Technology in Education – How it can be used and not abused
Abstract
The report is essentially designed to highlight how technology can be effectively used and not misused in the education sector. The report is developed after undertaking through secondary research via academic sources available on the internet. These sources ranged from scholarly and peer-reviewed journal articles to authentic and reliable websites and academic books.
The advancement of technology in the educational sector has revolutionized the learning procedures and has enabled active and collaborative learning via web-based and cloud applications and multi-media forums. However, when the technological innovations are not regulated, they are abused by the students. Students may abuse the technological facilities by engaging in plagiarism, watching inappropriate websites, downloading illegal music, playing video games, distracting the fellow classmates and engaging in cyber-bullying. Hence, the educational authorities should develop strategies that would enable the effective usage of technology. Initiatives like digital citizenship programs and Universal design for principals program should be introduced to avoid the technology abuse.
Introduction
Technology has played an inevitable part in facilitating the educational learning procedures in academic institutions these days. Technological presence within the educational institutions creates an information sharing network which proliferates collaborative and integrative learning and escalates the standards of learning within the network (Raja and Nagasubramani, 2018). However, if the technology is not productively utilized, it would enable the students to misuse it and would thereby inhibit their learning capacity. Technological misuse may enable students to cheat, get distracted and lose their privacy, thereby hindering their learning capability. Hence, in order for technology to fulfill all educational goals and create worthwhile academic experiences, educational providers should ensure the productive utilization of technology (Richmond and Troisi, 2018). This report has been essentially designed to highlight how technology can be effectively used and not misused in the education sector.
Findings
The use of technology in the educational sector has revolutionized the academic learning procedures by inculcating active and interactive learning within the educational dynamics (Hanımoğlu, 2018). The use of multimedia learning, online applications, web-conferencing, cloud storage applications and social networking technologies enable students to learn via a constructivist approach, where they are able to use interaction and collaboration to discover knowledge. These technologies enhance behavioral and cognitive engagement by the students and enable them to broaden their learning horizons (Schindler, Burkholder, Morad and Marsh, 2017). The students can effectively use technology to nurture their processing capabilities, attain a global outlook to knowledge attainment and develop life-long learning capabilities. In this endeavor, it is integral for academic institutions to effectively integrate the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in the curriculum and ensure that these technologies are not abused by the students (Gill, Gill and Young, 2014).
Findings have revealed that the abuse of technology within the educational sector is common within these contemporary dynamics. The students tend to get distracted while using cell phones and laptops in class, which may then inhibit their cognitive processing ability (Ravitech, 2017). They may also distract their fellow class mates, thereby disrupting the learning procedure for a bigger chunk of learners. Furthermore, these troublesome students may plagiarize information and cheat when they have an easier access of technology, which may hurt the primary education goals set by academic institutions (Shelly, Gunter and Gunter, 2011). Moreover, the students may also abuse the technological facility by hacking into the school servers and retrieving confidential information. Furthermore, students may also engage in other problem behaviors for instance they may engage in cyber-bullying, view pornographic websites and illegally download music during their academic sessions. Statistics reveal that around 90 % of the students that were engaged in cyber bullying tend to use cellphones in school (Schenk, Fremouw and Keelan, 2013).Such technology abuse may disrupt the educational learning procedure and may mitigate the student’s learning potential (Garcia-Umana and Tirado-Morueta, 2018).
Discussion
The findings of the report extend support to the pros and cons of technology usage within the educational dynamics. Technology can serve as an effective tool in facilitating education by inculcating collaborative and interactive learning via multiple technologies ranging from multi-media learning to cloud storage and other web-based applications; however, the abuse of ICT facilities within the class room dynamics may disrupt the spirit of academic learning and may inhibit the student’s learning capabilities (Shelly, Gunter and Gunter, 2011). The ability of the students to engage in defrauding activities dramatically increases with technology exposure. For instance, the cyber bullying activities have been increasingly common in school facilities due to rise of technology and have thereby led to students having negative academic performance.
This situation demands an increased attention towards strategies that may enable students to effectively use technology and advance their skill set and learning capabilities. In this endeavor, the educational institutions would be able to discover the multiple usages of technology and would thereby encourage them to efficiently align their academic pedagogy with the technology. This would enable the students to effectively use the technology and avoid it’s exploitation. This outlook to technology would enable the educational authorities to augment the positive effects of ICT and harness it’s hindrances (Jwaifell and Alkhales, 2019).
Recommendations
Technology will add expected value to the educational sector if it’s usage is highly regulated by the educational authorities. Hence, academic institutions should critically set educational objectives and design strategies that would ensure that technology is able to successfully fulfill the learning goals and provide the students with a value-added experience (Alhumaid, 2019). Firstly, the educational providers should develop innovative tactics that would ensure that the student’s usage of laptops is accompanied by minimal distraction. Furthermore, the academic authorities should also approach the educational curriculum in a multifaceted and a multimodal way, where they are able to adapt to Universal Design for Learning Principles and enable students to use their sensory modalities while learning (Richmond and Troisi, 2018). This would enable students to minimize their dependence on technology and use their own sensory skills to expand their learning capability.
The academic facilities should initiate a digital citizenship program that enables teachers and parents to understand how students may effectively use technology. A digital citizenship audit can also be carried out in schools, which enables the organization to score technology use against the norms, thereby effectively monitoring trends for technology use in classrooms (Jwaifell and Alkhales, 2019). Furthermore, the school administrators should create an interactive environment where learner’s involvement is maximized and integrated and collaborative learning is promoted (Alhumaid, 2019).Before implementing the technology-based framework, educational facilities should train professors on how to effectively utilize these technologies to aid learning and development. Facilitators should also be trained on how to monitor the appropriate usage of technology within the classroom premises. This procedure would ensure that students avoid abusing the technological facilities and are able to utilize them to enhance their learning capabilities (Ghavifekr and Wan Rosdy, 2015).
Conclusion
Technology has played an inevitable role in transforming the educational sector by bringing collaborative and integrative learning and by advancing the cognitive processing capabilities of the students. However, students may abuse the technology when it is not effectively regulated by the educational authorities. Hence, in order to avoid the abuse of technology, the educational facilities should introduced innovative tactics that could impose rules and regulations on technology usage in class.
References
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Raja, R. and Nagasubramani, P., 2018. Impact of modern technology in education. Journal of Applied and Advanced Research, 3(S1), p.33.
Ravitch, D., 2017. 5 Risks Posed By The Increasing Misuse Of Technology In Schools – Edsurge News. [online] EdSurge. Available at: <https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-12-29-5-risks-posed-by-the-increasing-misuse-of-technology-in-schools> [Accessed 12 May 2020].
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Schindler, L., Burkholder, G., Morad, O. and Marsh, C., 2017. Computer-based technology and student engagement: a critical review of the literature. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(1).
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Jwaifell, M. and Alkhales, B., 2019. The Proper Use of Technologies as a Digital Citizenship Indicator: A Comparative Study of Two Universities in the Middle East. Journal of Studies in Education, 9(1), p.1.
Schenk, A., Fremouw, W. and Keelan, C., 2013. Characteristics of college cyberbullies. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), pp.2320-2327.
