Entering the era of information technology means incorporating modern media as tools for data acquisition and analysis in every single domain, including education. However, the promotion of modern media as essential tools for teaching and learning may have its disadvantages.
A detailed study of the key effects of modern media in education, therefore, is required. As long as the use of modern media by students is controlled by teachers and occurs as a part of the lesson and not the focus thereof, the specified tools can be viewed as a means of enhancing the learning process and improving the performance of students.
Among the key benefits of the use of modern media in classrooms, the fact that technology serves as essential aid in the course of acquiring new skills and learning new information deserves to be mentioned. In order to acquire new information and process it quickly, learners need supporting material, which in most cases must include both visual and audio elements.
While watching a video can be viewed as an alternative to incorporating modern media into the curriculum, one still has to admit that traditional media lacks an essential element, which is the opportunity for learners to interact with the source of information.
Modern media, in its turn, has solved this problem, providing students a chance to use an interactive interface in order to learn new information quickly. Indeed, a closer look at the modern media will reveal that most software used for learning purposes presupposes that students should be able to interact with the program (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2011).
Another important benefit that modern media provides is the fact that the learners are capable of accessing the necessary information easily. It should be kept in mind, though, that the benefit in question needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It is rather doubtful that students, especially young learners, are capable of identifying which information is useful for them, which can be skipped, an which data is downright harmful.
Therefore, unlimited access to information, which the introduction of modern technologies into the classroom environment allows for, should be controlled by the teacher. The control executed by the latter will help students filter the information that they will come across, showing them how to locate the data that can be used for further studies.
It should be kept in mind, though, that the use of technologies in classroom may also pose a range of threats to a successful learning process once misused. To be more exact, technology, especially modern one, may easily become a distraction for students and keep them away from the actual focus of the lesson.
The specified problem becomes especially obvious once social media is introduced into the curriculum and the discussion of the key topics and themes is transferred from the classroom environment into forums. Unless the teacher plays an active part in the discussion process and steers the conversation the designated way, students may easily go off the track and engage in the communication that does not serve any studies related purpose.
Apart from the specified problem, technology may also contribute to the enhancement of cheating rates among the students. First and most obvious, having access to the Internet and not being controlled by the teacher in their surfing process, students may easily start searching for cheats to their tests and the answers to the questions that they are supposed to answer in the course of the lesson on their own. As a result, learners acquire very little information and are incapacitated of training their skills.
The specified problem, in fact, is much more serious than it might seem at the first glance. While cheating during a test might seem as an innocent attempt at escaping a poor grade, it sets the student’s mind frame at using easy solutions to addressing the problems that require their mental resources.
In other words, the online cheating tools, which learners become open to once technology is introduced into the curriculum, destroys the notion of learning as the teacher represents it to the students. Therefore, technology may disrupt the process of learning to the point where students may fail to acquire the skills that will enhance their further self-directed learning (Ni, 2013).
It should be noted, though, that the two problems described above can be addressed with the help of the teacher’s supervision and a provision of detailed instructions, as well as enhancement of ethical principles in the educational environment under analysis.
Once the students are introduced to the concept of responsibility (Manian, 2013), they will be able to realise that cheating on attest will only harm their further development as learners. Similarly, the principles of responsibility will help learners refrain from abusing the freedom that the teacher provides them with once they communicate online during the lesson.
The incorporation of technology into the school curriculum opens a range of opportunities for learners, yet it also poses quite tangible threats to the success of their learning. It is imperative that the teacher should adopt the right teaching approach to motivate learners and foster the idea of self-directed learning in each and every student.
Reference List
Dabbagh, N. & Kitsantas, A. (2011). Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. Internet and Higher Education, 15(1), 3–8.
Manian, C. (2013). Designing student oriented e-learning environments in higher education to match technological trends. International Journal on Integrating Technology in Education (IJITE), 2(3), 1–11.
Ni, L. B. (2013). Self-directed learning: Teacher and computer technology assist. IRACST – International Journal of Computer Networks and Wireless Communications, 3(2), 62–66.