Is Online School future of K12 Education? 

Gradually schools are getting outdated and Online Schools are emerging as an alternative. Students can join Online school where they will get the required guidance, mentorship and certificate at the end of schooling. Unfortunately, most of the online schools have become replicas of public schools where teachers teach as if concepts are given facts and they need to transmit it to students. This is not enough. Students need to discover the concepts on their own in their own individual way. This will not only help them to remember and understand the concept, but also help in the development of “high order thinking” or critical thinking.

This is exactly what happens in Vikalp Online School. Concepts are introduced using learning tools. Teachers don’t explain concepts as given facts. They facilitate learning so that students discover concepts on their own while doing activities. Concepts learned in this way, not only help students to understand and remember, but also apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Latter four are critical thinking which is “higher order thinking” (HOTs) in the hierarchy of skills and abilities of Bloom taxonomy.

Focus of Public school is on memory and understanding which is outlined as the first two “lower-level-thinking” in the hierarchy of skills and abilities of Bloom Taxonomy. Latter four (apply, analyze, evaluate and create) were not considered important. In Vikalp it’s just the opposite. Focus is more on the skills and ability to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. This is so because students studying in our school will be hitting the job market after ten years and that time the job market will be completely different.

Jobs which require skills and ability to understand and remember will not exist. It will be done by machines. Students looking for a job or doing something of their own will require skills and abilities to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Most of the students of public schools may not have this as these skills and abilities are not honed and developed. And the skills that they have are not relevant anymore. It has been taken over by machines. This makes public schools outdated.

Ten years down the line, only those jobs will remain that cannot be done by machines. This essentially means jobs which require skills and ability to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. And students of Vikalp Online School will be there at the right time with the right kind of skill sets. This is so because throughout their schooling they have learned to discover and construct knowledge. Teachers have not explained concepts as given things. They have discovered on their own.

They have not discovered concepts as a piece of knowledge but teachers have taught them how to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. This method of learning makes students creative as they learn to create right from the beginning. While creating they have to learn by hit and trail, fail a number of times and solve problems. Once students understand, they are supposed to apply, analyze, evaluate and recreate the concept in the project works. This helps in the development of critical thinking. Students not only learn what to think, but how to think.

These skills and abilities will be very helpful in the future job market. This ability to think will help them to work in an environment where they need to apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Jobs which require memory and understanding will be automated. It will be done by machines. But how to apply something in a different environment, how to break down and simplify things, how to judge whether it should be done and how to mix known things to create something new. All this will still be done by humans. And Vikalp students will have an edge over other students.