What notes should parents take with the Edtech surge

2018 Scenario: Mom and Dad getting the kids ready and sending them off to school. Later on, the parents are at their respective workplaces, and after coming back home they all get busy doing their own thing. Parents help the younger kids with the homework and ask the older ones to get off their electronic devices and do their homework. The involvement increased during the times of the parent-teacher meeting.

2020 Scenario: Mom and Dad working on their laptops and the kids do the same. The difference here is, parents now can’t ask their kids to get off their electronic devices and do their homework, because the classes and learnings today are all being utilized by them via these devices. And as for the involvement of parents in education, it has increased more than ever!

Times sure have changed, for not just the students and teachers, but also for the parents. When talking about education, the most important stakeholders that come to our minds are the teachers and the students. But now with a surge in edtech (China makes up over 50% of all Global VC investment in education, the USA 20%), parents are also becoming key players in the edtech ecosystem. According to HolonIQ, the global expenditure on edtech is anticipated to reach around $342 billion by 2025. The emergence of edtech is not new, but the recent spike in the usage and adoption of edtech systems and practices have made it extremely crucial for the parents to understand and ensure their involvement in the process.

What are some notes that parents should take with the edtech surge?

Let’s discuss that further.

1) Edtech is here to stay

In the era of social distancing, remote learning is the way to go about in terms of education. And remote learning is the magic bullet of edtech. Despite classes being conducted online and via applications, there are still some advancements on the way that are going to disrupt remote learning altogether. And not just that, there are a number of other systems that make use of AI, ML, NPL, Adaptive Learning, and many other such technologies that are changing the face of education. This is something that parents need to accept and embrace. The kids of this generation won’t be found sitting around with a textbook and cramming for exams, rather they will be seen playing simulation games and enhancing their skills with the help of several tools and edtech solutions.

2) Indulge in the process

Now that you are embracing this paradigm shift, you should also know that you indulging in it is what is going to make it efficient for your child.But why and how? Kids are still kids, no matter how tech-savvy you think they are, they are still going to need you to guide them about the right way to do something. They do not have teachers in front of them to walk them through things. Sure, there is an online presence, but as parents, you need to learn the system and facilitate your child to make optimum use of the same.

3) Trust your kids’ choices

Even though you are the facilitator here, you need to know that your child is ultimately going to make his/her own choices when it comes to selecting their area of interest. There are a variety of courses and a range of content material available which can be used according to the preferences and skills of the learners. As a parent, your job is to motivate your child to choose the area that he/she is most interested in, instead of what you think will be suitable for them. Trust their choices and encourage them to excel in the same.

4) Make resources available in accordance

Now that you know your kid is interested in coding and not science, what you will need to do is, seek the most appropriate resources and make it available to your kid. These could include coders’ community, coding tools, and relevant courses. This might have you doing a little bit of edtech research, but there are a ton of edtech companies that customize resources according to the requirement and preference, given.

5) Edutainment in the schedule

It is known that education is not the same anymore. So, it is also to be noted that edutainment is the new way of creative learning. Today, the edtech industry has given us the boon of several games, videos, interactive content, and other such forms of education that deliver learning through entertainment.The market for edutainment is forecasted to reach US$ 10,120.2 Mn by 2027, states Transparency Market Research. The monotonous way of teaching and studying leads to burnout. Edutainment not only reduces the possibility of that but also makes academics more effective.

Having said all of that, it is also to be mentioned that edtech has some facets that need to be taken care of such as screen fatigue and lack of management capabilities in the new users. Advancements are to be made in those areas.