The world as we know it is changing. There was a time when children went to libraries when they had any research to do. There was a time when the students made presentations using chart papers and models. A time when kids asked their teachers and parents how the world worked. A time when play time meant running out of the classrooms and homes to the open lush green grounds. But that time was a long time ago.
We now live in the age of DIGITAL. Students use the internet to do their research. They use an array of softwares on their computers to prepare their presentations. The children today spend hours on their playstations and computers or phones playing games with other children sitting half-way across the world. So we need to change too.
In order to be a global leader in education, technology, information, science, space, medicine, tourism, defense and every other field imaginable, we need to become a part of India’s ‘Digital India Campaign.’ The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) dedicated an entire section on ‘Digital Literacy’ in order to achieve supremacy in the digital world.
Let us first understand the term,“Digital literacy means being able to understand and use technology. It relates to the ability to find, use and create information online in a beneficial and useful way. Digital literacy also means knowing the limitations of technology and understanding the dangers and precautions that the use of technology requires.” In this day and age it is impossible to control the type of content your students are exposed to while they are on the different digital forums. This is the precise reason that we as educators must not forget to educate and prepare our students about the various dangers of the digital space.
The educators and mentors today need to be well equipped to deal with the technologically advanced students as well as for the upcoming times when students get exposed to the world of block chains. NEP 2020 has shown the foresight the education sector requires. They plan to set up an autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), that will aim at “providing a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration and so on, both for school and higher education.”
Among the various suggested aims of NETF, the primary aim will be “to facilitate decision making on the induction, deployment and use of technology, by providing to the leadership of education institutions, state and central government, and other stakeholders, the latest knowledge and research as well as the opportunity to consult and share the best practices.”
It is time for all educational institutions to prepare themselves for the upcoming revolution in the field of education. It is time for all educators and mentors to take it up a notch, and push their pedagogical practices to the next level. It is now that we prepare ourselves for a whole new world. As difficult as that sounds, we must remind ourselves the famous words of a great Greek philosopher Heraclitus,
“Change is the only constant.”
- Author: Planet
Date: 08 August, 2022
