learning. These children will go on to work, become professionals, run businesses and be the caretakers of the generations to come. It is important for them to keep the core values intact with the new emerging technologies and make sure that new skills are generated to bring creative solutions.
It is very easy to find and disseminate information today. The speed at which the information is growing may or may not be accurate tomorrow. We are an information abundant society today, and knowing too much will not necessarily mean we will progress faster. Children need to have critical thinking, analysing skills and assessing new information to the best use. These are the basic functions they need to practice and be prepared to fully understand the information provided to them.
In this age of over achievers, parents should realise that their child’s strengths may vary. They must be understood for not all can learn in a sequential pattern, some may deviate and some may fall in place further in the curriculum. Analysing your child’s potential interests in the topics beforehand will help them to have the perseverance to go through challenges they will face in their future.
The way we are teaching today is definitely convenient, teachers are preparing their sessions well aided by technology and students are being flexible to study as per time and pace. However, to avoid the youth to follow minimum efforts required to make progress, values of adaptability, social and intellectual awareness and most importantly self-learning abilities must be inculcated. learning through visual aids and experience from virtual to exercises of real-life and surroundings will enable them to learn more meaningfully. These exercises will allow them to practice lessons, build social lives and imbibe public speaking confidence.
Parents and children of today are much different to what they were back then. Children associate their parents as providers, whereas back then parents were a person who is affectionate and was the touch generation. Today’s generation has much busier lives and hence the parents are working away hours to provide their children a certain lifestyle and freedom as seen in the society. These contrasting traits with the current and the past generations need to be aligned for the betterment of the children of tomorrow. The changes will be through choices of parental guidance and a fine balance of family, work and societal pressures.
Technological advances will keep creating gaps faster than it used to in the very same generations. Children will outgrow the teachers and parents abilities to keep up with the evolution of technology. At present, teachers belong to a generation of learning and integrity of the education system still to be achieved through being totally computer savvy. Technical workshops, campaigning or informative sessions will help teachers as well as parents who are feeling overwhelmed to not step out of technological advancements.
Children of tomorrow are entering a world where their success will be measured by technology and money which will affect their major life decisions at a very basic level. It is critical that for their long-term success, they should develop the right attitude in order to thrive in the accelerating world. They should be provided with the knowledge in order to command tomorrow’s technologies from an early age and to embrace it with fluency in real lives. Teaching and learning systems with rich multimedia content as curriculum will be a normalcy to the coming generations. They will never know the traditional blackboard and keeping up-to-date physical journals rather than digital folders. We need to understand with the changing levels of digital learning and dependency of technology, our guidance to the youth in the form of business practices, political attitudes and socioeconomic constraints is required to prepare them for the real-world challenges.
To bring the next great transformation, we need to give tomorrow’s children the essential tools and hand holding through the process to ensure a better future. For the generations to come, the challenges will never end, it will be a life long project of ensuring our children to cultivate new skills and bring innovation to the world.
The writer is director, E-Class Education Systems ltd