In one of my classes, I gave a topic for a debate,”How can humanoid robots with artificial intelligence fulfill the aspirations of the students in the field of education?” During the discussion, one of the most outspoken students said, “Sir, if humanoid robots with artificial intelligence will be used for teaching in our school, then you will lose your job.” For a moment, I shivered inside and mentally thought of my two school and college-going children. But another child brought me back to my present state by saying, “Sir, how can a humanoid robot understand our emotions and console us, the way you do, when we feel homesick or sad?”
I felt a little bit relaxed as the discussion progressed. I told them about, Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist who has the ambition to create intelligent life on this earth, who would bring joy, happiness for the whole of Mankind, but in the process, he created a monster. When he realized that he had created a monster, he abandoned him and the monster was shunned by every human being, which resulted in murders and horrors in every part of this earth. The monster also demanded the- monster must be created for him by his creator. Victor imagines, if he does, what will happen to the human race when the monster couple will have children.
This is the story of the novel, “Frankenstein” written by Mary Shelley in the 19th century.
When the discussion was over, most of the students have the view that humanoid robots with artificial intelligence can never replace human teachers. I assured myself what the children are telling me about humanoid robots is true for some time in the future.
The top industrialists have been spending billions of dollars on researching human emotions. It is going on, to put emotions in the robots, so that they can respond to human emotions. Front runners are Ellen Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google, to name a few in this field.
Now coming back to the topic, preparing students for the future, What would be our students, teachers, staff, and the structure/ shape of our schools in the future, especially post COVID 19, what would be the culture and how would they interact cohesively with each other?
What is the school culture?
In simple words, when you enter a school campus/ building by talking to the students, teachers, staff and observing the environment, what you feel, is the culture of the particular school or institution. When school members feel that they are valued, respected, cared for, and feel safe, it means the school is having a great positive culture, if it is the opposite of these feelings then the culture is negative.
When the vision and mission of any school are embedded in a school’s practice, then its culture will be reflected in the behavior of the students and the staff. Resilience is one of the qualities that school leaders must possess to have positive cultures in the school. When things get tough, negativity can spread easily as it is contagious.
When a school leader routinely observes the success of the students and the staff and appreciates them, is a reflection of the positive culture of the school. The students look to the school teachers and leaders for maturity, kindness, and empathy. When both teachers and students know their purpose, feel confident, and happy are the signs of the good and loving culture of any school.
In other words, culture is nothing but a way of life, a mixture of ideas and practical style of living for a group.
What would be the learning culture of the schools?
Let me admit, I am not that tech-savvy as my students are, but technology is going to be the way of life, as it is proved during this pandemic time. There is no doubt at all.
One educationalist said,” Next century, schools, as we know them, will no longer exist.” It means that there would be a great revolution in the field of education and the culture of schools. The New Education Policy 2020 is going to be implemented soon. It is a world phenomenon that the children don’t enjoy much inside the classrooms. When the last bell rings, all of them bubble with joy and rush out of the classrooms. This is the field, where changes happen very slowly.
Education is all about the minds of the students and teachers. It should not be treated as a factory, where you put raw material and the product will come out instantly.
The mind is one of the toughest things one has to deal with in the school culture. Technology will blend with education.
Technology will drive the learning culture of the schools in the future.
· The children will no longer use hard copy printed books notebooks and writing materials. They will be using computers for reading and writing work.
· The students’ computers/ laptops will work as their library.
· The size of classrooms would be bigger with all the modern gadgets with Li-Fi facility and connectivity to the wider world, where students, teacher ratio would be 5:1.
· All the systems will be operated with voice commands.
· There would be an individualistic approach with a multidisciplinary approach, where no single subject would be learned individually.
· Humanoid robots with artificial intelligence will be helping students to learn different languages and other subjects, where drilling is required and some clerical work would be done by them.
· Students will be learning subjects as per their liking and interest. The approach will be learning of students rather than the teaching of students.
· Solar power will be the sole power provider for all the technology.
· Teachers will be giving projects to encourage students’ creativity based on the practical online portfolios, which has already been done during 2020.
· Specialized schools for sports and games will be there, where individual students’ physical skills, capabilities, mental strength will be monitored very minutely.
Influence of Spiritual Culture in Future Schools
The main aim of mankind is to remain happy and make others happy, with all kinds of progress. Some people get confused between spiritual education with progressive education. Spiritual education comes under the happiness curriculum. The children must be happy by being spiritually intelligent. The future school culture will be focusing on Happiness Curriculum.
In the past two decades, some psychologists have done some research on how spiritual intelligence influences a person’s way of thinking, problem-solving ability, reasoning, attitude towards life, and ability to handle tough situations of life.
It has been observed that those who are spiritually intelligent, can handle their internal conflicts, personal conflicts, past traumatic experiences, and other issues far better than those who are not spiritually intelligent.
A spiritually intelligent person guides his/ her life with a deep sense of aspiration, conscious of “SELF’ and its’ unification with the Ultimate Truth and its purpose with its own existence and the existence of others on this beautiful Earth. When one is aware of it, there would be an internal change then the society will change for the better. Schools will be focusing more on spiritual aspects of life, how both the students and the staff must be conscious of their existence on this planet and to play some great role in the “Divine Play”. Future Schools will have happiness curriculum for a better progressive society.
The school will definitely focus on individual students and interaction with their parents.
The students will not be part of the moving world but they will make the world move.
