Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the roots of every economy and completely transformed the way every industry functions including the education sector. The education sector completely adopted the remote teaching concept thereby connecting educators and students through technology. The present study aims at understanding that how Education 4.0 has helped in creating an intelligent learning space aligned with disruptive technologies for developing and enhancing education with learners at the center and further how this has facilitated remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the purpose of study, secondary sources of data including research papers and news articles based on the similar themes were referred. Education 4.0 has completely transformed the way the education sector functions by putting the learner at the center and making the entire process student-centric where the learner will decide what they want to study rather than putting a predefined syllabus in front of them. The intelligent learning space is created through the application of emerging technologies.
Top1.1 Introduction
The remarkable difference of Education 4.0 with the rest of the revolutions from Education 1.0 to Education 3.0 is that in the previous versions, even though several transformations took place including introducing the University culture, a standard curriculum for imparting knowledge, knowledge dissemination from one to many, imparting like skills and employability etc. but in all these transformations one thing was common and that is none of the versions kept the learner at the center. Education 4.0 overcame this drawback by making the entire system as learner centric and flexible according to what skill they want to acquire, how they want skills to be imparted, when they want to join a particular and when they want to complete it. All this in conjunction with implementation of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Mobile Learning, Block chain, Virtual reality etc. made it possible to customize not just the knowledge dissemination part but assessment as well as per the learners’ capabilities.
The Covid-19 Pandemic forced all the levels of education to transform their working model from traditional to remote learning which has been given the term emergency remote teaching. Before the outbreak of Covid-19, the edtech Industry has witnessed a high growth potential with the investments in the same reaching a height of US $ 18.66 billion in 2019 with a projection for online education to reach $ 350 Billion by 2025. There has been a significant increase in different tech enables apps like language apps, virtual tutoring, video conferencing tools like Microsoft teams, Zoom, Google meet, Google classroom etc. or online learning softwares. (Li. et al 2020)
The current system of education comes from the Prussian system which was designed to create good employees and obedient soldiers, who blindly follow orders and always need to be instructed. This system was not designed to teach students to follow orders and not to think.(Schrager 2018)
We are in transition; the learner is at the epicenter of a futuristic learning ecosystem. It is expected that “Education 4.0” is likely to require paradigm shift in:
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Demand-led instead of supply-led education which means that education should be as per what students want and their requirements rather than following a set established pattern.
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Competency-based instead of knowledge-based which requires that education should be such that matches the competence of students and should be customized as per that.
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Incorporate disruptive technologies &skill-sets which requires focus of education to be skill based rather than a normal standardized pattern.
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Lifelong learning instead of front-loaded learning which means that topics taught should be such that students are able to apply it practically and it stays with them throughout rather than just confining the knowledge acquired in their brains only.
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Emphasis on EQ than IQ alone so that the youth is emotionally stable and sensitive enough to empathize rather than just running in a rat race.
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Focus on purposefulness, mindfulness leading to overall Happiness & Wellbeing leading to creation of a positive world.
With this backdrop, the present chapter aims to:
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To identify and understand the role of disruptive technologies as the drivers of Education 4.0
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To study the transformation bought in Education Sector in form of Remote Teaching due to Covid-19 Pandemic.
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To understand how the disruptive technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Block chain etc have facilitated the creation of an Intelligent Learning Space for learners thereby promoting Remote Teaching
TopLiterature Review
Online learning is defined as “learning experiences in synchronous or asynchronous environments using varied devices (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, etc.) with internet access. In these environments, students can be anywhere (independent) to learn and interact with instructors and other students” (Singh & Thurman, 2019).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Artificial Intelligence: Intelligence demonstrated by machines through simulating the ability to think like humans and mimic their actions of reasoning, logic through past experience in a controlled manner, also known as machine intelligence.
Blockchain: Digital pieces of information stored in a public database, also referred to as distributed ledger technology.
Education 2.0: Transition frame where education focused on teaching and research.
Education 3.0: An approach towards education that integrates technology with learning for creating a virtual learning environment.
Disruptive Technologies: Any improved version of the existing technology or a completely new technology that disrupts the already established one.
Education 4.0: A school of thought with focus on imparting skills to make students industry ready.
Remote Learning: Where the student and the educator, or information source, are not physically present in a traditional classroom environment.
Pandemic: Occurring over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affecting a significant proportion of the population.
Education 1.0: Education frame where students were consumers of information and assessment was typically exam based.
Analytics Technologies: Technology for discovery, interpretation, and communication of identifiable or sensible patterns in data.