The Pandemic Plethora

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought in eye-opening life experiences to mankind. One of the predominant ones is the metamorphosis that education has made to attain the principles of Education 4.0-The Educational Revolution. The movement towards this paradigm was a bit slacking one for the education world in the pre-pandemic era since the real necessity of this paradigm shift was not understood or felt. Now that the entire world has demanded 'the new normalcy' in the pandemic era, the changes in education have become the need of the hour-Technology aided, Self -Paced/Self Directed learning powered by a perfect blend of Synchronous and Asynchronous learning patterns.

Let us have a quick look at what Education 4.0 envisages:

· Learning happens at any place and at any time through virtual classrooms, self-paced learning, flipped classrooms, and so on.

· Learners are well aware of the sources of learning. They can choose 'how' they want to learn. E.g. -BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices), Flipped, Peer Interaction …etc.

· Learning happens through Project-based and Hands-On Learning-Highly Learner-centered

· The concept of mentor-mentee is given a lot of emphases to give room for a reflective approach and personalized learning space.

· Students are exposed to data interpretations- self-reflection occurs at this stage.

· Learners are assessed differently.

· Students will be independent. They take accountability for their learning.

· Learning is individualized and positive reinforcement is the key principle.

Sound familiar? Aren't these in practice right now in Education? Wasn't that a quick adaptation to the changing challenges put forth by the Pandemic? What do we call this Plethora of Opportunities -Pandemic Plethora?