There is no doubt that classroom interaction and the atmosphere there have changed since the introduction of modern technology. Although the relationships among students and teachers have been consistently enhanced by this advancement, it has not remarkably promoted their human interactions. From my personal perspective, I am in favor of innovation increasing their relationships, but there should be approaches to keep balance to improve them.
On the one hand, technology has substantially increased classroom collaboration. First and foremost, with the modernity and appeal of it, teachers can make use of it to prepare interesting lessons that attract students’ attention and keep them involved in. For example, both virtual reality and animation create impressive experience that can enhance engagement as well as interaction allowing students to explore abstract knowledge such as the solar system and history. Moreover, this revolution provides more opportunities for students and teachers to learn remotely. With the invention of Zoom and Google Classroom, it helps their online lessons more practical and real because video calls enable them to make face-to-face meeting, work, and discuss together irrespective of geographical distance.
On the other hand, besides the pros of technology in rising classroom interaction, this not only has not significantly improved it but also has a bad influence on consumers. Firstly, given the interest of technology, students tend to rely too much on smartphones and get immersed in social platforms such as Facebook and Tiktok, which leads them to get addicted and not want to escape the cyber world. Therefore, they will feel a sense of isolation in their classroom and more seriously, suffer from lack of social skills like communication and teamwork, thus widening the mental gap among them. Worse still, overreliance on technology causes distraction. This is because devices including phones and tablets can divert students’ attention from their lessons, especially in online classroom. According to one research, watching many short videos in YouTube can diminish attention span leading to the decline in engagement and participation in class.
As technology is becoming more common and useful for teaching, teachers should use it suitably and effectively to raise quality of their lessons and maintain students’ engagement. What is more, learners ought to allocate leisure time for talking and playing with their classmates rather than surfing on the Internet. By doing this, they can improve their soft skills and their relationships with others.
In conclusion, despite the benefits of technology on participation in classroom, the adverse effects that hinder their development prove that technology is a doubled-edged sword. Thus, people should use it appropriately and equally to reap the ultimate advantages of it.