TRADITIONAL EDUCATION vs GAME CHANGING EDUCATION

Education has fundamentally shifted. The value of education has changed. The value of the actual experience of education is down, and the actual education part has been significantly reduced. Covid-19 is forcing people to take a hard look at tuition fees and wonder… if my child is going to be home all year, staring at a computer screen, is it worth paying the fees I pay? Schools are struggling with non-payment of fees because somehow people are thinking that online education seems to be substandard and overpriced, at every level.

But is this true?

For some, online learning is great. They enjoy it, and are happy to continue in this regard, but to me, learning doesn’t happen without engagement, and to engage a student via a screen is almost impossible.

As lockdown has stretched out, it seems to have gone from a novelty at first, to routine, and now, boring and tedious. I take my hat off to the educators trying to keep their teaching interesting but just how many different ways can you try engage learners through a screen? I was talking to a teacher and she said it is exhausting. She is exhausted. She feels that she has to put on a show every day with new tricks and try ensure it is what every student responds to. But it is not like being in class where she can gauge the levels of interest by looking around and seeing who is zoning out and who is still with her. It is stressful.

Everyone is trying their best to learn what tools, technologies, and tricks work. What hs come out is that it is better if you re more animated to try keep them awake and engaged, more than you would be in a classroom, it is better if the students to turn on their cameras so you can see their faces more, and that you need to hold them accountable, and everyone is getting better at it, but for now it is an exceedingly difficult task. I for one watch my kids, and I can literally see them zone out because there is no real engagement.

Of course, the diligent students will manage. They manage regardless of how strong or weak a teacher is, how exciting or dull the content is, whether the class is rowdy or quiet, whether the material is difficult or simple. And they will probably go on to study in some way or another, because learning and diligence are part of their DNA. But for the average student, this is not the case.

I do not believe this is the educators’ faults. In fact, I think they have done amazing things at switching to online teaching so suddenly. It is way more time consuming for them, and I believe they are working harder than they have before... and I do believe teachers always worked hard.

More tools and apps will emerge, but for now, it is difficult for learning to be as efficient or as interesting as face to face learning can be. And the younger the learner, the more true this is.

But it has to happen, in some way shape or form, right?

So what does that mean for the future of education?

I think we have reached a turning point, and I believe that in order for education institutions to survive they have to be innovative and offer something new and improved. Education has to change. No doubt there are developers out there scrambling to make exciting apps for learners and tech gurus are working hard at making the next best thing.

The playing field is wide open. It is ripe for innovation.

Imagine for example, one of the big IT companies partnered with a school to offer programs in design and creativity. What if universities partnered with the likes of Apple or Google or Microsoft around technology or engineering. The IT companies would be responsible for the content and the online group teaching, and the university would be responsible for the academic accreditation.

Or imagine giving the youth opportunities to serve in agencies of greatness of . Social responsibility opportunities combined with learning and coming out at the end with a qualification.

Conscious Connections, powered by the @GC Index enables educationalists to identify and nurture the key talents of young people – the leaders of the future workforce. Using The Young People Index® we create awareness of individual strengths and skills so that learners can add value to their own education and make more informed choices about their future.

There are opportunities now, people. It’s time to think outside the box and come up with a new way of educating that matches the new way business is being done. Now is a wonderful opportunity to create a generation that develops greater cooperation, a community of man, appreciation for what it means to be human through some sort of social service.