By Komal Shamas
The concept of smart education is indeed a blessing to the students of 21st century. Technology has changed the way of our life and by utilizing these technologies in education, students can learn more effectively.
Firstly, students don’t need to carry heavy backpacks. They just have to turn on their tablet or Pc to study in the class. By using online websites (e-book) they can read many books without carrying them. Smart classes are just like watching movies or animated visual that used to teach a lesson. This kind of visual are eye-catching and students can learn through it. Students also learn that how to utilize new technologies and it is kind of practical learning. Smart education saves the time of teachers. They don’t have to draw the diagrams on the board to show the students, teachers can show the students diagram from their smart board. Pakistan should also take some steps to promote Smart education as Korea is promoting in these days.
Reference:
Retrieved September 21, 2013, from Technology in education: Smart Education in Korea: South Korea’s Making the Switch to Digital Textbooks
Think, Analyze & Share 
No doubt e books are time saving, space and weight reducing solution and i surely am in their favor but in practical terms e books are not that convenient. Developed countries like Korea can afford such classrooms and such programs. It is not practically possible for us to follow the same pattern, providing such technology in all the classrooms.Not everyone can afford tabs and laptops. No doubt children here are smart enough to use all kinds of gadgets and they know more than adults but incorporation of all this technology is practically impossible here due to huge financial gaps and interest of the authorities.
The reason i am in favor of e books is that they provide immense content for the students to read and incorporate in their studies. The ease of access of e books is undeniable. But on a personal note i find e books (specially course related) hard to read as i find it boring not being to scribble some points or questions on sides as one can in a real book ( i know you can do that in adobe and everything but its not the same), and staring at screen becomes tiring too. Maybe that is the way we as old students are programmed but if we try we might eventually adapt to it too.
The children of 2013 are whiz-kids and who knows by 2015 books and pens really might be replaced with e-books . The world really is changing rapidly.
Smart education is a good way to teach, it has lot’s of benefits, it could give relaxation to students, those who carry heavy paper material with them. it could give better understanding to students, students could learn more effectively, but the question is, is it applicable in the Pakistani context? is it a SMART objective? i think , the answer would be “No”. on the other hand, reading paper book is more easy than e book. Perhaps, we have learned in that way.
Despite all the facts, Smart education is the need of time. so, we have to think about this, in order to make our students better learner.
Smart Education in Pakistan? The idea of smart education in Pakistan will fascinate every single person but life is not all about ideas. We have to lay out a policy and then implement it at a very basic level first.
Financial gaps a problem? I don’t think so. I believe that 8/10 people can buy Toshiba’s gadgets in Pakistan. Hence, they can easily foresee the idea of e-books evolving even in a government school.
Pen and Paper? Even Korea is facing and admitting the fact that they cannot let go of paper and pen as of now because most of their entrance exams are taken on a paper.
If we talk about in context to our country, we cannot break-up with pen and paper even in the coming decade.
Trinity of Education? Wordsworth came up with one of the structures of Trinity, placing God at the top and Man and Nature at the right and left corners of the triangle respectively. Risher (2011) suggests that there is a need to develop that perfect technology which will strengthen the bond of basic triangle between teachers, students and ideas. And then later on he himself gives the answer which is ‘e-books’. The question is whether Korea or any other country puts students (the priority) at the top of the triangle and then strengthens the bond with this new technology or it is just a way of saving more money for other agendas?
i just want to point out here that laying out policies on paper wont work. There are thousands of education policies written and approved but none of them are practical or implemented anywhere. Implementing them at basic level (what basic level) ? How ? and who will ? That’s the real question.
And there surely is a financial gap . How many poor children of government schools will buy gadgets when they hardly have any proper stationary or school supplies.
Surely government can aid them but only if they want to . I agree with the priority part that its all about the priorities.
The point is that in many ways technology in education is a blessing, I could not disagree even if I wanted to but it does provide the students with a lot of distraction.
Like for instance I had a task to read 10 articles from the internet and it literally would have taken me an hour at max had I been given the task to read articles from a library!!
Why is that is the first question that comes to the mind and the answer is that I was listening to music while searching the web, had my Facebook account opened in another tab and whenever there was a notification, I felt obliged to see and reply, it literally took me atleast three hours to complete the task. My research would have been better but the point is that i could have completed the task a lot earlier had I not been distracted.
It may be a different experience for all of us but in my case If I am using my smartphone for educational purposes and get a text message or a call in between not only would I be distracted but i would have to reply to that particular text or call or otherwise I would not be able to concentrate on the job at hand!
I guess it is one of the main reason that in many offices where there is a use of technology they have certain filters set for their systems like you cannot access facebook or Youtube, the main reason being that they want the people to stay focused!
The use of technology can be relied upon as the internet is more vast than we can imagine but can we rely on ourselves that would we be able to do justice to the tasks and the services at hand or would we get distracted and loose our way!!
The idea of smart education seems fantastic, but as far as heavy funding is provided. Gadgets like iPad, computers or smart boards are really useful for teachers, and yes, they save a lot of time. But as far as students are concerned, while teaching a teacher may use technology to teach and make them understand in a better way via smart technologies. I personally prefer reading hard copies of books.
Smart education is SMART! 🙂
Even though the acronym has roots in a business paradigm – i believe it can truly be applied in the context of education as well:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time.
I totally agree with the post initiated this week. Smart education serves to fulfill education that is spot-on and SPECIFIC. A variety of online games/quizzes supplementing this mode of education make student-learning MEASURABLE and easier. Smart education through gadgets can surely be made ACHIEVABLE with sincere investment. The REALISTIC approach of such education is evident as money countries are fruitfully progressing with it and TIME – that is one thing i’m sure smart education will save, both of teachers and pupils.
*many countries