Contactless Education?

IIT Bombay has announced that it will run online classes this year. Others may follow. What does this mean for classroom education? Assuming we return to the pre-COVID world at our own pace, will education remain the same? Or will this cataclysm drive a change in it forever?

Nobody knows, but maybe we are at a tipping point, in that students and whoever pays for education (parents, banks), may just re-evaluate the options -in particular, for higher education at the graduate/post grad. levels. Is it necessary to attend a class as a cohort to get that coveted certification, or are there alternatives that can get you to the same place?

I am of course an old-world teacher (I did not say old fogey- you may have thought it). I am a believer in old-world everything..almost. The feedback and joy of seeing faces and expressions up close can't be beaten by anything, in my view. Classes threaten to be more impersonal, and that personal touch- a look, a smile, or a frown will be hard to catch. It would resemble play-acting rather than a real experience, if done on-line. Maybe we will move towards more objective testing, as it's easier to do online.

Some subjects (and teachers) may find it harder than others. At the school level, inequality may rise due to lack of access to smartphones or laptops among some students. Will the system take care of these? Schools may get back to traditional learning before the others due to these and other issues.