AI GENERATED IMAGE
The smartphones we have today have really helped the human race in so many ways, not just school alone. But school and education have been in existence way back before we even had button phones to begin with. And yet people scaled through the university and came out performed excellently academically. Probably a lot better than this generation of people who have smartphones.
Imagining such a scenario with no phones right now may seem impossible and this is because we have gotten used to digital technology and almost feel like we can’t do without them. It’s something I don’t think I have even thought about before. But coming across the prompt I think it is something fun to imagine.
There sure would be a lot of limitations. Imagine wanting to study for a particular course and the only resources you have available to you is probably the handouts provided for that course, maybe some things you jotted down during the lecture (which is basically the same piece of information you’d find in the note, and the textbooks in the library. Sure all of these can come in pretty useful, it’s not like the internet where you have multiple variations of explanations about a topic—either in written, audio, or video format—that’s makes it almost impossible for you not to understand any one of them at all.
Some people may understand it quite alright either during the lecture or by studying the resources made available to them. But not everybody’s level of understanding may be the same. Perhaps that is why lectures advise us to participate in group reading because that is one of the most effective ways out in this kind of situation, which brings me to my next point.
I believe an education system without will bring students more closer together. Not just the attending a lecture kind of together, because more than half of the time that is when students actually come together. And even at that, there are still some students who wouldn’t show up—except the lecturer threatens to take attendance—because they feel whatever is being taught in the lecture hall can be learned online with the help of their smartphones.
But when there’s no smartphone and they are having a hard time comprehending what they are reading on their own, they’ll have no choice but to link up with those who they know have better understanding about it—that is for those who are interested in passing anyway.
Another effect I think the absence of phones will result to is that students will learn not to be too independent. Like for instance, there may be a lecture scheduled to hold at particular time. Some students may wait for others to first go to the lecture hall so that they can get information from them whether the lecturer showed up or not. But without phones, everybody would find their way to the lecture hall without waiting for others to get there first and then give them feedback.
I’m not against the invention of phones. They were actually made to assist us. Where I have a problem is that most people have completely replaced it with the things that their brains can figure out if they actually use it, but because the phone is they just head straight to google or AI. An educational system where they are no phones would make people tap into their deep potentials of their brains and use it more often.
Frankly speaking, I think such a scenario may not be that bad. People will get to actually interact with one another physically and not glued to their phones half of the time. It can be funny how two people can be sitting right next to each other and chatting with someone that is a thousand of miles away but fail to say a word to each other. But with no phones, we become more conscious of our surroundings and the things and people around us. It may slow the pace of learning, but it wouldn’t cut off learning as long as we still have brains and knowledge is being circulated.