I remember the good old days when my professor would enter the classroom sharp at 8 am, armed with a handful of white chalk pieces, and leave at 2 pm.
What was happening inside the classroom for six hours was magical. This was happening for two subjects, namely ‘Business Economics’ and ‘Management Science’. This was my postgraduation story of the late 1990s. There were no structured PPT, no projectors, and nothing to store content. There weren’t Kahoot, Nearpod, EDpuxzzle or BookWidgets.
One can just imagine how much cognitive rigour and discourse must have rendered during the class.
There were ample opportunities for the students to interact, question and counter question including a few students to walk till the blackboard as devised by the professor to solve short puzzles and draw figures on the blackboard.
I am not proposing that the traditional teaching and learning style should not be replaced with modern technology. But emphasising that there are some opportunity costs we need to forgo while transiting from traditional style of teaching and learning to technology driven style. The opportunity costs are our cognitive ability to absorb, store, analyse and retrieve knowledge in the brain. No doubt technology brings unlimited benefits but with high opportunity cost.
For example, the storage and delivery of the content in technology-based classrooms takes place through PPT which is displayed via LCD projectors, not stored much in the brain. Students too on the other hand heavily depend on Google, ChatGPT or OpenAI to instantaneously answer the questions in the classroom. I have experienced many a time that students answer directly from search engines when questions are posed to them relating to the concepts being dealt in the classrooms.
Cognitive rigour obviously dwindles when the brain is constantly replaced with technology. From both facilitator-learner sides cognitive thinking process has been downsized due to rapid adoption of technology owing to its convenience.
While professors undergo meticulous cerebral exercise to chalk out the lectures for long hours, students too on the other hand undergo the same level of mental exercise. In the due course, our ability to acquire, analyse, synthesise, store and apply knowledge will be sharper as the brain is engaged. But the engagement of brain is relatively less or sometimes even zero when technology is relied heavily for the purpose of memory and delivery of content.
A very simple example could be extensive use of AI alerts for spell checks and document attachments during e-mails. Gradually, we may reach a situation where we are not able to write correctly without spell check alerts and forget to attach documents while emailing without AI alerts at all. We have experienced that few spellings have been forgotten by us due to this mechanism and spell check software in the computer system corrects our spelling and reminds us to attach documents while emailing! Similarly, when the projector or PPT suddenly stops, one may reach the blackout stage and may not be able to continue further without PPT.
When technology is used too much to store and analyse knowledge, we may lose our cognitive skills. These are the opportunity costs. The higher the usage of technology, the less rich we become cognitively.
Sometimes learners get diverted with non-academic applications such as social media platforms or what’s app too. This has constrained student engagement levels in classrooms. Students also get caught with video gaming.
Recently, a Malaysian City Mayor distributed pet chicks to 2,000 elementary and middle school students to combat Internet and smartphone addiction. Prizes were awarded to the students who raise their chicks into the largest chickens. Therefore, modern technology comes with a high cost.
Further, due to the technological advancements many indigenous games have extinct from schools and colleges. Students keep themselves engaged more with smart gadgets rather than outdoor games that would have otherwise enhanced the physical and cognitive capabilities of students.
Of course, some ground-breaking advancements in AI and robotic technology contributed to economic growth and resolved labour shortages.
For example, AI based robotic technology to pick, pluck and slice vegetables and fruits are far better than human beings. It includes raspberry picking and cauliflower harvesting robots with advanced cameras, sensors, cutters and grippers. French companies like Bonduelle and British Universities like Plymouth endeavour spinout projects of similar nature. Though AI based technology has permeated all walks of our life today and results in many benefits, it is with some opportunity cost.
Dr Niranjan Shetty
The writer is Assistant Professor of Business Management and Programme Leader, CBFS
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