Changing Habits of Teaching and Learning

Technology has driven a massive change in education. It has transformed how teachers teach and how students learn. The significance and benefits of education technology to the teachers and students cannot be denied. Technology has made it easier for teachers to pass on knowledge to the students and for students to acquire it. The employ of technology in schools has also made the process of learning and teaching pleasurable. However, sometimes technology can be a threatening notion for both teachers and students.  

Let’s look at the positive changes that brought by the technology. Those days, teachers used chalk boards, and then progressed to white boards and now they are using smart boards (interactive boards). Smart boards are one of the tools in multimodality which allow teachers to educate and share information with students in a diversity of ways. Computers audio-visual potentials from PowerPoint presentations and other animation software are used to present information in an interactive manner which encourages greater interest from the students and at the same time it allows the teacher to address a large group of students.

Besides the positive changes that come with increased modern technology in education, there are also some negative changes that I have noticed. In the name of technological development, reading habits among students are changing. In this modern world, while technology is slowly taking a firm control over individual lives, the reading habit is fast vanishing into thin air. Students at the moment lack the skill of reading. Instead they spend more hours on electronic media. A variety of entertainment from mobile devices such as playing games, texting, or surfing the net distracts students in the classroom. This is a major distraction which heavily impacts on their concentration levels while reading. Hence, reading a book or any other piece of written material in a silent or peaceful corner of a library or home becomes an archaic idea for most school children and adults. Students are hardly ever interested in reading for pleasure and enjoyment instead the sake of passing the examination.

Next, let’s focus on the positive changes that occurred in the education field due the technology. A decade ago, the higher learning institutions such as universities and colleges used to send the students’ final examination results via the mail or letter. But now, due to the advancement in the technology, students can instantly check their results in their respective university/college portals which are monitored by the administrators. This method considered to be eco- friendly since they are not using papers.

On the other hand, there are some negative changes that can be detected in applying technology in the education field. Nowadays, lecturers are sending their assignments and notes via the e-mail. Even though it can minimize the human error but it promotes technical error. For example, the student may submit the assignment on time through the e-mail. But, the lecturer could not receive it due to the technical error which is very common when dealing with e-mails. It may cause unnecessary problems for both student and the lecturer.

Lastly, we can expect many changes in the future. It can be positive or negative. We have to bear in our mind that, technology is just a tool to enhance learning and we are not supposed to rely on it all the time.