Role of Digital Platforms in the Education Sector_Essay by Nilima N. Khakal and team

As Nelson Mandela says,

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Education is the key to eliminating gender inequality, to reducing poverty, to creating a sustainable planet, to preventing needless deaths and illness, and to fostering peace.

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research.

Education is commonly divided formally into stages as preschool or kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and then college, university, or apprenticeship.

Indian Context: A right to education

A right to education has been recognized by some governments and India is one of them. 'The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act' or 'Right to Education Act also known as RTE', is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010.

EDUCATIONAL FORMS:

Imparting of education is done by several ways as belows:

1.    Traditional Education

2.    Formal education

3.    Alternative education

4.    Indigenous

5.    Informal learning

6.    Self-directed learning

7.    Open education and electronic technology

1.    Traditional Education:

It involves traditional system of education belonging to respective countries. E.g. for India “GURUKUL” system of education where students used to reside at school run by GURU famously called as ‘Ashram’.

2.    Formal Education:

It involves formal stages of education as preschool or kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and then college, university, or apprenticeship.

3.    Alternative Education:

Some pitfalls of formal education led to emergence of alternative education systems including alternative schools, self learning, home schooling and un schooling.

4     Indigenous Education:

Indigenous education refers to the inclusion of indigenous knowledge, models, methods, and content within formal and non-formal educational systems.

5.    Informal learning:

Informal learning usually takes place outside educational establishments, does not follow a specified curriculum and may originate accidentally. It is not necessarily planned to be pedagogically conscious, systematic and according to subjects, but rather unconsciously incidental, holistically problem-related, and related to situation management and fitness for life. Informal learning occurs in a variety of places, such as at home, work, and through daily interactions and shared relationships among members of society.

6.    Self-directed learning:

Self-directed learning is a contemplative, absorbing process, of "learning on your own" or "by yourself", or as a self-teacher.

7.    Open education and electronic technology

Open education is a collective term to describe institutional practices and programmatic initiatives that broaden access to the learning and training traditionally offered through formal education systems. Open education system is more flexible than the conventional educational forms.

Open education involves use of electronic technology often referred as “Digital technology”. And education imparted using digital technology is referred as “Digital Education”.

 

DIGITAL EDUCATION

Information & Communication Technology revolution has paved the way to introduce some breakthroughs in different spheres like banking, education, health and the likes. It is in particular a blessing for developing countries like India which chronically suffer from ailments of access and affordability. With wise coverage over various means of communication, it becomes a natural choice to learn even for those in the hinterlands.

Digital Education showed its face in the 90s in developed economies like the US. With device manufacturers mushrooming early in USA and other developed countries it started penetrating gradually. Developed nations have started realizing the cost benefits of going digital and are acting with an eye on the future.

Primarily Digital Education has 3 components:

Ø  The content

Ø  The technology platforms

Ø  The delivery infrastructure

      The technology platforms of digital education are referred as “DIGITAL PLATFORMS”

  

 

DIGITAL PLATFORMS

15 years ago, students needed access to books and classes to find knowledge. Today, digital platforms had Digiprovided countless ways to find information online.

The development of digital platforms has changed the way how we learn.

Some key features of digital platforms are

1.    It’s generated a greater demand for education.

2.    It’s improved our ability to provide learning materials.

3.    These platforms are often online and accessible by mobile devices.

4.    It allows trainers, lecturers and learners unlimited access to vital learning materials at any time, wherever they are.

5.    It enables the organization to share its expert knowledge with thousands of trainers and lecturers and their learners through a browser based platform of e-books.

6.    Digital platforms impart education via online courses, webinars, online study materials ebooks, blended learning, demonstrations, online audio and visuals, online exams and feedbacks etc.

7.    Experts giving an on screen lecture whilst at the same time can view all of the relevant pages of the publication.

8.    Learners also interact with the expert by asking questions remotely via a live forum.

9.    Increased mobile phone ownership have a profound impact on digital education in developing countries.

Benefits of digital platforms:

Benefits of digital platforms are depicted in figure below.

Source: http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.ac

1.    Learning, in essence, has been opened up from the constraints of hard copy pages.

2.    Teaching becomes a smoother experience with a perfect mesh of personalized packages having a blend of animations, gamification and elaborate audio-visual effects.

3.    Trainers and lecturers can now engage with their learners like never before.

4.    It provides means to maximize precious educational resources with the ability to share updated or new information with all students at the click of a button - instead of replacing printed books or typing up and distributing new course materials. 

5.    Students view this as a flexible option allowing them to study as per their time and pace.

6.    Today's generation of learners never having known anything other than digital mediums.

7.    Digital platforms can even engage learners of all ages.

8.    Teachers too find it convenient to prepare their learning plans well aided by technology.

9.    Using digital formats, trainers and lecturers can have the peace of mind that what they are teaching is up-to-date, using the very latest information.

10. The cost of learning decreases.

11. Its time saving. No need to go distant away for classes.

12. Digital education is fun learning for all cadres and particularly effective for child learning as the innovative audio-video feature boosts the cognitive elements in a child’s brain.

13. The INFO-TAINMENT combination involved in digital learning makes it more practical, applicable and relatable to our life and surroundings in an interesting manner.

14. Geography is not a limiting factor regarding access to knowledge.

15. People around the globe enjoy better education and more opportunities.

16.  Sharing resources and materials with as many learners as possible in a cost effective manner.

17. For Education institutions it leads to rapid rise in enrollments and added revenue.

In A report of National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET), USA; Alexa Posny (former Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services) discussed how special education teachers have led the way for technology innovation and it gave emphasize on benefits of digital platform to teachers and students. It has been depicted in figure below.

Some digital platforms imparting education

Ø  NPTEL The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning , a project funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),INDIA; provides e-learning through online Web and Video courses in Engineering, Sciences, Technology, Management and Humanities. This is a joint initiative by seven Indian Institute of Technologies and Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.

Ø  Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.

Ø  Moodle is a learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments.

Ø  The Worldreader app gives access to thousands of free books. It omits the need to buy physical books, the costs of learning becomes lower.

Ø  Vodaphone Foundation’s “digital school in a box.”

Ø  IET's Wiring Regulations

Ø  E-Zest helps in building digital platforms.

Ø  Amuratech offers complete digital marketing solutions for education sector.

Ø  EdTech companie’s  Magic Software  adds to the growing repository of Digital learning Objects (DLOs) and technological platforms available to learning.

Challenges ahead

1.      Digital literacy and infrastructure are the prominent hurdles for digital platforms to be successful.

2.      Unfortunately, only 40 percent of people in developing countries like India have access to the Internet.

3.      Sixteen percent fewer women than men use the Internet. 

4.      Developing countries also have a growing need for knowledge workers.

5.      Lot needs to be done in mobile wireless internet and setting up skill centers especially in rural areas.

6.      Innovation should also be poured into making digital education more interactive and robust.

7.      Government should make efforts to include all stakeholders in this initiative to make it “inclusive & sustainable” for all.

8.      Affordable internet access, data enabled devices and appropriate internet plans can play a significant role in promoting digital education through digital platforms.

9.      A special emphasis must be laid on Security features like examinee verification, plagiarism etc. to uphold the independence and integrity of the education system.

Thus if all the challenges for digital platforms are met, its surely going to achieve marathon success for benefit of community.

As it’s said,

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning”. ………………by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Digital platforms are the best source of lifelong learning as imparting advantage of being geographical barrier free and time-cost saving.