Today, technology is revolutionizing each and every sector at a breakneck speed. And with this advancement of technology, we are witnessing a major transformation in the education sector as well, changing how, when and where students learn and empowering them at every stage of their journey. In order to mitigate the impact of school closures caused due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year, efforts were made to facilitate the continuity of education for all through online learning and for 2020, the UAE government allocated Dhs10.4bn ($2.83bn) towards public and higher education, and university programmes while Saudi Arabia allocated a whopping SAR193bn ($51.38bn) for the education sector amounting to 18.9 per cent of the annual budgeted expenditure.
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All in all, technology is spearheading the growth of the global Educational Technology (EdTech) and online learning is no longer just a buzzword or a trend but a necessity that is here to stay. According to research reports by Alpen Capital, the smart Classroom market is predicted to reach $404 billion in 2025, while EdTech is expected to grow 2.5 times from 2019 to 2025, reaching $404 billion in total global expenditure.
The recently conducted Global Learner Survey by Pearson also shows that globally, 70% of respondents agreed that primary and secondary learning will become more virtual 2020 onwards and 78% agreed with the consensus that online/digital learning might lead to a more quality education and learning experience in the future. From an educator’s perspective, Ozhan Toktas, Managing Director, Pearson Middle East highlights how has technology impacted the business of education
Teachers are often brought in when a student is experiencing difficulty understanding a topic. Typically, the more abstract subjects, like math or physics, require more assistance for students and this is where technology has proved to be particularly beneficial where traditional teaching methods have fallen short. For example, a student can learn their math lessons from an online math tutor program that comes with a variety of support, rather than trying to figure it out on their own.
With technology, it is easy for teachers to bring simulations and modeling into the classroom, allowing students to have a hands-on experience that helps them retain the information better. This has made learning much easier for students who have difficulty grasping the information through verbal discussion.
Every child has different kinds of educational needs and preferences and depending on that, education should be imparted to them. Digital learning has the potential for providing students with a more personalised and adaptive learning experience. If used correctly, it has the potential to allow schools to harvest thousands of data points about a learner which can then be used to help shape their learning journey more effectively. For example, the role that a teacher plays at our fully virtual school, Pearson Online Academy is often centered around analysing data to help guide learners’ next steps, more than ‘from-the-front’ instruction. And this is not just limited to data from assessments, but also data points around engagement, collaboration, time spent on group chats and so on.
Online learning, as a new mode of teaching and learning, provides pupils the liberty to the four freedoms: the freedom to experiment, freedom of effort, freedom to fail, and freedom to self-express. These freedoms represent a much-needed shift for those students whose educational potential gets disrupted by traditional teaching methods. Clearly, there is a huge potential for machine intelligence to contribute to a 24/7 learning environment for students that achieves a deep level of personalization to how they learn. According to the Pearson Global Learner Survey 2020, 75% of respondents think that the algorithms used in AI could help provide highly personalized educational content and could really help people learn by making education more fun and engaging.
For this reason, Pearson is adopting newer technologies and developing digital curricula to build a future-ready generation and foster concept-based learning. We are looking at making the learning process more personalized, easily accessible and in sync with industry demands by delivering digital and blended learning programs.
Özhan Toktas is Managing Director for Pearson Middle East & Africa and is responsible for the Gulf, Levant, and Turkey regions. With more than 32 years’ experience in sales and management, Ozhan’s mandate is to help introduce innovative learning solutions for Pearson that enable better learning outcomes.
Toktas has been with Pearson for more than eight years and used to manage Pearson’s Turkey operations, prior to being appointed Managing Director of Middle East in October 2018. Toktas has introduced many new concepts to Pearson Turkey, which have been adopted worldwide across Pearson. Some of these are Market Segmentation, Key Account Management and Solution Selling to diversify from print-only products. Notably, during his tenure, Pearson Turkey grew top-line revenue over four times.
Prior to joining Pearson, Toktas managed Sun Microsystems Turkey & Central Asia region with full P&L responsibilities, managing a team of over 60 people and increasing revenue and profitability multiple times. He was also recognised as Sales Manager of the Year for the Southeast Europe region and was nominated for Worldwide Sales Manager of the Year.
Toktas has spent 20+ years in the tech industry, with blue-chip companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Computer Associates and Sun Microsystems. He has been an entrepreneur in his own right, running a data warehousing business for two years before joining Sun Microsystems.
Toktas holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Westminster, London. He is married and has an 18 years old son. Ozhan enjoys reading books on history & politics, travelling and listening to rock music.
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