It’s 2020 and little Ted enjoys going to school or shall we staying at home because he doesn’t really have to go to school to learn. He can open his “school app” and access the class room lecture right from the confines of his home.
This is just a small example of how mobile apps are changing and will change education of the future, or shall we say how education is imparted in the future.
Let’s cut to the present. Mobile apps that belong to the education category are a popular pick on the iTunes store, Google Play, and even the BlackBerry App World. The reason is clear; more and more children are becoming technically savvy enough to use their smartphones or tablets and parents are allowing them to download and use mobile apps as a learning tool.
Interactive Learning
Learning will not be boring now. Mobile apps are turning it into an interactive experience. Let’s take the example of all those apps that revolve around improving a child’s vocabulary and pronunciation skills. Why do you think children do not get tired of using such apps; it’s because its various functionalists are able to engage the user and they are able to learn better and the fact that they are able to quickly grasp what they are trying to learn, makes the child want to learn more.
Better Student Assessment
There are plenty of applications available that make it simpler for teachers/faculties to assess their student’s learning. Gone are the days when teachers could just come to classrooms, teach and leave. The focus has shifted on ensuring that students have understood whatever has been taught or not. There are apps already available that allow teachers to take notes, push individuals quizzes designed for a particular student through to his/her tablets or smartphone and teachers can access their replies through their own devices. This is yet another small example how an education revolution is taking place, courtesy mobile apps.
Education becomes Less Burdensome
Books, endless documentation, and other education related paraphernalia over the years was not getting lesser, but was getting more and more burdensome by the minute. What’s more, education material was getting more expensive and not cheaper as should have been the case. Mobile apps are emerging as an equalizer. Yes, mobile technology is still expensive and not accessible to the poor, but it’s getting cheaper and there will be a time when just about everybody will have a mobile and/or portable device. That’s not happened yet but we are getting there.
Already schools are focusing on lessening the physical burden of students by cutting down on their paper load and asking them to Bring Your Own Device to school. What is needed are not books, but just a collection of apps to study. If you look back, digitization has over time, made even the most expensive things cheaper. Take entertainment for example. The digitization of entertainment made it cheaper (at least certain aspects of it) and popularized it. By digitizing education in the form of a mobile app, we are already taking steps to popularizing it and in a way also making it affordable.
More accessible higher education
Let’s call this an offshoot of the earlier pointer. Education, and I am talking about really high quality top tier education, it’s getting more expensive. The problem here is that many people don’t bother going for higher or profess education because of its expense. But, there is a ray of hope in the form of Massive Online Open Course (MOOCs) which has made learning cheaper and more accessible. Courses are being offered online and we are seeing more universities making investment in online learning than ever before. The focus has shifted from the traditional methods of imparting learning (in-class) to making them more accessible by taking them online. There are plenty of MOOCs based applications that are making use of social media to make sure that students can exchange notes and idea with one another.
This is just the beginning of an education revolution where in the power of mobile, web and technological advancements will converge to offer an enriching learning experience. This essentially will also mean that just about anybody and everybody will have access to good higher education without making a lot of investment in it.
Choices across Countries
Now this is something that I used to dream about, but believe that it will shape up in the next few years. What am I talking about? Mobility giving me a smorgasbord of choices to choose from as far as university courses; so I can choose a humanities course offered by the National University of Singapore without leaving American shores or take up something offered by the Oxford University. I am not talking about online courses, but going one step ahead and thinking about apps that I can download from their sites that will give me access to real time class room lectures and also allow me to participate in discussion etc.
Imagine the revolution this will bring out in the way we consume learning. We get unlimited choices, where we can learn from the best universities of the world, right from where we are at, currently.
Conclusion
We are entering an era wherein education becomes more exciting and where mobility makes available immense possibilities for the access and dissemination of learning. We essentially are limited by our own imagination because the technology is available and evolving rapidly. It now depends on the people themselves whether they are ready to consume learning that is empowered by mobility. There is a bit of rethink required but I have no doubts in mind that mobility enriched education is our future. Brick and mortar schools and colleges will cease to exist as center of imparting learning, but will only be facilitators. They will only keep watch on whether the right learning is being imparted at the right time. That’s it. The world is already in the midst of a mobile and web driven revolution and its affecting each and every aspect of our lives, including education.
It is in our best interests that we are able to make use of it to better our lives.