MODULE 2

Technology: Boon or Bane?

“Technology is in our hands. We can use it to build or destroy.”

Focus Question:

Is technology a boon or bane?

INTRODUCTION

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.

ACTIVITY

Read the paragraphs given below and analyse the message of the comic strips/photograph
given below, and then come together in small groups to discuss your answers to the question: Is
technology a boon or 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 kilometres 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
rechanneled previously unknown or wasted energies into more productive endeavours,
allowing its users to pursue more creative goals.

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
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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 imagined from 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, anytime in the home, in

workplaces, in recreation areas, in the streets, the learner has become his or her own
investigation seeking 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 speech delivered by His Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos
on the 6th SEAMEO INNOTECH International Conference in Manila, Philippines on
November 11-13, 1997.)

B. Below the reactions to the question “Do instant messaging, e-mail, cell phones and
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.”

“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 I 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)

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
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ABSTRACTION
Technology is a blessing for man. With technology, there is a lot that we can do which
we could not do then. With cell phones, webcam, you will be closer to someone miles and miles
away. So far yet 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 cell phones. 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 scenes. He will have trouble with his
development. The abuse and misuse of the Internet will have far reaching unfavourable effects
on his moral life. The teacher who schedules class tv viewing for the whole hour to free herself
from 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 develop the 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 ask in 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 analysing and feeling beings, then it is

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
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a boon, a blessing. But if we abuse and misuse it and so contribute to our ruin and downfall and
those of other person, it becomes a bane or a curse.

APPLICATION
A. 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 Bane

1. 1.

2. 2.

B. Each group must get a question and together must explain its meaning.

1. “Technology or perish.”- John R. Pierce

2. “All our technological progress, our very civilization, is like the axe in the hand of the
pathological criminal.”- Albert Einstein
3. “If there is a technological advance without social advance, there is, almost
automatically, an increase in human misery.”- Michael Harrington

C. Can technology take the place of the teacher in the classroom? Discuss in your small
group.
D. 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

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
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technology in the classroom. Simulate a faculty meeting and come up with written
guidelines then pass to your professor.

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
 He development and nurturing of teamwork
 Efficient and effective teaching

MAKING THE CONNECTION

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.

Postscripts- Thank God for the gift of new technology!

I recall at this point how I came up with the final manuscript of both my Master’s thesis
and doctoral dissertation. Computers were a rarity then so I had to type the final copy of my
thesis and dissertation. In my haste, many times I would not notice I would be typing beyond the
margin or would commit typographical errors. To remedy, I had to repeat typing the page again.
There was no other recourse.

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1
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Now with the computer, I may commit as many typographical errors as I can and I have
not to re-do the whole thing again. How convenient! What a liberation!

DR. EPIFANIO P. SAN GASPAR JR., LPT. SIENA COLLEGE TIGAON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 1