Innovating or Stagnating?
As the global debate rages about the dangers and implications of an over-reliance on technology in everyday life, many students here at IE university have felt that the management are turning a blind eye to this debate for the sake of “driving innovation”. Thus, I can’t help but ask, is our reliance on technology leading us to our desired notion or rather creating barriers to do so instead?
It is well known by now that IE university has had its fair share of difficulties with technology in and out of the classroom. Some of the recent events have sparkled more debate especially with the first year BBA LLB and BBA BIR classes as one of their mathematics examination was deemed void after Moebus had an issue with recording them. Other issues such as not being able access your required readings, being unable to hand in your work or the occasional crashes of moebus have become common within our learning environment.
However, the above mentioned issues are on
ly mere errors of a complicated system, the real issue lies with what is being done with the technological liberty that students have been granted. It is now a common sight to see the majority of students plonk their laptop right in front of them as soon as they sit down in class, even if they are unsure whether they will be using the laptop at all in that session. Has this, however, aided in our learning curve or become an obstacle to it?
The technology we use is supposed to expand the classroom beyond physical walls and allow students to have better access to learning materials and sharpen their intellect to create a better learning environment. However, the internet is a magnificent place with millions of websites ready to entertain us whenever we feel like it. And more often than not, it has been a general trend where people hide behind their screens under the facade of “taking notes” when in reality, they might just be frantically replying to their emails, be on facebook or playing the beautiful game of online 8 ball pool.
Here at Segovia, we take pride in having a tightly knit class environment as well as a good relationship with our professors and if we all hide behind our screens that might not be the case in the years to come. I am aware that it is entirely my responsibility to stay focused but that can be made almost impossible with a quick google search. I also don’t think that the we can blame the teachers for not managing what we spend our time on in class, but that would be reducing teachers to simple enforcers, hurt the student-teacher relationships we are so proud of and ultimately limit the learning environment.
I am a firm believer in the integration of technology in the work space, but I do believe that it can be detrimental as well. I believe that we must regulate the use of technology in the work space. How it can be regulated or to what extent must it be regulated is too subjective of an answer for me to give. But rather this article calls upon the Management to focus on the problem at hand, as this over reliance is, I believe, creating a barrier to our end goal of driving innovation.
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