Technology Is Just A Piece Of A Pie, A School Has A Bigger Role To Play

In the last two decades we have seen schools gradually make the shift from blackboards to smart boards, desktops to laptops, textbooks to ipads. Today, every school is trying to be future ready by bringing digital technology in the classrooms. However, can just bringing in technological solutions into your classrooms make you a ‘future ready school’?

Introducing technology is only a small piece of the pie. A future ready school is much more than being simply technologically efficient. So let’s look at what a future ready school should be like.

•    Access to Technology: This is of paramount importance. With a lot of open source knowledge platforms on the rise, easy access to technology enhances learning experiences. It doesn’t restrict learning to the four walls of a classroom.
•  Champions of Personalized Learning: Principals and educators must believe that each student has different levels of learning. That, the same mode or pace of instruction cannot suite every child. They must champion the power of personalized instruction and emphasis on personalized learning, enabling every child to learn at their own pace.
•  Collaboration and Cultural Coexistence: There should be a healthy collaborative environment. Every policy that the school makes should be a made with the involvement of fellow educators, teachers, parents and students as well. This allows the students to take complete ownership of their learning. In a classroom environment, students will come together and work in teams,  learn outside their classrooms to solve real-life problems. These schools may also provide students with ample opportunity to interact with students across nationalities, across geographies and across cultures to give them a better exposure in life.
•   Environmental Sensitivity: A future ready school is not only a visionary in thinking of the values needed for a better tomorrow but is also the one that takes into account the challenges that the world faces today and prepares children to combat these. A school must sensitize its students to bring in innovative ways to live in harmony with the environment. The classrooms of these schools witness healthy discussions around using electric cars, green buildings and upcycling (creative reuse).

For schools to be truly future ready, they must go beyond mere implementation of technology and devices.Schools with a futuristic outlook on education are those that think about the larger ecosystem which comprises of culture, nature and learning needs.