The perils and promise of EdTech | Achuth Krishnan Sreedevi | TEDxCUSAT

With a warm smile, Achuth starts his talks on the perils and promise of Ed-Tech.

He works in Amplify Education, a company that supports school learning, teaching and assessing using technologies. When he resigned that job and came back to India, he became disheartened after hearing about the education system in India from his friend. He played simple games in between audiences related to technologies to get knowledge about different technologies, and came to two conclusions.

Education has always used technologies, he said, and there was nothing new about it. The difference is that today’s education is elaborating a new technology, the "indemit". It is similar to the articles that we talk about today.

Tech companies, according to him, think that Ed-Tech companies are not like them. Everyone raises a question: How do we get people to use technology? It's not the question we should be asking, rather, that question should be replaced by the question of how we can solve problems in education through technology. The answer to this question was a bit disappointing, like tech is to replace teachers.

Then he came to the main session of his talk. What can Ed-tech do to revolutionise education in the future? For this he came with a picture drawn by a Japanese artist in 1969 which showed the usage of computers in the classroom by children, even at the time when computers were just introduced. Through that, he explained the importance of three E's: Equity, Expansion and Excellence. Apart from those, he added on the importance of enjoyability in education.

The internet, he expressed, can solve the problem of access and accommodate many children as there are. It can also teach by channelling teachers anywhere in the world within the classroom and outside. So people can enjoy themselves. The funny thing is, he says, education can do all these things if the focus is on the right problems and making the right choices to solve this problem. This is the promise of Ed-Tech and that is simply Ed-Tech.
Achuth Krishnan Sreedevi, is a Harvard University graduate who also holds a degree in computer science from New York University. Over the past decade, Krish has been active in the EdTech space in India and the US and has had various roles in Technology and Product in several prestigious
organisations including the United Nations. As an avid communicator, he has also served as an Editor for the UN Academic Impact newsletter and authored articles about education for The Hindu. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx