Edu Tech transforms learning

Kavita Bajeli-Datt

Sangam Nayal is pursuing engineering from Tula’s Institute, one of the best known technical education centres in north India. He has been good in academics but was worried his shy nature would come in the way of getting a good job.

But his anxiety has given way to confidence. Sangam, like many other students, has adopted a new-age learning tool to improve skills that may help him get lucrative job.

Sangam made use of iAugmentor, an application that blended his technical education with employment prospects, bridging the gap between learning and working.

“I thank my university for giving students an opportunity to work on and enhance our skills through new apps and digital media. I was a very shy person and been known for not taking part in any extra-curricular activities but enhancement of my skill set has helped me learn and change to perform better,” he said adding that the iAugmentor app that was launched in February 2016 is ideal for those who want to sharpen their communication skills.

Sangam is not alone. Students across the country are switching to new-age learning tools to shape their personalities.

Tech companies have flooded the market with applications which are being utilised by educational institutions to produce individuals with much improved situational awareness.

If i-Augmentor worked for Sangam, ConveGenius’s latest product CG Slate promotes ‘learn, play, shop’ by bringing NCERT mapped content in the form of games.

CG Slate is for kids who learn without realising that they are actually studying.

It works on the age-old technique employed by parents to offer incentives to children for performing well in exams. The promise of getting a cycle always topped the charts.

Edu Tech company ConveGenius worked on this concept and developed the learning technique for children between the ages of 3 and 12 years.

Edu Tech offers solutions to all age groups and is slowly expanding their footprint abroad too.

MyStuC is another app which aides in making choices by searching possibilities for students and parents as well as institutes. All information about latest batches for any type of institutes are readily and easily available through notification. It also provides an opportunity to learn and teach (free registration) all types of hobbies from cooking to singing with a click of a button.

Talentedge, for instance, offers courses with leading corporates. Talentedge has partnered with over 20 top institutes like IIT, IIM and IIFT, to enable a better than classroom learning experience for over 7,00,000 individuals and corporate learners.

The corporate associations of Talentedge include KPMG, Viacom 18, SHRM, OLX among others.

Through Talentedge, learners get a certificate from the top institutes of the country through “live and interactive” digital platform.

Similarly, Byndr, a mobile technology forum for higher education, offers simple and fast learning solution to colleges. Byndr connects teachers and students, says Satish Nampally, Co-Founder and CEO of Byndr. The company plans to reach out to 100 colleges by the end of 2016.

Even leading coaching centres like Aakash Educational Services is relying heavily on these new forms of teaching for its engineering and medical coaching modules. Its online portal is popular among students.

It provides recorded video lectures, 3-books and all- India test series.

Another Edu Tech company Next Education’s LearnNext offers computer-based learning solution for students of classes VI to XII. It helps students in learning maths, science, social science and English.

The students as well as institutions are lapping up these apps fast and integrating these into their curriculum. As a result most of these apps become popular witihn a short time. With 1200+ downloads in its kitty within a short span of a few months MyStuC aims to provide a single platform where an individual can search about all types of learning be it for basic or higher studies or hobby classes.

A beginning has been made as far as the growth of Edu Tech companies is concerned but the scope of expansion in the Indian educational domain is enormous. “These applications have opened new venues for students to augment their skills. The level of acceptance of all such simple tools to amplify a student’s calibre is evident from the exponential increase in emergence as well as utility of such applications”, says Sumit Sethi, Co-Founder of MyStuC app.

A new Polycom survey found that educators are not maximising the potential of technology to support meaningful learning in the classroom.

According to the survey technology will shift from laptops and in-classroom learning to video collaboration and mobile platforms by 2025. The survey, with a participation of 1,800 persons globally, captures the virtual learning trends.

With several digital platforms in this domain a sound beginning has been made for the alternative forms of teaching.

The new communication tools are changing the way students pursued learning. These have helped teachers as well in getting on with their jobs with more efficiency.