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A Model Essay for General English: Use of Tec...

By Admin • December 18, 2020 • TESL - English for School • 1,663 views

A Model Essay for General English:

Use of Technology in Education in Sri Lanka:

In Sri Lankan context, formal education was traditionally centred on schools and pirivenas at village level while non-formal education was centred in libraries at central places in the form of newspapers and books. Teachers delivered the formal education either following a textbook or notes prepared using books and their experiences. The learners enrolled and visited the places that offered formal education. The libraries offered supplementary reading material to enhance their learning as well as reference facilities. A teacher has to be well educated and knowledgeable to be able to educate others. Also they have to acquire the skills of retaining student’s attention and deliver content in an effective way.

With emergence of industrial and commercial cities people have moved out of villages to these cities for various forms of employment. When the population increased the demand for learning also goes up and thus the traditional schools or pirivenas could not cope with the demand. Thus new schools had to be created and existing schools had to be expanded, and new teachers were required to deliver education. To meet the demand inexperienced, under qualified and under trained personnel were used and thus the profession has changed from a social service to a commercial business.

Electronic era commenced with the use of wireless electronic communication over 100 years ago. Transmitting telegraph messages and the radio are among the important applications of this technology. The messages were passed through the air, invisibly, on radio waves. Since then the technology use has moved from radio, to recordings, to movies, to television, to computers, to CDs, CD ROMs & the Internet. This technology was very useful to convey instant urgent messages and well as to make people be aware current local and international news. This has become an informal but effective form of education.

Since early 1960s educators and computer scientist began using computers for teaching purposes. Initially it was used as reading and typing text to provide instructions of how to use the computer due to its low-level interaction with users and later to solve some time consuming problems. However with the invention of affordable microcomputers and the integration of text, graphics and colour there was a rapid spread of computers in business, educational institutes and homes. Computers first came to Sri Lanka in the late 1960’s and around the same time computing was introduced to the curriculum of University of Colombo. Learning about computers grew from understanding how computer works, to programming it to perform specific tasks, to use of it to perform daily activities.

Computers also evolved from manipulation of text and numbers to interaction via text, graphics, voice and pointing devices. Graphical power and use of mouse on a par with keyboard made the most impact with respect to attracting laypeople to use computers. In Sri Lanka, many schools have been equipped with computer facilities to develop the computer literacy among the students. Today, most teachers in Sri Lanka use internet to reach their students especially in the context of the global pandemic of Corona. Thus, technology has radically transformed the education system in Sri Lanka.

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