EdTech 2.0
Blueprint for solving the graduate-level unemployability problem.
According to the recent Economic Survey conducted by the Indian government, 49% of college graduates in India are unemployable. Only a tiny fraction of those who are employable pursue research and development. This poses a significant concern for any nation's educational system, particularly for a nation like ours, which aspires to become a developed country by 2047.
Some reasons why: -
The students lack enthusiasm for the subject and feel demotivated to learn.
Even when students encounter something intriguing, they are uncertain about exploring the topic further, such as by creating something related to it.
When students have a project idea, they often find planning and executing it challenging.
Lastly, consistent discipline in implementing the plan is lacking, even if all else is in place.
The so-called EdTech 1.0 companies have attempted to solve this problem in the last 15 years but have largely failed. They fell short because they overlooked the importance of in-person classroom teaching and the integral role of teachers in students' college success.
Solution
While NEP 2020 has proposed a near-total overhaul of teaching methodologies, AI, vernacular, and voice-first tools for teachers and students have a significant role to play alongside planned education policy reforms. These intelligent tools could tackle the challenge of graduate unemployability and enhance the focus on research and development, starting at the graduate level. This presents a considerable opportunity for technology to contribute to the once-in-a-lifetime educational transformation in a country’s journey.
Unlike the approach taken by Edtech 1.0 companies, which aimed to substitute traditional teaching methods with online learning, EdTech 2.0 must focus on enhancing teachers' capabilities within the classroom environment, with intelligence and autonomy as its core tenets to alleviate administrative tasks from teachers. This will empower teachers with extraordinary abilities, enabling them to devote more time to providing improved one-on-one mentoring for students.
EdTech 2.0 has three core pillars:
In-person Classroom Teaching remains central to a sustainable teaching methodology. It prioritises building a personal connection with each student, something often lost in the purely online models of Edtech 1.0.
Practical knowledge acquired through actually building things fosters an in-depth understanding of a subject beyond theoretical and superficial knowledge. Without practical education, students often resort to rote learning instead of deep exploration.
Digitisation of the Educational Process is inevitable as the world moves towards digitisation in every aspect of life. SKUAST, a prominent government university focused on agricultural research, has moved away from paper-based examinations and is now using digital examinations.
The vision behind Edtech 2.0 is to empower teachers by assisting them in the following ways: -
Advanced Lesson Planning: The system provides application-based teaching recommendations. As a student, I seek to understand why I am learning Calculus before delving into the complex mathematical equations. The tool will suggest relevant videos and links to real-world applications of the theoretical topic that teachers can utilise in classrooms, establishing a clear reason for why learning the topic is beneficial in the real world. This stimulates curiosity and excitement among students, encouraging them to explore the topic more deeply.
Personalised Project Recommendations: The system recommends topic-specific personalised project suggestions for students to the teachers. The teacher assigns these projects to the students for further deliberations and discussions. As a student, receiving a project idea that aligns with my interests provides me with direction to think and deliberate further about the topic.
Project Planning Assistance: Once a project is assigned to a student, the system provides plans with clear, time-bound goals, milestones, and tasks. These plans can be further improved through teacher-student discussions. For students, receiving a project implementation plan addresses a significant challenge, as many struggle with project planning skills at the university level.
Project Progress Tracking: Timely tracking and ensuring accountability are crucial at this stage, as making consistent progress to finish the project on time is where the real learning happens. The system takes contextual follow-ups from students on behalf of the teacher, thereby relieving teachers of the demanding task of tracking each student. This, in turn, enables both teachers and students to focus only on core subject matter discussions in one-on-one meetings.
Voice-first and Vernacular: An effortless interaction with the system is essential for EdTech 2.0’s success. Voice has evolved into a much more natural medium for interacting with machines. For example, Airchat and modern AI tools are offering voice-first AI chatbots. These voice chatbots are becoming increasingly seamless, and users are quickly growing comfortable with voice-first systems. Communicating with these tools in vernacular language and voice will lead to an effortless user experience for students and teachers; this is particularly advantageous for those whose preferred language is a local dialect, not English.
Public Policy Alignment
The Indian government has made substantial capital allocations in the national budget, including $6 billion for research and development, as well as the recent One Nation One Subscription scheme, which offers publications from over 30 publishers free of charge to every student in the country. It’s fair to conclude that EdTech 2.0 aligns with the government's priorities from a public policy standpoint.
Vision: India@2047
India should aspire to transition from a technological follower to a leader. The goal is for students to engage in research and innovation at the university level and, by the time they graduate, at least become employable.
By offering advanced tools to teachers, we can enable them to provide tailored guidance and mentorship to every student. The aim is to inspire students to dive deeply into their subjects and foster a generation capable of leading global innovation.
Why is it important?
EdTech 1.0 severely damaged the promise of technology's impact on education, losing the trust of students, guardians, teachers and investors. However, some explorations are inevitable; we mustn’t escape them. EdTech 2.0 is an exploration we must undertake and, most importantly, get right. The upside to getting this right is enormous. Succeeding at EdTech 2.0 means positively impacting future generations, as the stakes for education's future are too high to fail.