Between Tech and Human, Lies the Vision

Here, researcher Dr Adha Shaleh, wanders into and wonders about the grey area that lies between technology and a human being. This was an article features in In Focus magazine issue 5.

Let’s face it, and let’s look at it from a global perspective, and admit that the pedagogy is changing, and it is changing fast. Few would want to disagree with education reform, a critical idea to blend creativity with critical thinking, together with self-learning and other skills.

The deployment of high-speed internet (5G) brings more resources to learning and teaching, and it is the speed that makes both effective. Online platforms have the power to persuade learners to learn quick facts about basic knowledge, but truly, it is the fascination of interactive learning that make them intriguing. Let’s think of virtual books, past realities are made possible today with only a pair of goggles that let the wearer travels through the ‘virtual book.’

Now, if that imagination isn’t pretty enough to lure new trends, the deployment of advanced technologies such as AI continues to register mass data, so learning institutions could personalise the education experience for tens of thousands of students. Time screen on mobile phone helps to understand their behaviours.

Leveraging on the data enables educators to create content learning that fits interests. This data analytics is doing what professors at a small college would do, which whenever they see something wrong or even right in students, they intervene. There’s truth in what they say, ‘without big data, we’re blind and deaf.’ I’d like to think of it this way: between tech and human, lies the vision. I love both, and here’s why.

From the human technology perspective, the focus of online learning is that it would empower learners without being overly reliant on teachers. Human technology enables students to share ideas with peers without borders. The advanced online student learning space make this freedom possible.

From the human (without machine) perspective, a balanced level of activity allows for this entire evolution to progress well. Personally, I prefer a combination of online data, big data and offline human attribute. Offline attributes such as empathy, love, humanity, arts will survive machines.

Truly, what sets us apart from technology is morale, ethics, critical thinking, and these soft sides can’t be experienced online. The complexities of the social world are better experienced, understood and interpreted through exploration – this is why we invented personal travelogue, travel blogs, fashion and food websites. There are people out there who want to read these blogs, and those who stay in touch with families and friends through stories. This human touch sets the boundary between me, you and machines.

I believe, it’s that particular point of time in which you enter the world of others that contributes to the understanding of their social world.

Main photo by Daniil Kuželev on Unsplash.