Nowadays, technology has become an extension of human capabilities. It enables the current generation to surpass their mortal limitations and do things that should be impossible for humanity, like communicating with someone on the other side of the globe or capturing and storing moments that would never happen again. But most of all, it revolutionized the academic world in just a blink of an eye.
The learning process from the 20th century until the early 21st was arduous. Resources, like old journals and textbooks with missing pages stored inside a library with dusty cabinets and half-fixed chairs and tables, used to be the only resort of the students desperate to find answers. Teachers would have to write on several sheets of ‘manila paper’ to provide lessons for the students to copy on their hand-stitched notebooks. At that time, the main complaint of the parents was how heavy the books were when carried by such small children on their way to school and back home. That era for education was challenging, but everyone was enduring enough, and everything was simple.
Until a decade passed after the 21st century began, every government started to eye technology to create a better learning system for the current generation and the ones to come. Globalization sped up, and those big computers started invading the schools. The job of the administrative staff eased a bit because school records are digitalized. Then, after more years of development, those big computers started to thin off and became available to many households, giving both students and teachers more offline resources like Encarta Kids and Kindle. Mobile phones also became a trend, making communication and collaboration more efficient. Finally, around 2017, the internet was made available for everyone through a private connection of many households, public connection on several public places, and on Barangay Learning Hubs. That was the time when the libraries were almost obsolete because millions of free resources were uploaded online. Until now, the education system is being revolutionized by technology, especially since all stakeholders are purely dependent on it to give and receive learning because of the current learning-delivery modalities.
What if technology today was the same as it was way back 2000’s? How will education be pushed through in this pandemic situation? Will the vaccines be within reach? The answer is that nothing will be the same. The development of vaccines would be decades away, and education would be stopped for that same amount of time due to a lack of resources, equipment, and medium. Libraries and books would be left unattended, and the deterioration process would speed up, leaving all those to waste.
That’s why technology and development were never a bad thing. Embracing modernization when it comes to education does more good than harm. Two decades ago, everything the education system has now was nothing but visions and aspirations for the future. Now, this is the future, when the dreams of the pioneers of technology are within reach. This is the time that the students and teachers of the last century dreamed of; lesser writing on ‘manila papers’ and hand-stitched notebooks, instead, the use of PowerPoint presentations, tablets, and iPads; no more library visits, instead, internet browsing through laptops and mobile phones; etc.
It’s not, and it will never be bad for the generations to come to ‘have it easier’ than those that preceded them. After all, all of us once dreamed of a better world for our children.
REFERENCES
- https://online.purdue.edu/blog/education/evolution-technology-classroom
- https://www.classcraft.com/blog/the-history-of-the-emergence-of-technology-in-education/
- https://education.msu.edu/green-and-write/2015/the-role-of-technology-in-the-educational-process/
- https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/technology-in-education
