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Abstract
This article overviews the advancement of technology and how it has revolutionized the world mainly in terms of education. Technology without a doubt is the greatest invention of humans that has changed our everyday lives in all perspectives. Use of technology in education has risen with time especially during the COVID pandemic. Everything in this world has its positive and negative so does the technology. This article briefs about the positive and negative impact of technology in education too. 21st century became the era of technology.
INTRODUCTION
Technology has overtaken the world and all industries, wherever we go we see technology is been used. Computers are the major success of technology which has turned our lives completed different. As technologies became advanced so did many industries, slowly with time many industries adapted their workstyle with technology. From healthcare, finance, food service to education technology usage gradually increased to the point where without the technology these industries could no longer operate. A country with poor technology can no longer grow in economy. In aspect to education traditional on-class has been the most effective way of learning for a very long time. It was the most preferred method and proven to produce results until Covid-19 pandemic put a halt to meeting in person. Pandemic was the time taken when education systems actually went through a revolution. If we look back in history, it is clearly visible that as computers advanced so did the use of technology in education.
LITERATURE REVIEW
If we consider the impact of technology on modern students, latest insights reveals that using modern technological devices has increased the learning and interactivity of students. When there is an involvement of technology our interests have always been higher than traditional method and this applies significantly in education. Knowledge transfer has become very convenient, effective and easy as our focus increases when aided by technology. Use of technology not only has higher influence in students but also in teachers too. Kaite J.Carstens et al.,2021 [3] states that flipped classroom approach is being used by most teachers now and students are able to study the notes in home and engage proactively in discussions, activities and exercises occurring in school. Obstacles in education such as fulltime job and illness is technically no more an obstacle due to virtual classrooms happening via modern technologies. Technology has provided the students the flexibility to maximize their studying time. Nethra R quotes [4] that operation of classrooms has changed vastly when compared to decade before. IDPD (Interactive Flat Panel Displays) to smartphone and laptop are being used with interconnection among them via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are being used in classrooms today.
Furthermore, multiple cloud relying applications are also supporting the students which is specific to the educational institute. Today’s generation is growing with technology constantly in their fingertips, the internet and social media spikes an interest in the youth which supports the insight mentioned previously. According to Klopfer, et al. (2009) [3], “Every day, many students are spending countless hours immersed in popular technologies—such as Facebook, Myspace, World of Warcraft, or Sim City”. The impact of technology in education is not only for students but also for teachers too. In order to connect student’s passion in learning teachers work hard to integrate technology into the everyday teaching. According to Harris (2016) [3]: Today’s educators are under great pressure to provide 21st century students with a quality education based on 21st century standards. Those standards include providing students with the technological and informational skills needed to compete in an ever-changing, technology-driven world. Technologies that enhance learning of students are constantly sought by institutes.
Even though technology is considered a valuable resource in education it too have negative effects on students and their learning. In a study conducted by Sülzenbrück, et al. (2011) [3] that examined the effect computer use has on motor skills, they discovered that using modern technology could effect changes in basic psychomotor and cognitive skills. This includes using tools such as computers, electronic organizers, navigation systems, etc. This can cause concerns in student growth in the classroom. Modern students are not capable of doing what students were able to do a decade ago as they rely too much on technology. Robots, videos, virtual classrooms, augmented reality and other tools does not only increase the interest of students but also develop more effective practices that foster cooperation and intellectual curiosity while teachers can gather data about the student’s performance.
Internet is the very start of the technology in education, computers were just a device until internet was found that is when it reached its peak capability. Its importance and needs have grown into multifold over the decades that a minute of outage in internet has so many major impacts globally. Even though internet is known for its drawbacks and scams it is also a blessing for the students and teachers. Students before the origin of internet in education was required to go libraries and bookstores to do their researches and thesis. This was a time-consuming task as they were needed to travel and also was a difficult one as they had to go through so many books. Not only this finding a particular context in a book was also not easy as we do now by simply doing a google search, there was no place where you can find all related resources relevant to a particular topic under one place. All resources such as journals, books, articles, videos and more are available in palm of our hand via internet now. Accessibility and flexibility were also a major issue before internet as libraries and stores are closed after a specific time in earlier days so students had to make sure they visit during the opening times and preplan their day accordingly but after internet these can be accessed anytime and anywhere by the students at their flexible time. The other great thing about online resources is these can be accessed completely for free; students do not need to spend money buying books or CDs anymore. Teachers are also benefiting greatly from internet as they can prepare their notes going through resources in internet, communicating with other educators across the world, playing videos of lessons in class so that students are more interactive and interested and more. Graduates before internet had double thoughts on their PhDs as they needed to do thesis which required great amount of researching but now most graduates are opting for a PhD without any worries. Not only has social media has connected many families around the world together specially during the time of pandemic but it also helps students work on their homework easily with the help of social media apps such as reedit where they can post their homework and ask a member of it to help them with it. Students are also able to get help from their seniors or experienced people from social media. Not only this if have they found to understand a lesson taught on class they can look up for notes from a different student in a different institute through internet. There also so many virtual classes available online now so that students can learn from different people who they are able to understand better. Internet in education has broken the geographic barrier too as a student in India can now connect through internet to an institute in Canada to study. Internet without a doubt has made a huge impact on education now.
Pictures, video and audio always had a stronger appeal in contrast to text so with the help of technological devices such as visuals and projectors learning has become more interesting and likeable for students. From kids to teenagers show more focus in studying when the lesson is shown as a video in class. This means their level of interaction and interest increases and improves motivation. Students prefer engaging graphics and content that encourages them to think for themselves as opposed to just reading text. With regard to technology, the learning process also becomes quite effective. Teachers in top universities and colleges do not hand out notes in papers but instead they are using PowerPoint Presentation so that they could gain the attention of students during lessons. This not only enhances learning but also reduces deforestation as usage of paper is reduced. Students can also access their notes via mobile phones on their preferred time instead of carrying the notes around with them all the time.
Many educational applications were developed in recent times which ease the life of students and teachers. There are applications for tuitions, discussions, institute specific and many more. Virtual classes are done 1 on 1 via applications so that teachers and students can work in their comfort at home at a flexible time. As mentioned earlier social Medias allows students to connect and communicate with other peer students around the world. Universities and colleges use applications such as MS Teams to conduct virtual classes professionally and also to help students if required without the need to meet in person. These applications also have tools such as screen sharing, whiteboard, notes so making virtual classes more convenient than traditional classes. Classes can also be recorded so students can watch them whenever they wish to. They also have institute specific applications such as LMS, SLATE so that they could upload notes, announcements, update calendar so that students are aware of the future academic plans and more. Exams are conducted online under special applications such as Lockdown Browser where students are prohibited from accessing external resources and blocked from any means of communication similar to tradition in-class exams. Assignments are submitted in Turnitin which scans the entire internet for plagiarism to check the authenticity of the student’s work so that teachers do not need to check every work for authenticity which would be a nightmare. Teachers are also greatly benefitted from software such as above and furthermore they do not have to correct each and every quiz done by students anymore instead they can simply upload the answers online in the systems which automatically corrects the students’ answers by comparing with uploaded answers. Use of email has made communication between teachers and students easier too, students can mail their teachers with any doubts and teachers can reply on their convenient time. Students can make professional notes using applications such as MS Word which provides many options and neat work in note taking. More and more applications are being developed as per the requirement with time for education.
Online degrees are currently a very prevalent phenomenon. People educate themselves more often for their certifications and learning in online courses now. Almost all prominent institutions provide reputed online programs and this will continue to surge as time goes by because more and more people prefer to study in online globally due to the flexibility of this. There are multiple platforms both paid and free that offers so many online programs. Due to the online programs age is no more a barrier in education, a 7-year-old kid can learn to develop an application or a 70-year-old adult can still graduate from a degree right from home. R. Raja mentions that “Thanks to technology; education has gone from passive and reactive to interactive and aggressive” [1].
In the recent times data analytics has been a hot topic, data analytics is collecting data and using it to make useful insights. To make education even better data analytics is being used in few institutes. Data of the students such as marks, topics they are weak in are being collected in order to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the students which is then later trained and developed.
Modern technology in education also motivates students. Students are always curious and eager in trying out something new and they are more likely to retain it. Millar [3] conducted a study on motivating students in classrooms and the difficulty of it. She said that “technology is, like giving each student their own smartboard”. They can show what they know, and teachers can be comfortable knowing learning is occurring. The use of technology allows all students the opportunity to participate, “It's hard to be honest when you have to put your hand up in front of the room”. Students feel proud and confident too when they gain knowledge using technology and complete tasks.
Accessibility to education has never been this easier, thanks to the modern technology that students with disabilities too can study their preferred program and be part of the regular society. There are many specialized devices for different disabilities so that everyone receives good education equally in this world. There are other devices made specifically with education in mind such as amazon kindle which is more of a digital version of a book where thousands of eBooks are available online for users to read. Interactive white boards allows students and teachers to collaborate and comment on a single surface so that the entire class can see and participate actively simultaneously.
Use of technology in education also means that students are learning to use them ahead before they are exposed into industries. Today all industries rely on technologies heavily so if someone does not know to use a technology will be declared as an unworthy candidate so using technology in education can be highly beneficial for the students’ future as they gain the knowledge of using them before they actually start working.
Although education and technology together have so many benefits there are drawbacks too. Day by day advancement of technology is rising and this demands that teachers will need to learn how to use these new technologies every once in a while. Gressard and Loyd (1985)[1] asserted that teacher's attitudes toward computers are a key factor in the successful implementation of ICT in education. They pointed out that teachers do not always have positive attitudes towards computers and their poor attitudes may lead to a failure of the computer- based projects. A study by Fernández-Batanero, Román-Graván, Reyes-Rebollo, and Montenegro-Rueda (2021)[5] found that the use of new technologies can be detrimental to teachers because it implies changes to their instructional strategies or pressure to pick up technological know-how, leading to consequences like physical, social, and psychological issues. Teachers will also be lack of time as they have focus on their career and family whilst trying to learn something new. Due to their busy schedule, they might also be unable to attend training sessions held to learn the new technology. Teachers always try to give their best to students and they sacrifice a lot while doing it and using technology for education only means more and more sacrificial from them.
Lack of resources and accessibility is another barrier of technology. In order to learn the technology both students and teachers should have access to it and not everyone is fortunate enough to buy the latest technologies so this means the institutes will need to purchase them so that it is available to access in school/institute. Number of resources available also matters as teachers and students who wish to learn them will need to wait for long hours in order to use if it is very limited in number. This could also be a time-consuming task and no flexibility at all as they need to travel to and for from school in order to utilize the technology. Another major factor is finding a suitable trainer who could teach to use the technology, if it is new to the market, it also means less users who knows to use them well so arranging a well-suited trainer for it is also a hassle. Another barrier given by Butler and Sellbom (2002) and Chizmar & Williams (2001) is reliability [1]. Reliability included hardware failures, incompatible software between home and school, poor or slow internet connectivity and out of date software which are available mostly at school while the students/educators are having more up-to-date software at home. Technological delay such as slowness in Wi-Fi ends up with classes getting delayed as contents takes time to load, servers breaking down during submission of assignments and students end up with low grades, computers shutting down in middle of the exams and much more. Getting latest technology is expensive too, from buying the hardware to getting a trainer will cost the institute significantly.
As many students nowadays prefer to use laptops in class instead of writing down notes, there has been a significant decline in writing skills. Not only this, students are using exercising online chatting in social media with shortcuts for typing that they tend to do the same when it comes to writing too as a result their writing skill is tremendous. Due to the support of auto correction students do not know how to use the grammar correctly, how to write cursive or the spelling of different words. Use of laptops in class has made the students feel that writing is a burden and they have become lethargic. This has negatively affected the fine motor skills of students too. Katie J. Carstens et al.[3] states that Teachers “encourage their students to do at least some writing by hand...because they feel students do more active thinking, synthesizing, and editing when writing by hand, and writing by hand discourages any temptation to copy and paste others’ work”
Advancement of technology is resulting in advancement of cheating too. Students find new ways and technology in order to pass the exams. Technology advancements like graphic calculators, high-tech watches, miniature cameras, and related tools have developed into effective exam-cheating tools.
Even if technology motivates students, teachers sometimes feel hard to gain students’ attention in classes as they text messages or play games even during the classes. Students do not spend adequate time focusing on their studies at home as they are addicted to these things resulting in poor academic performance and sometimes even in sports and extracurricular activities.
Physical health and technology are like the north and South Pole because they are opposite to each other. As technology rose so did the health issues. Nethra R [4] says “All electronic devices emit radiation which is harmful for human body”. Main reasons of headaches, eyesight problems and back pain is laptop screen or mobile phones. We tend to look at them for long hours even without blinking our eyes unconsciously. Unique experience of music or video is given with the usage of earphones but it ends up with hear loss in the long run. Obesity and stress are the end result when students are seated in the same place for longer hours using technology for study time. Screens emit blue light radiation independent of the device, Harvard University’s Health Department (2012) conducted an experiment comparing the effects of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to exposure to green light of comparable brightness. The blue light suppressed melatonin for about twice as long as the green light and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much (3 hours vs. 11⁄2 hours). Melatonin and circadian rhythms are key factors for receiving quality sleep [5]. If sleep is disrupted at a very young age this means they are putting themselves at a greater risk of severe health concerns in the future. Not only this, few studies as shown that exposure to blue light in night increases the chances of cancer, obesity, depression, diabetes and heart diseases. Students prefer to stay home and play games instead of playing sports, this means their body is becoming physically unfit.
Social skills of students or in generally humans has been majorly affected by technology. Key of social skills is face to face interaction although technology has brought the entire world together through networking apps such as social media it has replaced the real-life communication resulting in isolation and social rejection. Nonverbal cues like eye contact, voice tones, and facial expressions help people feel more connected to others during interpersonal conversation, but in digital communication, these indications are absent, which lessens kids' sense of confidence, empathy, and personal connection. Addiction to games and mobile phones has increased the screen time but reduced the family time.