ne of the characteristic features of the school children today is the heavy school bags on their back, weighing at least

half their body weight. As the level of knowledge children are expected to acquire keeps increasing, will this bag become bigger and bigger in the years to come? May be yes, if we continue to deliver education in the same way we do now. But the education of tomorrow is all set to change for better, with the use of technology. Technology will play a major role and will become an important enabler of learning in the future. The major drawback of the present education system is its focus on grades or marks rather than learning. Students' level of learning is assessed by their marks. Hence the system has shifted its focus from 'teachinglearning' to 'memorizing and examination preparation'. The process of education has moved far away from

its very purpose, which is to 'enable learning'. Thankfully, technology can come as a savior and restore the order. Technology enabled learning is catching up in schools and will slowly and surely change the way our future children will learn. Technology as a tool for learning can do wonders, particularly for countries like India where population and scarcity of quality teachers are the major challenges. What is technology enabled learning? You may be familiar with words such as eLearning, smart class, digital class, online learning, remote class, mobile learning, social learning, eTutoring and so on. All these are different forms of technology enabled learning. Technology can be used in many ways and forms but the main objective is to provide exciting learning environment to the learners enabling effective and e f f i c i e n t k n o w l e d g e t r a n s f e r. Technology opens up unlimited possibilities of making the process of

The mindset of the education administrators today, be it Government officials or school authorities or even teachers, is so much rooted in the old conventional methodologies, they resist the change.
learning very exciting. Imagine the level of interest our children will have, if they can learn mathematics through puzzles, science through animations, history through stories, language through interactive conversations or environment through videos. With interactive rich multimedia contents students' interest and the level of engagement in learning process can be sustained for a longer time. The process of learning will be more of fun than strain. Technology can also enable peer to peer learning, collaborative learning and social learning, all of

which are proven to be far more effective ways of learning than the conventional class room sessions. Students will have the choice to learn at their own pace. Wherever required, local language support can also be built to aid easy understanding. But, what are the challenges? The first challenge is creating quality digital content. This would require huge investment. Today there are many organizations investing in creating digital school content, but unfortunately, most of them are scattered and repetitive. There is no standardization and every developer adapts strategies which he or she thinks is the best for the children. The quality of content varies from poor to good depending on the expertise of the developer. If Government steps in and facilitates creation of central repository of high quality digital content by partnering with private players, the investments made in a sporadic manner can be channelized meaningfully. The repository of digital content can then be made available to the masses at affordable cost. This will immensely benefit a large section of students who do not have access to quality teachers. Be

it the students of posh urban schools or poor rural schools, digital contents can offer the same level of learning opportunity. Technology enabled learning can be replicated quickly and can be scaled up to serve large population. The second challenge is to create the necessary technology infrastructure in schools or places of learning. Today, the investment requirements have come down drastically with advancement in technology. Now, setting up of a digital class room is very much within the reach of even small schools. Advent of student tablets and low cost laptops is likely to break the barrier of high cost being a limiting factor for use of technology. Government has allocated large amount of funds to enable ICT based learning in all the schools. Some Governments have even started giving free laptops and tablets to students. Sooner than later we will see every student carrying just a digital notebook and not a big bag of notes and books. Third challenge is the mindset of the education administrators. Many times

we have seen great ideas which look good on paper fall flat on ground when implemented. In most cases it would not be the fault of the idea, but the resistance to change at the ground level. The mindset of the education administrators today, be it Government officials or school authorities or even teachers, is so much rooted in the old conventional methodologies, they resist the change. Some of them even see technology as a threat to their survival. If these fears are removed by proper articulation and training and if the administrators are motivated to embrace the new way of learning, then the education revolution will start on its own. Despite the challenges, it is only a question of time, before the technology enabled learning will become the order of the day. Technology has the power to change things for better and soon it will redefine the way our children learn. One thing is for sure, that there is a lot of excitement in store for the children of the future.