When I saw the title of this edition of hive learners weekly featured contents and read its description, I just smiled because it's a topic I relate with to a very high extent. I have mentioned so many times about my love for computers and technology as a whole and this topic has presented a very good aspect of technology; when we relate it to education.
Sometimes, I begin to wonder how our forefathers passed through school without the use of technology. I mean, there was nothing like the internet and things like Google to aid with assignments but they still did very well academically despite passing through hell (at least that's what it is to me). But today, we now have access to the internet and it has made things a lot easier, right?
Well, it has made things a lot easier and more convenient but anything that has a good side also have a bad side and when it comes to education and technology, there are a couple of adverse effects and one of the most prominent one is distractions. I don't think there's any student that isn't faced with this problem at one point or the other.
Some people don't frequently get distracted by their phones but for me, it happens all the time. For example, I am supposed to be writing on my project topic and I also have to prepare for a presentation, write an assignment that's due tomorrow morning by 8 and also another one that will be due next week, but here I'm playing games, watching videos on YouTube, and writing articles on hive 馃槅
I used to be a very serious student back in high school but all that changed when I got a smartphone and got exposed to the world of social media, movies-on-the-go, and video games. Gone are the days when I can only watch movies on a TV when I'm at home but these days, I can watch movies anywhere, even in class and that's actually a problem.
But despite all these, technology has actually made my academic life so so much easier. I typed my IT report last year in December and it took me a couple of weeks to do so even with a laptop and now I'm thinking; what if there was no laptop and I have to write that report with a pen, how long will it take? Probably a couple of months!
Aside from making assignments and research work much easier, I can even take courses online. That's what I did during the COVID-19 lockdown and when the universities in my country were on strike, I took some graphics design courses online, and at some point later, I took a programming course too. Last year, I enrolled in a computer science course at Harvard university online and I got to take part in the class via video conference call using zoom!
It was a very exciting experience and it was all thanks to the power of technology. I'm here in my country Nigeria but I was able to attend classes in the US. It's not like one of those YouTube videos where you can only watch the videos and not have any interactions with the instructor, in this case, I could ask and answer questions as if I were in a physical class.
That wasn't possible in the past but it's now very common; distance learning will revolutionize education. COVID-19 has given us a glimpse of the future of education and that is distant learning. During the lockdown, schools were shut down, and seeing no other option, online learning was adopted by most schools and students could attend classes from the comfort of their homes. Years from now, Virtual and augmented realities will become widespread and people can appear virtually in class without actually being present physically
As time goes on, I believe we will get to a point where people won't need to be physically present in school to write an exam. Technology will be so advanced to the extent that tests and exams can be written by students while at home and they can't even cheat. During my time at Harvard, we were given projects and tests without supervision but if you cheat by copying the answers from an online source, they will know.
Education is heading to an era where things will be done fully with technology. Books are being replaced with laptops (some of my lecturers at the university no longer give notes, they now give PowerPoint slides and PDFs), whiteboards and markers are being replaced with projectors and PowerPoint slides, and exams are being marked by artificial intelligence (think computer-based tests). Although it has made us lazy, I believe technology has also made us be more efficient
Thanks for reading
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