Ideally, technology has brought numerous changes to the world inclusive of the learning methods. People tend to dwell much on technological gadgets for business, health, leisure or educational purposes. When it comes to children or scholars, they use technology to enhance their academic performance. At a young age, children learn how to use technology through playing with them (Bird & Edwards, 2014, p. 1149). According to Carol Dweck, there are two types of learners, those with a fixed mindset and those with a growth mindset (Dweck, 2015). Those with a growth mindset could outdo the other group because they are open to increasing their knowledge through diverse means while the fixed mindsets rely only on one mode to acquire knowledge. Hence, technology works best for the growth mindset because as the technology advances, this category of children learns more. On the other hand, Nicholas Carr claims that technology destructs students’ concentration (Carr, 2010.). He further claims that those who dwell on traditional learning approaches grasp more than those who shift to online learning. He justifies his point by arguing that scholars who prefer to use online learning system are constantly bothered by incoming and outgoing text messages and emails while those who use the conventional learning methods such as books are less destructed (Carr, 2010). This paper aims to prove that technology has a positive impact on the different learning methods for children around the world.
Support 1 for Hypothesis: Technology Helps the Development of Literacy
Every child or learner has a different level of understanding. Some grasp knowledge at a slow pace while others’ understanding capacity is higher. Hence, children with lower learning capability need more hours outside the classroom to catch up with others. Thanks to the advanced technology, scholars need only links to e-books or tutorial videos to enhance their understanding. Certain educational media has been linked to having positive effects on early childhood education from 2.5 to 5 years old (Bavelier, Green & Dye, 2010). For instance on YouTube, there are videos designed specifically for children on diverse subjects where an instructor is explaining how to solve a problem. On the other hand, some shows have been developed to promote language literacy and mathematical skills in children. (Bavelier, Green & Dye, 2010). Children tend to learn faster through watching and later reciting or imitating an acquired behavior or knowledge. For instance, there can be plays on religious education such as the birth of Jesus that shows what happened as written in the Bible. Most learners will get knowledge that their memory will retain in the long term because, despite reading, they have also gained a sense of experience through watching the show.
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Children not only need to be glued to books but to be exposed to other programs such as educational shows that demonstrate how to resolve social conflicts and productively manage disagreements and frustration (Bavelier, Green & Dye, 2010). As much as children need academic content, they also need to understand their social environment and learn how to deal with both positive and negative changes that they encounter. In other words, social teachings are meant to build their development just as the educational content to prevent anti-social behavior that has been linked to poor academic outcomes (Bavelier, Green & Dye, 2010).
Technology has a lot of illustrations that can be in the form of animation or real humans acting in a show. Most parents are unaware that their kids imitate their behavior; how they speak, walk, eat and dress. They can only realize this when they observe their children’s movements or performance. According to Singer & Singer (2005), it would be unnecessary to limit imaginative play because they support kids’ achievement of symbolic representations as well as their engagement in complex acts of pretense (Bird, Jo, and Edwards, 2014, p.1159). A good example is the Bobo doll experiment that portrays as children watch a play, they encode certain behaviors and later while interacting with fellow kids, they perform the display the same traits in their performance (McLeod, 2016). Hence, in the act of learning, it is important to expose kids to digital technologies that allow them to watch plays that will mold their characters.
Support 2 for Hypothesis: Technology can Help Children in Many Ways
Different media of technology have numerous positive impacts on learners. For instance, kids exposed to computers can acquire visual literacy abilities through executing computer tasks such as video games. Studies depict that such computer missions enhance one's focus and as a result, one may shift from a slow/regular thinker to an automatic or rapid thinker (Carr, 2010). The impact is evident in children who end up on the winning side every time they play such games. It shows that they think faster compared to their opponents. Additionally, the skills can be taught to a slow learner; one may be slow in academics but good at games. Hence, a tutor can use such platforms to improve a student’s educational performance.
Advanced technology help teachers to bring in new and better learning systems into classrooms. Initially, when students were given assignments, they had to submit them in written form but nowadays; technology allows them to email their lecturers their work after completion (Pinker, 2010). In other words, technology has made learning easier through bringing the online communication channels. Also, suppose learners are expected to make a presentation on an assigned task, they work on PowerPoint for easier presentation. Therefore, one can conclude that technology has made learning not only easier but also interesting. Henceforth, people will seek education to keep up with the pace of technology that keeps on developing at a faster rate. Moreover, students no longer need to attend classes in person because they can learn from home through planning lessons with their lecturers for online sessions. Hence, regardless of one being a stay home mother, one can further her education from home. Human mind should be aware of all destructions in its surrounding (Pinker, 2010). Also, human memory can perform well when distracted by a change in a learning environment. This point implies that while one is glued to reading one page online, receiving mails that pop-up in the screen help in jogging the brain thus enhancing a person’s concentration capacity. Therefore, technology serves as a good learning approach because it entails everything a learner can need to focus on his or her study.
“A benefit of the Digital Play Framework is that it provides a summarized description of children learning to use technologies through play that teachers can use to observe and assess children’s learning”(Bird, Jo, & Edwards, 2014, P.1158). Some early childhood educators do not understand how children can learn through the digital technology of play. Therefore, they get a framework to help them understand the stages that a child undergoes while learning via digital technology. For instance, at the epistemic stage, a kid explores a technological device by trying to figure how it works and then the lucid phase where a child has now understood how a certain gadget works then he or she tries to use it in his or her way. In other words, technology improves learners’ creativity skills.
Arguments against Hypothesis: Technology has a Negative Impact on Education
As much as there is an assumption that technology helps in improving a child’s creative skills, there is no set time in the digital learning framework. The time set is not available to early childhood educators on the duration that they should give to a kid to ensure they have grabbed the intended concept (Bird, Jo, & Edwards, 2014, P.1158). In other words, this point argues that teachers argue that it is best to use traditional methods on children because there is a systematic way or plan of tracking a child’s level of understanding. Moreover, there is no designed method that a tutor can use to influence or support a learner’s understanding. No designed method exists because he or she cannot tell a stage that a particular student has reached until he or she sees that a child can use and manipulate a device to perform the expected tasks on his or her own. Furthermore, this method of teaching prevents adult support. Such approach is a demerit to slow learners because it will take them more time to get to the lucid stage.
It is evident that in the short term students who take the traditional methods of appraisal perform better than those who rely on online evaluation (Dweck, 2015). Students who study online are deemed to face a lot of distraction in their learning environment because they may be tempted to open other unnecessary sites in the course of their study. Not only can they create their source of learning distraction but while there are incoming emails and messages from social sites such as Facebook, they are also tempted or divert their concentration completely. Eventually, they end up performing poorly in their academics. On the other hand, learners who use conventional learning systems of pen and paper tend to concentrate more because they are less distracted.
“Some research indicates that technological play makes it difficult for children to separate meaning from the object. This is an important idea in early childhood education because the capacity to separate meaning from object is associated with the emergence of symbolism which is necessary for developing literacy skills” (Bird, Jo, & Edwards, 2014, p.1150). While some tutors rely on technology play to influence learning in a child, they forget to separate the meaning and the object itself to the kid. Hence, the learner grows knowing that a certain device is simply a playing object (Bird, Jo, & Edwards, 2014, p.1150). The particular student will grow up not knowing the meaning of the object until he or she becomes an adult or gets to a stage of differentiating right from wrong. By then one can figure out a purpose of a tool other than seeing it as a play object.
Results & Implications
The research paper clearly shows that the positive technology impacts outweigh the negative side. Engaging learners in technology system of learning will not only boost their academic performance but also their social behavior and skills. Human minds need a little distraction in the course of acquiring knowledge to jog their brains thus enhancing their concentration. Children learn well through observing and imitating adults. Hence, they need a lot of exposure to educational shows that can be in the form of animation or a movie. They tend to grasp faster the aired message through encoding the depicted traits and reciting them while interacting with friends. Technology has made learning interesting and easy through minimizing the number of paperwork as well as the printing cost thus attracting more learners. Furthermore, advanced technology has given a chance to stay home moms to further their studies online without attending physical classroom and examination centers.
On the other hand, some authors argue that students who learn through the conventional method; use of pen and paper perform better than the online learners. The reason being they are less distracted by other activities in their learning environment. Moreover, there is a gap in the use of technology play to foster knowledge in a child because there is no stipulated time for grasping the desired concept. Additionally, adult intervention or support is hindered in this technology play approach. Furthermore, a child grows not knowing the difference between the object and its purpose.
In conclusion, technology has a positive impact on the different learning methods for children around the world. It improves children creativity as well as the understanding ability. Moreover, it fosters a sense of independence , especially when a child is left to figure out how a device works. Despite having cons, technology learning method is the advanced learning system that allows people to study without physically attending classes. Hence, it is the best approach to learning.
References
Bavelier, D., Green, C. S., & Dye, M. W. (2010, September 09). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170902/
Bird, J., & Edwards, S. (2014). Children learning to use technologies through play: A Digital Play Framework. British Journal of Educational Technology , 46 (6), 1149-1160. doi:10.1111/bjet.12191
Blackley, S., & Walker, R. (2017). Pre-service teachers' reflections: The influence of school 1: 1 laptop programs on their developing teaching practice. Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online) , 42 (2), 1.
Carr, N. (2010, June 5). Does the Internet Make you Dumber? Wall Street Journal.
Dweck, C. (2015, September 22). Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/09/23/carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset.html
McLeod, S. (2016). Albert Bandura | Social Learning Theory | Simply Psychology. Retrieved from https://simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
Pinker, S. (2010, June 10). Mind Over Mass Media. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html
