How the sophistication of technology seeps and brings impact to almost every aspect of our lives has never been more evident than now. As an educator, the most obvious change for me is in the teaching and learning space. Now that I am thinking about it, schools in this day and age are way too different compared to what I experienced back then. Thanks to technology, many kinds stuff I utilize in my teaching never even crossed my mind when I was still a student. The question now is: "Should these evolved ways of learning be seen as a positive or negative transformation?" Surely it is much easier to be on the neutral side, believing that technology has the potential to foster as well as fetter the field of education yet I am boldly convinced it is a blessing for us teachers, not to mention students, and will continually do so as long as our paradigm can cope with it.
For the first time in history, a class is able to operate without the narrow borders we call "walls" and even the limitation of time. The internet and learning platforms (also known as classroom management system - CMS) have allowed learners to access a myriad of information anywhere, such as at home, cafe or other cozy spots. Learning is no longer defined within the standard 900 square feet sized room (or more for primary school students) and moreover, an instructor does not have to be physically present with the learners. The alarm clock's ringing should not be an annoyance as students do not have to wake as early as how it used to be since now they just need to touch with their fingertips rather than travel.
To some extent, they are able to set their own time to inquire, study and practice - a phenomenon called "asynchronous learning."
All of the examples mentioned before are rather equivocal. Again, it needs the right mindset to view them as something good rather than disadvantages. They whose concept of learning is a process occurring in a certain room and time interval will probably never accept the idea of distant education. Someone who holds firmly into a principle that the best medium for knowledge to be transmitted is a teacher's voice and not the worldwide network's radio wave has difficulty in understanding and applying inquiry-based learning which benefits far exceed the traditional learning approach. In other words, the problem lies not within the technology as it has proven itself to be of some amazing use, but in each of our perspectives. Do we want to accept and try the innovations for the sake of better education experience or not?
One might argue about the necessity of live interaction with peers when it comes to
online learning process. We are all social beings after all, and I must say what technology still unable to provide is the warm and joyful experience of learning next to others who share the same excitement along with struggles with us. Recent research by Kauppi, et al. (2020) discovered that a group of college students could effectively collaborate in a project involving various areas of expertise through CMS, chat application and other online platforms. Although the first cycle did not run as effectively as the latter one implying there were also trials and errors, in the end the learners learned how to conduct such a thing if condition does not permit them to sit and discuss their work beside each other. In the end, there were still comments in the reflection indicating the preference for physical groupwork. Back to the premise technology cannot sufficiently afford live interaction, but it does not make it a negative influence at all. Personally, I am seeing this as a great feedback for the engineers and programmers to be more motivated in developing certain essential aspects that the current gadgets cannot accomplish yet.
References
Kauppi, S., Muukkonen, H., Suorsa, T., & Takala, M. (2020). I still miss human contact, but this is more flexible – Paradoxes in virtual learning interaction and multidisciplinary collaboration. British Journal of Educational Technology, 5(4), 1101-1116.Â