The digital Generation

987 Words2 Pages

‘Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach’. The multifarious inductions of technology in everyday life have radically altered the thought process of children. Right from the start, the students are engrossed in technology and smart gadgetry one way or the other. It has been reported that on an average, the college grad student has spent less than 5,000 hours of his life reading as compared to 10,000 hours of playing video games and over 20,000 hours of watching television. (Prensky, 2001) This sort of living makes the learning process very fast track and such students are not comfortable with the conventional and old system of acquiring knowledge. Born into the digital world and having lived all the time in a technology-laden environment, the new generation is reliant upon their gadgets perhaps in a manner comparable to the needs of food and water. Considering this abrupt change of behavior and personality, it is of utmost importance that the teaching cadre and policy makers realize the situation deeply and appropriate steps are taken to alter the learning process accordingly as well. The influence of technology has broadened the horizons for students to a great extent. The learning process is today not at all confined to only the classroom limits and is neither bound by the constraints of time. Where this is encouraging in the sense that it allows more and more people to become part of the learning process owing to the flexibility associated with it; it is also imperative that courses and syllabi be designed in a manner befitting this new definition of time and space. Methods of our predecessors are no more successful when it comes to teaching th... ... middle of paper ... ... since it will be easier for them to pick things up this way. The coming era is mostly the time of web based learning, since it is flexible as well as cost effective. However, it is necessary that it is implemented in a controlled manner to keep things smooth and beneficial. Currently there are several issues with web based classroom environment concerned with the lack of interaction between students and teachers. With the passage of time, the phenomenon is improving and the system is becoming more interactive. Teachers need to update themselves on these lines. A teacher is required to be good in his or her own field of specialty as well as with technology to an extent that can make interaction between students and teachers worthwhile. This is very much vital to retain the motivation, interest, questioning and interaction with the students. (Albert & Thomas, 2000)

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