Digital Transformation of Education: An Overview

Abstract

Digital transformation of education is the need of the hour especially during and after this unusual situation of pandemic Covid-19, where face to face education has become infeasible. The vacuum created due to the inaccessibility of our traditional system of education has compelled all of us to look for an alternative to the traditional system of education and the virtual world of education in one such kind alternative. Such virtualization of education is the result of the digital transformation of education that had been taking place for decades ago not only in our country but all over the world. Our educational world has a long history of using technology in almost all spheres of education. So, it becomes very important for all of us to explore our history to know how such a digital transformation of education was started and what was the role of government in this paradigm shift? What interventions, policies and programs of government have been proved as a turning point? All such questions can be answered only through a thorough study of our history. A historical overview of the education system will help us to understand the role of government policies in the implementation of ICT in the education system to identify the trends and development in the digitalization of education. In this paper, the focus of the researcher is to highlight all those technologies and initiatives that have been taken for the digitalization of education from time to time by different countries. Keeping in mind such objectives of the study, the researcher has selected 7 countries: Italy, Korea, Finland, Morocco, Portuguese, New Zealand, and India and threw light on educational initiatives taken by these countries for the digital transformation of education.