Children — Battling a Pandemic, Online Education & Technological Determinism
The Pandemic has pushed most of us out of our routines and challenged us to adapt with the changing times. Not to our surprise, technology has served as the first friend, but to many a rather hostile force. For children specifically, the challenges are widespread — lack of interaction, inability to assess another’s body language, no in-person play time, learning time or even sharing ideas. The Toronto School of Communication, guided by the works of McLuhan, Innis and more, notioned technology as a sole determiner, and a guiding spirit for social change. Theoretically emphasising that better technology necessarily results in more efficient social, cultural and economic outcomes in society. While the critics of this theory are numerous, debating over its impracticality, it is to bear in mind that the problem is fairly broadened with education through technology.
Education as we know is often misinterpreted and confused with the idea of literacy and the existence of holistic education in its true sense is rising and falling. Technology has been a surviving force for education in the pandemic, but perhaps that education in its true sense only embodies literacy. While in countries like India, a divide exists between education for girls versus boys, the technique of education for girls versus boys and even, a distinct division between private and public school education. In developing and underdeveloped nations, the trend of girls leaving school once they start to menstruate and children in general quitting school because of problems of distance and striking a balance between chores at home and time spent at school is rather difficult. Problems like these, theoretically come to a close with online education but in practice the problem just gets worse.
Teaching in most of these countries wasn’t initially driven with technology. On the contrary, on a lucky note, students would witness an occasional ‘smart class’. To understand the problem further, in India, a country with a significant chunk of its population being categorized as ‘youth’, only ~35% of the gigantic overall population have access to the internet. This in most cases limits the use of one device shared between multiple people for multiple tasks. Often these tasks collide. A household for example, can have three children, who most possibly have similar or differing school or college hours but are able to use and access classes from one device, that too, a smartphone. The user experience on a smart phone perhaps, was never intentionally intended or advertised profusely for the purpose of education or work, but rather leisure time activities like photography or gaming. Parents earlier, treated the access to their smartphones to their kids as more a ‘treat’. This has been replaced with no assurity of privacy now on their end, let alone the problems of lower income or unemployment.
To understand the problem even deeply, on my personal account of teaching for an organisation that works to improve the life and quality of education for the underprivileged, I’d like to share a glimpse of what it is like. To maintain privacy of the minor, her details have been changed.
Meera Desai, a 4th grader, hailing from a sub-urban locality of a metro city, was faced with an issue constantly. Her device ran out. She, her two other siblings and a minimum wage earning father share just a single device. Prior to the pandemic, a smartphone was not necessary for this family. The children now being forced to study from home, bound by the ties of their respective schools and a mobile data plan, are only able to access a worksheet a day. For Meera’s father, applications like Google Meet, Gmail, Google Classroom or even Zoom for instance are unknown, forcing on difficulty in the learning curves for his children. Earlier, the children would go to school for reasons more than studying — Meera loved to dance, and an NGO helped conduct dance lessons in school, the other two children would be driven by school lunches as a hope to at least fetch a day’s meal. They too would be delighted with the thought of meeting their pals, interactions and even team sports. The first few months were appalling on grounds of education for the three, and now, the use of a single device for all three has indeed come with its costs. Meera’s parents explained their concerns with costs of repairs. The repair fee costs about INR 2500, a rather low sum for many, but 20% of the Desai family monthly income. Hence, Meera and her siblings are now at home, as helpers to their parents.
To put ‘Technological Determinism’ in practicality, the rapid developments in technology are so many, that the endurance and adaptation is difficult. Mostly children are ones trapped, to learn, unlearn or learn more. The causative link drawn between technology and society is uneven, and in some instances extreme. It is to remember that technology is not just the internet but a society of its own, bound by the realms of rapid technological advances. Surveys have pointed out the massive gap between rural and urban not just expenditure on education but significantly even access and differing speeds of the internet. Not to forget that learning things online has been a boon to many. Learning a new language, watching a new show, learning a new skill or even getting better at an old skill, is all thanks to technology and the internet. But how far these are true, in its truest sense for ‘all’ is questionable. The newer inequality of existence is perhaps bound by a new factor — discrimination and difference of access to technology. Technology is a gift for those who know that it is a present, and a haunting surprise to those who are caught off guard with no solution to escape. Children are quicker learners but their learning is not supposed to be staring at a screen for hours on end, nor is it to stare at a blackboard all day often wondering about sneaking into the playground. Play for children again isn’t candy crush or subway surfers, but interactive play constituted both with physical and mental efforts. Nevertheless, the impact of the pandemic, on families and eventually children are deep set — educationally, emotionally, psychologically and physically. Technology may be a solving mechanism, it is to not forget that it can be the causing factor too.
References -
- Deol T. (2020, July 21). ‘Huge Rural-Urban Gap in Education Expenditure and Internet Access, reveals NSO Survey’. Retrieved from
2. Communication Theory. ‘Technological Determinism’. Retrieved from
https://www.communicationtheory.org/technological-determinism/
3. Li C., Lalani F. (2020, April 29) ‘The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how’. Retrieved from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/
