Srinivasan Sriram has 34 years of public-school teaching experience and 18 years of administrative experience. He was instrumental in setting up one of the largest campus-wide Local Area Networks (LANs) in the country at Mayo College and a pioneer in inter-disciplinary way of teaching using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Srinivasan Sriram is the recipient of the prestigious National Award for Teachers for Innovation in ICT from the President of India. In 2015, he was selected as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert chosen to represent India in the Global Educator Exchange forum at Redmond, USA. He has been a Resource Person for NCERT for ICT curriculum development and National Repository for Open Educational Resources.
Major changes took place at the dawn of the century in terms of enhanced computing power and various other services like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Instructional Management System (IMS), Learning Management System (LMS), Content Management System (CMS) and Cloud Storage were rolled out. Now, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT), Metaverse and other technologies have started to play a big role in education but Srinivasan Sriram started as a 20-year-old in 1989 working with if one can call primitive computers like the Color Genies, the BBC Micros followed by the IBM PCs.
“Only after 1995, I saw the real impact behind computers with the Hard disks becoming popular. Very little could be achieved with the storage medium as Floppy disks as they would often get corrupted,” he quips. He adds, “The big change that I would like to see in education is the seamless integration of technology into the curriculum across all subjects with the teacher playing a very important role in using technology to leverage effective learning outcomes. Right now, technology is used very sparingly with a consumerist mindset.This has to change to one of creative mindset.”
AR, VR and Metaverse are growing powerful by the day and are likely to change the way education is imparted in a classroom. These technologies are expensive today and hence are experienced by fewer students but as it comes to scale, these technologies will be available cheaper for all schools and students to embrace.
Students can work together on projects, share ideas, and receive feedback from their peers, leading to a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Gamification can also be used as an effective way to teach children that can be fun.
The role of AI in the present day context cannot be discounted specially in areas of addressing the learning gaps among students, assisting the children with tailor-made learning material depending on their capabilities in the form of personalized learning, assessment and analytics. With the help of learning analytics tools, teachers can identify specific areas that require additional support and provide them with personalized instruction, leading to better educational outcomes.
Teachers and students, as major stake holders should be able to leverage these technologies to the fullest and take maximum benefit in terms of up-skilling themselves.
The role of AI in the present day context cannot be discounted especially in areas of addressing the learning gaps among students, assisting the children with tailor-made learning material depending on their capabilities in the form of personalized learning, assessment and analytics
