I agree with Fr. Nicolas as I also think that imagination is an indispensible part of education as well as human life. Imagination is what makes people strive for something better.
People always try to make their dreams come true, and this leads to the development of the entire humanity. When it comes to education, the role of imagination is even more transparent. Students’ creativity makes them achieve highest academic tops. Only creative students can manage to grasp meanings in the area chosen.
However, Fr. Nicolas also notes that technology and especially social networks undermine the very existence of imagination in education. Admittedly, social networking takes a lot of time and some people do abuse social networking. They waste their time chatting and sharing photos. Clearly, that time could be spent more wisely, i.e. students could read books, reflect upon some issues, work on projects.
Luckily, more and more students abandon social networks as they understand that online communication can never make their lives complete. At present, students go back to old practices when students had a lot of contemplation time at their disposal.
Noteworthy, even though social networking may be somewhat destructing (when it comes to time management), it does not damage students’ creativity. Of course, social networking is one of the fastest ways to spread the news, which can often be superfluous. At the same time, social networks can also help to spread creative ideas and bring them to life.
Sharing experiences is one of the major goals of social networking. Admittedly, people’s experiences often inspire others to create something new.
For instance, a person grumbling over some constraints during a visit to another country can make another social networks user to come up with ideas how to avoid such inconveniences during his/her trip. This often works with education. Student often share the problems they have at school, this helps develop new ways to cope with the issues.
Admittedly, serious thinking and in-depth reflection requires time. Students have to be disconnected for, at least, some time. Young people should have time to reflect and plunge into the world of their imagination. At that, I strongly believe that lots of students have such moments and are totally disconnected. They reflect and enjoy their imagination. Creative students cherish their creativity and imagination.
Of course, less creative students should be trained to spend more time in the world of their imagination rather than in the digital world. It is crucial to make these students understand that they are simply wasting their time. It is easy to do that as teachers can ask the students to calculate time spent in social networks and calculate creative ideas they generated.
This simple mathematics will help students prioritize better. Eventually, students will spend less time in social networks and will have more time to reflect and contemplate. Nonetheless, students should still go online and share their experiences and ideas as this will foster their interest to the world around them and will contribute to the development of their creative activity.
To sum up, it is necessary to note that social networks can be harmful for students’ creativity and education only when abused. Admittedly, abundance of meaningless information distracts students from their studies and their creative activity. However, the moderate use of social networks can help students develop their imagination as ideas of other people can make them react and create.