With the technology landscape dynamically changing every year, it is very critical that education undergoes an overhaul to meet up to the demands of these changes. The next generation should be ready to face the challenges and opportunities when they get out of the classroom.
In this era of digitization, rote learning is not applicable anymore nor it is enough to just read, write, and solve math problems. That's because drivers of change, such as virtual reality, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and a lot more are impacting how education is evolving.
According to the World Economic Forum, the demand for technology and computer skills will continue to grow by 20 percent by 2025. Moreover, these new technologies will create 2.1 million jobs by 2020.
Education technology has been trying to meet the challenges to get students ready by that time. And elite universities, like the MIT, Stanford, and Harvard, are leading the way by integrating online degrees with traditional ones. Online courses or MOOCs might not have lived up to the hype that it was initially expected of it but it is slowly helping create the change in the educational landscape.
Aside from MOOCs, there's also adaptive learning where the curriculum is specially designed for each student. Some examples of institutions that have introduced alternative learning are AltSchool and Pearson MyLab. AltSchool is a K-12 learning institution at its beginning stage where teachers team up with software to teach students. Pearson, on the other hand, offers digital courses to students but instead of offering a ready-to-made course outline, the curriculum is customized as the students make their progress. The program uses algorithms that analyze students' weaknesses and strengths as well as their learning styles and preferences to adapt the courses to the individual.
These are just two of the new formats of learning and many more are being developed as technology changes. Experts predict that by 2025, the whole educational landscape will be greatly different than now.
