ADVANTAGES OF TECHNOLOGY IN TODAY’S CHILDREN
FLORENCIA Z. GARCIA
The 21st century is full of surprises when it comes to the advancement of technology. We now live in a world full of instants and fast access to almost anything. Just one click away and you will be able to find the answers on your queries thus making you have fewer worries. Certainly, the world is a better place with all these innovations but the question is: Does it bring more harm or good when it comes to educating the young generation?
Children were used to be seen on the streets, running around playing patintero, hide and seek, tumbangpreso and many more games that were inherited from our Filipino culture and ancestry. But now, try to notice the children around you. The streets are not full of the children’s noises anymore. You see them intensely engrossedupon the screens of their gadgets waiting to get a hundred likes from their selfies posted on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and any other social media account that they could possibly have. Some are busy playing video games and advancing their levels on Defence of the Ancients (DOTA) and Call of Duty (COD). Back in the days, children would drown themselves in the library for homeworks and research but now, just a few minutes and their done with their “copy-paste” from the Internet.
Everyone could not be grateful enough with the entire benefits one can get from technology especially its immense contribution to the education sector. It is truly spectacular how vast information is stored through search engines which serve more accessible to students. The Internet has almost everything anyone is looking for – from providing techniques in solving complex problems, making research questions answerable and even up to having a wide array of sources about news that can make a student more involved and informed of current events locally and globally. Another amazing thing about technology is how it makes teacher and student communication easier. Other school institutions disregard the traditional way of teaching and resort to using creative presentations which are projected audio-visually. Studies have shown that these types of educational methods are more effective for learning because it induces the attention span of students particularly children. What made it even better is this another approach which teachers use – uploading review materials and assignments online as well as using integrated programs to let the students answer their examinations. This is better in a sense that a paperless method is being practiced which greatly contributes to the preservation of the environment.
While the advantages of technology on education are endless, there are also some threats that can arise. Fake websites that produce false information can greatly confuse and mislead children. Some even have violent contents and children are too young to understand the obscenity of these. There is also the possibility that having all these easy access to profoundly anything can make the students less productive because of having the mentality that they do not need to exert any effort because “it is just always there.” However, it is a common knowledge that there is no such thing as perfection and that everything has its own flaws. The important thing is that apparently, technology can do more good than harm in educating children. It is a way of transforming a simple knowledge into a great one. What needed to be done is just to regulate the use of technology in order to avoid the negative repercussions that it can bring. Although it is most certain that a lot of public schools still choose not to resort to technology due to lack of resources, this is a different pressing issue to be solved. With the new administration initiating plans on the Department of Education, each one can hope that part of these plans will be on strengthening the use of technology.
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The author is Teacher III at San Joaquin Elementary School