Written by : Mochamad Novritsa Zulfikar
The advancement of technology nowadays surely really influence educational sector. Various things in life that relate with education, like interaction model, literacy model, ability of understanding, and psychological aspect are the things that change since the development of technology. Thus, the change of view or educational method should be done either. Kai-Fu-Lee, on his Tedx seminar about “How AI Can Save Our Humanity”, said that Artificial Intelligence only disrupts on jobs that don’t need creativity and compassion. Both things will make us as the real “human”. Therefore, it is considerable if educational way should be also focused on both. That does not mean we only clear all the courses that already available, but also change the method of lessons and system that can increase their literacy ability.
The main point is, on taking the advantage of the technology advancement, we need a revolution in education that is not to meet the needs of the industry side, but to provide valuable experience to students, educators, or even parents, which is useful in dealing with after-school or real life. The availability of the internet can be both making a good thing or a bad thing for students. We Are Social and Hootsuites, on their report (Digital 2019 Global Overview) on how the internet users around the world (one of them is Indonesia) are growing, reported that the average of people in Indonesia spend their time on internet is 8 hours and 36 minutes a day. Moreover, for only social media activities, they spend for 3 hours 26 minutes a day, with 48% of them is around 13 – 24 years old. Since they already use internet for most of their life activities, we, as an older people than them, should make some actions to control. However, providing regulations or restrictions on children in using the internet is not a wise and effective solution. More fundamentally, giving them an understanding of how to use a good internet is the key. Or, it can be said, invites them to become independent learners based on the internet, in order to improve their literacy skills in seeing every things. That is often referred to as digital literacy.
Utilizing children’s curiosity can turn them into independent learners. Children are natural learners. But, how we can trigger children’s curiosity?
Increasing digital literacy is indeed not an easy thing, especially for children who still often use the internet only as a means of entertainment, not as a means of satisfying their curiosity. In fact, according to Sir Ken Robinson, also on his Tedx seminar about “How to Escape Education’s Death Valley”, He said that the teacher, in the context of education, is a determinant of success in the learning process. Teaching, is a creative profession, not only as a process of passing on information. So, in addition to only digitizing each learning method, students also need to be given an understanding of how to use the internet wisely and optimally. Maybe they, who still think of the internet as merely entertainment, just don’t understand if there is more that they can explore. Therefore, it should be our duty as an educated people to tell and teach them how.
References :
- How AI can Save Our Humanity | Kai-Fu-Lee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajGgd9Ld-Wc&t=63s
- We Are Social and Hootsuites “Digital 2019 Global Overview Reports”
- How to Escape Education’s Death Valley | Sir Ken Robinson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc
