While different nations are at different stages in controlling the COVID-19 infection rates, there are over 1.2 billion children in 186 nations who have had to resort to online learning for months now due to the pandemic. In fact, the sudden shift away from the classrooms that came as a sudden jolt at the beginning of the year has become a regular practice for the students and their parents by now. And, this shift to the online mode of learning has brought along with it a number of crucial transformations in the entire education system.
In all these months, the management at DPS Kota, one of the Best Schools in Kota, has had the opportunity to take a closer look at the new norms in education arising out of this situation. Based on our perception of the current scenario and the ongoing learning trends in the educational institutions across the world, here’s delving deeper into the assessment of the new normal in the education system.
The rapid acceleration in the existing trend of adopting edutech
Even before the pandemic started looming large over the nation, there was already a high rate of growth and adoption in education technology. Be it virtual tutoring, language apps, educational games, or audio-visual learning aids in the classrooms, the surge in the usage of all these forms of edutech has been noticeable in the past couple of years.
What the pandemic did is to accelerate the rate of adoption of the educational technology in institutions across the country. And, this increased rate of adopting more sophisticated educational technology is expected to continue well into the coming years.
Increased dependence on the e-learning resources
As we said before, the use of online resources is nothing new for most teachers and students. However, the rate of usage has certainly increased under the current situation, as the students have become more dependent on e-learning resources for obvious reasons. In fact, in response to this rise in demand, many online platforms have increased their range of services and collection of information. And, by rise in demand, we mean as high as 150 percent surge in the number of students accessing the platforms.
As both the mentors and the mentees have opened up to the convenience and vastness of e-learning resources, this trend is surely here to stay. You can, in fact, expect to witness a rise in accessing and relying on e-books, educational websites, pdfs, and journals even more after the pandemic scare leaves our lives.
Online classrooms are not going away for good
We, at DPS Kota, regarded as the Best School in Kota, are truly willing to get our students back to their classrooms as soon as possible. We hope that we can get back to the usual chirping and energy of our school in 2021. However, even if the schools reopen and the classrooms are filled again, we don’t see it as any reason to feel that the online classes are going away for good.
There is no doubt that online classrooms emerged as the best option for crisis management, but it also served as a glimpse into the future for everyone. While the schools are certainly not going to shift to a complete online model soon after the pandemic is over, retaining some elements from the model would definitely be on the cards.
The best part is that now we have the preparedness for it, be it from the school’s front or the students’. Thus, even if we are met with any such emergencies in the future, we are sure not to let it affect the progress of our students.
Being one of the Best Schools in Kota, we, at DPS Kota, firmly believe that the major events in the world are often a point of inflection for rapid innovation, and COVID-19 has been the same for the education system. What this pandemic has highlighted is the zeal of the educators to disseminate knowledge beyond all hurdles and hassles and the enthusiasm of students to continue the quest for their progression. And, if the new norms in learning can play a crucial role here, we should certainly be ready to explore its full potential.
