Although innovations such as video, computers, and the Internet seem to offer schools improved methods for instructing students, these technologies all too often distract from real learning.
盡管諸如電視、電腦和互聯(lián)網這樣的發(fā)明似乎給學校教育提供了進步的手段,但是所有這些技術往往也是在偏離真正的學習。
正文:
Nowadays there is a growing concern about the role that innovations have played in the field of learning. While most people think that innovations benefit learning process in various ways, different opinions arise that these technology advancements actually distract students from real learning. On balance, according to my personal observation,whether innovations can be beneficial or detrimental to real learning depends on the students and the teachers, not on these innovations themselves.
To begin with, technological innovations do help teaching and learning in various ways.With the aid of these technologies, the process of teaching and learning can be shorter and easier than before. For instance, if a student want certain published papers of an academic discipline, he/she may look through considerable catalogs to find the ones he/she needs. However, with the help of Internet innovation, at present most of these papers are published online. Consequently, to find certain paper the procedure is much easier and shorter, the students just type the key words and other information of the paper, and then the system will search the database, and the papers are there waiting for them. As this new approach can save a lot of time for the students, he/she could have more time reading the papers and absorbing the knowledge rather than checking and looking for the papers that could be a waste of his/her time. This example aptly illustrates how technology advancement benefited the students and their learning process.
Secondly, while innovations can help learning in various ways, it is more important that the central role of the pursuit for knowledge and wisdoms are maintained. What real matters is not the approach but the purpose of learning. In India, where modern technologies are less applied to the learning process than in the US and other developed countries, still a lot of distinguished students achieved their academic goal with their hard work and desires to knowledge. In the US, where the software engineering students are given the most advanced facilities and apparatus for their learning and research, however, it is wildly accepted that they are far less outstanding compared to the Indian students of software, who may share computers in groups. From this comparison we can see that the real and core push of learning is the desire for knowledge, not the help of innovations.
In addition, if not guided properly, the technology advancement might inhibit learning.In other words, innovation can distract the students from real learning than helping them. It is obvious that a computer can help students of science to calculate mathematical equations but can also be used for recreation such as net surfing or computer games. It is highly possible that these students can spend more time and energy on recreations rather than learning when using a computer. Thus, learning is inhibited. Under this circumstance, guidance and restrictions are needed to ensure the right use of innovations for learning, or the consequence may be on the contrary to the students and teachers' desire.
To conclude, technological innovations are beneficial to learning in many ways, but when using these technologies, one should not forget the real purpose of learning and remember not to be distracted for other usages of these innovations that are irrelevant or detrimental to learning. On balance, innovation here serves as a double-edges sword, and its right use is dependent on the students and the teachers.