Lesson 2

 Boon or Bane?

-Technology is in our hands. We can use a to build or destroy

Introduction:

After understanding what educational technology is all about, it may be good to reflect on whether this thing called technology is a boon or a to education, a blessing of a course to education.

Abstraction:

                Technology is a blessing for man. With technology, there is a lot that we can do which we could not do then. With cell phones, webcam, you will be closer to someone miles and miles away. So far yet to close! That is your feeling when you talk through a cell phone to a beloved who is far away from home. Just think of many human lives saved because of speedy notifications via cell phones. Just think of how your teaching and learning have became more novel, stimulating, exciting, fresh and engaging with the use of multimedia in the classroom. With your TV, you can watch events as they happen all over the globe. President Ramos have a lively interaction with his audience in Tacloban in his teleaddress  without  discrupting his work schedule in manila. I know of one Ph. D student who defended his dissertation with one member of the panel in Japan interrogating the Ph. D candidate through teleconferencing.

                However, when not use properly, technology becomes a detriment to learning and development. It can destroy relationships. Think of the husband who is glued to tv unmindful of his wife seeking attention. This may eventually erode marital relationship. Think of the student who surfs the  internet for pornographic scenes. He will have noble with his development. The abuse and missave of the internet will have far reaching unfavorable effects on his moral life. The teacher who schedules class tv viewing for the whole hour to free herself from a one hour teaching and so can engage in “tsismis”, likewise will not benefit from technology. Neither will her class truly benefit from the whole period of tv viewing.

                In education, technology is bane when:

·         The learner is made to accept as Gospel truth information they get from the internet.

·         The learner surfs the internet for pornography.

·         The learner has an uncritical mind on images floating on televisions and computer that represent modernity and progress.

·         The tv makes the learner a mere spectator not an active participant in the drama of life.

·         The learner gets glued in his computer for computer-assisted instruction unmindful of the world and so fails to develop the ability to relate to other.

·         We make use of the internet to do character assassination of people whom we hardly like.

·         Because of the cell phones, we spend most of our time in the classroom or in our workplace testing.

·         We use overuse and abuse tv or film viewing as a strategy to kill time.

Let’s go back to the question asked at the beginning of this lesson. Is technology  boon or bane to education ? it depends on how we use technology. If we use it to help our students and teachers become caring, relating, thinking, reflecting and analyzing and feeling beings, then it is boon, a blessing. But it we abuse and misuse it and so contribute to our ruin and downfall and those of other persons, it becomes a bane or a curse.