Future of Education – Special Lecture By Prof. Vivek Wadhwa
It has become appallingly obvious that technology has exceeded humans and this new nature of disruption has proved to be both, a boon and bane for the existing as well as the generations to come.
There is hardly any domain now which hasn’t been meddled with, by the outbreak of technological innovations, education being one such field. With the changing expectations of the learner and potential availability of multitude of learning options adapted to the specific context of the individual, education as a sector is likely to see significant transformation in the years to come.
In order to provoke thinking amongst policy makers, regulators and leaders of educational institutions to explore how they remain relevant & meet the needs of various stakeholders, Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida in collaboration with UN Global Compact Network India (UNGCNI) & the Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI), has organized a special lecture and interaction on “Future Of Education”, by renowned global thinker and scholar, Prof. Vivek Wadhwa on 8th January, 2019 at India International Centre in Delhi.
Prof. Vivek Wadhwa is a distinguished fellow and professor at Carnegie Mellon University`s College of Engineering and a Distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School`s Labor & Work life Program. He has been accoladed with numerous rewards and acknowledgements like the Silicon Valley Forum`s Visionary Award in 2018, named as one among world`s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” etc. currently Prof. Wadhwa is based in the Silicon Valley and teaches subjects like technology, industry disruption and policy making.
The event commenced, post a luncheon interaction, with the opening remarks delivered by Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog. Mr. Kant stressed upon that education is the most critical sector that will define how the future unfolds. “Leveraging technology for quality education shall yield productive and effective outcomes that shall lead to the Indian ecosystem, booming in the coming years”.
This was followed by the onset of the two hour, highly informative and enriching session by Prof. Wadhwa wherein he talked briefly about the penetration of technology in the education sector, its implications and how the current scenario can be enforced so as to strike the most appropriate balance between the usage of technology and the human relevance. In a latest article published in the Economic Times, Prof. Wadhwa talks about the potential of AI in transforming the world, at the same time laying equal emphasis and importance on the human intelligence and how it is the most vital driving force for any advancement to take place. “All technologies, be it AI, VR, AR are advancing exponentially but bits and bytes can never replace the human efforts and emotions.” He also emphasized on the importance and relevance of one to one education in the current teaching environment.
The event concluded with the closing remarks of Dr. Anil Sahasrabuddhe, chairman, AICTE. He talked about training of the people in the technological domain and how ancient traditional knowledge is equally vital to move ahead.
The vote of thanks was delivered by Mr. Kamal Singh who called it an extremely engaging event and also expressed gratitude to BIMTECH organizers for making everyone connect to such an eminent speaker.
All in all, the event, provided valuable insights into relevance of technology in the education sector today and how it is supposed to complement the existing pedagogy system rather than completely eliminating it. As rightly said, technology is an enabler and can never be detached from the human intervention, rather it is through the skills and expertise of humans, that technology will yield effective outcomes.
