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Boon or bane? Educators discuss the educational technology reality at #SGEF2018
One thing we can be sure of is that even if technology stays or doesn’t, educators are going to stay in the classrooms. The difference is that the teachers who are not equipped to handle technology will become obsolete.
‘What’s the fuss about technology?’ – Discussing the same was a panel moderated by Skand Bali, with participants including Dr Madhav Deo Saraswat, Meenakshi Uberoi, Poonam Singh Jamwal, Dr Sarvesh Naidu and Gaurav Kanwal. Skand Bali introduced the topic with his own experience as a student and a teacher and explained how virtual reality has made it possible to actually see the digestion happening inside the body or visit places taught in geography.
Poonam Singh Jamwal explained that technology has paved inroads into education because children have started educating themselves. Educators miss out on this education journey until they come up to speed and refresh their knowledge of technology.
Dr Sarvesh Naidu maintained, “We think we are multitaskers. We think we have to fight technology. It is wrong to think that we have to fight technology. We don’t. We are all wi-fi connected. Students are carrying laptops and using it in the classrooms and on the campus. Everyone has technology at their doorsteps. I don’t think in this age we should be getting into the debate of whether technology is good or bad. I think we should be looking at the next stage that is here to stay.”
Taking the discussion forward, Meenakshi Uberoi shared that she believes that technology is something we have to use in our favour to change the world and improve skills.
Gaurav Kanwal opined that India is a big school market and everyone needs technology. “ So that’s why there is a herd mentality in the school system and every skill company is coming up with new things for schools. There are two aspects to it: Are we adding value to education in the very first place? Are we doing it responsibly or are we doing it purely for commercial purposes? I think it’s time every organisation has a responsibility to the community.”
Dr Saraswat said that one of the challenges he has faced is that when someone is from a non-technology background, everything seems so colorful and fancy to them. He had a very different opinion on technology to share. He said, “Whenever I have to decide on technology, I look at it in three segments. Ninety-nine percent of them are going to be consumers; only one percent is going to take technology as a profession. Students have to look for professions in the changing scenario because machines are taking over. Most schools use technology to make teaching as easy as possible. Learning is a sweet pain and if you give children everything on a platter all the time, it is not good. You must challenge them enough and prepare them for challenges. Technology has brought in a lot of challenges. I’m killing the creativity of my teachers by simply giving them a technology. We give teachers technology to save time but my take on this is they have to find the time. They better have time whether they are teaching 25 kids or 50 kids. We have to discuss how to make teachers more engaged with their children. Is there a way technology can make this happen?”
The discussion ended with a question-answer session with the audience. Skand Bali summed up the session by saying that the technology age is like the Jurassic age because we never know which way it is going to go – whether it is going to benefit us or create more problems for us.
One thing we can be sure of is that even if technology stays or doesn’t, educators are going to stay in the classrooms. The difference is that the teachers who are not equipped to handle technology will become obsolete.