As educational institutions are beginning to close for the summer, relieved students are looking forward to finally put up their feet and enjoy an uninterrupted holiday.
While earlier these holidays consisted of meeting extended family, playing outside and discovering a new hobby, it’s safe to say that today, most of the time is going to be spent in front of a screen.
According to a Forbes survey, children spend 4.5 – 7 hours on social media.
By the time a child turns 17, this rises to 8 hours. Whether this can be reduced is a question for another time.
As of now, these trends are not changing. The most one can do is train youngsters to use some of those hours productively, either by learning a new skill, honing one’s interests, or finding a new passion.
Mobile technology, or m-learning brings together the power of knowledge and the comfort of an online community to achieve short term or long term goals. It is specifically useful for those who are not comfortable with a structured school system because it offers individual pace, focus on specific interests and can correct individual problems.
As we all well know, schools today can only offer a standardised set of knowledge and soft skills. Mobile technology, which is within the reach of most of a community, fills the gap between what a school can do and what an individual needs, or wants.
The world of mobile technology today seems limitless – whatever one’s interests may be, there are lessons, tutorials, feedback and even tips to start such a platform. From chess to gardening, coding to language learning, there is something for everyone. All it needs is patience and commitment – much like everything else. And in that sense, nothing has really changed.
The challenge of using mobile technology to learn a new skill is that it needs focus and dedication. This can be done in a couple of easy steps: identifying a new skill to be developed, have an action plan, dedicate a few hours a day and write down outcomes and achievements at specific intervals – it could be the end of a week, or a month, but shorter time gaps are more useful initially.
Apart from specific challenges like good connectivity, finding a culturally appropriate platform to learn a specific skill or pursue an interest, there is also the issue of excessive engagement with social media. This is an issue that has been discussed often and youngsters need guidance in the judicious use of mobile technology.
However much we may deride the technology that is available to us now, it is not going anywhere. The best course of action would then be to teach and guide young users how to harness the power of mobile technology in a way that is more than just scrolling for its own sake.
The internet is a vast place to find a passion and nurture it. Teachers and parents must be trained to guide younger members of the community to leverage mobile technology in a way that interests them.
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