The present trend in the education system shows a rapid takeover of technology in all its functions. If looked at the right way, there is going to be a huge disruption in the education industry, which is evident even now. Then as leaders how this should be utilized as an effective change maker.

The leaders should take to upskill their talents to utilize such trends with technology to help the school culture, to take up different shades of becoming more engaging, meaningful, relevant, inspiring and more so very transparent. No doubt the new edtech trends will be disruptive especially in India.

The huge population in India with its rich diversity and culture in varied degrees poses a sense of responsibility on every individual as an academician or educator to unlearn and relearn “What teaching -learning is all about?” The edtech trends has helped everyone to combat the present challenges in resorting to virtual learning platforms with simple digital tools to high end paid apps and tools. The next question that arises is how to balance the components of curriculum and approaches with a new outlook?

As a leader or institution as a whole, the ed-tech trends can be utilized to strengthen the pillars of moving towards becoming digital leaders. The common areas which can be mobilized to our benefits are Communication, Public Relations, Branding, Student Engagement and learning Professional Development.

Few tips on enhancing online classes for better academic outcomes:

• To some extent consider the online classes too as a “real” course.
• Try to understand the types of distractions for students who are remotely attending the classes.
• Help students to figure out how they can learn their best.
• Active participation of students must be ensured.
• Help students create a regular study space, pace and self-monitoring strategies to understand what their goals are in terms of learning outcomes to be achieved.
• Both teacher and student need to practice time management in terms of preparation, Self-study, use of resources.
• Use the greater degree of flexibility that the online resources can provide to increase the retention rates of knowledge gained.
• The interactive online tools, multimedia devices and apps can also help to make the learning more enjoyable.
• Online learning can help both the students and teachers upskill their digital literacy.
• Digital skill acquisition helps better outcomes interms of creating better opportunities in this era of digital rule.
• If online, there is a scope for flexible hours for both teaching and learning.
• Teachers can teach from the comfort of their own homes and work outside routine class hours; this provides an opportunity to move away from the customized learning hours and can be used for other engaging activities of interest by both the teachers and students.
• It just can be used to provide a congenial comfortable learning environment free from distractions. There is no elaborate class room scenario students enjoy this kind of conducive environment more than a traditional class room.
• Teachers can use such online platforms to motivate otherwise shy and reticent children feel more at ease to participate in discussion and course activities.
• Such collaborative learning beyond school boundaries with students across the Globe can help get many views on the topic learnt.
• Employability rate with online qualifications can be explored far and wide.
• There can be multiple ways to learn to go with learning Styles / Inclusive Education.
• There are varied activities like Games, Guided Design projects, Pre-recorded lectures; power points with voice-over, web conference, nurture a community culture reaching out to more people.
• The rural-urban divide can also be narrowed down by sharing all resources.
• Though socio cultural learning is advocated much in any learning system online learning is improving. (Online students continue to thrive too).

Experiencing the present transition for more than a year, there is already a pressing need felt on embracing the digital transition with open arms. Reflecting on reinventing and redesigning the pedagogy with the aid of right tools shall probably end up in

Becoming “Phygital” (Blend of physical and digital)

1. Switching over to offline-online integration
2. Developing Highly personalized learning modules in favor of the learner need will become the trend by 2025

This is the time to break the myth “One size fits all” in the latest edtech industry. Manifestation of technology in everyday learning of students is visibly seen and experienced. Hence there is an utmost need to take care of keeping the online education highly engaging and experiential .This would mean that as teachers constant up skilling is a must to keep abreast of the latest trends. With the NEP 2020 implementation guidelines in India there is a lot of scope to bring in effective governance of schools by all educational leaders. Some of which that can be looked into are:

1. Promote social, intellectual and voluntary activities
2. Share – enable sharing of human and infrastructural resources
3. Efficient expedition and resourcing for schools through building school complexes
4. Twining/ pairing of one government with one private school across the country
5. Better of education across all levels through connecting schools and shared teachers and resources

No wonder, some of the above mentioned edtech trends can definitely bring in a new dimension and definition to understand and grow with technology for a better tomorrow.

Meenakshi,

Director, VSKILL,
Vels Group of Institutions