Delivering Education through Digital Platform: A Potential way to Bridge Education Deficit in India
India has been successful
in raising its literacy rate from 12% at the time of independence to 74% as per
2011 census, but it still lags behind the world average of 84%. Though the
flagship programs like SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) and RMSA (Rashtriya Madhyamik
Shiksha Abhiyan) have definitely proved beneficial to some extent but a lot
needs to be done to truly educate India.
Apart
from the issues of access and affordability which keeps a significant child
population at bay from school doors, India need to work upon the issue of
quality of education. Further the issues of educational attainment and
employability, adds to the prevailing wide differences in India in terms of
economic, social and gender divide, making the situation worse. Quality of
education in government schools, skewed teacher-student ratio lack of basic
amenities like library, clean toilets, and playgrounds add to the drop out
ratio. In such a state of affairs of education in India, the ICT (Information
& Communication Technology) revolution has paved the way to introduce some
breakthroughs in education sector apart from many other sectors like banking,
health and the like digital education is seen as a cure to the issues of access
and affordability and therefore digital India has been envisioned as an
ambitious programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and a
knowledge economy. The young population in India in the last decade has become
increasingly technology-driven, revealing considerable potential and readiness
to imbibe and learn using digital media. Needless to mention, digital education
is no longer limited to the four walls of a classroom, but has paved way for
virtual classrooms, making learning attainable and providing easy access
everywhere and every time. The latest trends in digital education space also
include adaptive and collaborative learning where a student is engaged by
practicing, experiencing, sharing things and gaining knowledge in a
collaborative environment.
Government’s
focus is to integrate technology in digital learning for both urban and rural
areas and so it is looking at public-private-partnerships to enhance reach to
rural and remote areas. With the initiatives such as e-education and e-basta
(school bag), government has made it possible to impart education using
technologies including smart phones, mobile apps and internet services in
remote rural areas. The initiative like e-basta (school bag) is aimed at making
school books accessible in digital form as e-books to be read on tablets and
laptops. The digital India campaign thus, targets to provide broadband
connectivity to a quarter of a million rural villages by 2019 and making Wi-Fi
connections available in schools. The continuous professional development of
teachers in digital teaching strategies can change the contemporary digital
divide and dismal landscape in Indian Education. Further, the teaching
community can collaborate to share their ideas and resources online. They can
communicate with each other across the globe and collaborate with them, refine
their work and give the best to their students. Such an approach of teachers
would definitely enhance the practice of teaching as well as both students and
teachers will have an access to vast material. There are plenty of resourceful,
credible websites available on the Internet that both teachers and students can
utilize. The Internet also provides a variety of knowledge and doesn’t limit
students to one person’s opinion.
However,
the question is; can technology alone bring a positive impact on learning? Is
it capable of solving major educational problems in India? The answer is, only
if we have a clear vision on how to enable technology help students learn
better and teachers teach better. Therefore, there must be deliberations on
finding solutions to hurdles like affordability, accessibility, mode of
delivery and content. The present digital age of modern technologies require
teachers to have deep subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge and
the knowledge of new technologies applied to subject teaching (Mishra &
Koehler, 2006). Digital India can only be accompanied by digital education that
too at micro level. It is therefore important to take stock of what we know
about the impact of digital technology on education from what we have learned
till yet. The ability to deal with demands of digital era and be creative to
learn and transfer knowledge in different modes especially in ICT and distance
modes is of major concern today. Technology has the potential to improve
learning outcomes if it is well integrated into the learning process.
Therefore, schools must facilitate teachers to be innovative in classrooms, to
be able to create digital tools and resources, to be able to form digital
teachers club, enhance online work culture and be prepared for all kinds of
assessments, e.g. the online examination. This calls for a number of
stakeholders to come together and support the initiative and thereby strengthen
the education sector in India. Thus, delivering education through the digital
platform to children and teachers could be a potential way to bridge the
education deficit.
Source | http://moderndiplomacy.eu/
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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