Module 2: Technology: Boon or Bane?

Prerequisite Skills:
Instructor:
Level:
Allotted Time:

Aurelio F. Polonio
Second Year College

Overview
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.
Objectives

1. Reflect on whether technology is a boon or bane to education; or a blessing or a curse to

education.
2. Analyze the messages of comic strips/photographs and discuss the relationship s or technology to
learning and life
3. List examples on how technology can be a blessing or a curse to mankind
Pretest
Read the paragraphs given below and analyze the message of the comic strips/photograph given below, and
then come together in small groups to discuss your answers to die 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?
A.
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 had 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 re- channel 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, any- time_ in the home, in workplaces, in recreation
areas, in the streets, the learner has become his or her own investigation seeking knowledge. And the teacher?
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 the
learner choose wisely....
(Excerpt from the speed) delivered by His Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos on the 6* SEAMEO
1NNOTECH International Conference in Manila, Philippines on November 11-13, 1997.)
B. Study these comic strips. Find out what it depicts about the consequence of the use of
technology on relationships, learning and life.

Analysis:
Based on the readings you just did and the analysis of the comic strips, discuss in your small groups your answer to
this questions:

1. What blessings did technology bring?

2. What problems did technology likewise bring?
3. Is technology good or bad?
Learning Focus
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 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, etc, etc!
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 his attention. This may
eventually erode marital relationship Think of the student who surfs the Internet for pornographic cenes. 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 for computer-assisted instruction unmindful of the world and so fails to ability to relate
to others
we make use of the Internet to do character assassination of people whom we hardly like
because of our cell phone, we spend most of our time in the classroom or in our workplace texting
we use 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 it is a 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.
Technology contributes much to the improvement of the teaching-learning process and to the humanization of
life. It is indeed a blessing. But when not used 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 for 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 nurturing of teamwork

efficient and effective teaching

Learning Activities
Activity 1: Make your own reaction on the following. Are in favor or not? Why?

 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. B.L.
"...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." G.W.
'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." R.K.
"I thought our marital relationship would suffer when 1 left my wife for a
consultancy job abroad for eighteen months. E-mail missives made us more
aware, more accepting, and more communicative. " M.C.P.
"How can computerized communication, in place of face-to-face family
communication and' hugs, deepen dialogue? " T.H.
(Source: http://www.sfgate.com./cgi-bin/article/cgi?file^/chronicle/archive/20')

Activity 2: 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 Sane

1.

1.

2.

2..

Activity 3 : Each group must get a quotation and together must explain its meaning.

"Technology or perish."- John R. Pierce

"All our technological progress, our very civilization, is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal."
- Albert Einstein

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

Activity 4: 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 friend

Posttest
Discussion:

1. Can technology take the place of the teacher in the classroom? Discuss in your small
group.
2. You are a school head. For technology to serve its ultimate purpose of improved learning,
you involve your faculty in the formulation of guidelines on the use of technology in the
classroom. Simulate a faculty meeting and come up with written guidelines then pass to
your professor.