Digitization in education led teachers to develop professionally

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANSlife) Though e-learning existed long before 2020, it was mostly used as a substitute to face-to-face classroom engagement. Educators had to swiftly adjust to only teaching using digital platforms, modifying their teaching style, curriculum design, evaluation, and record-keeping. The transition from a controlled classroom setting to the usage of digital tools and hardware was also overcome by students. With the active support of their teachers, they have remained motivated towards acquiring new learnings.

Mode of teaching notwithstanding, students' approach towards learning is always shaped by their teachers' effectiveness in providing a supportive and conducive environment for learning. When pedagogical techniques evolve at an accelerated pace, they become instrumental in facilitating the personal and professional growth of teachers. To prepare students for the 21st century challenges, globally, teachers have been working on honing their analytical and problem-solving skills, critical thinking, reasoning, research and innovation skills, imagination, creativity, and effective communication.

With the adoption of compulsory digitization, teachers have had to quickly find more effective and efficient ways of communicating and interacting with their students using platforms such as Zoom, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams etc. They have honed their skills on digital tools like a slide or document sharing, whiteboards, breakout rooms, instant chat to make online classrooms more interactive and to promote active learning. This has also led to collaboration among teachers and made them try out various techniques like developing original artefacts such as stories and games, designing group activities and crafting worksheets for introducing important concepts.

The digital model has been a significant step forward in encouraging instructors to shift from lecture-based teaching and provide students with a more interactive learning experience. This is because online learning allows students to learn at their own pace and they can revise as per their requirements.

After the first-hand experience with the benefits, they will make e-learning part of their "new normal".

Online teaching and learning will continue to proliferate as technology develops, and educational experts predict that with the uncertain times ahead, we need to brace up to technology and digitization. This element is bound to stay as we move along in this new world.

Now is the moment to sketch out a vision for how education may emerge from this global crisis stronger than ever before, as well as a strategy for leveraging education's newfound relevance.

Though we haven't seen the end of this pandemic, the teaching community continues to ensure that learning does not stop for students. The effectiveness of modern teaching methodology backed by rapid adoption of digitization is the way forward in a post-pandemic world. Technology will ensure every child has access to education and every teacher finds a way to interactively teach children at a pace that promotes better understanding and retention.

By Ashwani Awasthi
(Ashwani Awasthi, Managing Director -- RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University)