99% - A noble act but is really technology the Holy Grail of Education?
It is very noble for a rich man to offer 99% of his company stocks to serve humanity's long-term development to the best of his judgment. It's thought-provoking though whether technology really make our lives so much better. I don’t debate that modern technology saved a lot of people, made life significantly easier for mankind and created miracles such as Wikipedia. But it seems that there is a tendency to overlook the negatives, to be overly optimistic about world-changing ideas. Technology ties much of our attention these days and having meaningful conversations is getting more difficult in the era of the information tsunami; where an army of “smart” devices constantly demanding our attention. Widespread loneliness, low self-esteem, digital addictions and superficiality also accompanies this process called development.
As an IT professional, I also feel that there is an excessive expectation regarding the role of technology in education. News tell us about some schools where students will only learn typing. If someone does not learn to write by hand, he or she will be entirely dependent on technology and also brain development will be quite different. The more comfortable technology makes us, the more skills we let become weaker, such as focus, coordination of fine motor abilities (improved a lot by learning handwriting) and more. Folk dancing, singing, painting, drawing, writing poems and expressing ideas are not just a matter of hobby and beauty. They also give us a full life, tools to attain deep self-knowledge and ways for self-expression. Playful, custom-tailored digital contents are amazing additions to a teacher’s toolset but overusing them can make more harm than good. Can we find the right balance?
We use modern technology every day, it's really useful indeed. However, we shouldn't get there where we can't imagine our education or our lives without omnipresent technology. The real one.
Mark Zuckerberg’s open letter - it’s definitely worth reading (1 Dec 2015):
https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-letter-to-our-daughter/10153375081581634
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Picture by InsEyedout; Flickr.com/ Creative Commons