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All at once, we embraced technology and placed it on a pedestal. Now, we are paying the price, as children grow up distracted, defiant, difficult, and even dangerous. Technology dominates schools today. Nothing else seems as significant. Its reach is vast, and its impact, all-consuming.
Are we so enamoured with tech-driven education that we are blind to its downsides? Is it not time to take an objective view and assess the pros and cons of technology’s overpowering presence in schools?
Every school worth its salt wants to stay ahead in technology. They proclaim their high-tech hardware rather than their human software—relying more on machines than on people. The entire school system has been turned upside down.
Schools advertise their cutting-edge technology, digital learning labs, and robotics. But hidden beneath this glamour is a colossal mistake: we are abandoning the analogue mode of learning in favour of digital, without fully understanding the risks.
Are we, in Matthew Arnold’s words, in a desperate situation —”Wandering between two worlds/ One dead and the other powerless to be born”?
Screen addiction is a growing concern, especially among children. Families struggle to wean their children off smartphones, tabs, and other devices—the vestige of the pandemic. Yet, while parents fight this battle at home, schools openly advocate screen use in their classrooms.
Teachers, too, are forced to adapt, using technology to capture the attention of students already immersed in the digital world. Many teachers find this transition painful, but they have no choice.
The harm caused by excessive screen time cannot be ignored. It diminishes children’s ability to focus on auditory learning, as they grow accustomed to visual stimuli. Studies show that one in three children in Britain is short-sighted. The blue light from screens is causing immense harm to children’s eyes, with one billion children worldwide becoming myopic. Experts recommend a maximum of two hours of screen time per day, but many spend seven hours or more. This overexposure also leads to sleep deprivation, another serious consequence of screen addiction.
The paradox of our time is that children are distracted in classrooms while they are silent on the playground. How do we explain this?
Studies in the UK show a disturbing rise in mental illness among the young. Suicide rates have gone up 167% among girls and 91% among boys. Cases of self-harm have surged by 500%. The number of children hospitalised for eating disorders has risen sixfold in a decade. This should serve as an alarm bell for the rest of the world.
Children suffer serious damage to their development milestones when addicted. Their thinking power is impaired rather than enhanced.
Reading and writing are being replaced by passive screen consumption. Is this not dangerous? No one would argue that reading and writing on paper is less effective than cutting and pasting information from an online source.
In many modern schools, assignments must be submitted online. It is predicted that by 2030, all testing will be online. How, then, can students be weaned off screens?
While businesses promote technology as ‘futuristic’, the reality is different. Tech giants like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs understood this, which is why they did not give their children smartphones.
Educational software sales generate billions of dollars annually. No wonder companies push schools towards high-tech solutions. However, some developed countries have begun reversing course. Sweden has removed technology from classrooms, reinstating blackboards, books, pens and paper. Australia is following suit. More countries will likely do the same. India must also take a stand on this critical issue.
Technology must not be our master. It should serve us, not control us. This is where we erred—we embraced technology uncritically.
Children on public transport spend their time glued to the screen instead of watching the panoramic nature around them, people moving on the streets, cows grazing on the meadows, and the meandering rivers, azure hills and skies. The whole world is shut out. How could they develop their imagination and thinking skills if they do not come face to face with the world as it really is?
We must acknowledge that “the most powerful tool in the classroom is an excellent teacher”. Not machines, but dedicated educators--men and women of calibre and commitment – make good schools. Four walls do not make a classroom, nor do state-of-the-art labs ensure good education. But passionate teachers do.
(The writer is Director, Little Rock, Brahmavar, Udupi)