Analysis and Findings

Digital learning is more than just providing students with a laptop. Digital learning requires a combination of technology, digital content and instruction. Although digitisation of classrooms has arrived and is here to stay, there are certain concerns. A segment of people believe that there is already a lot being done for urban students who are anyway tech savvy and do not need more exposure. On the other hand, rural students neither have access to technology nor availability of gadgets. Technology could be a boon in rural areas since there is a prevailing lack of quality teaching resource. Technology here can enable uniform teaching. This year, digital media equipment worth over Rs700 crore has been installed in 17,000 village primary schools along with one instructor to handhold the teachers. Active practitioners, institutional owners and management representatives were unanimous in their opinion that all modern and contemporary institutions must use technology. The list is endless when one were to look at various gadgets used by academic institutions. What started with Overhead Projectors went on to use of LCD projectors, laptops, interactive boards and now use of tablets and even iPads in classrooms. Technology is no longer about schools owning computer laboratories rather it is about a host of software services being offered through a portal. The use of multimedia makes difficult concepts come alive. Digital technology revolutionizes many of the ways we receive and use information every day. The advent of digital technology touches almost every aspect of modern life and has transformed the means of communication immensely. Perhaps no area holds more potential for such transformation than education. Digital technology makes informative content easier to find, to access, to manipulate and remix, and to disseminate. All of these steps are central to teaching, scholarship, and study.

Advantages One of the most exciting features of digital technology is its capacity to permeate society unrestricted by the walls of a school or the formal roles of teachers and students. New technology allows everyone to become teachers and students creating digital learning tools, disseminating them broadly through the internet, and learning from digital content promulgated by others. One of the advantages of having computer-assisted instruction in the classroom is that the computer can serve as a tutor. Teachers can only help students in the learning process to a certain level and only during school hours. Computers and other similar forms of digital technology allow the student to continue their studies at home and can act as a tutor for the students who are falling behind. New technology also allows students to advance at their own pace as they learn. Another advantage of new technology information can be presented in such a large variety of ways that almost any type of learner can benefit and learn through the new technologies. The internet and other forms of technology give students access to a huge wealth of knowledge that previously was not as accessible to students. Efficiency is a huge benefit from having technology in the classrooms. Teachers and students alike can quickly access vast amounts of information and present in through a variety of mediums. Another benefit that people argue is that technology, especially the internet, allows for equality within education. The information and the technology that students use are available for everyone, they just have to go get it. Of course, this is referring more to the use of the internet because certain educational technologies are too expensive for less fortunate people to afford access to.

Disadvantages There are arguments that because of all the new technology that there is a loss of communication skills and the ability for people to interact with each other. Since a fairly large amount of the new technology is made for an independent uses there are valid concerns about the loss of interpersonal and cooperation skills that students usually develop within a classroom setting. The students that do not have as much access to modern technology such as people in lower income situations. Unable to access even the more common technologies such as a computer on a regular basis, puts them even more at a disadvantage because computers are now integrated into every classroom in one way or another, can make doing homework difficult.