Living in the modern digitalized era, it has become common with the practices of utilizing advanced technologies. For some people, it is a necessity to have technologies around them. Normally, they would become anxious without their advanced technologies, such as mobile phones, laptops, any handheld game devices, etc. This shows how humans are obsessed with and addicted to these sorts of products. It gets so scary when every generation is consuming it and to be truthful, almost every generation is addicted to it in their own ways. Parents normalize giving these devices such as mobile phones or tabs to their kids to make them quiet during breakfast or dinner, at the restaurants specifically, and the other parents saw and thought it is a good idea as well. It became a habit and when the parents started to realize the bad effects these devices could do on their kids, they started to control but the kids usually would throw tantrums and get really anxious socializing. Same as adults and the elderly, their actions are justified in their head, no matter what people say to them especially not to play with their devices an hour before bed, they would still ignore the advice. Nevertheless, with good awareness and acknowledgment, these digital devices also bring a lot of advantages with the right amount of usage, especially to students.
Students have always complained about carrying a lot of textbooks to the school. If half of the students are being sent by their parents would still complain about how heavy their school bag is, what about those students who walk back and forth to school every day? Regardless, now that the schools in Malaysia have been closed until January because of the global pandemic, students are forced to study from home. University students who just started their semester, could not be able to study normally without the existence of a textbook, they had to watch YouTube videos recommended by their lecturers and also self-learn by other resources such as Google Scholar. For example, for students who would like to take “bidang kulinari”, or “seni kulinari”, or “kursus seni kulinari”, but have no idea what it is going to be like online studying during this global pandemic. Hence, the digital devices can be used to look for many helpful YouTube videos and for many more cooking recipes that you can find using these digital devices. This is one of the ways digital devices have helped the students, it automatically becomes their textbook.
Other than that, many of the advanced technologies have been equipped with a variety of mobile applications that are helpful not only to the students, but for the adults as well. For examples including a reminder mobile applications, timetables mobile applications, money-saving mobile applications, etc. Not to forget, as the digital devices become more advanced, art students no longer need to draw on their laptop with mouse cursors as their pen on canvas, but they only need a stylist pen and a tab or iPad. Many students have drawn so many beautiful drawings and sell these drawings online too. It might not be as satisfying as drawing on normal canvas and paper, but it helps students where they do not have to bring or carry around so many stuff everywhere, when all they could bring are just a stylist pen and a tab. Furthermore, the inventors created a platform, for example for iPad it is called ProCreate, where people could use this platform to versatile their drawings and also you are able to create animations or GIFs using this platform.
Last but not least, these advanced digital devices can become a communication tool between them and their classmates, lecturers. Before the global pandemic, these digital devices had already been used as communication tools. For example, everyone is using WhatsApp where you only need the Internet or the device has to be connected to WIFI, and you can text and call whoever via Internet. Furthermore, you can also create a WhatsApp group, which most teachers did with their students and the parents, to share more accurate news and information. During this global pandemic, even though WhatsApp is currently still being used, whenever the online distance learning is ongoing, the teachers preferred to use Google Meet for video calls with the students. Teachers are able to share their screens to show them some examples and also get to interact with students, eye-to-eye.
In conclusion, as with many other inventions, digital devices serve a lot of benefits as well. It depends on the individuals and guidance and limitations given by their parents on the digital devices’ usages. With good and well-managed care on the usage of these digital devices, greater outcomes will be seen. For a good experience in your studies, you can check Widad for more information.
