We Must Shift to Digitally Underpinned, Learning Centered Education Systems

Here’s the problem:

• The US continues to lag behind other countries in several education metrics.
• The educational dichotomy created by socioeconomic and geographical issues is increasing.
• Even Students with a college degree are having difficulty finding jobs.
• Remote work and Outsourcing have decreased the number of onshore jobs.

What’s the cause?

For the most part, the education system has been the same for 50 years. We are still using books in classrooms, and the shift towards consuming this information via iPads and computers does not qualify as innovation or modernization.

How do we fix this?

Change doesn’t occur overnight, but we can go digital very quickly. We are introducing Intelligent Automation technologies such as Robotic Process Automation is currently the path of least resistance.

The best way to picture RPA is to think about the automobile industry. Twenty-five years ago, most of the work was physical. As such, we designed robots to perform this manual work. Today, a lot of the work is digital. We have created digital robots, software tools that perform redundant, repetitive, mindless work that must be done, but no one wants to do it.

We first think of RPA as supplemental education and then as a vocational education pathway.  Our education system’s current focus for additional education is still geared toward creating a manual or service-based jobs — it has been like this since WW2, and it is imperative to shift our goals.

Here are a few ways we can introduce this change within one calendar year

• We can provide personalized attention to each student: 

We have Robo advisors for investing; we can communicate with children via digital tutors. The digital tutors spend more time with a student, the more individualized the care gets. Using sentiment analysis, chatbots can identify when students are frustrated with an assignment and can either provide help by resources or point them to a tutor/teacher/knowledge forum. This sentiment can be tracked to see if a student is enjoying class more and provides metrics on customizing a curriculum to students. Chatbots can also supervise keystrokes and serve as a watchdog for internet students.

• Create summer and after-school programs.

 We can incorporate RPA education into current curriculums. Students can start making money directly out of high school by developing robots. They can also design robots for particular tasks and sell them in a marketplace.

•  Create new digital jobs.

RPA is a growing industry. Currently, over 40 per cent of companies use some form of intelligent automation. By 2025, that number will be close to 100%. Since well-paying jobs are hard to come by even with an advanced degree, we would train students on how to design robots to perform tasks. This is the future of America and gets children involved with AI, Machine learning, intelligent algorithms, all in a constructive and fun way.

The time is now!

This isn’t a pipe dream. Apple initiated the early adoption of coding into the curriculum, and many students have a head start. We can quickly do the same with Robotic Process Automation. Let’s raise a call to action to get this done this year!