All About Interactions: Technology drives a wedge between students, teachers

Hyderabad: In today's modern world, the human interaction between students and teachers has drastically been replaced by man-machine interaction. The addiction to technology among children, be it for education or leisure time, has increased post Covid-19 period. Students are often seen browsing the internet or scrolling through YouTube for learning lessons or clear queries instead of having a man-to-man discussion with their teachers, classmates, or parents. The E-learning apps like Bolo English, Byjus, Duolingo learning app, Brainly, and many others have been replacing human interaction with man-machine interaction.

Due to the technology integration in school education from Class 3 to 8 has also been casting an impact on their imagination skills as they are completely being relied on technology. They have usually become short-minded rather than seeing things from a larger point of view.

According to experts, the use of technology for education has widened the interaction gap between teachers and parents. Students are often seen engrossed with Google rather than discussing the same in the physical classroom environment. Lack of debates and physical interaction has been a major drawback after the introduction of App-based learning.

In classrooms, students have also been made to interact with their classmates and discuss various topics. Whereas, through E-learning, no interaction takes place. Students just post their doubts in their query section and lack physical interaction.

Post Covid19, education witnessed a major shift, as students mostly prefer to study through online platforms rather than attending classes. The creation of WhatsApp groups during Covid19 for online classes has now turned into a platform for having various other conversations apart from studies among children. Parents say that they often see their children learning through YouTube and clarifying their doubts with the help of Google rather than personally approaching their teachers and clearing their queries. Also, there are many cases where students are seen talking to each other on WhatsApp while their online classes are going on. They either pester the teachers by playing with the audio or video or do not respond to them when being called.

Asif Hussain Sohail, president of the Telangana Parents Association for Child Rights & Safety, said, "There are pros and cons to the introduction of E-learning apps. According to the modern world, it is important for everyone to move according to changing times. Be it education, business or jobs, technology has been playing a major role in all fields. Hence, students usually prefer to use technology to learn their lessons. But are these apps really helping them in their education?

However, technology is also replacing the classroom environment among students. Debates, and discussions are mostly missing among students as they are addicted to technology learning or E-learning. But Physical learning is more valuable than E-learning, he added.

According to a few psychologists, there are almost seven to eight cases of eye strain, and eyesight reported every day due to the continuous use of gadgets. The use of technology for nearly 8 to 9 hours a day has also destroyed the imagination of children as they are only dependent on the things which are served ready to them through E-learning apps, Google or YouTube. Hence, the use of technology should be limited, when it comes to education. Only if this happens, students will be interested in interacting with their parents and teachers.