Imagine you are a teacher and it so happen that you are assigned in a school where everything is raw. Do you think you can teach effectively and efficiently there?
First let us take a look at what is technology. According to educators, technology is the application of science like those electrical gadgets and machineries. So when it comes to technology in education, it is technology plus the strategies, teaching materials the teacher itself.
Technology is a blessing for man. With technology, there is a lot that we can do which we could not do then. With cellphones, webcam, you will be closer to someone miles and miles away. So far yet so close! That is your feeling when you talk through a cell phone to a beloved who is far away from you. Just think of the many human lives saved because of speedy notifications via cellphones. Just think of how your teaching and learning have become more novel, stimulating, exciting and engaging with the use of multimedia in the classroom. With your TV, you can watch events as they happen all over the world.
Technology contributes much to the improvement of the teaching-learning process and to the humanization of life. From the constructivist’s point of view, educational technology serves as learning tools that learners learn with. Yes, it’s true because the instruction can be more interesting and learning becomes more interactive. For example is your topic in science is about solar system instead of letting students imagine about it, let them watch films(discovery movies) explaining solar system in that you make a topic interesting plus there is better understanding and retention of what they had learned. On the part of a teacher, the length of time required for instruction can be reduced, why? Instead of writing and writing everything the notes on the board, she can use OHP or PowerPoint presentation. Another one, instead for a teacher doing much effort on computing manually the grades, there is already computer you just input data, Isn’t it easy? Basing from my examples I can say that technology is also our partner in learning process.
However, when not used properly, technology becomes a detriment to learning and development. Think the students that instead of surfing the internet for research, projects and assignments, they are addicted to games in the computer and the worst is the surfs the Internet for pornographic scenes. As a result he will have trouble with his development. The abuse and misuse of the internet will have for reaching unfavorable effects on his moral life. The teacher who schedules class tv viewing for the whole hour to free himself from a one-hour teaching and so can engage in “tsismis”, likewise will not benefit technology. Neither will her class truly benefit from the whole period of tv viewing.
So is technology boon or bane to education? It depends on how we use technology. If we use it to help our students and teachers become caring, relating, thinking, reflecting and analyzing and feeling beings, them it is a boon, a blessing. But if we abuse and misuse it and so contribute to our ruin and downfall and these of other persons, it becomes a bane.
Technologies are invented with a certain purpose. In the context of a classroom it is the teacher who determines how technology ought to be used in order to reap the maximum benefits that came with technology.
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