Amit Bansal is the CEO & Founder of WizKlub. He is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade in start-up experience across three edtech ventures; and 10 years of corporate experience across strategy, business development, technology, product management and marketing for consumer and enterprise technology products across India and North America. His earlier ventures include Xcelerator and PurpleLeap. Amit holds an MBA in Marketing from XLRI, Jamshedpur. In this interaction, Amit Bansal, Founder & CEO, WizKlub elaborates more on online learning in the times of Covid-19, AI-enabled programs, and importance of cognitive skills amongst students for future job roles.

• How the current situation could be a boon for e-learning?

Education industry has traditionally been slow to adapt technology. For example, the classrooms today look pretty much the same as they used to look in the last century or even the century before that. We are still teaching every kid the same things in the same way regardless of one’s learning style, pace and interest. Each student deserves a personalized learning path - learn what you like and in a manner that works the best for you. In order to realize this esoteric dream, one needs the technology and a user who is willing to use this technology.

• Today, technology exists that can make the above esoteric dream a reality. This generation of kids, that uses smart devices like a natural extension of self, is more than willing to adapt technology. So, why is the adoption still so low?

The challenge is the mindset of educators and the parents who still believe that the age-old method of chalk-and-talk still is the best way to impart education.

In the post-COVID era, we expect that to change. COVID has practically taken away the traditional classroom for quite some time. Hence, parents have no choice but  to explore e-learning methods and educators are forced to innovate and provide meaningful solutions through online tools. We expect that by the end of the COVID restrictions, more than 50% of the kids in affected areas would have experienced one or the other form of e-learning. Any parent who witnesses the power of personalized learning enabled through technology, would definitely continue using the same even when the traditional classroom returns.

• Why do you think coding programs are gaining popularity in India?

Technology is disrupting every industry and by the time this generation of kids joins the workforce, technology would be at the heart of every meaningful job role. Now, this generation of kids can either grow up to just consumers of technology or grow up to be the masters of technology.  Technology has three important aspects - coding, hardware and design.

Coding, which is an important aspect of technology, has multiple other advantages as well. To begin with, it promotes logical thinking and problem solving skills. Secondly, coding empowers a child to “create”.

However, most parents must make the investment in other aspects of technology to ensure that kids grow up with the confidence of being creators of technology.

• Please elaborate on the importance of learning cognitive skills at an early age. How can a student's cognitive skills be developed through education tools?

The careers are changing rapidly and it is expected that 70% of school kids today will be working on jobs tomorrow that don't even exist today. This means that this generation would need to be lifelong and efficacious learners who need to constantly connect the new information with the existing knowledge.

Secondly, all repetitive jobs would be done by machines in the future, which means that humans would be working on problems that are new problems and require complex problem solving skills. Essentially, people need to be efficient and effective at solving new problems and learning new stuff. Both these require people to operate beyond Memory and Recall and be good at Higher Order Thinking Skills.

Research proves that aptitude or Higher Order Thinking Skills get developed in the first 13-14 yrs of an individual. The graph from research of Center for Developing Child, Harvard University, indicates that the Higher Cognition Functions get developed in the early years and plateau at the age of 14 yrs. This is the best period to develop HOTS and largely determines the aptitude of an individual through life.

Let's refer to the famous Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning (or cognition) for understanding the role of education tools in student's cognitive skills development.Whenever a student is learning something new, they can operate at various levels of learning as defined by Bloom’s Taxonomy. At the bottom is the ability to remember and recall the information. After that is the ability to use that information productively to solve problems, make decisions and create new work. All these skills, other than memory and recall, are called Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and are largely responsible for making a student a smarter learner and adept problem solver.

Most students who do not develop these skills in the elementary years, rely on Rote Memorization as a primary method of learning and solving problems. Such students struggle to do well in high stake exams and rewarding careers that require HOTS.

The best time to develop higher cognition functions is by the age of 12-13 years. In this age, the best way to develop HOTS in this age is to give them stimulus in respective areas of Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Logical Thinking, Creativity and Problem Solving. If kids don’t get the requisite inputs to develop these skills, they get used to learning and solving problems by Rote.

The edtech sector is finally taking off. An initial survey suggests that more than 50% students with access to a smartphone and internet connection would end up experiencing some e-learning solution this year.

• How are parents and students responding to the technology enabled programs?

This generation is tech-savvy, and is born with a smart-phone in hand. Interacting with technology is second nature. As a natural extension, this generation expects to learn by using technology as well.

As parents, the biggest concern is the safety of a child as there is a lot of inappropriate content on the web as well. That's why most of the parents prefer to take structured programs from a service provider that specializes in delivering programs to children.

In early years of education, parents usually do not want to enroll their kids for tuitions. They understand that the school caters to the minimum requirement of completing the curriculum. However, the curriculum is not enough for students to succeed in future. Hence, they  actively look out for extra skills that students can acquire in these years. We broadly call them “Future Skills”, skills that are essential for a student to succeed in future.

Essentially, these are core cognitive skills that give students an edge and would help them succeed in future.

Technology tools ensure that each student gets a personalized program to challenge them at the level where they are. Personalization ensures continued kids interest and high learning efficacy.

• How to create an alternative learning environment for younger kids?

It is best to have your kid be engaged with an alternative learning environment provided by experts. The key elements of such an environment are structured programs, continuous assessment frameworks around cognitive and behavioral progression, expert instructors and peer groups for social learning.

• How are children shifting to apps bringing a change in parents’ attitude to online learning?

In early years, parents do not want to enroll their kids for tuitions. Parents understand that the school caters to the minimum requirement of completing the curriculum. However, the curriculum is not enough for students to succeed in future. Hence, they are actively looking out for extra skills that students can acquire in these years.

Most parents want to invest in “future skills” in early years. Essentially, skills that give students an edge and would help them succeed in future.

• What would be the future of Edtech post Covid-19?

The edtech sector is finally taking off. Our initial survey suggests that more than 50% students with access to a smartphone and internet connection would end up experiencing some e-learning solution this year.

The most important aspect to keep in mind for any startup in the edTech space is to focus on solving a real-problem. Most edTech companies fail as they try to force-fit a technology to a situation, so don’t start with the question - how can I use AI in education? Instead, start with a real-problem and find out what all does it take to solve that problem. Tech should be a means to solve the problem and not an end in itself.