Abstract
Technology has had massive impact on education. The recent technological inventions and innovations have changed the approach taken by various stakeholders in this field.
The geographical barrier that existed before has been eliminated completely. In the current society, a British student can undertake his or her junior primary education in Britain, high school in Russia, and at the college level the leaner can go to the United States. The world has been reduced to a small village where learners and teachers can easily move from one location to another.
Children are experiencing new forms of teaching with the help of such gadgets as iPads and personal computers. With internet connectivity, learners can easily access important academic materials online. Teachers can also use the same internet to send notes to students. Teacher-student relationship has been enhanced. The need to have a physical classroom setting is also reducing due to advanced technology. Learning has just been made easier with the advancement in technology.
Introduction
Technology has transformed various sectors of economy around the world. The world has been reduced into a small village because of the advances made in technology that has taken place around the world. People can easily move from one geographical location to another using a plane or various other means of transport.
Communication has also been made easier due to advancement in the field of information technology. Information is easily shared through the internet and other means of communication. Technology is also making various devises cheap enough for the middle class. This means that they can easily access the information available in the internet, and other means of communication.
The education sector is one of the sectors that have heavily been impacted by technological advances. There has been a massive shift in the approach taken in this field due to the advancement in technology.
According to Lakshmi (2007), technology has brought radical changes in this field that never existed before. This scholar says that technology has brought major advances in education. There is an emergent of a virtual classroom, where individuals learn miles away from classrooms. This is because of technological advances such as video conferencing.
Students have also found technology to be very resourceful in their research. A researcher in the United Stated of America can conduct a comprehensive research on a company in India right from the comfort of his class. This is made possible by the fact that all the important facts that such a researcher may need can easily be found on the internet. The emergent of social media has had massive effect on education. This research focuses on the impact of technology on education.
Impact of Technology on Education
Technology in education has raised a lot of debate among scholars in the recent past. There are a group of scholars who strongly believe that technology has had positive impact of education. On the other hand, there are those who strongly believe that technology has had serious negative consequences on education and on the lives of learners.
According to Tettegah (2006), the proponents and opponents of technology in the field of education have had a near equal force in fronting their arguments. In this research, analysis will be done on both the positive and negative consequences of technology on education.
Positive Impacts of Technology on Education
According to Lakshmi (2007), technology has completely transformed education in various forms and in a positive way. This scholar says that education system today has embraced technology in various fronts, and the results have been marvellous. One of the biggest advantages that technology has brought in the field of education is global learning.
König (2007) says that technology has enhanced learning to the level where learners can get knowledge from any part of the world. Global learning has been enhanced by such technological improvements as video conferencing techniques. In this case, a learner may not need to move to a physical classroom. Through this technology, a teacher can disseminate knowledge from the comfort of his or her office to students who are in their homes.
The technology allows for interactivity between the teacher and the students, and among the students. This means that a teacher in United Kingdom can have a class to students in the United Arab Emirates with the aid of technology. This means that when such a teacher has several classes with similar unit, they can be joined together in one class irrespective of their location around the globe (König, 2007). As such, the issue limited number of teachers around the country will be eliminated.
Technology has enhanced a free flow of information from one corner of the world to another (Tettegah, 2006). This scholar says that with advanced technology, there has emerged a new trend of global learning where learners can share information from any part of the world with the help of the internet.
There is every kind of information one may need in the internet. Lipsitz (2008) argues that the internet has become a very strong source of knowledge in the contemporary education system. The scholar holds that learners in the current society can easily use the internet to get information on various subjects, most of which are found freely. The internet has replaced physical books that were very bulky to the students.
The internet has enabled learners to compile a lot of materials and keep them in soft copy to be retrieved at any time the learner wishes to. With a personal computer, a leaner can compile a large volume of notes and keep them in an easily retrievable manner. The personal computer will also enable the learner to summarize the notes in a way that will capture most important facts per given unit in the class. With a laptop, a student will be moving around with vast materials, compressed into simple easy to retrieve, easy to read manner.
Technology has helped enhance reading of books among the learners, while making publishing easy for the authors. Purchasing a book has been made easier and cheaper thanks to the internet. The emergent of e-books has made it extremely easy for learners to make purchase of the most important books in their courses.
A learner will easily order for the book, pay for it and receive a copy all through online means. This means that such individuals may not strain looking for physical stores where they can make purchase of the books. Once with the book, the learner will find it easy reading the book because besides being a virtual book that is not bulky, navigating this book is easier then when one handles a physical book.
To the others, publishing has been made easier. There is no longer a need to incur huge costs of publishing due to the need to produce physical books. These authors are therefore encouraged to increase their production because the cost of production and the logistics that would have followed are already eliminated. To the environmentalists, this is one of the best technologies ever to occur.
With e-books, there is an assurance that the tree will be protected from lumbers. The reduction of printed books will reduce the demand for paper, meaning that the operational activities of the paper factories will be reduced. This would mean cleaner and more conducive environment for the learners.
Researchers have found technology to be of utmost importance in their lives. According to Wright (2008), researchers have been using the internet to gather relevant information they need in their area of research. This scholar holds that a researcher in the United Arabs Emirates may not need to travel to South Africa in order to conduct an economical analysis of Coca Cola Company is performing in this country. Such a researcher will get most of the information required through online means.
If there may be need to conduct further researcher by conducting some interviews on the employees or top management of the firm, this can be made possible through phone call conversation, video-conferencing, emailing or the use of the social media to pass a communication and receive a response.
The internet has also created a forum through which researchers can meet and share some of their findings in a developmental manner. Through such social media tools as Facebook, Tweeter and LinkedIn, a researcher will easily notice another researcher who is in the same field of research.
The two or more researchers can come together and share their knowledge, and the level of their findings irrespective of their location around the globe. This can enhance development of a given field of research. In such cases, Tettegah (2006) says that the researchers can work as a unit in a manner where, if researcher in United Arab Emirates wants some facts about business environmental conditions in France, the data can be collected through a correspondent who is in France, hence this cuts off the cost of transport.
According to Wright (2008), technology has also benefited schools and their management systems. Various schools around the world have embraced technology in one way or the other to advance their systems. Most schools have their students registered in computer system where a simple click into the student’s identification number brings all the details of the students, including information about their academic performance.
Teachers can therefore easily monitor performance of each individual student. The class teacher can also share information with the parents with a lot of ease. The elimination of physical and tedious work means that teachers can get enough time to spend with students in a constructive manner.
The administrations have also found technology very important in running schools. With computerized system of managing school assets, it becomes easier to manage the education system. Technology has also helped schools administration to increase their intake of students. Technology is allowing schools to administer distance learning to students in various locations around the globe. This has increased the income of such institutions, making it possible for them to enhance learning system to suit the needs of the learners.
Technology has also enhanced the relationship that exists between all the stakeholders within the education society. Parents can easily communicate with teachers and get to know how the development of their children thanks to the developments brought about by technology. Lipsitz (2008) says that with enhanced technology, parents can easily monitor the progress of the school, their children and be able to reach out to various other stakeholders within the society to help build the system.
Negative Impacts of Technology on Education
According to Wright (2008), the praises that various people have had on the impact of technology on education are misplaced. This scholar holds that technology has brought serious negative consequences in the field of education. The sentiments of this scholar are shared among various other scholars who feel that technology has brought very little positivity in the field of education. The following are some of the negative factors that these scholars have highlighted in their opposition to technology.
Tettegah (2006) says that with emergent of technology, learners have completely forgotten about books. Students rarely use books in the current society.
This scholar says that technology has massively distracted learners from books. Right from lower classes to the universities, learners rarely take time to read books unless there is an urgent exam and there is need to avoid failure in the exams. Learners take most of their times watching movies or playing games using the same computers which they are supposed to use to do further research.
Wright (2008) observes that it is currently a common phenomenon to see books in the library gathering dust because of lack of handling for various weeks. The urge to dig deep into the books in order to gather information that would advance knowledge of a learner has been replaced by the desire to watch new movies or play new games using the computers.
The little time the learners have left is used to watch movies in the television or listen to music using the iPod. Reading books is almost becoming an archaic practice among learners at various levels. Reading is specifically meant for the exams and not personal development. For that matter, cramming of the notes is considered more preferable among these students.
Technology has allowed learners, access to materials that are mind-corrupting. It is common to find a young student aged 12 years with an iPad. With such a gadget, such a young learner will be exposed to all the information and content of the internet, some of which are beyond his understanding.
Tettegah (2006) says that with access to the internet, some minors may come across sites with adult contents. Because there is no clear way through which such sites can determine the age of the viewer, such youngsters are allowed into sites with materials beyond their level of consumption. Such content would always end up corrupting the mind of the viewer.
This may be manifested in their actions or words. Such a learner will not only be wasting precious time that should be meant for learning, but will also get morally washed-off because of the contents of what they view. Some of the movies that learners watch are violent in nature. Because of the delicacy of this stage in the development of a person, such individuals come to internalize the fact that being violent is cool.
Actions of violence may not only land such learners in jail and interfere with their learning, but may also affect other academics negatively. According to Reed (2010), young learners in the current society get glued on televisions for very long time watching movies that are morally wanting. This scholar warns that this habit is becoming more popular among the youths who are expected to take most of their tome learning.
Tan (2012) talks of the social media as the main destructor of learning process. The emergence of social media has acted as a big distracter to young learners in the current society. Facebook has about one billion followers, majority being the youth in learning institutions. They spend most of their time on the Facebook discussing things that are not related to their academic lives.
This leaves them with limited time to spend on books. As a result of this, they are not in a position to prosper in their education. Tweeter has the same effect as Facebook. The impact of YouTube has even been greater. Given the fact that YouTube can support heavy graphics such as videos, these young learners of today spend most of their time on YouTube either listening to music or watching videos at the expense of learning.
According to Lipsitz (2008), learning is a very difficult process that when faced with a very little distracter, will yield very dismal results. Learners must be made to realize that their academic performance is not secondary to their entertainment. As such, they should not give it a second place to their entertainment. However, given the fact that the learning process is very challenging, they easily get swayed when they get such entertaining means as YouTube.
Technology has replaced the normal way of life of learners in the current society, but in a negative way. According to König (2007), technology has completely changed the recreational trend among learners. Initially, children appreciated the importance of outdoor games.
After school and when on holidays, learners would take their time to play various games with their peers. These games would range from football games, baseball, volleyball, skiing, swimming, athletics, tennis among others. These games are very important to the mental and physical development of children.
When they run, kick and stretch their arms, they get to exercise their muscles. This would stimulate their entire body system and give them a refreshing feeling when they embark on books. Their minds are strong enough after such rigorous activities. The blood circulation in their body gets steady and they generally feel stronger. This also eliminates incidences of simple diseases that would attack them because of lack of proper exercise. Such complications as heart problems, weak bones or mental distress will be eliminated.
This will go a long way in eliminating time wasted due to the need to stay on bed under medication due to such complications. Outdoor games also enhance socialization. When these learners go out to play, they meet their peers and this helps in their mental development. This would enhance their learning capacity when they are back in school because they get to appreciate the importance of teamwork. They get to apply such skills in school and as Means (2009) says, this would result in brilliant performance in their academics.
These positive virtues of outdoor learning have been replaced by technology enhanced indoor games. Learners do not have time to engage in outdoor games because they can play right inside the bedroom. This means that they get affected by all the negative consequences of not being able to engage in outdoor games. Innocert (2012) says that doctors and other medical experts have lamented the effect that lack of outdoor games has on learners.
Conclusion
It is a fact that technology has brought about massive improvement in the field of education. With advanced technology, learners are able to access various learning materials through the internet. They are able to share information with their fellow learners because of improved accessibility. Learner-learner and learner-teacher relationship has greatly improved. A learner can easily access the teacher through various means, and using various technological tools.
Researchers have found the internet very vital in their process of research. These are some of the positive impacts that technology has had on education. However, it is worth noting that despite these positive changes, there have been numerous negative effects that technology has had on education (Gura & Percy, 2005). Learners in the modern society do take most of their time entertaining themselves other than learning.
They enjoy watching movies instead of reading books. Some of the contents they get in the internet get to corrupt their mind, making them engage in activities that are not healthy to their wellbeing and to their peers. Indoor games have detrimental effects on their physical and mental health. It would therefore be prudent to conclude that although technology is necessary in this field, measures should be taken to counter its negative effects.
References
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