4:15PM, MON 1 MAY 2017
Boy: Why am I so fat even though I run so much?
Girl: Where do you run?
Boy: Temple run
Those babies born with phones in their hands and wires in their minds. Whose toys work at the touch of a screen. They can fight, run, play, cook, dress up, all on the virtual world. They have two lives, the virtual one truer to them than the real. We’re talking Gen Z, the iGeneration.
The current generation of students was born into a highly technological world. They inhabit, navigate and communicate within a society which is both technologically-rich and information rich.
“What is so interesting on your phone?”, “Go outside and play.”, “Read some books”, they said.
The iGeneration born with technology cannot and should not be separated from its birth right. It is high time to understand that internet and technology should be used to their advantage rather than thinking of it as a distraction. The internet provides data at the click of a mouse, reducing the cumbersome and unproductive job of collection of data.
It is important to make learning more important than the gadget. Only then can you expect a generation surrounded by information to focus on what you want them to.
“Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multitask. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. “
We have gone through the trial stage and now we are in the implementation process. It is the future of education to have all student connected to the Internet. It will be the goal of all governments to make this happen.
It can be seen that classes are becoming smart classes and books, e-books. There must be some reason to it. Mustn’t there?
Surrounded by information and technology can be overwhelming. According to IBM, “Data is being created at a rate of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day- so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.”
We must understand that taking away gadgets is no solution to the low attention span. The advantages outdo the disadvantage. The attention span of children has reduced from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds today. This can be seen as a challenge brought about by technology, but the solution too can be found in technology. All we need is the right mind, to move out from the problem, and see it from another distance. Thus moving from self->others->environment
The syllabus gets outdated, the internet updated. The question is, to live in the present or the past?
