Is Technology Good or Bad for Education?

Technology refers to the skills, methods, and processes used to achieve goals. The present age is the age of science and technology. Now technology has become an important part of our life. It has made our life easy and comfortable. There is no doubt technology plays a very important role in every sector, especially in the education sector. The role of technology in the field of education is four-fold: it is included as a part of the curriculum, as an instructional delivery system, as a means of aiding instructions, and also as a tool to enhance the entire learning process (R. Raja, 2018). Technology is central to many sectors of society and its integration into the education process has great promise for student learning (Waddell, 2015). Since the use of technology in education has positive effects, there are also negative effects. However, the negative effects of the use of technology in education are less than the positive effects. All the positive effects brought huge improvements in the education sector. The greatest improvement of technology in education is the change in the teaching-learning environment. The main goal of using technology in education is to make the teaching and learning process easy and enjoyable. Which has been successful, Technology has been able to make the teaching and learning process easy and enjoyable.  For this reason, I believe that the use of technology in education is good and technology will lead to further improvement in education.

Students’ life has become easier for technology. Nowadays, students are able to make their work easy with the help of technology. Students can use different software and tools to make their work easy, such as students can use Google Slides or PowerPoint to make presentations or projects instead of using paper and pen. Also, now students can read soft books instead of hard books. In some cases, students do not need to carry heavy books, as they can store eBooks in their smart devices and read from there. Previously, students needed to read many books to find some information, but now students can find information easily from the internet. There is a lot of information on the internet. Now the internet used as an effective tool for finding information. Both teachers and students use the internet for their work. Also, now students can access the online library from anywhere. Technology has made communication more convenient by creating more ways to communicate (Fenell, 2020). For that, if students want to communicate with their friends or teacher for advice or help, they can easily communicate with their friends or teacher. There are many ways to communicate, such as they can communicate through phone calls or social media. All of this use of technology, making life easier for students.

Moreover, technology has brought huge changes in teaching and learning methods. Previously, teachers used to read from books and students listened to them and took notes, in this process sometimes students felt bored. But now teachers are trying to use technology to make their lessons enjoyable and interesting. Now teachers use animation software, PowerPoint presentations to present information, and sometimes watch videos to make their lessons attractive. Technology helps the teachers to prepare students for the real-world environment (Budhwar, 2017). Technology has also changed the teaching environment. Instead of blackboard and chalk, now computers, projectors, marker, and whiteboard are used in the classroom. One of the greatest inventions of technology for education is the online classroom. Now teachers can take the class online from anyplace. In the past, students learned their academic lessons in the classroom and from private or coaching. But now students can learn in different ways. Student can learn by watching videos from YouTube. There are many YouTube channels, which are education-related. Their teaching methods are different. So, the student has their option to choose. They can learn from that channel which presentation, they can enjoy. Nowadays many online platforms and learning apps are available, students can also learn from there. For all of these teaching and learning methods, attendance in classes has increased and students find encouragement for learning.

However, Technology causes a waste of time and distraction. Sometimes, students and teachers in the classroom, face technical issues such as server problems and connection problems. Which takes a huge amount of time to fix. It disrupts the normal flow of teaching and also wastes class time. Now some students tend to use their phones in class. During class time some students do not listen to lectures, they use phones instead of listening to lectures. Now students are more interested in social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, then classroom lectures. Students admit to spending considerable time during lectures using their ICT devices for things other than learning (Goundar, 2014).  Now students spend a lot of time doing nothing valuable. They spend a huge time on social media platforms and watching unnecessary videos on YouTube. Students are not studying at home with the help of smart devices. Students distracted by social media notification when they try to read at home. During study time, when students hear the sound of notification, they start checking notification and start spending time on social media instead of reading. Without realizing, they spend a massive amount of time on that. In this way, technology is becoming a huge distraction for the students and causing huge time wastage.

In conclusion, I think technology is a blessing for the education sector. Technology has made students' life easier by providing different software and tools. Now students can easily do their difficult work using those tools and software. Also, technology has been able to bring about all the changes needed to make teaching and learning methods enjoyable and interesting. All of these changes are beneficial for both students and teachers. Technology has a positive impact on education and at the same time may also pose negative effects. Teachers and students should take advantage of technology in good light and eliminate the drawbacks. Overall, we can say technology is God’s greatest gift to the education sector in the 21st century.

References:

1.     Budhwar, K. (2017). THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN. International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology, 2(8), 55-57. Retrieved April 17, 2020

 

2.     Fenell, Z. (2020). How Is Technology Used to Help Communication? Retrieved April 17, 2020, from Techwalla: https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-is-technology-used-to-help-communication

 

3.     Goundar, S. (2014, March). The Distraction of Technology in the Classroom. Journal of Education & Human Development, 3, 211-229. Retrieved April 18, 2020, from http://jehdnet.com/journals/jehd/Vol_3_No_1_March_2014/14.pdf

 

4.     R. Raja, P. C. (2018, May 10). Impact of modern technology in education. Journal of Applied and Advanced Research, 3, 33. Retrieved April 15, 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325086709_Impact_of_modern_technology_in_education

5. Waddell, J. (2015, March 27). The Role of Technology in the Educational Process. Retrieved April 16, 2020, from Michigan State University: https://edwp.educ.msu.edu/green-and-write/2015/the-role-of-technology-in-the-educational-process/