Tech

Future of Education: Will Education Be Digital In Future?

Long before the pandemic hit our planet, conversations had started taking place where the future of education was being questioned....

L ong before the pandemic hit our planet, conversations had started taking place where the future of education was being questioned. With the increased use of technology and an internet-based society, people started wondering whether the field of academia would even require humans to exist in the field of teaching in-person, or will education be digital in the future entirely? Some were against it while some were in support of education being digitized. However, it is during the pandemic that people all over the globe were left with no choice. Schools had to switch to online learning since attending schools and universities became impossible. 

The Impact Coronavirus Had On The Move Towards Digital Education

With the pandemic unpredictably hitting our planet since the beginning of the year, children all over the world had their education flipped over in a way where their future became extremely uncertain. Since going to school became a health risk, for a good while, the schools and universities were shut down. It was as the pandemic progressed that educational institutes had to resume and the only way forward was to switch the entire educational system online. The pandemic consequently forced everyone from teachers to parents to adjust to the new way of attending school while staying at home. This brought forth “Digital Formation”, which is defined by G. Vial in their journal as a process that has an aim to bring on significant changes in the properties of an entity through computing, connectivity technologies, combining information and communication. 

Is Digital Education More Cost-Friendly Or More Expensive?

While it is true that having school online incurs fewer costs in terms of running the institute since the overhead costs are significantly cut down. Additionally, students’ travel expenditure is also saved along with the school material cost since everything is essentially done online. 

However, one needs to keep in mind that the educational cost in itself, the tuition fee, costs a lot. Receiving your education online does not entirely cut down the cost that many universities and schools are charging. Often, it is the same tuition they were taking when providing on-campus facilities too, which often had students bewildered. The costs for laptops and computers also went up as students had to now invest in them to go to school. 

It also failed to take into account that if a permanent switch to a digital educational environment is made, schools will have to start investing in online resources/tools to make the studying system effective which could potentially add to the total cost. 

The Challenges And Benefits Of Digitized Learning

With the growing advancement towards a digitized form of education, a lot of good things have come our way as well. The world collectively came to witness how receiving education can be made more convenient than it was with teachers pre-recording lectures, which the students can listen to at their convenience. This is especially true for international students who went back to their home countries during this time. However, it needs to be considered that not everyone has the means to get themselves the technology needed for these classes. Some students struggle with online classes whereas in-person classes end up working better for them. 

Change In Educational Structures and Technological Advancements Based On Different Countries

It cannot be denied that we live in a very diverse world with hundreds of countries, which means that different countries have different kinds of resources. Not everyone is equally equipped to be able to benefit from technology-based education since digital devices cost a lot, which means that only those that have sufficient finances available to them or have strong governmental support providing them with the technology. 

Only rich people can take advantage of the technology-based education system. We live in a world where even getting the basic form of traditional classroom education is impossible for some people. Therefore, expecting that the entire world will be digitalized in the future will be unrealistic. It is also important to take into account that extensive training will be needed in order to make this shift. There is a possibility that most of them will have little to no experience with its usage. 

Keeping these things in mind, it can be concluded that reducing our answer to the question regarding education's future turning digital cannot be a simple one. While it is true that the world is generally making a switch towards a more technology-based educational mechanism, it will still take us quite some time to be able to become entirely digital due to the differences in countries and their resources along with the mixed opinions that people have about complete digitization of the field of education. 

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  • technology
  • COVID-19
  • digital education
  • global education
  • coronavirus