Lesson 2: TECHNOLOGY: BOON or BANE

“ Technology is in our hands. We can use it to build or destroy”.

Focus Question: Is technology a boon or a bane?

Introduction:

After understanding what educational technology is all about, it may be good to reflect on
whether this thing called technology is a boon or a bane to education, a blessing or a curse to education.

Activity:

Read the paragraphs given below and analyze the message then answer the question: Is
technology a boon or a bane? Stated more simply is it a blessing or a curse? A blessing or a detriment
to a person’s development?

Barely a month ago, I gave a tele-address from Malacanang to the site of the 4 th National
Convention of Philippine Government Organizations for Information Technology (GO-IT). The convention
was held in Tacloban, Leyte, an island in southern Philippines several hundred kilometers from Manila.
My rather heavy work schedule prevented me from being present at the convention, but as a firm
believer and a true disciple of true technology as a management tool. I made that tele-address. I spoke
with participants over the airwaves and truly felt that the quality of my interaction with them was no
less meaningful and rewarding than if it had occurred in “real time” and “real place”. I have saved
valuable time, and as a result, I was able to do more for the day. Just as importantly, my audience and I
accomplished something valuable together.

…Technology can be fascinating and mind-boggling in what it can do. It can bring distant places
and people together, establishing invisible but powerful connections. It can transform societies,
economies and cultures by opening them up to other ideas and other options, raising new expectations
and creating new needs. It can release and rechannel previously unknown or wasted energies into more
productive endeavors, allowing its users to pursue more creative goals.

But the fact remains that unless technology and all other agents and factors of modernization
are invested with human values and used for the social good, then they will be a little more than
expensive toys for the amusement of a few.

..For one thing, the pervasiveness of technology has created learning environment we never
even imagined just a few decades ago. Learning has no more geographic boundaries. It is no longer
confined to the school campus.

The learner now acquires knowledge anywhere, anytime, in the home, in work places, in
recreation areas, in the streets, the learner has become his or her own investigation seeking knowledge.
And the leader? He or she is no longer the sole provider of instruction.
 Together with many, many other stakeholders in education, the teacher must now provide
learner-centered choices in knowledge acquisition. These choices include the choice of place and time
where to access and receive instruction, the choice of learning styles, and the choice of channels and
delivery systems through which learners gain knowledge.

The learner today, theoretically at least, has countless choices; and the teacher must be there to
help learner choose wisely…

(Excerpt from the speech delivered by His Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos on the 6 th SEAMEO
INNOTECH International Conference in Manila, Philippines on November 11-13, 1997)

Below are reactions to the question “Do instant messaging, e-mail, cell phones and other gadgetry bring
family members closer or drive them apart?

“ Using a lot of high-tech gear to communicate at home is a poor proxy for face-to-face communication
and sees omnipresent technological ties as threatening to intimacy.”

“…Typing to each other instead of talking to each other can only lead to problems down the road, such
as teens using e-mail to deceive parents about their activities.”

“ My wife and I talk more throughout the day because of instant messaging. My communication with
far-flung relatives is very much enriched by it.”

“ I thought our marital relationship would suffer when I left my for a consultancy job abroad for eighteen
months. E-mail missives made us more aware, more accepting, and more communicative.”

“How can computerized communication, in place of face-to- face family communication and hugs,
deepen dialogue?”

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/20)

Analysis: Based on the readings you just did answer the following questions:

1. What blessings did technology bring?

2. What problems did technology likewise bring?

3. Is technology good or bad?

Abstraction

Technology is a blessing for man. With technology, there is a lot that we can do which we could
not do then. With cellphones, webcam, you will be closer to someone miles and miles away. So far yet
so close! That is your feeling when you talk through a cell phone to a beloved who is far away from
home. Just think of the many human lives saved because of speedy notifications via cellphones. Just
think of how your teaching and learning have become more novel, stimulating, exciting, fresh and
engaging with the use of multimedia in the classroom. With your tv, you can watch events as they
happen all over the globe. President Ramos had a lively interaction with his audience in Tacloban in his
tele-address without disrupting his work schedule in Manila. I know of one Ph.D student who defended
his dissertation with one member of the panel in Japan interrogating the Ph.D candidate through
teleconferencing.

However, when not used properly, technology becomes a detriment to learning and
development. It can destroy relationships. Think of the husband who is glued to tv unmindful of his wife
seeking attention. This may eventually erode marital relationship. Think of the student who surfs the
Internet for pornographic scenes. He will have trouble with his development. The abuse and misuse of
the Internet will have far reaching unfavorable effects on his moral life. The teacher who schedules class
tv viewing for the whole hour to free herself from a one-hour teaching and so can engage in “tsismis”,
likewise will not benefit from technology. Neither will her class truly benefit from the whole period of tv
viewing.

In education, technology is bane when:

 The learner is made to accept as Gospel truth information they get from the Internet
 The learner surfs the Internet for pornography
 The learner has an uncritical mind on images floating on televisions and computers that
represent modernity and progress
 The tv makes the learner a mere spectator not an active participant in the drama of life
 The learner gets glued to his computer-assisted instruction unmindful of the world and so fails
to develop the ability to relate to others
 We make use of the internet to do character assassination of people whom we hardly like
 Because of our cellphones, we spend most of our time in the classroom or in our workplace
texting
 We overuse and abuse tv or film viewing as a strategy to kill time

Let’s go back to the question asked at the beginning of this lesson. Is technology boon or bane to
education? It depends on how we use technology. If we use it to help our students and teachers become
caring, relating, thinking, reflecting and analyzing and feeling beings, then boon, a blessing. But if we
abuse and misuse it and so contribute to our ruin and downfall and those of other persons, it becomes a
bane or a curse.

Application

A. Come up with your own listing on how technology can be a blessing or a curse to mankind. Feel free
to give examples drawn from life, not only from inside the classroom. Use the table provided for you

Technology as Boon Technology as Bane

B. Explain the following quotations:

1. “Technology or perish.”-John Pierce

2. “All our technological progress, our very civilization, is like the axe in the hand of the pathological
criminal.”-Albert Eintein

3. If there is a technological advance without social advance, there is, almost automatically, an increase
in human misery.”-Michael Harrington

C. Can technology take the place of the teacher in the classroom? Discuss your answer.

Summing Up

Technology contributes much to the improvement of the teching-learning process and to the
humanization of life. It is indeed a blessing. But when not use properly, it becomes a detriment to
instruction and human progress and development.

Technology is made for man and not man for technology. Technology is made foe the teacher
and not the teacher for technology. This means that technology is meant to serve man in all aspects of
life including instruction. It is man, and in the context of the classroom, the teacher, who determines
how technology ought to be used in order to reap the maximum benefits that come along with
technology.

The integration of technology in the instructional process must be geared towards:

 Interactive and meaningful learning

 The development of creative and critical thinking
 The development and nurtuting teamwork
 Efficient and effective teaching

Making the Connection

Recall computer applications that you learned from your basic computer courses. How are you
applying them now in your studies? Do an act of service. Find out how your computer applications can
help a teacher who is not yet computer literate. She may be your mother or sister or a friend.

Postscript-Thank God for the gift of new technology

I recall at this point how I came up with final manuscript of both my Master’s thesis and doctoral
dissertation. Computers were a rarity then so I had to type the final copy of my thesis and dissertation.
In my haste, many times I would not notice I would be typing beyond the margin or would commit
typographical errors. To remedy, I had to repeat typing the page again. There was no other recourse.
 Now with the computer, I may commit as many typographical errors as I can and I have not to
re-do the whole thing again. How convenient1 What a liberation!