Education Till Now
Around the time of independence, India inherited a legacy of large-scale illiteracy and lack of proper provision for education. The traditional Indian education system was upturned by the Britishers. At the first post-independence census of 1951, only 9 percent of women and 27 percent of men were literate. Over the years, we’ve made several changes in our education system to ensure India’s growth but there are still a fair amount of things that need to be paid more attention to.
One of the aspects that Indian Education System has been ignoring blatantly is Skill Development. Up until now, every student in India has had to forcefully mould themselves into the system that has been in place for years instead of being a part of a system that nurtures their skills and provides efficient development. Skill development is a very important step towards instigating a better teaching method that will grow a more proficient youth. One of the modern and the most functional example of skill development is the STEM learning method.
Related: STEM – A Stepping Stone to a Better World
STEM Education Method
STEM education not only helps in creating several programs for K12 but also serves the need of many students who aim to join an advanced field for bachelor’s degree courses later.
-Mark Rosenberg, the president of Florida International University (FIU)
STEM, an abbreviation for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, is an approach of education which can revolutionize the teaching sector, especially of India. STEM develops the practical abilities of the mind i.e. critical thinking, problem-solving and innovating. These skills, in turn, develop the cognitive abilities of human brains so that they can grow up and innovate. STEM is the first step to creating a better, technologically more advanced future.
Let’s take something as simple as growing plants for an example – Growing plants is a delicate science that offers quick rewards and a chance to learn about botany, cooking, and even the geometry of plant design. In our current education system, the most any teachers do is they take the students out for a stroll in the garden while teaching botany. If you inculcate the STEM teaching method in your syllabus, the students would actually be required to plant a seed, nurture it and watch it grow while simultaneously learning about botany.
Now, STEM is just a method of education. STEM is an ideology that requires tools to become reality. “Educational Technology” is the field of technology solely dedicated to producing tools to help the education sector. Let’s take a little more detailed look at that.
EdTech
EdTech is a study and ethical practice for facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.
Education Technology signifies the need for technological devices to help students acquire creative thinking skills right from the formative years of their lives. There are several high tech methodologies that reside under the umbrella term EdTech; here we will briefly discuss some of them.
- Cloud Computing: The practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.
- Custom Learning Experiences: It offers unique and powerful learning that leverage the latest in learning science and advances in technology to engage the learner and create true learning.
- Virtual and Augmented Learning Experiences: By definition, VR is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer-generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. Virtual reality experiences can truly kindle the innovative power in the children and infuse critical thinking abilities in them.
Where We Come In
STEMpedia is the perfect combination of STEM ideology and Education Technology. STEMpedia aims at revolutionizing the way world innovates by enabling learning-by-doing in STEM with state-of-the-art technology, a variety of learning options, and training programs. It helps you do everything in less than half the usual time, in less than half the usual investment and less than one third the usual headache. It offers you different projects, starter kits and STEM-based software such as the evive Starter Kit, STEMpedia Learning Center, Dabble and PictoBlox.
Related: How STEMpedia Is Transforming Today’s Youth into Tomorrow’s Innovators
In a Nutshell
Looking at the pace with which our technology is growing, we most certainly have a bright future ahead of us in the field of education. Though, for that, we need to expand our minds and put our faith into scientifically proven technologies. We have been sticking to the traditional methods for a bit too long and it is now time that we emancipate. STEM ideology, along with the help of EdTech – Educational Technology – is the perfect breakthrough produced by humans in the history of learning. And STEMpedia is your one-stop destination for anything related to STEM as well as EdTech.
