Current Situation of Digital Education in India is the way forward to learning and gaining knowledge through the means of technology and digital devices. COVID-19 pandemic had briefly disrupted the school education system in India. Since the 1st lockdown in March 2020, all the states have responded to the COVID-19 situation with speed and innovation. The existing digital resources were leveraged to maintain continuity in students’ education. Owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the education sector is in crisis now. Educational institutes are closed and most probably, they will remain closed through 2020 due to an increasing number of Covid-19 cases. This could even extend to 2021.
In this situation, digital education has come to the rescue of the cause of education. However, there are several challenges of digital education and the same needs to be fixed. The Covid-19 outbreak has disrupted children’s lives, pushed out many, and stalled classes and examinations across the country. To ensure students do not miss out on studies, schools shifted the classes to digital mode. With the pandemic forcing the teaching and learning process to migrate to the digital mode, the education system has faced an upheaval like never before. Many of the students have been left clinging to their phones and computer screens. However, the 2017-18 National Sample Survey suggested that less than 15% of rural Indian households have Internet as opposed to 42% of their urban counterparts. Therefore, this shift to the e-learning system has sparked a debate on whether it helped the students to learn or has impeded their progress, social and emotional well-being, and more importantly if this is indeed education. Digital education is the innovative use of digital tools and technologies during teaching and learning and is often referred to as Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) or e-Learning. Exploring the use of digital technologies gives educators the opportunity to design engaging learning opportunities in the courses they teach, and these can take the form of blended or fully digital courses and programs.
With the development of the Internet, mobile phones, mobile apps, tablets, laptops, and other modern devices, things are becoming more and more digitalized in today’s world. The education system in India’s metros and other cities has also become modernized to a great extent, making way for digitalization. With a few international schools coming up, digital education is making its way into the education system of India and is taking the place of traditional classroom training. Gone are those days when classroom training was restricted to textbook learning, teachers using the blackboard to explain things, and students writing down notes in copies. The traditional teacher-centered methods of teaching and task-based approaches to learning focused more on making notes and memorization. However, it is no more chalk and talks in most schools. Classroom teaching has become more and more interactive nowadays with the use of digital methods such as PPTs, video presentations, e-learning methods, practical demos, online training, and other digital methods or platforms. The incorporation of digital Education in the classrooms can depend on simply using tablets rather than of paper to using intricate software programs and equipment as averse to the simple pen.
Ankita Shetty
(Volunteer)
