The impact of technology on the sphere of science and the overall progress of the humankind is quite obvious and undeniable. We are often unconscious about the way we perceive technology, counting it the absolute good and trusting it more than we trust ourselves. Technology has gone so mainstream that we take it for granted. Still, there is much ‘food for thought’ when it comes to giving your preferences to education with technology or without it.
On the one hand, electronic devices are the best possible helpers when it comes to monotonous tasks or some higher-order operations; on the other hand, technologies are widely blamed for disrupting people’s memory along with reducing the attention span.
Therefore, its influence has become the reason for worrying over the last few years. In this article, we will critically look at the situation with both sides of the medal, recounting the results of integrating the digital world with education. So, let’s read on and together come to a conclusion about technology in order to decide what kind of influence prevails.
Table of Contents
How Digital World Overlaps with the Real One (And Do We Actually Need It?)
No one denies that technology has a remarkable impact on our whole life, including every single sphere – relationships, careers, entertainment, and, what is important for us right now, – education. Technology in this context has become the agent of change since now teachers and students have a drastically different concept of learning.
Besides spotting these changes, digital reality changed the way we communicate. There are real visible benefits of such communication as it has grown faster, more convenient, and doesn’t require much effort to carry out. Educational places have also changed – today, instead of classrooms and cozy university halls, people can get certified at online platforms that appear to be more compatible! Technology has, basically, turned the world upside down.
Still, these worlds exist at the same time in the same circumstances, or, in a more imagery language saying, – overlap. Just look at those texts students (and the grown-up people) send each other – LOL for ‘laughing out loud’, 2day for ‘today’, 4u implying ‘for you’, n8 for ‘night’, u c for ‘you see’, and other pearls of the contemporary texting. Funny, isn’t it?
In education, this results in the unwillingness to process messages of greater volume. In such a way, writing a term paper turns into a global-level disaster for an average student who is used during all his or her life to reading memes in some social networks or writing only small pieces of elementary text. And, the ‘solutions’ to problems like that are also found in the digital realm – students seek urgent professional help of a trusted essay writing service, willing to do anything and everything (including buying an academic paper) to get points. This is the way technology kills education, and after 4 or 5 years of studies, some graduates are (sadly) not even aware of the basics of their professional sphere.
Despite being a super fast way to interact, those instant text messages often make us look like cavemen! Being funny, this metaphor is nothing but the arrow hitting the bullseye.
What Is The Way out and How to Balance between the Traditional and Digital Education
Okay, inferring the critical approach to technology implementation from the title and headlines, you might think it is something that should be driven away from our educational establishments. However, this is not exactly so.
The line between the healthy use of devices and overuse, or abuse of it, is very slight. Still, all of us have to draw this line by defining what particular steps we are able to make towards staying a good student and surviving without too much of technology.
Why?
First of all, it’s all about your own harmony, or, let us say, happiness. The excessive use of technological devices is proven to eliminate mental abilities, simplifying life to such a great extent that autonomous thinking becomes unnecessary in many students’ lives. This argument may seem exaggerated, but still, knowing how dependent on gadgets teenagers and young people can become, certain measures should be taken.
Balancing those two things isn’t something that will be done right away. If you want to remain an intellectual human, with the precious ability to filter, process, evaluate the world around, you could limit your usage of digital devices in the following ways.
- Try to take books from the library more often. This might not apply to rare manuscripts or books existing in several copies only, but for average coursebooks or fiction books, it’s quite a real thing to do. The tip isn’t driven by some dumb biases against technology, – here we have quite a different picture: scientists have proved that reading books results in developing better imagination, critical thinking, enhancing your vocabulary, protecting your brain from numerous illnesses, plus (surprisingly) making readers live longer. The results of the study by the Social Science and Medicine proved it right!
- Aim at becoming somebody rather than getting results. In what way does it concern technology? From the last decade, it’s clearly seen how technology makes students oriented on the result, and often immediate results, and consider it efficient for becoming a professional. Still, when we start thinking about life outside the college walls, it doesn’t work this way. Merely getting points and taking home your diploma will never give you lasting changes. Learn to acquire skills, get a genuine understanding of things, delve into the matter – that is how you become successful in studies.
To recap, by striving to move forward, growing in understanding, reading the paper books, thinking critically, and fostering skills at the university, you will be able to learn better than those who rely on the Internet. Believe us, you will stand out from the crowd even if you just spend less time before the screen.
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