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Edtech trends that can make the older education system face the music

Introduction Education forms the base of any society, nation, and region. Any development and improvement of people and community depend on education. But more than that ensuring quality education is a major task for the whole education system. Covid-19 pandemic has dragged the whole world online and education too. Today the teaching, assignments, learning, and evaluation all are happening online. A new intuitional network is formed in the education system. This new era has brought several new trends in education with updating technology on a day-to-day basis.  According to Association for education communication and Technology (AECT), edtech is something that facilitates learning and improves performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.  As published in Analytics Insight, Google suggests that the Edtech market is expected to cater to around 9.6 million users and has a market share of US $1.96 billion by 2021. Several edtech trends have emerged and are expected to stay in the market for a long.  Virtual augmented reality: Virtual reality is giving the student a whole new experience of learning. Gone are days when students have to depend on teachers drawing with chalks on boards or using appropriate charts or else a traditional presentation. Now through virtual augmented reality, students are getting an insight into every topic. It is giving students a feel of every detail related to any subject and visualizes learning making it much easier.  Blockchain technology: The Disrupted Ledger Technology from Blockchain brings a great deal of storing data effortlessly. Gone are days for keeping piles of books, notebooks, and notes. With fluent blockchain technology transfer of data has also become transparent and fast. The whole education material can be saved and surfed online. This will save a lot of time for students as well as teachers. Along with that, it will make the work effective and easily accessible for students as well as teachers.  Smartphone technology: Gone are the days when the non-affordability of the laptop was a hurdle to get all the technical assistance. The millennial generation has the opportunity to explore the ocean of possibilities with a variety of smartphones and applications. Students can save all their education-related material in one single folder on their phones. Controlling everything they need to study in one small smartphone. It allows a great deal of flexibility and lets students get rid of heavy bags. Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence is known as the base of edtech. Artificial intelligence is gaining a lot of importance and can be seen as a prevalent player in a lot of sectors, including education. AI has made it a lot easy to take attendance through its face recognition technology. It is also allowing to invigilate online exams. So that scope of any cheating is minimized and the monitoring of exams can be done without human assistance. This has ensured the quality of online exams and helped in maintaining a decorum examination even online. Robotics: In many cases where students need extra attention. For example, for a visually impaired student having voice assistance can be very helpful. Robotics can help a normal student too, for learning various topics without teachers’ assistance all the time. Robots learn from humans and humans learn from robots. Thus, in the field of education, the more a robot will learn the more it can help students in learning. Through various artificial intelligence technologies. Big Data: Today data is said to be the new oil. The one who has it can change the game. In the case of education as well. The right kind of data at the right time can create wonders for making the education process fluent and easy. Not just for students but also teachers.  Conclusion A lot of education technology have made their way to comfort zone of the education system. Today’s generation doesn’t miss the essence of the old education system. Because the new edtech trends are letting them explore endless possibilities. There are still a lot of new trends yet to approach the edtech community. With that, we are yet to see how fluent and easily accessible education is going to become in coming future.

Reopening of schools: A concern as well as the need of the hour

The covid-19 pandemic gave the world several shocks. Nonetheless, this didn’t leave the education system behind. In the whole world, the total scenario of education changed. Be it, classes, lectures, assignments, and tests came online. Although while education did become available online. Schools drifted apart from students. It’s been more than a year and students still have no near hopes of enjoying school days any day soon. As per the United Nations agency, 1.5 million schools remained closed during the 2020 lockdown, which saw the damage of study opportunities for 247 million children to be enrolled in elementary and secondary school. In addition to over six million girls and boys who were already out of school prior covid-19 the crisis began.  Many states have decided to reopen schools, like Bihar, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh. Many private colleges have reopened in metro cities but with no compulsion over attendance. In 2018 many schools were shut in Maharashtra and other states of the country. Saying there was a need to shut these schools as it was near to no use. That also made the village students travel more and did hamper their education.  A year ago teaching went fully online but that couldn’t maintain the education wavelength. A school and college not only provide knowledge and information. It’s a place where the overall development of a person happens. A great matter of concern especially for the young kids missing primary education and basic developments. On the other hand, it has involved and taken a lot of involvement of parents to indulge their kids into studies. As a matter of concern, virtual education may ensure teaching but doesn’t ensure learning.  UNESCO said more than 888 million children worldwide, continue to face disruption to their education due to full or partial school closure. Globally schools for more than 168 million children have been completely closed for almost a full year, as per the reports. With this, around 214 million children all over the world have missed out on three-quarters of their in-person learning.  According to a study, only 8 Indian states and union territories have reopened schools from class I to XII. Whereas another 11 states have reopened schools for classes VI to XII and 15 states opened schools only for classes IX-XII. In addition, three states have reopened Anganwadi centers, with these younger children are losing a lot on their foundational learning phases.  Even if schools do reopen it will not be the same again any sooner. Putting on a mask and with the fear of third-wave effecting children the most. It is again a dilemma whether children shall go to school or stay at home. When this wasn’t enough, many schools and colleges attempted to hike fees during a pandemic. This act has to face a huge backlash from parents. While a lot of people are facing financial crunches, it is considered very insensitive by an educational institution to hike fees. On the other hand, a lot of parents demanded compensation from schools. Stating the online education does not fulfill the criteria to charge the whole fee.  Another concern raises in judging the intellects of students who cleared exams and degrees during the pandemic. The students are going to suffer for no reason. With no doubt, we can say it has discouraged students from studying hard. In the coming days, the matter of concern is not just the reopening of school. But also reopening of a normal education environment with safety. No one knows if that time is coming any sooner.

4 Emerging Trends Shaping the Media and Entertainment Industry in 2021

Introduction: Since COVID-19, the way we consume online content from different media and entertainment sources has evolved drastically. All it takes is an internet connection and one swift touch, and you have innumerable options to surf through.  Due to the pandemic induced lockdown, not only youngsters but even middle-aged and senior citizens are engaged in entertainment programs, web series, movies, films, etc. There has been a paradigm shift in the media consumption and production scenario in India.  Last year, a digital media trends survey of 2000 plus people in the USA revealed that 69% of the consumers had subscribed to at least one online video streaming service. An average American is already spending 12 hours a day on various media platforms. It won’t take long for this trend to become common amongst Indians.  Thanks to content creators, they are helping or rather aiding people to stay indoors. Increased screen timing is becoming a pressing issue, but with limited options, people are easily getting hooked to their devices consuming various types of content to spend their time.  Behind the scenes, the increased consumption of online content has triggered a rise in technological advancement and the study of consumer behaviour, likes and dislikes.  The media and entertainment sector was amongst the few that succeeded at harnessing the various benefits of technology. Therefore, we need to understand various trends that will shape the future of the media and entertainment industry.  Emerging Trends: New Ways of Distribution Democratization of technology and the internet, the proliferation of smartphones and tablets has caused a shift in the demands and expectations of media and content consumers. There is an astounding variety of digital services available in the common market.  Video on Demand (VoD)  According to statistics, the VoD market is expected to grow globally at a CAGR of 8.3% by 2021. Subscription-based online streaming services such as Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu are amongst the consumers’ favorites.  With mobile penetration rising amongst millennials, media companies are most eager to tap into this market. Live Streaming Streaming is becoming the most engaging way to deliver content. Therefore, brands and media platforms are now leveraging live streaming to reach out to the masses.  Brands routinely go on social media platforms to engage their followers by organizing Q&As, live polls, quizzes, games, etc.   Intelligent Media In the case of traditional media, preference and popularity were calculated by measuring TRP (Television Rating Points). However, with the rise in VoD platforms, they have hacked the way to track and map consumer behaviors. By using data analytics on each individual’s viewing session, crafting a personalized user profile has never been easier.  Contextual Media Advertisers have figured out that context and content is the way to flaunt their brands around. Hence, advertisers are selected and served based on the intelligence of automated systems. Advertising It’s no secret that the advertising industry is flourishing and dominating all aspects of media. Behind closely guarded algorithms triggering targeted advertising, users have never seen the extent of personalized ads until now.  Different types of advertisements like pre-rolls, in-stream and post-rolls have helped distributors in increasing monetization effectively.  New technologies like Dynamic Ad Insertion are also capable to display ads on the user’s demand. This is going to develop a win-win situation for both parties.  Consumer Engagement via New Media In the age of diminishing attention spans, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are creating seismic shifts in engaging consumers.  Though these technologies have been around for quite a while now, the continuous evolution still hasn’t worn off. When used as communication tools, they have the potential to generate an otherworldly experience for the user.  For instance, with the help of VR, music enthusiasts are live-streaming their concerts so the attendees from any part of the world can experience the aura of the concert.  These new cutting-edge technologies will lead marketing strategies in the future.  Conclusion: It is important to note that the competition in the media and entertainment industry is going to be intense. With the advancement in technology and more people willing to invest in this industry, OTT platforms, advertising, gaming and various other sectors are going to expand exponentially in the future and will pave way for new business and marketing models.  To cater to the ever-changing consumer demands, the media industry is gearing up by leveraging the full potential of data analytics and analyzing consumer behavior and preferences to successfully make their mark in the industry.