"Technology can include scaling up quality instruction", Rajeev Tiwari, STEMROBO co-founder

Rajeev Tiwari is a serial entrepreneur, innovation, and Tech Evangelist, having 20+ years of experience in Tech and entrepreneurial journeys and helping all the Stakeholders fuel Innovation by embracing the innovative mindset. Rajeev strongly supports Leveraging Technology as an Enabler to Address Real Life Challenging Problems surrounding us. He is also a co-founder of 'STEMROBO Technologies Private Limited', an Educational Technology based company focused on designing and making innovative electronic devices, software, pedagogy, and methodologies around STEM Robotics for the K 12 segment.

Rajeev Tiwari talks about how technology will help us in the coming five years. He feels that technology can be a vital tool in accelerating student learning at school and preparing students for this 21st-century technological world.

He says, "Schools should focus on the potential uses of technology that play to its comparative advantages and complement the efforts of teachers to improve student learning at school. These comparative advantages of technology can include scaling up quality instruction by providing self-learning content in the form of documents and pre-recorded videos which also provide an opportunity to practise at the student level, adaptive learning, and increasing student engagement through gamified learning."

He says Stemrobo is helping Hyderabad schools implement the New Education Policy. Rajeev says, "STEMROBO Technologies is focused on developing an ecosystem for students as per the NEP, to nurture their innovation and 21st- century skills where STEAM, Robotics, Coding, and AI are utilised as crucial tools so that kids can become smart in their academics and solve modern world problems at the same time. STEMROBO provides end-to-end solutions to K-12 Schools for nurturing innovation; 21st Century Skills among young students of Age 6-18 years.

STEMROBO offers 21st-century students an opportunity to explore, experience, and bring innovation through a world-class STEM, AI, Robotics, and Coding Curriculum Integrated with our unique and affordable technology products and solutions delivered in an online or hybrid model, thereby enabling and empowering students to be able to become creative-thinkers and problem-solvers. STEMROBO deploys its unique and affordable DIY kits along with the digital learning platforms at the schools and works on the capacity building of the teachers throughout to get these contents delivered to the students in an effective manner. Students and teachers are also provided with. 24X7 access to tinker learning LMS to access the contents and complete the assignments and quizzes. STEMROBO also has a very strong mechanism in place to track the progress of the individual child and get it shared with the parents on a quarterly basis.

"We have more than 500 Schools associated with us from southern India, which includes more than 200+ schools in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In the next year, we're targeting to expand our reach to 200+ schools in Hyderabad itself," Rajeev adds.

STEMROBO is working on building an educators network under its initiative 'Tinker for Bharat'. We target reaching out to 10000+ educators next year through this initiative. He says, "Idea is to train the teachers or educators around these technology tools like STEAM, Robotics, Coding & AI through unique STEMROBO methodologies available in different regional languages including Telugu and get all these teachers certified based on their level of understanding. In line with NEP 2020, STEMROBO has also come up with its graded computer books, which cover Computer Basics, Coding and Artificial Intelligence instead of just the computer curriculum. These graded books from Grade 1 to Grade 10 include subscriptions to Coding & AI platforms along with monthly training of Computer teachers at school so that they're well equipped to deliver these contents to the students. We are not just working on delivering theoretical knowledge to the teachers but, in the process, upgrading them around the advanced pedagogies and curriculum. STEMROBO will also provide certification to all the educators trained in these advanced technologies. This Program would enable educators to think beyond the regular school curriculum and broaden their horizons through experiential learning, a much-needed skill that needs to be passed on to the upcoming generation."

While explaining STEMROBO Showcase schools difference from Microsoft showcase schools, he says, "STEMROBO 21st century showcase schools would be the platform for students where we are providing an end to end ecosystem for nurturing innovation; 21st-century skills where students would be trained not only on Basic academics or basic computer literacy but also advanced technological tools like Robotics, STEM Education, Artificial intelligence, IoT (Internet of things), Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship Skills, Coding, and 3D printing. This ecosystem will allow the holistic development of students right from kindergarten. 21st-century showcase school allows a culture of "Learning by doing; or Experiential learning, ensuring students get hands-on experience with real-life applications. Innovation and 21st-century skills development, which is the need of the hour, is what is focused at the best." Hence Hyderabad becoming the next IT hub of India can benefit the locals only if the local schools of Hyderabad develop the ecosystem for nurturing Innovation and 21st-century skills.

"Whereas Microsoft Showcase school is an idea where students are learning computer skills/ hard skills like presentation making on Microsoft PowerPoint, Data capturing on Microsoft Excel, and document making on Microsoft Word. The structure of Microsoft Showcase school is only around basic computer literacy and not focusing anywhere upon the development of 21st-Century Skills. Students/teachers will only get exposure around handling Microsoft Office Tools and not on any other advanced technology as mentioned above," he shares.

Telangana schools have been at the forefront of STEM education compared to other states of India. However, it can be boosted by introducing STEM at an early stage with the correct methodology, which is crucially important to promote STEM among students. Rajeev says, "The traditional methodology of teaching mostly results in creating a phobia of STEM subjects among students. The school's methodology of 'Learning by doing' or Experiential learning, which ensures students get hands-on experience with real-life applications, needs to be adopted to end this fear of these subjects among students. With the help of tech, schools need to develop an infrastructure to promote innovation; 21st-century skills development, which is the need of the hour.

"The NEP was a big step that is revolutionising our education system. It has been 2 years only since it came into existence, and we've witnessed an exponential demand from schools and parents. There is various evidence that students exposed to the newest technology and learning by making approaches have greater knowledge and are scoring better marks. Students are becoming more curious and inquisitive in understanding and innovating new things, irrespective of their grades. Different students cater to different interests. The 21st-century showcase school is helping students by providing them with a complete ecosystem to develop that mindset and thinking approach to tinker and innovate any random thing that interests them. The 21st-century showcase schools are focused not only on students interested in Science or computers but also on those involved in co-curricular activities like dancing, cooking, and singing. Hence, there's a guarantee of nourishing a future brilliant child, irrespective of the interest area, in STEMROBO-powered 21st-century showcase schools," concludes Rajeev.