Education is a profession that aims to promote the success of family, individual, community and organizational growth. In order therefore to ensure that it is successful attained, the normal and newly invented educational practices must adhere to the codes of ethics which provides the basis of shared values for its practice. The current global economic crisis around the world has initiated different reactions from the intellects, economists and leaders. Education has been considered as the most important critical factor to economic competitiveness and in order to achieve the specified objectives, the strategy used to choose the right technology, programs and tools to be used might greatly impact its outcome(“‘The Effects of Technology in Society and Education’ by Brian Sutton,” n.d.). The essay shall therefore argue the merits and disadvantages of using technological tools such Facebook, e-distance learning and YouTube EdTech videos on human educational growth.
Technology has changed the norms both in education systems and how other day life activities are carried out. Kousha, Thelwall, & Abdoli, (2012) discusses the art transformation impacted by the development of mechanical reproduction of information from one state to another, even though it rips off the original work uniqueness and beauty, it makes it available and accessible to many people. Educational YouTube materials have made it easier and simpler for student to access information as they are freely obtainable and cover wide variety of information.
Educational information dissemination is beneficial and of importance to learners as they get to share ideas. Different methods have evolved from the horseback riders, posting printed copies and now using internet, this has revolutionized the education sector and as a result, positively impacting on the society. People use such disseminated informative information to develop their business, for space exploration and in health sectors to improve on their life standards (Sutton, 2013). In my opinion therefore, the mode through which it is disseminated by such as YouTube Videos, doesn’t matter as long as the information is passed in an understandable manner.
Interactive educative learning sites such as khan academy and codecademy that teaches programming languages are more informative and have made learning easier. In comparison to the manual way of writing codes and then using compliers to run the programs, codecademy incorporates them together; moreover it highlights errors and giving hints (Constine, n.d.). Technology has hence positively improves the ways of learning. Moreover, people no longer have to attend classes as e-learning enables one to at the comfort of their home. Hunter, (n.d.) describes the benefits one gain from distance learning even though the method is encompassed with mishaps.
Technology has enable distance learning though the normal way of attending classes according to Ahlquist, ( n.d.), has been proven to be best way to pass information as the students can easily interact with their lecture. In a situation where a student hasn’t understood a concept from either a lecture or fellow student, YouTube EdTech videos, khan academy and codecademy tutorials have been consistently used by students for further clarification, providing tips and effective practice guidance. By commenting and sharing ideas on what someone has posted, this widens the student’s view of thinking and as a result hence, he or she understands the concept. “The users of technology shapes its purpose an as a result, changes the user’s culture”(Kousha et al., 2012)
The normal way of teaching and reading might at times be boring and tiresome, students therefore resolve to either dozing or making noise in classrooms. On integration of digital images, videos and sounds, lectures can create a playlist structure from EdTech resources for a specific topic on scientific and humanity subjects (Tian, Yu, Vogel, & Kwok, 2011). This would keep students awake and actively participate in class, moreover, increasing their understanding of the concepts.
Even though technological development have revolutionized the world and made work much simpler, it has its demerits to people. Students rarely do their own work as they deeply rely much to web enable applications and search engines (Ahlquist, n.d.). As result therefore, the universities produce graduates who are incompetent and can hardly meet the world’s business market expectation.
Technological developments have made enormous progressive growth to people lives; facebook and YouTube EdTech videos are purposed to be educative but students misuse such information and instead blame technology (Kousha et al., 2012). Computer crime is unlawful and therefore such information should be used as protective gear to your enemies. The sites are informative and teachers should guide students on how to use them to access useful information “Social networking maintains and expands students’ relation to friends and family members using apps such as Twitter and Facebook”. (Tian et al., 2011)
Incorporating technology into education sector not only benefits the student but also their teachers as it allows them to easily assess the student’s progress and communication between them. Lecturers can hence share information unilaterally among his or her student by creating a YouTube account for the class.
In conclusion therefore, YouTube EdTech and Facebook are reach sources of information for educational purposes, but since they are left open and free to everyone, the content they contain cannot be ascertained to be a hundred percent reliable as someone might upload information that is not true or plagiarized. Moreover, despite one attaining his or her profession through e-distance learning, in my opinion, the people involved should at one point attend classes in person. Therefore, irrespective of the disadvantages that might arise, technological developments have immensely improved the human educational sector and should be much adopted.
Reference.
Ahlquist, J. (n.d.). How YouTube is Impacting Current and Future College Students. Josie Ahlquist. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://josieahlquist.com/2013/10/29/youtubecollege/
Constine, J. (n.d.). Screw University, Course Hero Curates YouTube Into Free Business and Coding Classes. TechCrunch. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/12/course-hero/
Hunter, G. (n.d.). Harvard grad did it all from home | The National. Retrieved November 29, 2013, from http://www.thenational.ae/business/industry-insights/the-life/harvard-grad-did-it-all-from-home
Kousha, K., Thelwall, M., & Abdoli, M. (2012). The role of online videos in research communication: A content analysis of YouTube videos cited in academic publications. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(9), 1710–1727. doi:10.1002/asi.22717
Sutton, B. (2013). The Effects of Technology in Society and Education. Education and Human Development Master’s Theses. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/192
“The Effects of Technology in Society and Education” by Brian Sutton. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/192/
Tian, S. W., Yu, A. Y., Vogel, D., & Kwok, R. C. W. (2011). The impact of online social networking on learning: a social integration perspective. International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 8(3/4), 264. doi:10.1504/IJNVO.2011.039999
