Author: Rathsara Rasanjalee Herath Herath Mudiyanselage

OK, Google!

OK, Google! does our education system make us dumb? or is it the technology? Well, I hope I did not confuse Google by asking this question.

Did it ever happen to you where a person who is in a middle of conversation or discussion (just to keep their facts straight or just to find something they forgot) say let’s google it or they go straight to ” Ok Google —?”. It has happened to me so many times and to be honest I do that most of the time. Is that a bad thing or does that make us dumb? I guess I can agree with Clive Thompson and say No! it is not. Because as humans we have always done this, but before it was “books” and “weeks” and now it is “search engines” and “OK, Google!” (I mean minutes ). As a graduate student, I can say that these search engines make my life much easier. Let’s say I had to do all my literature survey without the internet. I would not say it is impossible but it will take a much longer time. Also, this advancement in technology helps the research community to grow together efficiently. Because it does not matter where you are in the world you can find any information or any published papers in your field at any time of the day, just using the internet. Moreover, technology has made it easier to bring everyone’s ideas together and has become a one good discussion platform. So technology is not exactly the problem. It does what it exactly is supposed to do, making human life easier and efficient. So technology itself does not make us dumb. But that does not mean it can make you intelligent either. That’s why the education system needs to be properly equipped to “facilitate learning ” (quoting Sir Ken Robinson ). Technology and networking are pretty useful in fulfilling this. But this raises the question of how much technology should be involved in our education system. In the interview with Mr.Thompson, he mentions that kids should not spend all their time on screens, rather they should split up their time to do multiple different things.

Which brings my attention to Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk where he mentions the importance of exposing kids to all the fields rather than following the education hierarchy. That way they have the opportunity of choosing what they enjoy the most. Because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how hard the teacher try it will go to waste if the student doesn’t enjoy it and want to learn. In Sir Robinson’s talk, he mentions that human beings are diverse (meaning people have different interests and talents ). It is important to respect this diversity and “facilitate learning”.The next important thing is not to suppress curiosity and imagination. As Sir Robinson mention in his talk, the force that drives humans is their curiosity, so the education system should endure curiosity and imagination, not just literacy. Is that what happens in education today? Sadly not, education systems today (in most countries) focus more on tests. These tests act more like filters where they should have been a diagnostic technique (as mention by Sir Robinson) to help students. Thinking back, I totally agree with Sir Robinson because I’m also one of those students who has spent most part of my education focusing on tests rather than the actual learning. So, for the most part, it’s not the technology which confined us to a box, it’s the education system.

Networked Learning

I agree with Dr.Gardner Campbell on the fact that the education has become more about careers and “competencies” than learning. Most of the time we can see students are more focused on getting a good grade and finishing the course rather than actually learning the subject. I think this whole concept in education needs to be changed. Because this makes students more mechanical than creative.Because creativity or imagination is as impotent as knowledge. Creativity allows you to think out of the box. Albert Einstein, the greatest inventor of the century once said, ” knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand”. An effective education system should comprise with both. which give students knowledge at the same time it should not suppress the creativity in the student. Humans have an extraordinary capacity for innovation. But the current validation procedures in the education system does not help to improve it rather it suppresses it. One thing which needs to be changed is to stop penalizing mistakes. If not the only message this gives is, there is no room for mistake because you should already know it. I think this destroys the whole learning process. Dr Michael Wesch makes a great point on this matter in his talk. In the process of learning how to walk, if you stopped baby George saying “you tried once you are failed” he would never learn how to walk. Therefore, the whole education system should design to promote learning and expanding it than getting good grades. I like Dr Wesch’s idea of “not yet ” rather than giving a grade. I think there are two plus points in that validation method. One thing is it makes the classroom more learning oriented than grade oriented. Another thing is students develop a skill set to challenge themselves and learn.

Education has changed massively over the past few decades. There was “traditional classrooms” which are more instructor oriented. Then there was “student centred classroom” where the students and teacher contribute equally to the learning process (most part both of these systems are still in the current education system). With the advances in technology and the internet, networking has become a part of education in the present. Hence, education does not has to be confined to a classroom anymore. You can expand your knowledge as well as you can send your own opinion through networking. Today networking has become such a powerful tool not just in education but in every field. You can gain so much knowledge by just surfing through the internet. At the same time, you can publish your own work or opinions through social media. In Seth Godin’s discussion on blogging, he states” what matters is humility comes from writing it, how do you explain it to whoever looking at it “. I think this points out a really good message. There is some technicality associated with any field of education. So when you learn a subject-oriented topic in a certain way it is not easy to explain it without any technical terms. We usually say that if you can explain what you learn (or what you do, your research, etc) to your grandparents(who considered to have no idea about what you are talking about), you really know what you are talking about. I think through blogging or any other social media you can develop that skill set, to learn how to convey your message to the audience the way they can understand. because communication is really important in expansion or development in any field. I think through networked learning on thing is you can expand your knowledge efficiently as well as you can convey your own opinion to others. Hense I believe through this learning system you can learn more effectively compared to the class centred learning system.