“An iPad a day keeps the knowledge away”. It is a thought which demands debate. This is primarily because, today technology is changing our lives in more ways than we can imagine. Most would argue that the offerings of the information age are going to take mankind leaps ahead in the future. But in our vision of the expanding breadth, are we mistakenly foregoing our search for depth? Handing out smart devices to secondary school students has become a trend among urban educational institutions, while evaluation is reduced to a broader grade classification on the behest of “competition-free learning”. Technology has transformed the learning landscape by erasing boundaries of communication and helping ‘Eklavya’ live stream ‘Dronacharya’ in action. But has ‘information’ actually empowered us?
Humility. A budding learner today has access to the smartest of devices and the 3Gs of the world and is more competent in effectively using them. What the learner fails to realize is that, technology only makes us informed and not knowledgeable. Sometimes, I bump into my school teacher, and she always greets me with a beaming smile. Naturally, I bend down halfway to touch her feet and she stops me and says, “I am not used to this, nowadays, so don’t spoil me.”
Intellect. The words ‘subject knowledge’ have wrung in my ears during most of my educational life. The onus lies on my teachers who have tried their best to drill this concept into my head to last a lifetime. With more and more information available to the educational community in the form of books – pocket editions, abridged versions, magazine versions, ebooks, portals, forums, blogs, etc. – there is an increasing dependency on spoon-fed solutions, explanations, and opinions resulting in filtered learning. The raw intellectual capital of the student community at large is being diluted by click-to-know answers, readymade learning packages, and numerous coaches. The grey cells have taken a back seat and young minds are ruefully possessed by the ability to devour data.
Effort. Fast, easy and free – access to information in today’s age. The absolute value of effort, if I may attempt to quantify it, has reduced with the changing technological environment. Why is secondary research more favorable than primary among present day B-school students? Why does the average youth feel that status updates and unsolicited shares on social media platforms will revolutionize our society? The benefits of the virtual space have blinded us from the realities of the environment around us.
Leadership and innovation are the greatest challenges being faced by our society, and I believe that our process of learning needs to be revisited in order to revive what is being lost and recreate a better future. We all know Jack Welch as a pioneering leader and Steve Jobs as a visionary innovator, both being born before the information age unknowingly plagued us. Deeds f they have done in this world with much lesser information than us. What can we do now? Imagine.