[LC BANDUNG] Technology in learning, friend, or foe?

Written by: Hansen Verian, Chelsie Fang, Ervan Thediana & Yella Dezas Perdani

Science is growing from time to time that it develops to support the creation of technologies and mark the progress of the times which the result is that technology has developed and entered the digital stages. Now, every country has started using technology to make work easier, including education. As an entity involved in human culture and civilization, education in various parts of the world experiencing a fundamental change in this era of globalization. There is a lot of scientific progress, knowledge and technology that can enjoy humankind. However, progress also goes hand in hand with the misery of many new children in the current era of globalization.

It can be said that technology is for good, make all work is easier and faster. Technology can use a tool for learning; it makes your learning progress more effective and can be done anywhere, anytime, doing your search for what you want and fulfilling your information needs. In the education field, many students rely on technology to help them with their studies. Some use their phone’s alarm feature to set reminders for when to study or do classwork. Others study by taking mock exams posted online or joining quiz games like Kahoot to help memorize the material they have previously studied. Even teachers have a much easier time using technology to interact with students by posting online tests and exams, offering pdf versions of worksheets, and posting schedules online for due dates, final exams, and consultation hours. Technology, with its many uses, helps students just as much as it could hinder. It depends on how the student utilizes their resources. For better or worse, the impact of technology and how students operate in school cannot be overlooked.

Furthermore, at the rate at which technology improves as time goes on, students will find newer ways to incorporate their studies into technology use. One day we will reach a point where students will form study sessions over Line or Zoom or keep folders dedicated to school and their notes on their desktops instead of folders and papers. Students will print out their notes to share with others who have missed class instead of rewriting them or photocopying them. Even teachers will use the advancements of technology to better their lectures and improve the accessibility of their knowledge to students who take their courses.

Because of the technology we use nowadays we can be more improved to the material in our study. It will be more accessible to our learning progress, such as we can copy-paste files on the internet, take exams with online methods, take a more simple and more manageable class with technology, and it is easier to upload or send files to others. Before there was technology harder; taking an exam with the paper was a waste of paper, and three, sending a message to someone is simpler now before it uses paper, and it will arrive the other day or arrive with the distance.

With technology, we can make it easier to access information anywhere to help us teach and learn. So, technology is the most important and valuable thing for everyone in the future. In fact, every school now has a level of technology that can support teaching and learning. Even now, teaching and learning are done online because it replaces offline learning, which is problematic. Even the technology already in this world has begun to develop rapidly; all activities or objects depend on technology.

However, technology is not always a friend. Several things must be considered in using technology for learning. When so many technologies emerge, few of us do not know how to use them correctly and adequately. Many people abuse technology and not for learning but for other things that may harm others. There are so many technologies that we can use today to learn, for example, smartphones. With smartphones, we can use the internet to search for various kinds of knowledge. Not only knowledge but other news we can search more accessible with the internet. Nevertheless, it creates many problems too, especially for people who misuse the internet to deceive people by spreading hoaxes and many more. So, we have to be smart in using technology, especially for learning.

Long story short, technology is both friend and foe; we are the ones who choose which role we will take. It can befriend to help us in our activities, or perhaps it will be our foe if we cannot use it wisely.