Education and Technology

What is obvious?  As soon as we hear the words ‘Education and Technology’ together, what come to the picture immediately are Internet, computers, smart boards, projectors, tablets, mobiles, educational apps and many more….These have become inseparable part of the current education system. It has been well established that these gadgets and tools have revolutionized the way educational institutions are run. The educational administration has become far more efficient, mode of content delivery very pleasing, evaluation even more rigorous, data organization and processing even simpler. Now we have innumerable choices for self-learning like opencourseware, wikis, online platforms for collaborative learning, e-books, virtual labs etc. The reach and scale of distance education has increased tremendously beyond imagination. The apprehensions about technology swallowing the livelihood of teachers and faculty has been now dumped far behind.

    What is in debate?  Technology has its own share of debate in education other than debates of purely academic disciplines like cursive writing versus typing, e-library versus physical, the appropriate age for the introduction of different technological gadgets, decreasing socialization, reduction in attention span, information overkill or overload, dominance of passive e-learning content over interactive content and classroom delinquency. Then there are questions on the effectiveness of educational games, online tutorials and increasing costs in keeping up with current trends in technology. We can also see the prospects of ‘Digital Divide’ becoming prominent in sociology over the traditional issues.  

    What is lacking? Although technology has penetrated deep into our educational system and everyone is eager to adopt the latest technology there is a clear lack of consensus across the academic circles over the technological implementation. It is again just the direct outcome of lack of significant research on various aspects of technology in education. With few exceptions like IIT-B offering doctoral studies in educational technology it is hard to find universities taking up research in this discipline in India. Even across the world, the technological innovation is guiding the role of technology in education rather than the research findings. This is a serious shortcoming of our present educational system. In cases like India where large-scale implementation of technology in education is mostly dependent on government spending which runs into thousands of crores, we cannot blindly go after certain tools and technology. Although there is a lot within choosing the right gadgets or hardware, the issue becomes even more complex when it comes to catering the needs of right e-content and software to the schools, colleges and universities even if we keep the copyright issues aside.

    What is troublesome? In the current scenario the quality of science and engineering education has benefitted tremendously from the internet but it cannot be said the same regarding social sciences and humanities. The monopoly of search engines and online community learning sites by handful of western nations and the ease with which the search results can be programmed to be biased towards particular nations and ideas leaves significant loopholes in the holistic study of social science disciplines. The possibility of generations of humankind being immersed itself in particular set of ideas or culture cannot be overruled. Even the virtual world or the online world or internet is dominant with particular culture. It is actually hard to find the footprints of less developed nations in this virtual world. Equitable representation of all the nations or people across the world and their views in the world of internet is yet a long way to go. “Is the penetration of internet enabling the erosion of primitive and diverse culture?” has to be contemplated. And also to what extent education sector is immune to cyber warfare when evaluation process, admissions etc are being digitised day by day?  

    What is comforting?  Technology is evolving continuously to be in sync with human nature and behaviour. This trend is very much guided by humankind’s innate limitations and strengths. Interaction within the society has gone up in geometric progression and the technology has actually enabled individuals to have the near common representation of the society in their minds which is essential for the existence of near harmonious society. Similarly technology has enabled all the stakeholders in education like administration, faculty, students and parents to have their say or equally participate in the process without interference or much hassle to each other. Technology is also nurturing collaborative and community learning in a more efficient manner like never before.