Will Covid 19 Change How We Educate Our Future Generations?

There is no argument on the point that this global pandemic has at least temporarily changed our lives, the way we do business, the way we work and the way we educate and learn. Majority of these changes are drastic where a big population of the world is in complete lockdown. The big question, however, is whether or not it is going to change some of the things, for example how we educate and learn, permanently? In this blog, we are only going to focus on the future of higher education.

The majority of the students in higher education institutes around the world belong to Gen Z. Gen Z are born after 1995 and are widely considered to be the future of the global economy. This generation is rather optimistic and driven by personal ambitions. They are the digital natives who are born to “swipe”. They are master of social media and prefer video messages over texting. They do also tend to travel more. In short, this is a generation that is truly globalized. Gen Z, is most likely, re-thinking and re-evaluating education as a result of this truly globalized pandemic. This generation lives in a world where the term “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO) describes their expectation to exchange instant communication. With exams and travel cancelled, Gen Z’s “Fear of Missing Out” has been actualized.

It is high time for educators and higher education institutes to adapt the way they educate this truly global generation that cares more about global issues (such as climate change, mental health, and #MeToo etc). Covid 19 related changes to the world gives a chance to the educators to re-think education. Within days of on-set of the global health emergency, a big number of higher education institutes began to use technology to educate and introduced online learning, as they should have in this century even before the pandemic.

The traditional role of the educator as the the holder of the education that imparts wisdom or a role of a “sage on the stage” does not meet the need of the Gen Z for whom all of the information is a click away on their smartphones. The role of the educator is rather that of a facilitator. A facilitator that is there to guide the way.

This changed world brings new possibilities for the educators around the world to do things differently, to harness the power of technology to make education accessible. Of course, it goes without saying that now that a lot of the higher education institutes are providing online education, the quality of the virtual teaching must also be in par with the competition if the institute has to survive. Substandard online education can not only be not helpful but can be counterproductive.

We, at Blackstone School of Law & Business, have always been a big proponent of 21st century education which means we are a big fan of using technology for teaching and learning. There was already a heavy use of cutting-edge educational technology in our classrooms before the outbreak of Coronavirus. Our teachers and students were already accustomed to Google Classroom and our curriculum was already designed in a way to suit the collaborative and interactive nature of Gen Z. We coupled that with other google products for video conferencing and, voilà, we came up with a robust online teaching system.

The technology is out there and our learners are completely immersed in that technology from a very young age. If you are an educator, this is your chance to redefine education to suit the needs of our future generations.