学进去

Last Saturday, when my grandfather got frustrated at the name of the singer of a song, I grabbed my smartphone and found it in seconds. This astonished my grandfather, who didn’t understand how I’d checked the information so quickly. I laughed and explained, but afterwards, it made me think about how much I depend on technology.

When I reflected on its impact on my education, I saw that technology has been significant in many ways. Returning to the story of my grandfather, he had asked me more about how I used it and about university life. He said he thought we had an easy life compared to previous generations. I could see his point.

Not only are we lucky enough to have the same educational benefits as those of previous generations, but we have so many more. We still have walk-in libraries; however, the only option for studying used to be sitting in these libraries with as many books from your reading list as you could find, yet now a single search online can immediately provide access to a huge range of resources. Interaction between students and university staff is another area that has changed considerably. We can have face-to-face time with our tutors, and also communicate using our electronic devices. The most popular means is via social media, and it has become unacceptable for messages to be unanswered for any length of time. While this puts an extra stress on the university’s academic support team, we students are greatly benefited.

When we compare the student life of the past and the present, it is tempting to focus on the obvious differences in technology. In fact, students are doing what they’ve always done: embracing the resources available and adapting them to work more efficiently and to live more enjoyably. The pace of change in technology continuously gathers speed, so we have to value each innovation as it happens.