Are We Ready For The Future Of Technology In Education?

Education is at the centre of our conversation these days when it comes to the quality of graduates we are producing for the future workforce.

At the grassroot level, we have great plans to revamp our education system, as seen in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, prepared by the Ministry of Education Malaysia.

The blueprint is set to guide our approach in the way students learn and in the way we train our educators, as well as how the ministry lays out a process for that transformation to happen. It’s an ambitious goal, especially to equip our students holistically to get them ready for a challenging future of Industry 4.0 and digitalisation.

We are not alone

According to The Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study, while most education leaders (87%) are aware of the urgent need to transform digitally, the actual transformation journey with full digital strategy in place for most educational institutions in Asia is still at its infancy.

Leaderonomics caught up with an educator, Raghav Podar, also chairman of Podar Education Group in India, during Bett Asia Leadership Summit & Expo 2017, to get his thoughts on the future of technology in education.

Raghav is a thought leader on constructing optimal learning environments. He has been championing the cause of optimal utilisation of technology in the classrooms, and yet, stresses the core importance of real human connection when it comes to learning among school-going children.

Alternatively, for full interview, click play to listen to the podcast (in three parts):

Part 1: Education in challenging times

Part 2: The ‘new’ classroom and our belief systems

Part 3: Nuggets of wisdom, etc

Insights

Here are some key learnings from the interview:

In general, Asians are still bound to certain expectations that academics is pretty much a measure of success for a child. It takes success stories of children who made it good despite academic challenges to break that mindset.
We can never replace the role of human educators with robots. Educators still need to get their hands dirty in engaging with students in their progress. Technology is just an enabler to supplement their experiential learning in an environment.
The choice is in our hands – we either light up the spark in students, or we put out the spark in them. In the latter, we continue the cycle of boxing them to society’s expectations of ‘success’.

Glimmer of hope

Every stakeholder has a part to play in elevating and transforming our education system, for the sake of the future of our next generation that will take up the mantle of leadership in our nation to the next level.

Although we at Leaderonomics may not be the ones playing in the technology field in education, we are actively playing our part in building the right foundation to realise their true potential through our Leaderonomics Youth initiatives such as LEAD clubs in schools and DIODE camps.

How? By equipping students with the right future-ready skills such as communication, leadership and creative thinking capabilities – skills that are critical in shaping a better tomorrow – Industry 4.0 and beyond.