Ideas to Change the Rural Education Scene in India
Presently, one of the world’s top destinations for education includes India in its listing. With it having some of the best universities and colleges, India has earned a reputed distinction for its high standards and excellence. What’s even more fascinating is that technology has forwarded swiftly to change the way Indian students use the educational content.
The spread of smartphones based on the internet is providing quality learning to students across the vast land of the nation, which naturally includes rural India. Moreover, the advent of the massive technologies of the immediate future- Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Machine Learning (ML) have raised the prospects of taking the level of education to new heights as never witnessed before.
Therefore, with the mediums as described below, we shall consider the feasibility for ushering the much-desired change in rural facet of Indian education:
Using Tele-teaching to Advantage
With the convenience of cheap data efficiently supporting video calling and conferencing, it is high time that various stakeholders of education, leaving students, realize teleteaching- teaching in the remotest corners of the nation through live video calls. This new avatar of imparting instruction is loaded with possibilities explored never before- teachers instructing young children, sitting inside a community center of the village, from their own residences. Thus, two-way interaction between the learned and the learner can be availed with much less cost.
Additionally, more things can also be taken care of- the solution of students’ problems related to their studies via their online face-to-face interaction with teachers, online monitoring of the remote study-center, and similar others. About the front of monitoring children in the remote study-center and facilitating coordination among them to assist better learning, a caretaker, preferably a trained one, will hopefully suffice for all the children present there. What’s more, this idea can also be extended for students of secondary and senior secondary students.
Learning Facilitated by Digital Mobile Devices
Over the recent past, the populace who have gradually assimilated using mobile phones, particularly their smart versions, has also picked up learning from them. It has facilitated students to access seamlessly the content in education, across all the digital devices like desktops, tablets, laptops, and smartphones.
The user base of smartphones in India carries on with the increment. And you can witness this in both cities and villages. Though, the villages are the ones to gain more as they relatively have been bereft of the technological upgradations. Hence, the coming years will have users immensely availing most of the educational content via smartphones powered by the internet. Hence, in the coming times, most of the educational content, involving even online study-programs, will be tailored totally for these mobile devices of communication.
Adaptive and Personalised Learning
With the massive progenies of technology like AI and ML, as talked above, ultimately setting their feet on the world of education, only for its betterment, and high-end digital devices within the reach of students (or, is possible through generous assistance from the government), the time has come to tailor individual curriculum and learning techniques for each student. And our villages can profit immensely from this revolutionary development. You, after all, need a mobile wi-fi router and battery operated and AI/ML powered digital machines. And this isn’t too costly to handle!
Returning to the advantages, you can consider AI and ML the two facets of the same coin. Both these technologies study the usage-pattern of students, regarding the time they dedicate in studying the disciplines assigned to or chosen by them. The technologies also take into account the kinds of topics, problems, and exercises they visit and study.
Consequently, the digital machines powered by the prowess of AI and ML tailor a personal or individualized array of similar topics, problems, and exercises. What’s more, the authorities familiar with this exercise of tailoring curriculum based on study-preferences of a student can prepare similar curricula for each child/student. Thus, you avail individual and unique curricula for each child based on his/her study-pattern. The days, regarding imparting of instructions, for the approach of ‘one coat fits all,’ are soon to take the demise!
Freely Accessible Educational Resources
Open digital resources of education have routinely been used in the courses pertaining to distance learning. They comprise of different media freely accessible for the reasons for learning, research, and teaching. Usually, teachers permit them to be reworked and dispensed free of cost among students. This grants the students the access to a comprehensive array of study resources, use of which otherwise is indigenously restricted.
Our brethren in villages are availing this facility to their advantage, though there is an extremely small chunk of them, presently. One, therefore, expects that the overall scenario will improve once the figure swells.