The pandemic has changed the attitude to online classes, which were earlier considered second rung. Apart from ensuring that education continues in these challenging times, technology can help in something more. Whether it is for writing competitive exams or helping with the application process for overseas universities, despite the support from coaching and other institutions, people have always tried to connect with like-minded people. Can technology enable this, by helping students discover each other “nearby”?
No matter what their stream of study, students are constantly on the lookout for projects and internships. What if they could find and connect with project partners nearby? Imagine an apartment complex wanting to set up a robotic security system at their entrance? They are not going to spend lakhs trying to procure one. But, they wouldn’t mind trying out an experimental project with Engineering students nearby. They wouldn’t mind using Commerce students to tally their accounts, or consulting with Environment students for water conversation plans. Can technology enable this, by matching supply with demand “nearby”?
If technology can solve this “nearby” problem for students, there is a plethora of avenues available to extract value out of it. From finding and offering tuition classes and exchanging books with fellow students to finding teachers and professors, technology can seamlessly enable all this.
While generic social media platforms can serve as starting points, there are specific community platforms that enable intra-college collaboration among students, and hyper-local social platforms that enable interest-based discovery and collaboration in the neighbourhood. There is location tech, community tech, AI tech ... it is all about how these can be packaged to enable students to connect to others near them.
Communities can certainly bridge the gap between formal education and informal learning. While it is true that we live in a world where reach is not decided by the physical distance, we need to work towards bringing communities closer again, and connect people near us again because proximity still solves a lot of problems that distance cannot. Technology can do this for us and when also education more interesting than what can be provided in institutions and through online classes.
The writer is Co-Founder and CEO, IamHere (www.iamhere.mobi)
