The way Industrial Revolution 4.0 is transforming the world, technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are impacting major industries, and in turn, jobs. It can be considered similar to the replacement of manual jobs by machine-handled tasks that occurred as a revolution in the 21st Century. This implies that Industry 4.0 will not only affect industries but consequently will transform the way jobs and education will be seen. This will result in the evolution of education 4.0.
Thus, it can be said that the fourth industrial revolution will affect the roles for which today’s students will be prepared. This will require educational institutions to produce a workforce for working in this technologically transformed era. Further, it will also require the current workforce to upgrade their skills and knowledge to match these newly created job roles. For this, a revolution in education is essential to enable people worldwide to harness the opportunities created by the advent of these technologies.
This transformation of the education industry will make it more personalised, peer-to-peer, and a continuous process. So, what is Education 4.0? Let us look at some pointers that can describe the future of education:
It will cater to the need of Industry 4.0 enabling the workforce and machines to align to explore new possibilities.
It will deploy the potential of digital technologies, open-sourced content and personalised data of this globally connected and tech-driven world.
It will create a blueprint for the future of learning – from school-based learning to learning at the workplace.
A few trends in this evolution of learning can be listed down as below:
Accelerate Remote Learning
Education 4.0 will enable learning anytime, anywhere as the e-learning tools and applications will provide opportunities for remote, self-paced learning. The role of classrooms will change wherein theoretical knowledge will be imparted outside the classroom while practical or experiential knowledge will be imparted face-to-face.
Personalised Learning
Education 4.0 will also enable personalised learning for students depending on their capabilities. This means that above average students will be challenged with tasks that are difficult as compared to students who are below average. This implies that there will be individual learning processes for each student. It will surely have a positive impact as it will enable students to learn at their pace. This will result in a better understanding of the concepts and an overall better result. It will also help teachers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student individually and guide them accordingly.
Choice of Education Tools
A part of Education 4.0 will be the technology/devices used by students to gain an education. While every subject has its own set of knowledge and information that the students can grasp, the road to attaining this knowledge can vary. This means that the students will be able to choose the tools and techniques through which they want to acquire this knowledge. Techniques like blended learning, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and flipped classrooms are a few examples of this.
Project-based Learning
The freelance economy is on the rise and will continue to do so. This means that the students of today will need to adapt to project-based learning and working styles. They will need to hone their skills and learn how to apply and mould them as per situations. Thus, students should be acquainted with project-based learning during high school education. This part of Education 4.0 will teach them organisational skills, time management skills, and collaborative skills, that they can further use in their academic careers as well as employment.
Field-specific Experience
As technology integration in specific domains facilitates more efficiency; the education curriculum will now accommodate more skills that require human knowledge and personal interaction. This will result in more emphasis on imparting field-specific knowledge to the students within the existing courses. This means that schools will now provide more opportunities for students to obtain real-world skills that are relevant to the prospecting job opportunities. Thus, the school curriculum will now include enhanced subject knowledge that can help students with their future internships, projects, etcetera.
Data Analysis
There were times when analysts used to collect and sort data manually – this is now done through the use of computers. Additionally, computers will also be used for all kinds of statistical analysis – describing and analysing data and predicting future trends. Education 4.0 will train students to apply theoretical knowledge and use human reasoning to examine the patterns and predict trends.
Changes in Exam Pattern and Assessment
The current student pattern of rote learning, wherein students blindly memorise the information given in the curriculum and write down their exams, will not be the trend anymore. Here, it is essential to understand that a traditional Q&A or subjective writing examination may not suffice the needs of future talent requirements. This means that the assessments, as part of Education 4.0, will not be solely based on the current examination patterns. It will be done by analysing their learning journey through practical and experiential learning-based projects or field works.
The impact of technology on the education industry will not only transform the way it is imparted, but also the way students perceive education. Education 4.0, or the future of education as many call it, will change the teaching-learning methodologies to make the students future ready. It is time to witness this change and inculcate it in our lives so that we can move towards a progressive, intellectual, knowledge-driven and future-ready world.
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