EdTech Trends to watch in 2020

The Coronavirus pandemic has completely changed how millions of students around the globe are being educated. As to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, the Indian Government has announced a complete lockdown in the country, the education system could bring much-needed innovation in the market.

Recently, many universities have allowed online lectures for the students and such changes give us a glimpse at how the education system could change for the better in the coming future.

With the Coronavirus spreading rapidly across Asia, Europe, the center East, countries have taken swift and decisive actions to mitigate the event of a full-blown pandemic. 

As of March 13, the OECD estimated that over 421 million children are affected thanks to school closures announced or implemented in 39 countries. Additionally, another 22 countries have announced partial “localized” closures.  

These risk-control policies have led many students to follow temporary ‘home-schooling’ situations, especially countries, like China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. These changes have certainly caused a degree of inconvenience, but they have also prompted new samples of educational innovation. Although it’s too early to gauge how reactions to COVID-19 will affect education systems around the world, there are signs suggesting that it could have an enduring impact on the trajectory of learning innovation and digitization. Below, we follow three trends that would hint at future transformations:

Innovations in Education System

The sudden changes in academic institutions globally are lamentable when compared with centuries-old, lecture-based approaches to teaching. However, COVID-19 has become a catalyst for educational institutions worldwide to find an innovative approach for educating students during a crisis.

To help slow the virus spread, students in Hong Kong began to learn remotely, via interactive apps.

Many other simpler and creative solutions were implemented around the globe. In one Nigerian school, standard asynchronous online learning tools (such as reading via Google Classroom), were augmented with synchronous face-to-face video instruction, to assist preempt school closures.

With 5G technology becoming more prevalent in countries like China, the USA, and Japan, we’ll see learners and solution providers truly embracing the ‘learning anywhere, anytime’ concept of digital education during a range of formats. Traditional in-person classroom learning is going to be complemented with new learning modalities – from live broadcasts to ‘educational influencers’ to computer game experiences. Learning could become a habit that’s integrated into daily routines – a real lifestyle.

Also Read: Top 5 Video Conferencing Tools for Remote Working

Collaborative learning approach by Public & Private universities

In just the past few weeks, we’ve seen learning coalitions taking shape, with diverse stakeholders – including governments, publishers, education professionals, technology providers, and telecom network operators, coming together to utilize digital platforms as a short-lived solution to the crisis. In emerging countries where education has predominantly been provided by the government, this might become a prevalent and consequential trend to future education.

The Hong Kong-based readtogether.hk forum may be a consortium of over 60 educational organizations, publishers, media, and show business professionals, providing quite 900 educational assets, including videos, book chapters, assessment tools, and counseling services free of charge. The consortium’s intention is to continue using and maintaining the platform even after COVID-19 has been contained.

With such examples, it’s evident that educational innovation is receiving attention beyond the standard government-funded or non-profit-backed social project. 

From Microsoft and Google within the U.S. to Samsung in Korea to Tencent, Ping An, and Alibaba in China, corporations are awakening to the strategic imperative of an informed populace. While most initiatives so far are limited in scope, and comparatively isolated, the pandemic could pave the way for much larger-scale, cross-industry coalitions to be formed around a standard educational goal.

Including Life-Skills Lessons in the Education

In this ever-changing global environment, children require resilience and adaptableness that are proving to be essential to navigating effectively through this pandemic. Looking into the longer term, a number of the foremost important skills that employers are going to be trying to find are going to be creativity, communication, and collaboration, alongside empathy and emotional intelligence; and having the ability to figure across demographic lines of differences to harness the facility of the collective through effective teamwork.

End Note!

AI is playing a vital role in the advance development of the education system Artificial intelligence is demonstrating its function as an educator in cases where students got to be isolated. Italian Educator Michael McDonald uses computer games to enhance the way people learn or teach English as a far off language.

Most importantly, we hope that for the coming generation, these experiences of isolation and remote learning away from their peers, teachers, and classrooms will teach them the importance of the human need for face-to-face social interaction.