Digital Transformation of Education

On International Women’s Day 2021, International Affairs Review is pleased to publish Roshini Kumar, a budding entrepreneur in digital transformation and education technology.

Born and brought up in Bangalore, Roshini Kumar did her schooling in Sophia’s High School, and did her Information Science Engineering from BMSCE Bangalore. Post engineering, she worked with Microsoft with the GTSC division, after which she went on to work with the HP Global Analytics division as a Business Analyst. She founded Lycee Corp in 2016 to meet the needs of every educational institution to transform from the four walls of the classroom to a Connected Learning Community.
The product Lycee- Cyber Academe was developed under the fostering program of Tech Avant-Garde. From the stable of Lycee Corp, Roshini launched Efee Online-Bespoke Fee management system for educational institutions. Now, Efee Online has got a co-sell program with Microsoft called MASP Pro.

Roshini’s quest to make a difference in young India from all segments of society made her launch a program called Roshini Social Schooling which is a experiential learning program mainly for government schools to make their children 21st century ready and to remove the knowledge divide. Now she is passionate about the Knowledge La’viner Conclave which makes the teachers digitally skilled and future ready.
Her moto is “Education transforms societies; knowledge is the only asset you can ever lose.”

Starting from today we will be bringing you a column by Roshini Kumar on dugital transformation in education. Here is the first column:

The current-day scenario is fast changing with the rapid onset of 360-degree digital overhaul in our lives and society, due to COVID19. Digital transformation is now touching every aspect of human life. The digital wave is not only changing and redefining industries across the globe, but it also extends to the most important part of human evolution – Education. It is imperative for education to transform digitally and leverage an experience that enriches educators and students across, to secure a better future for all. Pain areas which are universally affecting all educational institutions are Teaching-Learning Transactions.

The effective integration of technology in education is inevitable. However, it requires thoughtful blending of online infrastructure, access, knowledge, and empowerment of students, educators, schools, and communities. It requires a complex balance between the best of traditional education and new insights about how people learn. It depends on the use of technology to promote and enrich collaboration and communication and to enable new levels of virtual learning for life.

India has nearly 400,000 unaided private schools, with more than 79 Mil students enrolled. A majority of these schools are “affordable”, “low-cost” or “budget” private schools. There are 1.3 Mil Government Primary to Higher Secondary School with more than 113 Mil students enrolled. Both in government and private schools. 21 Mil teachers are employed.

Many private schools have lost their path and they are grappling in the dark on how to transform themselves to meet the challenges of the COVID era. They are fighting a three corner battle; First, how to get transformed digitally, Second, how to train their teachers and Third, to convince the parent that digital-empowered virtual education is as effective as classroom teaching. The Government schools have no plans and teaching is at a standstill.

Today, formal schooling is under threat; nobody is able to predict when the schools are going to reopen. Many teachers are insecure about their jobs.
Effective learning has always depended on effective teachers. Due to the COVID 19 situation, we have moved into the age of technology-empowered education where the teacher remains the critical link to learning.  The integration of technology does however create a more sophisticated and robust role for teachers during teaching.

Technology opens new doors to assessing, evaluating, and monitoring student learning, empowering teachers to help students capitalize on academic strengths and improve academic weaknesses.

Like all professionals, teachers need an opportunity to polish skills, update knowledge, and maintain professional connections. In schools as in companies worldwide, professional development with technology is proving to have benefits that extend throughout the organization.

Imagine, if formal education perishes in our country. Imagine, if our teachers are not empowered. The youngest population of the world will be handicapped in the “Knowledge Age”.
As per my research Tech Avant-Garde has successfully implemented a “Digital Transformation and Holistic learning” program, to transform schools from four walls of the classroom to a Connected Learning Community. Under this program, teachers have been trained in Gen Extra Muros – Knowledge Beyond Walls pedagogy. Educators trained in this program are “Future Ready”.

The learning ecosystem involves many parties: students, teachers, parents, administrators, government agencies and the community at large. Digital Transformation in education forms the confines of today’s brick and mortar schools, to a Connected Learning Community. The Connected Learning Community is a vision for lifelong learning. Connected learning today, and in the future, gives rise to a next-generation learning ecosystem powered by technology solutions that support highly accessible, engaging, and personalized learning for the “Knowledge Age”.

I have identified ten problems which are faced by educational institutions, as they stand at the crossroads, where traditional education is on the way out and education for the knowledge age is painfully being born.  The Digital Transformation challenges are as follow:

Employee Pushback.
Lack of Expertise to Lead Digitization Initiatives.
Organizational Structure.
Lack of Overall Digitization Strategy.
Limited Budget.
Employee Productivity Measurement.
Digital Industry Conference Platforms
Remote Internet Speed and Equipment.
Too Much Focus on Automation. …
Phishing Sites
Data Privacy.
Mobile Security.
Deepfake Content.

I will discuss these problems with experts and seek solutions from them. Meanwhile, if you are facing any problems in this transitional phase please send me an email, I will try to seek solutions for your issues too. I will be writing ten articles on seeking answers to Digital Transformation challenges in Education. I hope you will support me by sending your problems for me to find the solutions.

You can email me at: iareview2019@gmail

Aditi Bhaduri

See author's posts