Where Does Tele-Education Go from Here?

Michael Moe, co-founder of educational investment firm GSV Ventures, has checked out MasterClass, and during one of several panels at CES 2021 devoted to tele-education called this independently operated enterprise an early, promising example of how it will grow in the years ahead. "Hollywood meets Harvard," is how Moe labels this movement. Combined with other developments, he predicted that 2021 will see "the dawn of the age of digital learning."

Ventures like MasterClass "were in place before the coronavirus pandemic and have accelerated since," Moe asserted. "We're going to see a digital revolution with weapons of mass instruction. Everything (as in smart TV devices, the internet and other mass communication pathways) will be smart and everything will be connected. Homework will happen online through Zoom and other means. We'll see the emergence of more subscription business models for education, just as for entertainment."

Throw the widespread adoption of technologies from 5G to augmented reality into this tele-education stew, and consumer acceptance will turn tele-education from a $160 billion industry now to more than $1 trillion by 2021, Moe predicted.

Voice functionality inside smart TV gadgets, smart speakers and other products such as Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa -- all programmed and updated consistently through artificial intelligence -- is another element critical to successful tele-education, Creativity Inc. senior director of marketing and development Caitlin Gutekunst pointed out at another CES 2021 discussion. "Voice is a channel, a way to reach new audiences, and now a way to find information more easily," she said. "Voice makes things more efficient when adapted to you."

Creativity Inc. is working with Disney, Amazon and other media companies on various educational projects that incorporate voice elements. One goal is giving college and university students quicker access to on-campus events. Another is to improve productivity for teachers and students alike.

Gutekunst's panel at CES featured a demonstration of educational computer animation from Pittsburgh-based Schell Games designed for home or in-school play using virtual reality headsets. Hololab Champions is a simulated game show set in a chemistry lab, while History Maker, designed for middle school students, features interaction with U.S. history luminaries.

Single-subject games reaching students or classrooms through VR reality or other media represents another promising tele-education direction, advocated Schell senior game designer Melanie Harke. "More time, more money, more resources are going to remote learning," she said. "This is the ground floor."

As more tele-education options develop and empower students to learn new things and more quickly develop skillsets, institutions covering all grade levels will gradually adopt them. "(They) are realizing, and waking up to the fact that this is the new normal, and there's now an alternative pathway to learning" said Sharan Chandradath Singh, managing director of strategic partnerships for Minerva Project, at another CES 2021 panel. "The depth of learning will not be compromised. This has a long future ahead."

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