Hugo D Gunawan I
Language Advisor: Frances Hazle
“The technology development drives people into two
mainstreams:
wise and fatalist users”.
It’s a common thing now in big cities in
Indonesia, to see a 7-year-old children play with a sophisticated handheld. The
words: pad, tab, touch screen, swipe, wifi, online and many other technological
words, are often heard from our children’s conversation. The rapid changes of
technology cannot be avoided. In line with the rapid changes of technology, the
mid level society in Indonesia is massively growing.
The phenomenon of positive growth of
economics in Indonesia has been predicted. This phenomenon triggers some
changes in many aspects such as life style, education and living cost. Life
style is mostly related with technology changes. The closest example is the
technology exploration on handheld. The handheld that we knew before was mostly
for calling and texting. Unavoidably, the technology has had to touch up the
handheld we use today.
The changes in our handheld consist of the
colored screen, integrated camera, more capacity for text characters,
multimedia service (MMS), integrated music player, touch screen, internet
access, etc. , you name it. It
seems that the new products bring a lot of changes that users cannot resist
having. The unbearable resistance to have the latest technology is triggered by
the growth of social media that have been integrated to the Internet bundling
within the handheld.
As most of us are in mid level society, the
impact of this technology growth does exist. Our kids are whining to have the
newest product from Apple or Samsung i.e. iPhone, iPad, and the MacBook series
for Apple, and Galaxy series phone and Galaxy Tab as the iPad competitor. We
cannot cover our ears when husband or wife also argue with each other about how
important it is to have iPad to support their work. At the end of the day, we should be honest with each other,
is it for work or life style? Are we insisting on following the latest
technology fad for recognition?
The technology development drives people
into two mainstreams: wise and fatalist users. The reason behind our motivation
in keeping up with the latest technology offered by all gadgets is
questionable. Unfortunately, we can “pull our brake” while our kids cannot. It
is not because our kids do not have self-control. It is mainly because they
belong to this technology era and have not reached maturity in deciding what is
best for them. They can stare at their gadgets for hours and try all
applications while adults like us worry too much about spending more money to
fix the gadgets supposing they are broken.
How can we keep up with what our kids know?
To be honest, there’s no other way than dedicating our time to learn what they
know from them directly. Most of us think that we are too busy to sit and learn
the games that our kids are playing. Or worse, most of us think that we are too
old to know such things. Even worse, most of us think that what they are playing
are useless. The willingness is the key. The rest is time dedication and
management.
“Getting involved in educating and nurturing within 21st
century education
is not only school responsibility but also parents’ ”
The best thing that we will get when we are
spending time with our kids is a better family relationship. There are three
things we will have. First, we will be able to justify and influence our kids
in choosing and valuing the right games. Second, we will be able to facilitate
our kids to think naturally. The last, we will be able to operate new things in
our golden age!
The positive impacts are more dominating
than the negative ones. Once again, we should sacrifice our time though.
The use of technology is also widely
misused by our kids. The boredom, peer pressure and addiction are some reasons
technology misuse. Rules have been introduced at home and school to minimize
the tendency of misusing. The best part of anticipating this technology abuse
should be coming from the users. At this point, basically, it is personal
calling to know whether the users want to be wise users or fatalist users.
Covering as the shield for personal calling will be the maturity. How do our
kids get their maturity? They get their maturity from their families and environment.
Remember, we raise our kids with the consideration that their maturity meets
the age and is at the right time.
The wise users will consider cutting the
word fun into two categories, which are fun to help, and fun to use. Fun to
help, of course, the users know that the gadgets offer a lot of fun to help
users open their mind. On the contrary, the fatalist users will think that the
gadgets are fun to use. Addiction is going to be the result. To be wise or
fatalist users, you do not need be kids, adults might do a similar thing.
Therefore, the role of parents and teachers in building wise users is critical.
There are a lot of ways to guide users into
becoming wise users. The technological gadgets are in trend putting educational
games to help our kids to learn academically. Adults will need to make an
effort to select and apply these educational games. At this point, educational
games cannot always become an oasis to rely on. Addiction is another result for
fatalist users. It is kind of funny to hear that the kids are addicted to
educational games and cannot put their gadgets away. Therefore, knowing the right time and the timing will be of
great help.
Getting involved in educating and nurturing
within 21st century education is not only school the responsibility
but also the parents’. As it was mentioned in the beginning of the article, the
impact of the economic growth is in symbiosis with almost all technological
aspects in our lives. That is why it is important for us to know how technology
is used in different perspectives among generations. Otherwise, we are going to
raise fatalist technology users. To be honest, we don’t want to end up in such
a situation, do we? Being parents and teachers in this technological generation
is not an easy thing to do. As there’s no institution running educational
session to prepare one as parents, we, as parents are required to be committed
in paving the way for the success of our kids. In conclusion, I would like to
quote what people often say,” no pain, no gain”.
Hugo
D Gunawan I is currently Tunas Muda International School Secondary Coordinator
and an IB Asia Pacific PYP Bilingual Workshop Leader. He also writes his ideas
at http://guruhugo.blogspot.com
References:
·
Booklet Perkembangan Beberapa
Indikator Utama Sosial-Ekonomi Indonesia Agustus 2012 Badan Pusat Statistik,
ISSN: 2085.5664 Publication Number: 03230.1203
·
Boss, Suzie. Edutopia: A
Parents Guide to 21st Century Learning © 2012 The George
Lucas Educational Foundation
