The covid pandemic brought about a real revolution in the way children were taught across the world. Almost overnight, millions of children and teachers had to go online and completely adapt to the new way of teaching. While many were unhappy about the lack of visible learning outcomes, but no one can deny that it opened up options in teaching-learning that most had not envisaged.
But today, as we get back to the world of offline learning, the question looms large – are things going to be back exactly as they were before, or are we going to move towards a different hybrid model? The same question is also being asked by the thousands of edutech companies which flourished during covid and school administrators who now have to take decisions regarding the inundation of edutech options.
So in this article, I put forward my way of thinking about this tricky situation. Firstly, each school has to consider its own parent set. After almost 2 years of online learning, parents are a little wary about the issue of screen time and are looking forward to a more social learning experience, and no doubt, that is what a school is all about.
About technology, as with any other decision in a school, the right answer always comes when you put the child in the front and center. What that means is that the best way to make a decision about any technology platform or solution is by looking at it from the lens of the child. Is the technology really making the classroom a better and more inclusive learning space? Is it dovetailing with the curriculum and is it allowing for better and more conceptual learning to happen? So basically, instead of looking at the technology piece individually, look at it as a piece of the educational puzzle where everything – teachers, manipulatives, books, labs, training, and of course, technology fits in. If the technology piece is completing your educational zigsaw, go for it.
Therefore, I strongly feel, that before technology, the first things that need to move are pedagogy and teacher capability. The bane of technology implementation in schools has always been teachers’ reluctance and friction. So what that means is that you, as a school leader or administrator, first make the requisite changes in the pedagogy that uses technology as a medium of efficiency and do a lot of capability development till the demand for technology starts coming from the teachers and not top-down from the management. When this happens, you see the benefit of investment in technology really reaching the students, and the quality of learning surges.
Now, to the next big question- How do you select which edutech product is better? There are so many in the market. One way this can be solved is through a bottom-up approach where the investment happens in the platforms rather than the services. We are fast moving towards a world where content is ubiquitous and free. At the same time, the content and technology is evolving too fast and anything you buy becomes outdated in 1-2 years. In this world, platform solutions that allow any plug-and-play of services are a better investment than the service itself. If you have Rs 1L to spend on technology, spend it on good devices, high speed internet, and easy access to those devices for classes and teachers, and training.
Views expressed by Devidutta Kanungo, CEO, Radcliffe Group of Schools, Hyderabad, Telangana.
