How Can We Use Technology In Broadcasting To Educate The Future Generation?
Nov 3, 2020 by Mardhiah Nasir for IEEE Broadcast Technology Society
We are honoured to have been invited as a writer for Women in Broadcast, IEEE Broadcast Technology Society. The Q3 2020 Edition features Mardhiah Nasir, VP of Sales in discussing “How Can We Use Technology In Broadcasting To Educate The Future Generation?”; the implementation of technology in the education sector for future generations.
Hosted by Samina Husain, BTS AdCom Member, turn to page 43 for what Mardhiah and other Women in Broadcast globally have to say.
How about we use broadcasting beyond just entertainment or edutainment – pure education learning environment?
There is no doubt that the Broadcasting Over-the-Top (OTT) Video-on-demand phenomenon has transcended beyond just entertainment. When you think of Broadcasting and OTT video on demand, you just do not stop at Netflix or Amazon Prime anymore.
Globally, the number of students enrolled in higher education has more than doubled since 2000. That figure doesn’t include primary and secondary education, which accounts for another 1.3 billion students globally. While pandemics are not the typical cause for school emergency closures, the need for live streaming classrooms and online education solutions has made itself well known in recent months since the coronavirus has made its way around the world. Digital distant learning would also be useful during blizzards, hurricanes and other natural crises. For months, our future generations were not allowed to go to schools nor sit for an exam – how can we assist?
- Is your infrastructure ready for total turned key online learning during a crisis?
- How can learning institutions adapt to a new norm of the learning environment?
Infrastructure readiness
Most of these students are “digital natives” and born after 1995 who’ve grown up learning from YouTube videos. They’re comfortable with multimedia education. In fact, we’ve seen a steady rise in the use of video for education since 2008. Students expect it to be a seamless experience. More now than ever they’ve turned to online learning and continue to revolve around the digital broadcast learning environment. Therefore, to accommodate students with the education they need to thrive in a globally connected world, we must find ways to provide the type of infrastructure that will make connectivity a reality for every teacher and student in every classroom.
Learning Management System alone is not enough. Webinar alone is not enough. Combination of broadcast knowledge, content production, the right camera equipment setup, media format and codecs, universities to set up content direction, producers choosing the right technology and much more combined knowledge between stakeholders will set the precedent for future learning.
Learning Institution
Once the infrastructure is ready, the burden to set the precedent in future learning can’t be put on educators alone. It has been shown that human beings; both educators and students are naturally not afraid of new technology and are in fact comfortable with acquiring new skills. Proper change management and training can increase one’s confidence levels, which can reduce the fear of the unknown and the anxiety that jeopardises the learning process. Adaptation to new skills may take time, progressively both will learn together as participants in learning institutions.
Once we have addressed the technology gaps in providing a ‘new’ education system, we need to understand that the proliferation of smartphones and exponentially increasing internet penetration with upcoming 5G have enabled the world-wide democratization of education. With revenues from OTT video surpassed $20 billion in 2019, there’s never been a better time to join forces between broadcasting, telecommunication, learning institutions and productions. Universities, schools, preschools are adopting OTT learning as part of their learning methods and learning from home during the coronavirus pandemic has opened their eyes of the limitations and potential we can achieve with OTT. It’s a delightful and at the same time painful paradigm for the teachers/lecturer and students who are not prepared for this unprecedented change.
Future of Video for Education
Video as an agent in the process of education transformation, accommodating different learning styles, increasing engagement and excitement among students helps to maximize learning institution resources and improves learning outcomes.
OTT Learning services will further revolutionize education by virtualizing the classroom where students can learn anytime, anyplace, on any device of their choice at their own pace of learning. OTT plays a vital part in the digital transformation of the education sector by shifting from the physicality of the classroom-based education delivery to a virtual environment that is augmented by immersive video lectures, interactive quizzes, real-time knowledge sharing in the form of webinars etc.
IPSB Technology has been helping content owners and learning institutes not only manage their assets and their metadata but can also test video content under different network conditions as well as get deeper insights into student viewing patterns and improve the quality of viewing and broadcast experience.
Conclusion
For Digital OTT Learning, the education sector is strategically poised to capitalize on the growing OTT video content industry. It is also evident that the insatiable appetite for great educational videos will not slow down anytime soon. This makes monetizing educational videos a wonderful proposition for educational video content owners. The options are diversified and that alone calls for another article. Therefore, we should leverage technology in broadcasting to ensure future proof education for our students, firstly to address and ensure infrastructure readiness. Next are the adaptation and collaboration by learning institutions and industry experts. As the appetite for great educational video continues to grow, Educational Broadcast through OTT Learning is a must strategy to implement–today!
Link to the article resources: IEEE Broadcast Technology Society
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