Technology In Classrooms

The list of pros and cons of digital classrooms could go on forever, however, balance ensures persistence. Education should be next to become Digital.

I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.

- Albert Einstein

That extremely inflammatory statement made by Einstein eons ago, manages to stoke heated discussions even to this day. With branches of technology reaching classrooms across the globe, the same statement contorts — and poses a new controversy.

Having evolved through parchment and quill, to slate and chalk, then to paper and pen, and on to white board and marker, to computer screen and keyboard; today it looks like tablet and gesture are here to take over in schools and colleges.

A few years ago, major countries like Japan and Russia seemed reluctant to challenge tradition and introduce technology in classrooms that would alter the teacher-student relationship. However America persevered (persisted?) with technology in schools.

Starting out with simple projectors and motion pictures in class rooms (you could see them being used in the TV sitcom: Wonder Years), the degree of technology steadily increased to more compact devices such as tablets featuring e-books, electronic study materials and guides, dictation, discussion forums, task managers and textual communication.

Arguing the pros and cons, this practice still managed to take seed across schools in various parts of the world. Countries like Japan and France began introducing digital classrooms as a result of educational reforms. They made available, the necessary programmed technology and support systems, to students and teachers alike.

Third-party specialists tentatively began investing in this space. Coursera.org was born. It soon became a boon for people in all corners of the world as it lets them access tutorials on varied subjects, all sourced from credible universities. They leveraged technology to allow people to peruse their tutorials online and also interact with other participants across the world.

Today, technology majors Apple and Google unsurprisingly are the stalwarts in the education sector. They compete for devices (mainly tablets) on school tables, content, and most importantly, and engaged user base. They’ve both added books into their App Stores (Apple has iBooks 2 and iTunes U, while Google has Google Play for education). iTunes has a multitude of Ivy League colleges (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT) that have apps for their current curriculum, the syllabus, etc. Google isn’t far behind, though they are more in aggregating space than in the platform space.

Tablets accounted for 35.4% of the market in 2012, up from 19.4% in 2011, with significant room for future growth. What’s more important though, is that Tablet sales have doubled in the education sector in 2012 vs. 2011.

The schools themselves have not been left behind in the race to adopt technology; they have been investing significantly in upgrading their infrastructure and begun support the changing landscape of content — interactive content is in . Take the example of Montgomery County, US; it has added interactive whiteboards to their technological platform at schools in addition to already existing wireless networks so as to facilitate personalized training based on features that understand the students capabilities and aptitude, and fashion teaching and learning methods to a more individual-level. Interactive whiteboards are blackboard sized screens that are sensitive to touch and can run the calibrated curriculum in an interactive manner. With virtual libraries, teleconferencing and wide ranging applications, students have all information, assignments and projects online behind a screen.

What’s equally important is, that Technology has studiously avoided tunnel-vision by focusing exclusively on students — teachers are benefiting as well. Various grading algorithms shaped into applications, online lectures, syllabus database and fluency readers to assess students form the educator’s end of technology in schools. At an administrative level, test results and in-class assessments’ grades etc. can be directly posted to students and parents with absolute transparency.

Though Digital Studies are spreading worldwide, a lot of countries need to yet explore this arena in mode of education. For example, countries like India, don’t have the financial backing to introduce significant levels of technology at the school level. As an ode to Economic Theory, in countries where political balance and economic stability are uncertain, large-scale educational reforms such as introducing virtual methods of learning are just not viable.

Before we go, let’s look at the Pro and Cons of technology in the education sector:

Pros:

1. Technology has proved to help in the most of diverse fields of study. Complex subjects to easy ones, traditional to esoteric ones, all have a plethora of information.
2. There’s no discrimination, economic or geographical. Accessibility and availability is no longer a problem thanks to virtual libraries and the sea of uploaded material. Anyone who has access to the web can find a vast ocean of knowledge to consume.
3. Technology has made interaction and notification easier with the added bonus of personalized assessment and evaluation.
4. It has made education green through its e-books and online assignments.
5. One may argue that a man-made electronic device can’t be perfect at rendering notes and assignments or is susceptible to loss; but with the development cloud technologies and the level of innovation in today’s world, that seems like the doomsday prophecies of naysayers.
6. Backpacks are lighter, reducing the cases of back-pain among the student population, hence happier parents, healthier students and lesser medical costs!
7. Technology has an influence over students that keep them inquisitive, busy and renders them intrigued. As mentioned earlier, implementation of the Digital Studies is uniform across the geographies, unlike the restriction of instructor-led education.

Now let us explore some downsides of heavy dependence of technology in classrooms:

1. Digital education could lead to an introverted youth. Most kids are now content playing games online and have more virtual “friends” than real-world buddies. Isolation is not conducive to the development of kids in the long run.
2. Children can’t seem to take their eyes off their device; and are becoming far more sedentary than earlier generations. Children have forgotten what a football even looks like, and that has a lot of child psychologists worried.
3. Increased radiation from technology and power usage could negate the eco-friendliness of the digital age. With devices come magnetic fields and the jury is still out there on how much of that is too much for us.
4. Students may have a tough time switching from “pen-paper”, to touchpads and keyboards, using gestures and swipes. We have to consider the learning styles of the children and then optimize the learning input; conversely if there is heavy dependence on any one style, then it serious disadvantages other methods.
5. Though these devices may be optimized to maximise interaction, nothing can replace human-to-human i.e. teacher-student understanding and interaction. Human bonding and interaction drives mutual respect and understanding, which is unarguably one of the pillars of the human race.
6. The capital required to provide basic technology to all students equally can’t be overlooked.

The list of pros and cons of digital classrooms could go on forever, however, balance ensures persistence. Technology has spread to the littlest things in our lives. Education is just another aspect that has to go with the flow and not oppose it.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.