7:30 AM. All the members of the family are coming together to meet on the dining table with a sheet of paper and a pencil (pen). Before their day begins, this is the most crucial ritual as this would decide who would get the laptop, the well lit room and proximity to the high-speed internet during the day for the classes and all the other zoom meetings.
Sounds familiar? This and I am sure, many more, new rituals would have been made to manage the after-effects of CoVid at each household. Similarly, Education, one of the most significant aspects, is also undergoing huge tectonic shifts (not referring to frequent earthquakes that are also becoming the new normal) and these changes are meant to stay for the foreseeable future.
Role of Technology
Technology, as an enabler, would become more important as the learning would shift online. This would lead to the sense of more connectedness as you can reach out to everyone across the globe and offer your learning, your experiences and in turn, receive what you are seeking. This would open doors to interdisciplinary, multicultural learning across borders that are connected by internet.
It’s time to Evaluate
The other side of interconnectedness is, what we all feel these days, too much information getting bombarded from each side. Invitations to webinars, art-therapy classes, online courses participation, signature-signing campaigns and the list goes on and on.What needs to happen is to take a step back and evaluate yourself; your interests and needs to engage in something that would strengthen your life journey and enable you to step forward in achieving your goal.
Role of an educator
The second shift that would happen is the role of an educator. The educator wouldn’t teach but facilitate. She would facilitate the learning process; would facilitate goal setting; would orient the kids to resources and how to manage them well and she would share the accountability of the learning process. The responsibility of learning rests equally on the learner and the educator where both are evolving and moving towards a common shared goal.
Importance of Life Skills
Marks, acing exams, practicing uncountable sample papers has to be given balance with the “life-skills” that are needed to manage situations like these. We all have to be prepared for the future and understanding the fragility of the life, giving the essential services wouldn’t be enough (hoping that reached people) imperative life skills like resilience, self-awareness, coping skills, critical thinking, listening and communicating, reaching out would become a really strong pillar in the space of education. These skills can’t be taught; they have to be experienced and felt. One of the ways to do that is engage yourself in multiple experiences and reflect, share your ideas, learnings to the community that you are part of.
Authored by
By Richa Dwivedi Saklani, Founder, Inomi Learning, a career and college guidance firm and Abhishek Juneja, Lead mentor and Coach, Inomi Learning
