10 Effective Ways To Leverage Tech In Education Systems
Education is worth even more than most tangible assets in today’s world.💰
Its importance cannot be compromised yet having a plethora of institutions in our country we do lack many essential qualities.
In fact, a recent survey done by Business Insider states that by 2030 over half of the Indian students won’t possess quality industrial skills to be employed.
Hence it’s crucial that institutions optimize and update education systems to keep pace with the demands of the industry.
Here are some ways they could accomplish it.
Adopting digital resources to implement classroom activities
Technology is taking over the world at a rapid pace and so it’s the responsibility of the universities to keep their teaching methods updated to the latest trends.
Gone are the days when Professors would dictate notes or write on the blackboard.👨🏫
Classes can be digitized leveraging many applications available out there.
One of my favorites is Google Classroom
This app offers a great way to implement classroom tasks such as posting notes, grading assignments, marks composition and much more, taking the burden off students from having to mope around the campus just to get the above tasks done.
Many Institutions, more specifically speaking lecturers use messenger apps like WhatsApp, Telegram for this purpose which functionally works but there are limitations as these apps are made for just short to intermediate messages.
If the institution has the necessary prerequisites like Free Wifi and a server then its quite easy to implement these in the elementary classroom.
For instance, let’s take Google Classroom
It has many nifty features like
- To-Do lists📜
- Calendar embedded within for reminders and task-scheduling🗓
- Separate directories for better organization of source material📁
and also it supports larger files to be shared over messenger apps.
Provision Of Free Internet Access Is A Must
Do I even have to emphasize the importance of the Internet in today’s world, especially for students?
A survey conducted by Pew Research Center concluded that nearly 79% 🤯
of all students use the internet for almost all their academic needs. So it’s no wonder that the internet is an integral part of a student’s life.
And given the fact that a student spends nearly 1/3 rd of their time at college, internet access is essential.
Although today most of the institutions provide free internet access however about 2–3 years ago this was not the case.
In January 2018, the MHRD of India made it mandatory for institutions to have free internet access without affecting the financial implications on the institution on account of implementation of the project.
Yet, there are many institutions in India that either have a poor 🤒connection or no connection at all.
The MHRD is trying their best to implement it, some of which are still under development in Tripura and Gujarat
The main concern is not the cost but merely reception, as fortunately, the internet is quite affordable to everyone now, as compared to 2–3 years earlier but we still face connectivity issues.
Installation of an enterprise-level fiber-optic connection over a Wifi network would help students overcome this issue.
Provision Of Network Servers To Host Local Data
A server in an institution immensely facilitates the students and faculty. Just imagine the burden of organizing all the college activities, journals, notes, software and more in some storeroom or some local machine.
This creates different concerns, primarily issues of privacy, portability, security 😢.
A server in an institution makes it quite easy for staff to post and for the students to receive.
Also, this replaces the need for posting information on a college noticeboard.
The benefits of a server are immense
- Students don’t have to approach their respective lecturer for notes, assignments as it can be accessed directly from the server
- Abstains the need for physically browsing the library for question papers
- All the necessary tools required for learning can be downloaded directly
- Any changes to the content of the files by the owner are readily available and reflected.
- Same goes for the students who are referring to previous year projects as archives of these projects are periodically updated
- It is quite handy for the students to keep track of their attendance and any changes to the same
- To check academic scores, marks, results
LTSP Server is one great example that is an open-source server.
Encouraging Distance Learning and Leveraging its Corresponding Tools
One global issue faced by students in India is attendance and the corresponding magic number 75. Not everyone lives a stone’s throw away from the institution, many of the students travel a 2 digit number of kilometers 🚌just to attend lectures not to mention the traveling costs even after including student’s concessions.
If the education system could restructure itself to include distance learning then it’ll be quite beneficial for students.
Distance Learning is a way to complete all the necessary classroom tasks via live broadcast or through correspondence without actually having to be physically🎒 present on the campus.
Distance learning is a boon to the students for many reasons
- Allows students to study at their own pace
- It’s quite flexible in its timing so students can incorporate other activities at that time. For instance a part-time job.
- It is easy to apply online and order your course material, having it sent to your home📮
- The cost of online lectures as in the case of distance learning is much cheaper as compared to the tuition fees of the college.
Some of the distance-learning organizations based in India are
Zeus Learning- is an e-learning company based in Mumbai which provides a wide range of technical as well as some non-technical courses.
BYJU’s- Headquartered in Banglore provides a wide range of content primarily Mathematical and Science related courses.
NPTEL-Funded by MHRD of India and ran by IIT madras and other IITs provides nearly all types of technical courses.
Institutions should provide more awareness about the various e-learning platforms available in India.
They should open up a local chapter within their campus to provide feedback or to solve queries of the students.
NPTEL is one of the best E-learning facilities in India which is free of cost although you may have to pay to be certified for the course.
Many institutions have inaugurated an NPTEL local chapter on their campus.
You can check if your institution has one here 👇
Another great approach is to make use of software available in the market which may facilitate distance learning.
Here is a link to some of the software
Switching to Linux OS
We know that we live in the age of computers.
Anyone today who doesn’t know to operate a computer is considered unemployable. Hence, It is important to keep up the pace with the industry in which institutions have been unable to keep up with the technological demands that meet industry standards which need to be a priority.
Some of the tech giants💪 that use Linux as their primary OS are
Google- many of its cloud computing, web advertising services run on Linux
Twitter- this social networking service is powered by nix OS(a Linux distribution)
IBM- this American-based company is again powered by nix OS
Raspberry Pi- runs on NOOBS OS which again is a Linux distribution
Cisco- the networking and routing giant are completely Linux Based
So taking into consideration the importance of Servers lets quickly dive into the advantages of Linux OS
Why Linux?
Stability and Reliability
Linux is Unix-based and Unix was originally designed to provide an environment that’s powerful, stable and reliable yet easy to use.
Many Linux servers on the Internet have been running for years without failure or even being restarted.
Free And Open-Source
The cost of Windows OS is quite high ranging from 99–199 $ for home editions and 500–6000 $ ⚡for server editions but unlike it, Linux is completely free and on top of that is free to be modified.
You can check the code to locate bugs, explore security vulnerabilities, or simply study what that code is doing on your machine(s).
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Maintenance
The total cost of owning and maintaining a Linux server is lower compared to a Windows server, in terms of licensing fees, software/hardware purchase and maintenance costs, system support services and administrative costs.
Security
Linux in itself, in the nature of its operation, is more secure than windows.
A server is under constant threats from viruses or for granting permissions.
Fortunately, Linux implements a variety of security mechanisms to secure files and services from attacks and abuses.
All in all, in Linux, before any system user/group or program access a resource or executes a file/program it must have the appropriate permissions, otherwise, any unauthorized action is always blocked.
Hardware Support
When it comes to networking, hardware changes are inevitable and so it becomes crucial to constantly update drivers, kernels in order to operate with the hardware.
Linux provides strong support for a mix of computer architectures, on both modern and old hardware
It’s true that Windows own 75 % of the market but still from the industrial point of view, Linux is the fastest performing OS with the smallest resource footprint.
Provision of facilities to strengthen their Social Media Presence
Now, this does not include apps like Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat but rather professional social apps like LinkedIn, Github, BitBucket, Indeed among others.
Github: it is an open-source software collaboration tool that facilitates sharing, editing your code globally. It provides a way for anyone to commit to your code via a feature termed as collaborators.
Some benefits to having a Git Hub account as a student
- Developers can publish their code as well as all the necessary files relating to their project directly from their local machine and by doing so, contribute to the open-source community.
- It provides many features such as cloning repos, forking and also downloading repos as zip files.
- Github is primarily designed for easing the process of developing projects in a team.
Team members can code and commit the changes to the repo hence remotely contributing to the project.
Github has also launched Github education for students and teachers.
Discounts for students are also available. For more details go to https://education.github.com
GitHub offers plans for free, professional, and enterprise accounts. Free GitHub accounts are commonly used to host open-source projects. As of January 2019, GitHub offers unlimited private repositories to all plans, including free accounts.
LinkedIn: Linkedin in a platform that lets users manage their professional identity and provides access to knowledge, insights, and opportunities.
It supports all platforms Windows, Linux, Android, etc
It has free as well as premium access. Premium is primarily for gathering a wider audience and communicating with Professionals.
Maintaining a good LinkedIn profile has its own advantages
- It keeps you up to date with the latest business & industry trends &news
- Gives the interviewer an insight into the personality and interests of the candidate
- LinkedIn premium also features LinkedIn learning which provides you video courses from industry experts
- Ideal for seeking jobs and other opportunities
- It also features informative groups were members of a community or company can work together
Reddit: is a social platform where people all over the globe post various content such as links, multimedia which are then voted by other members.
A member is referred to as Redditor.
It is quite simple to create an account on Reddit and it doesn’t require an email address
It has tons of benefits
- You can post a question, query on almost any topic and expect reliable and quick answers due to the huge numbers of Redditors
- You can vote other’s work as well as give karma points to others for their help.
- Also, it is one of the best ways to attract traffic to any website that you have developed or almost any work that you want others to follow.
Substituting OPAC Over The Primitive Library
Have you ever been in a situation where you have to go through hours to find a particular book 📚 and then find out that the book is missing?
OPAC is the Online Public Access Catalogue or, in other words, the library catalog. It’s an online database of all of the resources held in the library. You can search for OPAC to locate books in the library.
Below are some steps institutions can take to transform their library
- Include a local computer that has access to the OPAC database. This would help students to quickly glance at all available titles, authors, books available and so on.
If the institution has a server then even better, the OPAC database can be hosted by that server for everyone to access personally on their systems. - Open up a website or some mobile application to facilitate library tasks such as Renew, Lend, borrow, fines, etc.
- Make buttons at and for the library! Button makers came up at ACRL as an inexpensive and fun way to get patrons talking about the library.
It's about time to digitalize the library, In fact, institutions could help students by offering Premium content to sites like Delnet, IEEE.
IEEE is one of the most reliable digital libraries in the world.
It has access to many contents including Scientific journals, e-books, conferences, meetings.
You can apply as a publisher for IEEE through which you can publish your work and earn.
Although membership charges are quite high, IEEE has indeed thought about this from the point of view of a student and grants you access to the content as long as your institution has a membership with IEEE.
Linking Students With Industry Professionals To Improve Their Communication Skills and Technical Exposure
Exposing students with the outside world is crucial, it is perhaps one of the ways how most students discover their career orientation & direction
Organizing field-trips, excursions and even small meet-ups are sufficing to influentially impact the students. It gives students hands-on experience and digs curiosity in their minds.
Apart from this, it also has a positive impact on their academic growth.
A recent study conducted by Emilyn Ruble Whitesell shows that middle school students who participate in a science field trip through the Urban Advantage program score better on the state science test.
By participating in extracurricular activities students often get to travel locally and in some cases internationally. They become exposed to an even wider cross-section of people who represent diverse cultural backgrounds and lifestyles.
Institutions must consider this and organize these types of extra-curricular activities once in a while. Some of the ways to enhance this are
- Scheduling appropriately📅: they should be fixed in a manner such that it doesn’t clash with lectures.
- Giving Equal importance⚖: most institutions organize extra-curricular activities just for the sake or at least they don’t give much importance which is discouraging when institutions should really be focussing on the all-round development of the student irrespective to what type of institution it is.
- Economically priced💲: lastly, institutions must take into consideration the cost as the magnitude of student enrollment in these activities eventually depends upon how well they are priced.
Introducing R&D Cell in Every institution
It seems strange that many institutions don't have a Research and Development Cell in whereas in industries it is probably one of the most important departments.🤔
There are some research institutes in India but they are really selective in the selection of students admitted.
There are many students who actively learn and apply concepts that may develop or build something with untold potential🔬. They always require help which cannot be provided by their Faculty as their processes and methodology is different than researchers.
Research and Development is important for the following
- Many R&D projects are executed to tackle live problems
- This nurtures an environment that promotes creativity and scholarship
- To establish links with various R&D organizations and funding agencies or venture capitalist for pursuing sponsored and contract research projects
- Essential for searching and cultivating the undervalued potential in students🧠
- To provide a holistic enabling environment for potential researchers & entrepreneurs and graduating students so as to translate the knowledge and innovation into the creation of successful products.
- To forge academic and research collaborations with national and international universities, government organizations and industries.
Having an R&D cell is essential for growing curiosity in the minds of youngsters, nurture scientific thinking which is very imperative in the modern world.
Provision To Financial Education
What really differentiates a successful person from an unsuccessful one is the way he/she handles his/her capital.
Need for Financial Education at a young age.
- Empower youngsters with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to help them in accelerating their lives 🚀 and to financially secure their future.
- Financial Education is imperative as it equips people with a basic understanding of financial concepts to inform their real-world financial decisions
- Equip them to take charge of their personal finances, which can lead to more overall confidence, as finances affect everyone’s life in every way.
Introducing Edtech tools to teach financial education is one of the best ways. One great way to achieve this is through a community called Banquer.
“Including financial education into the school curriculum in an on-going manner would hold the key to making our future generations financially literate.”
Dr. K. C. Chakrabarty
Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India and Co-chair of the INFE Advisory Board
Now as a student even you can take steps to secure your financial education
- Reading reputed books, articles, and blogs relating to finances is the easiest way to build your financial education.
- Set smart goals, SMART 😎stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound
- Avoid student loans as far as possible as the interest piles up eventually compelling you to pay a hefty amount😒, an ISA is a better alternative, but it’ll be a while before its more commonplace among Indian institutions
- If you’re working part-time, you have the opportunity to start building your credit score, meaning when you graduate you’ll be in good financial standing and ready to succeed on your own.
- Finally, learn how to invest in investing solutions like SRP. As a beginner its good practice to take the help of a broker. You can even start now by investing small amounts through various applications like groww app.
As the saying goes
“Successful people live rich by living like they are broke and Unsuccessful people live broke by living like they are rich”.
I hope this article has given you an insight into some of the ways we can use tech to improve educational institutions in India
