Academic Cyberspace

With social distancing norms in place, educational institutions are moving towards online platforms to continue the learning process. Jeremy D’Cruz looks into this inevitable transition from blackboards in classrooms to homeschool through gadgets

- Jeremy D'Cruz

The year 2020 has gone down in the annals of history, a year when nations united to fight a common threat, an enemy invisible to the naked eye that threatened the very existence of humanity. COVID-19 has mutated into a force that would alter the landscape of the 21st century, as we know it. The unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic has had an undeniable human and economic impact. Generations to come will read about the 2020 ‘pandemic’ in their history classes and ‘social distancing’ in their civic lessons.

COVID-19 has seen many transitions, from #tgif to #wfh trending on social media, medical personnel becoming the new super heroes and smartphones holistically being embraced by the academic fraternity.

Real change takes place in deep crisis

With more than 400 million students disrupted due to the spread of COVID-19, we are now experiencing a watershed moment for education systems around the world. Several educational experts have hypothesized that this time of emergency will speed up the adoption and embracing of online and other forms of technology-enabled learning platforms.

As more schools move to hold remote classes amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Zoho Classes, Zoom Video Communications, Google Classrooms and Cisco Systems Inc. are among the few technology companies offering platforms to attract institutions looking to offer online lessons.