Academicians Should Take Responsibility in Solving Industry Problems: N R Narayana Murthy at IIMB Conference

IIM Bangalore hosts the third edition of the Annual Future of Learning Conference 2020 (FoL 2020), with this year’s theme being ‘Learning to Learn, Unlearn and Relearn: Flourishing in the Age of Disruptions and Innovation’. Academic leaders, policymakers, industry experts and technologists attended the event for brainstorming sessions, showcasing innovation and sharing knowledge along three paradigms of the future of learning: to learn, unlearn and relearn.

The massive technology driven developments in the educational sector compels both individuals and institutions to respond, adaptively, which in turn have facilitate the emergence of new pedagogies using adaptive learning, personalized learning as well as a host of new pedagogical approaches. The speakers from prominent tech companies like Infosys, Capgemini, TCS, NASSCOM, edX, Fidelity Investments, Mercer Mettl, and premier education institutions like IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, and more, addressed questions around learnability in the context of Industry 4.0.

“Education is learning to learn,” remarks N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus & Co-Founder of Infosys, at the FoL 2020 conference. “Learning broadens one’s horizon, improves judgements, instils critical learning, enhances curiosity, and helps them walk the path, reach the unattained goals, and solve the future problems of the society,” he says.
“One of the complexities at the time of information overload is to identify ways to channelize information and take up the right approach to learn. Experts in education should realize that youngsters must be equipped with fundamental learnings and be able to apply them to understand and solve problems around them,” he adds

About 75 percent of the workforce would comprise millennial by the next decade. Tomorrow’s learning will be digital, which will be connected, on-demand and modular, mobile, flexible, and personalized

“The future of education is digital,” declares Anant Agarwal, Founder & CEO of edX and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in a plenary session. Various research studies conducted by edX indicate that among the various challenges business leaders must overcome today, reskilling, retaining, and recruiting are the vital ones. “About 75 percent of the workforce would comprise millennial by the next decade. Tomorrow’s learning will be digital, which will be connected, on-demand and modular, mobile, flexible, and personalized,” he adds.

Varun Garg, VP Learning, UpGrad, Amit Goyal, CEO, edX India, Bibin Shivas, Head Customer Success - Asia Pacific, Coursera, and Nishit Jain, Special Advisor, EFMD Global Network Asia, participated in a panel discussion on ‘The Future of Professional Education’, moderated by Ramya Srinivasan, Program Director, VentureBasecamp. Personalized learning, pathway skilling, learner engagement, agility, and creating the right degree of motivation for learners that will help drive future education towards digitalization, were some of the key points that came up during the panel-audience interaction.

Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, Chair, Board of Governors, IIM Bangalore, observes, in his keynote address at the event, “We tend to overestimate the effect of technology in the shortrun and underestimate it in the longrun. Everything is going to be disrupted. We should be ready to embrace the change.” Besides the plenary discussions, the participants also got an opportunity to present their research on various problems in the education industry, at the conference.