With the COVID pandemic, technology is being integrated into education. Despite the fact that many educational institutions are privileged to have ready access to technology, trained teachers, and a favourable policy environment, the use of technology in the classroom was low before the pandemic. The COVID accelerated the use of technology in education.
With that said, the potential of technology to enhance learning cannot be overemphasized. By integrating technology into education, educators aim to engender pedagogical change and address fundamental issues. Technology can, therefore, be seen as both a tool and a catalyst for change. With the incorporation of technology into education, the main purpose is to change how teachers and students gather, access, analyse, present and transmit information.
digitalLEARNING Magazine and Adobe India organized a webinar on “Essential Education for Accelerating Creative Career “ with some eminent speakers from the industry stakeholders. Dr Ravi Gupta, CEO and Editor-in-chief of Elets Technomedia welcomed the speakers.
Prof. Sandeep Sancheti, VC, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai said “The NEP is a strong vehicle to grow the education sector. Digital is at the way to go in the coming days. Digital is omnipresent and will be there forever. With technology, lots of freedom can be provided to students.”
He also said “Everyone in the system will learn new things due to the surge of technology. The world will learn new things with the usage of technology in the education sector. Technology cannot go away. The online skilling can be done through. “
Over the use of technology, he said “Digital technology is available as it makes possible for anything, anywhere and anyone. Teaching, lab and exams can be done effective with new innovation. Open book refers to applying my knowledge. It will offer new kind of education.”
He also said group exams can be allowed and must be student centric.
Dr Venkatesh A. Raikar, Vice Chancellor, Sanjay Ghodawat University, Maharashtra said “The National Education Policy is focusing on trans-disciplinary subjects. We need to more focus on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. All the HEIs must focus on various things.”
Emphasizing on learning, he said “Everyone is bombarding with e-content and no one is watching learning is going or not. We must try to start personalize learning. We must pass on the knowledge. Knowledge, skill and attitude is very important for students”.
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Over skills education, he said “The enhancement of skill is very important. The Skill is to be good in coming days. The project based learning must be focused. The education 4.0 will be very important.”
Dr Mahendra Sharma, Pro chancellor, Ganpat University – GUNI, Gujarat said “Due to the pandemic, students have adapted the online classes. We must focus how to use technology to its best for the overall growth of students. The impact has taken hands on learning. The automobile industry is growing and their requirements are huge.”
“The full curriculum is under transformation and universities are working to inculcate digital skills within students. The HEIs are trying to train students to cope with the industry requirements”, he added.
Over technology, he said “The digitization has given access to lot to open book learning and teachers. It has given opportunity for quality content for students. There will be new methodology evolving. The technology will help the students.”
“The teaching pedagogy to remain and things will more evolve. We need to learn, evolve in this process. Indian universities must evolve”, he added.
Dr Anand A Samuel, Vice Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore said “Now the students wanted to adapt the digital mode. The pandemic has accelerated the usage of technology. The world is moving towards the digital era and now we must think about 100 pc digital universities.”
“Time has come, we must focus beyond knowledge. We are training our teachers to teach new things to students. We must bring analyzing, creative skills to the classroom”, he added.
“In online mode, the ways are different and we must adapt the new ways. Students must be more creative”, he added.
Prof Sanjay Gupta, Vice Chancellor, World University of Design WUD, Haryana said “Earlier, technology and designing were two different aspects. The Corona has changed the entire sector and technology has accelerated a lot. Our teachers adapted online classes seamlessly. Smartphone emerged as lifesavers during the pandemic.”
“In the last four months, design and technology can come together. We bring in AI to our university last year, which helped us a lot in this pandemic. The future is certainly going to be blended”, he added.
“The curation of content has been a problem. The creative world is very diverse. To curate talent is very challenging”, he added.
Dr. Aditya Malik, Vice Chancellor, K.R. Mangalam University, Haryana said “There are certain dimensions in technology which are still unknown. There are certain kinds of skills students, need in this era. The NEP has highlighted these usages of skills for students. Communication is very powerful to resolve issues and it can give access to improve performance.”
“This pandemic may not the last one. We must prepare ourselves and students to tackle such crisis in the near future. We must think new degree programmes and faculty members need to retrained”, he added.
Dr Harsh Sadawarti, Vice Chancellor, CT University, Punjab said “With the pandemic, all the Higher Educational Institutions have developed their own LMS. All the information is available is just a click away due to technology. We are talking about student-centric approach. Technology has changed the dynamics of the education system.”
Over the use of technology, he said “The technology has changed the role of teachers in the classroom. We can use technology as an enabler. It’s a very powerful tool to make the education sector very interesting. Technology can make education effective for all.”
“Problem-solving techniques must be taught to students. We must consider how and how much must be taught during online classes. The training of teachers is most effective. Innovation and inventions must be started from first semester”, he added.
Dr Sayalee Gankar, Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil International University, Akurdi, Pune said “We must make our classrooms more powerful. The disruption has made life easier. We have all the digital infra in our campus. We quickly shifted from offline to online mode. The govt has created many platforms for learning through online mode. The faculty members were trained to use the online mode. We started to work on our classroom management.”
“Colleges must focus on student engagement. We need to have less lectures and more collaboration. Discussion and demonstrations must be done. We need to focus on content delivery to context learning. The model is going to be changed, “ she said.
“We must focus on critical and creative thinking, communication and collaboration. The contribution of the industry will change with time. We must start re-design the education model and focus on platform learning. Communication is going to make huge change,” she added.
Over policy, she said “NEP has given us lot of freedom to the students and teachers. We need to revamp the education sector.”
Dr Ravindra Bhardwaj, Vice Chancellor, Sage University Indore said “We must not be degree awarding institutions. We must produce people who are more employable. Faculty members must start new things. Education must be participative. Education must empower students. “
“The students have to be more observant. The health sector is going to improve in the coming days. The curriculum must develop to focus on creative thing. We must re-start and revisit things”, he added.
Dr Bhardwaj said “Over collaborations, he said “Industry and learners can come together. The GER is purposed from 26 to 50, the burden will be large. Greater collaboration is required to tackle the crisis. We must consider the value system of people. The lockdown condition was a blessing in disguise.”
Dr Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhya, Vice Chancellor, Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata said “We have incorporated many new things for online learning. We have our LMS for students. Earlier, the faculty and students were reluctant to use technology. With no option left during the pandemic, all have shifted to online mode. The new normal has made it clear, we must start adopting blended learning.”
He also said “People from industry can deliver the lectures, which can be helpful for students.
The ways of assessments need to be changed as things will be changing rapidly in the coming days, he added.
Supreeth Nagaraju, Head – Education, Digital Media Adobe India & South Asia said “Need is the mother of all Gods. We must focus, what is the demand of the industry. We must focus on the up-skill and re-skill of students. Students know what they want in this crisis. Students are asking how good the institution is. The act of collaboration is much needed in this hour. Learning by experiencing will be the new thing.”
“Collaboration with industry is very important. We need to bring skill education. We must focus on providing next-gen curriculum including AI, AR, VR subjects,” he added.
“Knowledge transform required for students. Job readiness is must required. We are looking at different aspects of education”, he added.
