The Potential Impact of Technology on Education

• By Awinash Goswami
• Wednesday, August 5, 2015

The phenomenon that remains constant across the globe is ‘change’. With rapid boom in technology, scarcely would there be any corner of the world where technology has not left its indelible impact.

Presently, focused on the quick advancement of technology, particularly in the area of education, a student can easily estimate that in less than three to four decades, we probably will enter a world tantamount to utopia. I remember there was a time when students in Pakistan used a small steel-made 1ft long thin board called slate but today as a replacement to that steel frame, technology has gifted students with tablets. In fact nowadays, tablets, laptops or desktop computers have become a necessity for every student. Without these, student faces difficulty in fulfilling the demands of a 21st century learner.

Technology has bestowed students an apt way of study. Millions of books, notes, and periodicals available on internet are used as helpful sources for study purpose. No matter, where the student physically belongs to, he/she can easily access the digital world. Even universities, schools and other institutes of high prestige permit students to access online libraries opening the world of knowledge to them.

Besides an individual study, another gratification of technology is virtual study; that provides environment almost akin to a classroom, especially helpful to the students who reside in remote areas of our country. Without doubt, a number of students avail this feasible source greatly.

Google, a globally dominating search engine, is treated as a confidant. In fraction of seconds, it helps one locate their query and supplies worthy sets of information. As a matter of fact today the term ‘Google it’ has become synonymous to go grab your share of knowledge. Additionally, the internet world has given students access to video animations, and tutorials that invigorate interest and help find solutions. Every subject is learned nowadays using the internet, whether it is a language course or a scientific one. Along learning, we are updated frequently with new software as well. Today’s tycoon of computer science field, Bill Gates, has made investment in education his personal ambition. Microsoft has made umpteen educational applications accessible to students of all ages. The offline software Encyclopedia and Britannica, almost akin to Wikipedia, is an amazing contribution by Microsoft.

In short, technology has made education compact to an extent that we have moved from blackboard to projector, pen to stylus, letter to email and limited information to a web-like interconnected world. Analyzing day to day tweaks on education through technology, one can expect that the next generation will likely not use paper but learn and engage with knowledge using technological gadgets.

RETO Foundation is doing an amazing job of amalgamating technology with learning and students in rural areas of Interior Sindh, Pakistan. It is helping students to learn more from the internet and realize their whole new potential of becoming the catalyst of change for themselves and their community. It is amazing that students from Tando Jam, SIndh are now making using of internet in learning various things. I believe that these small steps in the long run are going to bring in amazing change in rural areas of Pakistan.

Awinash Goswami is a member of Shades, student wing of RETO Foundation.