How EdTech can facilitate access to high level education

Global demand for well-educated professionals is soaring, yet countless countries are struggling to churn out enough qualified graduates to meet the needs of modern enterprises. Obstacles like geographical and financial barriers are keeping excellent students from attaining their full potential. However, technology is slowly opening up the education market and with the assistance of digital technology, we can radically reshape how we educate our workers of tomorrow.

Barriers to education

Geography presents a significant obstacle to learning. Students, particularly those in more rural settings, struggle to simply get to and from school or university. Workers, too, are finding it difficult to travel long distances to schools to receive skills training without disrupting their schedules or jobs.

Geographic divides are a particularly frustrating barrier to education given the ample online tools at the disposal of educators. Modern education technology, or EdTech, can easily enable students and workers around the globe to receive the same education as those living close to or within education hubs without having to leave their homes. Smartphones, tablets, and widespread computer availability streamline digital education access but a lack of adequate software and digital infrastructure is preventing this. Indeed, the education sector’s digital expansion lags behind the rest of the digital economy.

In the immediate future, the so-called “digital divide” that separates those with access to digital resources from those who lack such access will continue to perpetuate the geographic restriction to education. Legislators and modern enterprises need to invest heavily in strengthening our digital infrastructure to ensure a more accessible education system. Online learning can only help students overcome geographic barriers if our infrastructure is capable of supporting it in the first place.

Tools at our disposal

According to the 2019 Horizon Report on the future of education, a number of tools deserve special attention from those innovators trying to reshape the future of education and skills training. In particular, mobile learning through smartphone interface provides an underutilized yet versatile medium for broad teaching.

Mobile learning began in earnest during the 1980s, but it experienced tremendous growth in the late 2000s with the introduction of smartphones into the mainstream marketplace. Mobile learning is a particularly potent educational tool because it is often coupled with gamification to incorporate elements of gaming into traditionally non-gamified experiences, like education. Employees and students are motivated to return to their skill training apps because their smartphones frame such training processes as a game, capitalizing on competitive scenarios to hone in on certain skills.

Education gamification was initially taboo in many academic circles, but with young students ready and eager to harness digital technology, companies and universities are wising up and increasing engagement. Nonprofits like GameDesk earned the powerful backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation precisely because they have helped teachers turn old-school classrooms into digital environments where students learn with apps and software. Other companies like Duolingo help millions of workers learn new languages quickly by sending motivating reminders on their phones to practice vocabulary.

Video learning is also proving popular as elite universities begin to appreciate the need to expand their teaching techniques beyond the immediate confines of campus. Companies like Scholarly, led by Vivek Bhandari offer students from all around the world the opportunity to connect and learn with elite American universities and professors in an interactive virtual classroom. William Erbey, a lead investor in Scholarly and System73, warns that students are gradually being priced out of a college education as spiraling education costs outstrip wage increases.

“It is absolutely imperative that we take a far more thoughtful approach to education providing students with information to make better career choices.  Far too many students take courses where there is less than a rosy future for their chosen careers with little prospect of paying off their student loans,” said Erbey.

A new reality

Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) systems are also proving crucial to education regimes and have made impressive gains over the past few years. By examining use cases of augmented reality in educational processes, where science students can perform virtual dissections or where history majors can better contextualize hieroglyphs, AR/VR initiatives offer otherwise bland classrooms a deeper and richer learning experience.

Google Expeditions is already allowing teachers to take students on fantastic AR expeditions that explore the complexities of the circulatory system or the history of the moon landing. Major companies around the world are following suit and have been buying AR Edtech to reskill their future workforces more efficiently. While still in its developmental phases, AR/VR is set to reshape our modern economy from the ground up.

Adaptive learning is the future

The future of traditional education and workforce skills training will be defined by adaptive learning. Underdeveloped rural areas in particular stand to benefit from adaptive learning which is why enterprises in developing markets approach it with enthusiasm. Consider a report on the promise of personalized learning in rural America that depends heavily upon adaptive learning methods. Adaptive learning software is introduced to underprivileged areas where it harnesses data to provide students with questions and lessons tuned to their natural talents and competencies. Indeed adaptive learning is a nod to Einstein’s famous line, “if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Adaptive learning fosters critical thinking skills and flexibility. Students are not simply learning through technology, but are learning how to use technology in new, diverse ways that will ensure they have the right tools to be the next digital innovators. Ultimately, Edtech will be used to deliver more knowledge to under schooled populations than ever thought imaginable.

Age-old excuses for lackluster results are melting away with the arrival of fantastic new technologies. By tapping into the power of EdTech, students, workers, educators and legislators can be a part of a new revolution that provides even the most isolated and poor communities with a modern education.

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