Technology Doesn't Drive Disruption, Humans Beings Do!

There is this rather huge misunderstanding amongst most of us educators that it is technology that drives disruption and thereby ushers change. What most of us don't realise is that technology is merely a tool in the hands of the educator! It all depends on how an educator decides to use technology. In the hands of an accomplished educator, technology can prove to be a great tool, a gamechanger and an enabler of effective education. In the hands of a not so good educator, technology might at the most prove to be a distraction that can only cause confusion!

This forces us to take a look at the two important elements, the teacher or educator or the tool! The Chalk and Greenboard, the figure drawn in dust and sand, the chart paper with a labelled drawing, all of them are tools to promote learning and thereby sometimes even drive disruption. One cannot assume that disruption is the gift of a technology-enabled twenty-first century! In fact, some of the greatest examples of disruption took place many years ago as when the idea of the universe revolving around the solar system was challenged by Copernicus in 1543 A.D. In 1610 A.D.,Galileo used a basic telescope (Today some of the Digital Cameras have more power!) to view the planet Jupiter and its satellites revolving around it!

In today's times, it is perhaps not even scientists who are driving disruption, in fact, is startups that are driving change. Established companies are constantly being disrupted by startups that use the same technology as the established companies but have people who are more innovative, creative and divergent thinkers. They use the same technology as established companies, but then the success of some startups cannot be attributed to the technology that they happen to be using!

It is what one does with technology and how one uses it that makes a person a driver of disruption, and innovation. The alertness of the Entrepreneur, the alertness of the Educator, the ability to switch techniques as per the demands of situations, the ability to evolve, juggle, improvise and adapt are the traits, habits and skills that drive disruption and innovation, both in the field of education and commerce!

It is unfortunate that drivers of disruption are disliked by others who stick to time tested strategies lulled into complacency by the gift of technology. Teachers who are innovative and adaptive, those who use technology to drive change, innovation and inspiration are at best the most underrated teachers. They are thought to be ineffectual and unskilled. Teachers who use technology to drive change are in fact highly intuitive, they map their students' potential to absorb disruption, and they plan if not in their written lesson then at least in their minds how they will use technology effectively. The showing of a video on the French Revolution in class would be merely entertainment if it was not followed by group discussions, exit tickets, and note taking that could be recorded for all to refer to later on!

Disruption is about challenging accepted beliefs, it is about looking at things from a different perspective, it is about doing things better, understanding things better. It is simply not about going with the flow, rather it is about intelligent questioning, looking at things from a different standpoint. It is apparently the human being that drives disruption and change, not the technology! Henry Ford introduced disruption into the automobile industry because of his innovative ideas of using the mass assembly system to deliver cost-effective Model T cars. It was not just the conveyor belt technology, but rather also his astuteness and shrewdness in developing a franchise system that made him a successful business magnate. One cannot argue that the other car manufacturers did not have access to the conveyor belt technology! They all had the means to use the technology that Henry Ford used, it is just that they chose to be happy with the way they used technology!

Technology can sometimes be a gamechanger. The Smartphone could be a gamechanger in the right hands. The internet is a gamechanger. Data mining is one of the fastest growing fields in Commerce. However, the biggest question that comes to mind is, How many of us use the smartphone effectively? How many of us use the Internet to do something useful? How many of us go beyond Data Mining to end up with Data Analysis? The answer to all these questions will be in support of the argument that it is the human being that drives disruption and change and not the technology, in the classroom or even elsewhere. 

Funnily enough, the greatest disruption that I see today, driven by the Smartphone is in the field of gaming. The online game, PUBG has hooked so many young people that one wonders if the greatest achievement of the smartphone might not be in the field of online gaming! I often notice most of my students using the internet to chat with friends, post updates, and perhaps even modified photographs of themselves, or, perhaps even do some online shopping. A large number of LMS modules introduced by schools might make the learning process more convoluted and tedious what with the usage of the platform seeming to be less user-friendly. I would advocate the use of E-Mail, Google sheets, Google Docs over dedicated LMS modules that are more limiting.
The use of technology in Education should not be an end but a means to better learning! Unfortunately, many of us educators believe that the use of technology alone is enough to drive innovation, inspiration and disruption. The fact is that Technology alone cannot drive disruption and innovation. In fact, it is the human factor that is a more important driver of new learning.