The Next-Gen Education

18 May 2020 |16 Comments | Leena Ali

Education today

People often confuse education with schooling. Hearing the word, the first picture that comes to most of our minds are places like schools or colleges. The strategies followed by many schools and teachers today are not something which can be named as 'Education'. This method was accurately named as Banking by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator (1973). He explained the current education system as a mode of making deposits of knowledge which treats learners like objects or things to be acted upon rather than people to be related to

Education has not changed drastically in the last 100+ years. The main principle of education has remained the same since the industrial revolution so as to pass children through a conveyor-belt of standardized class sessions in order to mass-produce people who are ready to take jobs. Schools are not keeping up with the change and fail to prepare students for life which demands diverse and more complex thinking. This results in a situation when nine out of ten people in the workforce would say that education did not prepare them for what they are doing today.

Education - Reimagined

Individuals must be prepared for the current world, not for the one that was. For this, the system of education must be renovated in such a way that it ensures the 'Educated' embodies the qualities and competencies essential to live in a society that is entirely different from the industrial past. These qualities include creativity, critical thinking, innovative thinking, curiosity, social intelligence, adaptability, entrepreneurial spirit, and knowing how to ask the right questions.

This can be achieved only if the Education system is reimagined and transformed through innovation that leverages AI, Mobile, Cloud, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Big Data, and more. The reinvention of a new era can only be possible through innovation. The classification of education in the standard of living is as follows

Game-based Education
Adaptive Learning
Personalized Learning
Human Cloud
Online Education
Virtual Teachers
Virtual Learning
Holographic training
AI-Enabled training

Next Generation Education

Next Generation Education - A type of learning and education reform that breaks the traditional models of education. The Next Generation Education replicates the learning model designed around Lecture halls, busy work, standardized tests, blocks of classroom time, just about anything that was designed a century ago. It focuses on the learning process which is tailor-made for each student based on his/her interests and capabilities.

Next-generation Education is adaptive and progressive to meet the needs of students unlike traditional methods. The three fundamental shifts of modern learning environments are as follows:

The social learner: moving from me to we
The self-directed learner: moving from dependency to autonomy
The inquiry-based learner: moving from the know to the unknown

Given these shifts, NGE prepares students for college and careers. The five habits that will be practiced in NGE are as follows:

Powerful Learning Experiences - NGE leverages technology-supported roles for deeper learning including student as producer, journalist, scientist, historian, maker, inventor, etc
Productive Learning Environments – NGE will include shifts for online classes for a part of the day to make students, teachers, and schools more productive using rotation and flex models
Know the Learners - Know your students well by managing a learner profile that drives student-centered learning
Promote Growth - Students will show what they know and will progress through Badges and other recognition systems which will chart their accomplishment
Building a Community – NGE promotes community by involving parents and make connections with youth and family services.