In: Operations Management
Question : 1000 words illustrating the topic: How Education and Technology are evolving together.
Evolution of Education and Technology
One of the fundamental aspects of Technology is the way it has created access to education across various sections of the society. The growth of the Internet and availability of bandwidth has been instrumental in this regard. Many institutions are affering their curses and course material online - some are doing it free of cost as a service to mankind in general. The availability of information on the web and other digital platforms has ensured that seekers of knowledge are not hampered by access to it.
This also has great social and community impact as Technology has now enabled knowledge to reach the underprivileged. Typically, high quality education always had a cost associated with it. The ubiquity of broadband and the penetration even in poorer nations has ensured greater reach of education to the masses at low cost - one doesn't need to set up physical infrastructure deep in the villages of India to set up a school and provide basic education. A low cost videoconferencing system could as easily do the job
There now exist great opportunities for educational communities and groups to collaborate with each other in multiple ways. Ease of communication means that students are not constrained by geography if they want to collaborate on research, teaching, training etc. It has also made the concept of a teacher much wider. Today someone who can teach or train need not be a formal researcher with a PhD etc. Anyone with access to information and a willingness to learn can assume this role now.
Technology has also revolutionized the involvement of related stakeholders in education. Parents and teachers are now able to interact in ways they had never before with the objective of providing their kids a much more wholesome learning experience where parents are much more clued onto what kids are learning and are also positively influencing the process, rather than just leave it to the schols and the teacher. This, in turn, frees up time for the teachers and they are able to spend more quality time with students thus making it a virtuous cycle.
The impact of Artificial Intelligence on education is only starting to manifest itself with mobile applications and apps facilititating learning. It is seen as a big driver of change in the future in helping personalize learning for the individual based on interest and capability. We could be looking at a future where there are no standard syllabi and everthing is customized to the student's ability through artificial intelligence. Learning will become a much longer and intensive activity as a result. This could be much more enriching for serious seekers of knowledge and researchers.