The potential influence of technology on the education system has not gone unnoticed by the Ministries/Departments of Education in developing countries. They have realized that schools today are teaching students who were born in the internet era. Technology education is therefore one of the key subjects they have introduced in the national school curricula. The objective is to teach students how to use particular tools of technology, and to function interactively, and responsibly, in a technological environment.
One Laptop per Child Phenomenon
In developing countries, the Ministries/Departments of Education have implemented, or are considering the implementation of, one laptop per child in the classroom. Having observed the phenomenon in developed countries whereby many schools are requiring every student to have a laptop computer, they wish to extol the same in their national classrooms. But does the introduction of laptops in school aid the learning process or detract from it?
In the majority of cases, allowing laptops in schools would be the first step in becoming computer literate. Most teachers today request students to submit typewritten assignments for grading. To this end, the use of Microsoft Word is paramount, as it is the most commonly used word processor in schools.
However, the negative to having access to laptops would be availability of games and the internet. Almost every computer comes with pre-installed games. For example, Solitaire is the most commonly installed game, and allows students to "tune out" from their surroundings, in this case, the classroom.
Also, most laptops come with a built-in wireless card designed to automatically pick up any wireless signals in the area. This can provide easy internet access (if free) for students who prefer to surf the web, and who prefer accessing social sites to academic ones, or even engaging in illicit activities, such as downloading images related to cell-phone pornography.
Schools, however, can minimize these problems by uninstalling games and taking precautions to see that there is no reachable internet access in the classrooms, as it can be a distraction. Nonetheless, the internet can be a fast and efficient source of information and access can be allowed in school libraries.
Should students carry home the laptops? A recent Duke University study entitled “Scaling the Digital Divide” conducted between 2000-2005, is instructive. Researchers analyzed over 150,000 student responses to questions on how frequently they use a home computer. The research reported that students in grades five through eight, particularly those from disadvantaged families, posted lower scores once computers and high-speed Internet service arrived in their homes. Clearly, parents should ensure proper monitoring of the laptops for productive purposes.
Personalised Technologies and Online Social Networks
But this is not enough. Students must also learn how to function interactively in society. Several studies in environmental psychology have stressed that interactive transactions between individuals and their physical settings can affect and change their behaviour and experiences. Yet, as students begin to interact with and become heavy consumers of technology, many parents and educators are concerned about how these technologies are affecting the way students function in society, outside the school environment.
First, many technological applications in today’s society have become increasingly personalised. Personalised consumer electronic devices include cell phones, MP3/DVD players, and iPods. In particular, once-expensive cell phones are now affordable and are targeted to the youth as status symbols. Students tend to become unwittingly “selfish” as these devices allow them to selectively "tune in" to their personal infozone and "tune out" everything and everyone else they deem irrelevant by their standards.
Secondly, students are becoming slavishly addicted to socially interactive online networks, such as Facebook. Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, in his 1999 book Law and other Codes of Cyberspace indicated that the Internet’s architecture constrains and governs a person’s behaviour as well as the way it interacts with other persons in society. Through these online social networks, students renew and sustain their community ties, access selective information, and find a sense of belonging, meaningful support, and social identity.
Preparing Students for Technological Citizenship
In developing countries, education officials are still struggling to effectively deal with these behaviour patterns exhibited by students. One solution would be to take a page from the 1998 Crick Report, from the British Government’s Department for Education and Skills, and re-introduce "citizenship studies" in the school curricula. Citizenship studies would involve students in learning social and moral responsibility, community involvement, and political literacy. This would assist in preparing students to live in a technologically uncertain future.
Citizenship also expresses a social role, which includes issues of belonging, identity, and inclusiveness. Students, therefore, need to be prepared to make proactive decisions about the technology shaping their country’s future, and develop an awareness of new citizen rights and duties that arise from that technology. These include privacy, right of access to public information, and achieving technological literacy. The future societies of developing countries depend on how well students inculcate these ideals and practices of technological citizenship.
Bibliography
Lessig, Lawrence. Law and other Codes of Cyberspace, Version 2.0. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2006.
Rosenburg, Richard. The Social Impact of Computers, 3 ed. Maryland Heights, MO: Academic Press, 2004.
Roffey, Susan. School Behaviour and Families: Frameworks for Working Together. Oxon, UK:
David Fulton Publishers, 2002.
Richard Escalante - Richard lives in Trinidad and is employed with the University of the West Indies where he lectures courses in Cyber-Politics, Information ...
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