Impact of Technology on Young Learners

by James R. Writer

Technology has a significant role in the life of young learners. The outside world is brought inside their classroom with the help of technology. These young learners grow up with technology and are comfortable and confident with it. Byjus often refer them as Digital Native.

Before we understand the impact of technology on young learners, we must be aware of the seven most important aspects of young learners as presented by Byjus, and they are:

· They get bored quickly: Due to their limited attention span, they get distracted and not exciting and engaging.

· They are meaning-oriented: They may understand what is being said without necessarily understanding every individual word. They may not only guess and interpret what is being uttered, but they also respond to it with whatever language resources they have at their disposal.

· They like to discover or innovate things: Since they are always curious and enthusiastic, they want to make sense of the world around them by engaging and motivating activities they have to discover by themselves rather than being told. They also like to innovate new games and crafts from the existing ones and earn praises.

· They are imaginative: Activities that are full of imagination are a source of enjoyment for them. It is sometimes difficult for them to distinguish reality from fiction.

· They are fond of concrete activities: Unlike more analytical adults, young learners cannot learn abstract concepts such as grammar rules. In addition to that, they are more inclined to understand based not only on explanation but, more importantly, on what they hear, see and touch.

· They are egocentric: They prefer to talk about themselves. Activities that focus on their lives are their cup of tea. In addition to that, children under the age of 12 need individual attention and approval from the teacher.

· They emulate: They learn by imitating adults. Children acquire communication skills through social interactions as a learning tool. Mimicking function is successfully used to teach children new skills and knowledge.

Technology has made it easy for the teachers at Byjus to plan the activities catering to every young learner in their class. Since abstract concepts are complex for young learners to interpret, technology-aided audio-visual activities like sounds, pictures, games, and movies convert abstract concepts like grammar rules into basic sailing concepts. These technology-aided concepts hold the attention of young learners for a long time and are pretty meaningful and consequential. Technology-aided ideas like Memory games improve visual recognition. Children strengthen their visual discrimination with many memory games based on spotting differences or linking two related images. This will lead to an acceleration in distinguishing images from one and another. Memory games give space to critical thinking, which helps children nurture their attention to detail and improve other brain functions, such as attention, concentration, and focus. There are phonic apps like Byjus that come with manipulative, and a Montessori-style learning app that helps teach young learners letter sounds and form words by combining different letter sounds. This is a tactile approach as children can physically manipulate the letters onscreen. Young learners can use the Smart Boards to do an interactive word search. This doesn’t stop here. Technology helps enhance their imagination and encourages them to discover and innovate ideas at such a young age. While children are benefitted from technology in many ways, there are concerns like technology addiction. Technology addiction can be defined as frequent and obsessive technology-related behavior increasingly practiced despite harmful consequences to the technology used. An over-dependence on technology can significantly impact children’s lives. Technology affects the brain's pleasure systems in ways similar to substances, leading to consequences that span from mild annoyance when away from technology to feelings of isolation, extreme anxiety, and depression.

Technology is a boon for young learners but can be proved to be a curse if used extensively.