JUST GOOGLE IT!

Just Google It!

The homemaker served a sumptuous meal and we with gargantuan appetites savored it rapaciously. “What is the difference between gourmets and sumptuous?” I asked my wife. My daughter shrieked, ”Just Google it!”  The words rhymed with Michael Jackson’s Just Beat it.

Technology has invaded our lives and particularly those of gen next and students in a facile manner. They would be hamstrung without these appliances and gadgets.

In this virtual world, the Kindle app has triggered a revolution where millions of books, newspapers and magazines are at the fingertips.

Are we charting an error free path? A prodigious number of students plan their studies based on these technology and apps claims my wife, a teacher by profession.

On perusal of the homework submitted by students it has been stumbled upon that children use search engines and apps to fill in the gaps and ornate it with quotations.

Knowledge should not become prisoner of apps and search engines. These can at best act as facilitators or optimistically embellish or burnish information.  

Education is the process of imparting or acquiring knowledge or habits through instructions or study. It is crystalized as formal education, non-formal education or informal.

The pedagogy includes formal class room teaching, distant education (correspondence courses) and technology aided imparting of knowledge say through skype, internet etc.

The traditional space has a friendly alien in form of a search engine which at one end of the spectrum is furnishing expansive information which can be fraught with danger if the information is unauthenticated or adulterated.

For once do not think I am a Luddite! The computerized reservation systems on Indian Railways were bitterly opposed by the unions fearing retrenchment. But that occasion did not arise. Today both freight and passenger traffic of the railways is to a large extent dependent on technology.

“Technology is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other,” writes Carrie Snow.

The California based Khan Academy through You-Tube has made math and natural sciences so riveting that millions of students attend the classes send  Mr. Salman Khan (not the film star) thank you notes.  Udaan, a programme of CBSE disseminated through You-Tube, online programmes and streaming are mentoring girl students and increasing their enrolment. GuruKuls of the yore are being replaced GOCOOLs.

It is paradoxical that while Lit festivals are enlarging and bookshops are shrinking in size. The hard copies of dictionaries and encyclopedias are being replaced by e-copies much to the relief of teachers, parents and students.

 Mythology teaches us that Arjuna and Karna were consummate archers through practice. Kapil Dev became our peerless fast bowler perfecting his trade through hard work in the ground not gym. Students cannot acquit themselves by merely watching You-Tube. Smart studying is the key.

With the closure of pre-board examinations students have to now summit the final frontier. The demands of the stake holders are daunting and formidable. The search engines need to be validated by existing text books and copious notes jotted over the year.

Bodies and minds of students need to be fresh, rested and sharp. They need to be fully hydrated to assimilate at a furious pace. The FAQs,   solved question papers of last few years need to seep and dribble in their minds to score extraordinarily well.

Technology is certainly magic and is continuously upgrading various products, which are alluring.

By the way students, what are the meanings of kindle, gargantuan, rapacious and sumptuous? Look for them in the dictionary or just Google it!