The Inability of Technology to Enhance Education

This was written for one of my undergraduate modules in 2019. I remember being extremely skeptical of an online undergraduate education.Who knew that a few months later I would have to experience the very style of education I argued against here? Nevertheless, almost one year after writing this essay and with a few months of online lessons under my belt, I stand by my original point. The spark of a seminar discussion or engaging lecture just cannot be replicated through a computer screen. To my fellow students, stay safe, and I hope we can all return to campus soon.

Stagnant and slow to progress, today’s education system is dogged with problems that restrict students from receiving a genuine education. Methods of teaching, examinations, and processes of universities have barely evolved. In Singapore, for instance, the experience of current students almost mirrors what their parents went through decades ago. In particular, traditional colleges are increasingly pursuing reputation and prestige, diverting both financial resources and core focus away from providing a real education. In efforts to ease students’ financial burdens and to transcend geographical borders, education has turned to technology as a solution. However, further scrutiny exposes how technology cannot fix and may even further fundamental flaws of education, reducing the ability to distinguish genuinely qualified candidates due to the distance and disconnect it wedges between educator, content, and student. In addition to being unable to fully address the inadequacies of the college system, the danger of technology lies in its potential to fuel existing issues in education today.

Indeed, online institutions can increase entry to education via their wider reach and lower costs. They also diminish the importance of networks or connections in the lack of a physical compound, instead setting everyone on the same impassive level, equal behind a screen, thus potentially lessening impenetrable social divides. However, this may lead to a problem of excessive openness, reducing the quality of education along with ideas introduced and exchanged. In enhancing access, the potential compromise of quality must be made.

Bibliography

Kirn, Walter. “Lost in the Meritocracy”. The Atlantic. January, 2005.

Muller, Jerry Z. The Tyranny of Metrics. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, February 16, 2018: 67–87.

Turkle, Sherry. Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. New York: Penguin Press, 2015: 211–248.

Wood, Graeme. “The Future of College?”. The Atlantic. August 13, 2014.

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