Home ›› 22 Dec 2021 ›› Opinion
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will transform industries so considerably that much of the work that exists today will not exist in 50 years. It is imperative for people to understand the impact of these changes on all areas of our lives, including the all kinds of learning institutions. Currently, all graduates face a world transformed by technology, in which the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, Big Data, Cloud and Edge Computing, and social media create different opportunities and challenges for formal education systems. As students consider life after graduation, learning institutions are facing questions about their own destiny, especially employment. These technologies powered by artificial intelligence are so much transforming the world that social concepts such as “post-work” are more and more defining the present period. This period requires certain skills that are not exactly the same as the skills that were required in the Third Industrial Revolution where information technology was the key driver.
The connection between education and society is often implied to be one-way where education is expected to fit in with economic and political trends, rather than opposing them and representing something different. Such a general understanding of the relationship between education and the socioeconomic structures and what the education position involves help us to form a projection of future higher education associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The goal of higher education in the 4IR era is to ensure the quality of learning via teaching, to enable learners to get the latest knowledge through exploratory research and to sustain the development of societies by means of service. Higher learning institutions in the Fourth Industrial age should put innovation, both evolutionary and revolutionary, high on its agenda and deepen its technology system reforms by breaking down all barriers to innovation.
Higher education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is complex and brings exciting opportunities which can potentially transform society for the better. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is powered by artificial intelligence and it will transform the workplace from tasks-based characteristics to human-centered characteristics. Because of the convergence of man and machine, it will reduce the subject distance between humanities and social science as well as science and technology. The need for a higher learning institution to respond is urgent as the power of 4IR technologies for either positive social impacts or devastating environmental damage is upon us. This will necessarily require much more interdisciplinary teaching, research and innovation. Education 4.0 is a purposeful approach to learning that lines up with the fourth industrial revolution and about transforming the future of education using advanced technology and automation. To keep up with the change, one has to revisit the traditional educational paradigms with a futuristic approach. Students should be adept with skills set by the fast-changing technology; they should be led, but not instructed; information should be made accessible, but not fed to them. Both general and vocational education should aim at making students skill-ready to compete with the outside labor force.
Major trends of Education 4.0: (1) A more personalized learning: Education 4.0 appreciates the individuality of every single student and their own pace of learning. Having a personalized way of teaching will have a greater impact on students to achieve their outcomes easily. With Artificial Intelligence and Cloud computing, there are numerous tools available that tweak the whole teaching process as per the individual learner’s needs learning pace. Faculty, on the other hand, will be able to easily identify the strengths and weaknesses of the students and provide instant feedback. (2) More remote learning opportunities: The cornerstone of Education 4.0 is making learning available anywhere, anytime with the set of e-learning tools that promotes remote and self-paced learning. The Active Blended Learning (ABL) concept is picking up, where students get to be actively involved in learning beyond classrooms. This way, they end up mastering both practical and experiential learning. (3) The plethora of education tools: Education 4.0 offers a clear route to students by making tools and techniques handy in their learning environment. This means that the students will be able to choose the tools and techniques through which they want to acquire knowledge. Collaborative and engagement tools flipped learning, and blended learning are a few to mention. (4) Project-based learning: The project-driven approach that Education 4.0 supports helps students learn in a fun and interesting way! It shuns theoretical knowledge and prompts students to learn time management skills, organizational skills, collaborative skills, time management skills, much needed for their employment for the road ahead. (5) Easy and accurate assessment: A more practical way of assessment comes into place with Education 4.0. There are both online and offline assessments and students get assessed on projects, assignments, and fieldwork. (6) Data at the fingertips: There are greater insights into the students learning journey with data analytics and reporting in Education 4.0. The statistical analysis allows teaching staff to learn where students exactly stand and guide them appropriately.
Strategies by which education institutions can prepare students for Education 4.0: The only way is by aligning industry requirements with education. Here are a few ways by which the same could be achieved; (a) Remodeling of Curriculum with special stress on futuristic subjects. With digitization and automation, a skill-based curriculum is an order of the day. Employers are running short of skilled workforce and bank on universities and educational institutions to upskill the present workforce. (b) Building digital skills. Institutions should have modern workplace skills and focus on training their faculty to build digital skills to develop fully able students for their workplace. Soft skills should be made indispensable with a mix of problem-solving, social skills, and process skills. (c) Opt for digital tools for virtual learning (face to face) environments (VLEs). This is picking up across the world where students and faculty gain remote access for teaching through LMS. Learning and teaching, accessing course content, online chat facilities, discussions, collaborations, peer teaching, blended learning, all happen in flexible hours. (d) Tweaking of course delivery. There should be synchronization between the Faculty and the curriculum taught. Faculty should be open to using technological applications to improve students’ cognitive learning abilities. They should adapt to personalized adaptive learning techniques for a smarter learning approach to make the whole process fun and interesting. A robust professional framework with career planning inter disciplines should be included. This aspect will futurize Indian education for building a workforce for enterprise 4.0. (e) Technology built classrooms to be initiated across universities, colleges, and higher education institutions to deliver successful graduates for the cyber-physical systems prevalent across all industries. This means building a technology-rich curriculum, transforming the learning approach, to better the student experience. This education industrial revolution 4.0 focuses on modern and smart technology, AI, robotics, all of which influence our everyday lives.
Giving today’s workforce the right tools will help create a more multifaceted society where everyone plays their part well, adding to a self-sustainable model of education. We have to value the power digital technology has on transforming education and have to be aware of end-to-end higher education software that digitizes and automates the toughest processes and makes your campus future-ready. Our educational institutions have to design tools to provide 24/7 virtual learning, platforms to offer personalized learning and to easily connect with faculty and other students, tools to develop curriculum the way student prefer, admit, and enroll, conduct assessments online, etc.
We have to formulate outcome-based education module for students’ accreditation needs, competency-based education module for developing effective skill-based learning. In some context, we have already built some hybrid products that improve the experience, reduce the cost of operations, and automate processes within higher education. Students scheduling efforts, Virtual Classroom enablement, Accreditation, strategic planning, everything have to take care of with a set of Project Management Tools, Reporting & Analytics tools. While planning for next big shift in the education paradigm, together let’s plan a preferable future for today’s students. In keeping with the changing situation of today’s competitive world, curriculum development has to be done with utmost importance of information technology knowledge.
The writer is Research Officer, District Education Office, Munshiganj. He can be contacted at [email protected]
