Education in 2030 — Technology will be the game-changer

‘’Change is the only constant. Most change is first met with resistance till we get used to the new status quo’’ — Lina Ashar

Historically change has almost always been met with resistance. There is an evolutionary reason for this. Part of the brain — the amygdala — interprets change as a threat and releases hormones that are associated with fear. This is why any change is a challenge to your brain and why your brain craves certainty. Human beings, organisations, society; all resist change. This is even if we are dissatisfied with the way things are and if we can see a positive reason to change.

Likewise, education has a lot of resistance to change as well. Despite knowing that the existing way of learning and teaching is outdated, redundant, and not relevant to where technology is taking humanity, yet we resist changing the conventional physical school setup. Did you know that the printed book that triggered a surge in the love for learning in the west was initially resisted by school teachers as it forced schools to drastically change their teaching methodology.

I have seen the same resistance coming in from all sides for relying on technology to impart education. However, it is evident that despite all the resistance the educational landscape is rapidly changing. The pandemic has been a boon in disguise as parents got to witness firsthand how online education will function and how it can help children. Statistically One and a half billion students around the world, according to UNESCO, were engaged in remote learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. However, my observation is that most schools replicated online what they would normally do in a classroom, due to which teachers struggled as distance learning was new to them and they had to go through a paradigm shift to make their sessions interesting.

Online learning is a whole new ball game and it will require a curriculum that is designed specifically for distance learning. Hence, I along with my team of like-minded people decided to work on an online curriculum that is neuroscience-based and interactive as I believe it’s the right time to reimagine, recreate and reengineer our educational systems. Parents, teachers, and educators have a lot of questions as Online learning is new to everyone. So, let’s start with looking at a few trends of what education will look like in 2030.

1. Technology will enter the classroom: currently, technology is used only as a source of information, however, soon children will have their own digital devices and teachers will use different tools to teach children and make their learning experience experiential and personalized.
2. Each child is unique and learns differently and technology allows educators to make the learning experience more individualistic and personalized. Technology helps us move away from the instruction method of teaching to self-directed learning.
3. Educators are working on a home-schooling module as more and more parents are looking for better mediums of education. The home-schooling modules will make the learning experience more personal as they will be tailored especially for an individual. Their strengths and weaknesses will be taken into consideration and the concepts will be taught accordingly.
4. Physical schools may cease to exist. As parents will realise that classes can get over in all of 4 to 5 hours and then children have the full day to themselves to enjoy their childhood and focus on outdoor and creative activities.
5. Educators will focus on all-round learning where the curriculum will incorporate neuroscience, behavioral science, concepts of spirituality, social and emotional skills.
6. Project-based learning will be emphasized with the help of various Edtech platforms that will come into existence over the next decade.
7. Children will have time for recreational activities where they will be able to build on skills they are interested in like music, art, sports, and more.
8. Students will be equipped to assess themselves and they will determine whether they have understood the concept completely, if not they will have the opportunity to go back to the concept and attempt to understand the same.

Educators that have the foresight have already started working on educational modules that will incorporate these future trends. Are you ready to leave our educational conditioning behind and move ahead with time to embrace this change?