The Effect of Technology on Human learning
Due to the current crisis of Covid-19, scholars have been practicing methods to counter the spread of Covid-19. To meet this practice, for scholars, the act of learning in person has been suspended, and the concept of distance learning has been in place, relying on the use of technology to further attend the study of scholars. But the reliance on technology to further learning has had both a positive and negative impact on how the minds of scholars’ function, and in practice, questions the route of impact of learning in the future.
The process of which learning is accomplished within a scholar's mind considerably is different for all scholars but follows a basic concept. The concept follows that genuine understanding of the acquisition of knowledge within a scholar's mind is naturally manifest by one's own thoughts and views of the subject. Teachers and students have noticed that this process is shaped by in-person conversations, distributing similar and different thoughts and view points on the matter, shaping one’s own perception of true and natural understanding. With the introduction of distance learning and the implication of technology to emblematize the bridge that closes the distance between scholars, from a student’s point of view, there has been a considerable change from in-person physical learning that has led to a negative impact on a student's own learning. Students can observe negative impacts, such as not being in a school like environment removes the motivation to maintain a mindset upon learning. From a sudden change in environment, the want to learn has decreased1, one moment students are in a classroom amongst their peers seeing that everyone else is paying attention and absorbing the information, now, the student is seated in front of a computer, within their own home, an environment focused upon one's living needs and relaxation before their productivity. One moment students are in the classroom able to pause within the lesson, and turn and talk amongst each other about what they learned to fully understand the subject, now, the ability to learn is relied upon one’s own interpretation. The ability to learn and process information amongst peers is now limited, which then reflects upon one’s basic concept of learning. Overall, lack of in-person and hands-on experience in learning within schools compared to learning from home, further shows the change in environment for these scholars to continue their learning.
The study of the basis of culture and the evolution of human cooperation also reflects upon the process of human’s hypersocial activity and how it is incorporated into how people learn. Human scholars in this sense, rely on cooperation amongst other individuals in order for learning to truly happen. Before the introduction of technology for learning, specifically the use of the internet for learning, the ability to learn solely depended on cooperation with others, learning what was needed to survive from copying a method from another person, or simply removing what was beneficial from another's experience to use solely for one's usage. Scholars would go on to take this acquired information and knowledge, and decipher it among a group of people, underlining the need of cooperation in order to benefit one’s own understanding, therefore benefiting everyone else's understanding by processing it as a group. But now, with the implication of technology, everyone who has access to technology can connect upon the cumulative knowledge of all. Since many scholars have published their works of what is learned on the internet for public access, students now can research topics independently and simply read the information found to use their research. This removes the basis of discovering the concept of the information as the first step, then discussing and analyzing the information as a group to push one's further understanding of the subject. With the primary use of technology removing the analytical aspect with cooperation of peers, the information is now taken at face value, lacking the deeper understanding from the scholar. Now that students are using distant learning through technology, the same concept of analyzing the information given is applied, seeing that the information taught over the screen can be applied under given text and images rather than in-person physical information that is learned with peers. The information is just given by the teacher and the student has to rely on themselves in order to fully understand it. Thus the information is understood only on a basic level, like analyzing a quick source of information on the information. Furthermore, the usage of technology on distance learning, impacts the minds of the scholar, specifically how the use of technology changes the impact of human vulnerability. As stated, before the instruction of technology, specifically the usage of learning through the internet, scholars would take piece by piece the information gathered and compare it with their peers in order to understand the acquired knowledge, but now, the usage of the internet just analyzes for one's understanding. Scholars would be more subjective in understanding information, but now are more analytical at taking information at face value. For young scholars, this does not only change their mindset upon learning but also how they interpret society and all other information given to them. Scholars' mindsets will be more analytical and forget the basis of acquiring knowledge by subjective thinking amongst peers.
Now with distant learning, for the reason that we cannot simply change the environment of our learning until the pandemic is over, we must seek to change the style of teaching and learning over the use of technology. Though teachers are limited through a specific window of time of their lessons, the next step would be using the lesson-time in order to spark subjective ideas and learning throughout the lesson-time. Though this can be very difficult in finding the balance between lesson and allowing for students to converse to create the basis of the learning concept in action, teachers as well as students should do their best to cooperate to find this equilibrium. This equilibrium can be achieved by a trial and error of distribution of time specified for pure information and conversing between students. As for the future of learning with the usage of technology, learning with technology should not solely rely upon information found and given by the internet. Scholars should at first create their own basis of understanding with peers within the subject and then use the internet to use as a benefactor as support for the created understanding. This evolves learning from just the analytical aspect of viewing information to creating a basis for the use of absorbing the information on a deeper level.
While we students and teachers continue to progress through this pandemic crisis of Covid-19, we look to further define the impact of technology on how people learn. Seeking ways to balance the usage of technology to ensure that deeper learning can still be defined within the minds of students even though it is done over the usage of technology. As long as we students and teachers cooperate together to create an equilibrium of information and cooperation between scholars, we should be able to get through this current hurdle in learning through Covid-19.
2Boyd, Robert, and Peter J Richerson. “Culture and the Evolution of Human Cooperation.”
3Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
4“Technology and Human Vulnerability.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard, August 1, 2014.
5Merrill, Stephen. “Teaching Through a Pandemic: A Mindset for This Moment.” Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation, March 19, 2020.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MA2-6Ed4yO-kjSBfIoXQrzaX0kd9impAfTBtgnEB3ho/edit?usp=sharing
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