It is undeniable that the technological revolution has made itself an essential aspect of our daily lives. It has changed our views of healthcare system, workplace, sports, art, creativity and what not. The rate, in which everyone is using smartphones, tabs and laptops, that it has become difficult to understand whether the person can talk verbally or not. I persoally am a decent user of technology and not always depend upon technological advances to do my daily bidings. Yet, the changing nature of the education system and the medium of communication in this age of technology have made me dependent on it for quite an extent. Hence, how the technology is entering in the process of learning and communicating is my concern for this essay.
In childhood, whenever the word classroom was mentioned, the picture that used to come in my vision was of a room with colourful posters and pictures in every wall, a board and teacher’s desk at the front. There used be rows of desks and chairs for us, the students, to sit. A very obvious picture but this is what a classroom looked like to me, untill I went to meet my cousin.
When I went to visit my cousin, she invited me to stay at her place for a few days. While catching up, she informed me that she started learning Chinese language. I was surprised and excited too, little did I know that it was not the end of surprises for me. I asked her about her new teacher and she relpied that he is Chinese and lives in China. I was a little confused to hear that. How can a person teach my sister in New York if he lives in China, I did not understand. She understood my confusion by the look of bewilderment on my face and smirked a little. Laughingly she asked if I want to meet her Chinese teacher. I was more and more intrigued by her words, and I can tell by her mystic smile and twinkling eyes that she was enjoying my state of perplextion. After a few minutes of amusement she finally said that she will take me to her teacher. I was just going to ask her when and how she is planning to do that when she pointed me to the adjacent room. I knew that it was her study room and curiously followed her there. She went to her laptop and switched it on. My brows started to curve into an arch as my eyes were following her fingers on the keypad and touchpad and I noticed that she had opened an official site of a tutorial course (Allen and Seaman). She showed her teacher’s profie and explained the process to me. What she did was openning an acount in a tutorial site. It was like a virtual classroom where she along with other students from different places can learn anything that was offered by that site, all they had to do is log into their accounts in the given time. These accounts let them access to a video call with the teacher. After accessing, their class begins, according to my cousin, like any other class where anyone can ask questions, get their doubts clear and answer any question. After each session they have to take an online test which will promote them to the next level, again like any other school according to my sister. Naturally, I was skeptical by learning all these new techniques as I doubted how much my sister can actually learn from this. I could not let myself get out from the idea of the conventional system of education and was not at all convinced by my sister’s way of this e-learning (Stepanyan, Littlejohn and Margaryan). She then calmly requested me to look back and think about the changes in the system I witnessed in my institutional system. I paused, looking at her gleaming face I decided to do what she says – to review the formal system of learning that I believe in. It was only then that I realized how much the technology has taken over the control of our lives. I could not deny that I myself had group studied with my friends through video call. There were times when it was inconvenient to gather in a common place and study together, hence the utilization of the internet and smart phones. The requirements of the projects that we do now are provided via e-mails and the projects are completed in computers. Librabry has become only an archaic place as creating multiple tabs in phone or laptop to study and compare is more convenient way to research than carrying heavy books all around (Martin and Ertzberger). Instead of handmade posters we now make powerpoint posters and I did not remember when was the last time I conferred a paper dictionary for the meaning of any word. Documentaries and slide shows had undoubtedly helped me understand my lessons better (Collins and Halverson). Just google it (Kemman, Martijn and Scagliola) is what we hear most of the times when asked a question to a friend. Even while interacting with each other we do not make a call to them anymore, what we do is send them message in WhatsApp (Bansal and Joshi) or Facebook (Manca and Ranieri) or in some other social media site (Manasijevi? et al.). Letters are contemporary only in the form of e-mails and the language used in texing has an absolutely distinct diction of its own. Although I still am not completely convinced of my sister’s style of learning, I also can not deny the usefullness of it. It saves time and energy and makes the work done more efficiently only is one uses it properly and not overuses it.
Considering all the facts, I must say, the process of learning has become easier with the help of technology. The relations between teachers and students has become easier and closer. Distance learning and open school system have been made possible for the advancement of technology only. My personal experience taught me that technology has become an integral part of our communication system. We have included technology in our everyday lives for the benefits we get from it. With the growing rate of technology, it is quite clear that in future education and communication system will make use of it even more.
Reference List
Allen, I. Elaine, and Jeff Seaman. Changing course: Ten years of tracking online education in the United States. Sloan Consortium. PO Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950, 2013.
Bansal, Tulika, and Dhananjay Joshi. "A study of students experiences of WhatsApp mobile learning." Global Journal of Human-Social Science Research (2014).
Collins, Allan, and Richard Halverson. Rethinking education in the age of technology: The digital revolution and schooling in America. Teachers College Press, 2018.
Kemman, Max, Martijn Kleppe, and Stef Scagliola. "Just Google It-Digital Research Practices of Humanities Scholars." arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.2434 (2013).
Manasijevi?, Dragan, et al. "Exploring students’ purposes of usage and educational usage of Facebook." Computers in Human Behavior 60 (2016): 441-450.
Manca, Stefania, and Maria Ranieri. "Is it a tool suitable for learning? A critical review of the literature on Facebook as a technology?enhanced learning environment." Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 29.6 (2013): 487-504.
Martin, Florence, and Jeffrey Ertzberger. "Here and now mobile learning: An experimental study on the use of mobile technology." Computers & Education 68 (2013): 76-85.
Stepanyan, Karen, Allison Littlejohn, and Anoush Margaryan. "Sustainable e-learning: toward a coherent body of knowledge." Journal of Educational Technology & Society 16.2 (2013).
