Blue Whale: Opportunity To Understand Students
BY ADMIN PUBLISHED January 22, 2018, UPDATED January 19, 2023
The blue whale has been one of the most discussed prevalent notoriety in the world in recent times, maybe after Kim Jong. The Blue Whale Game also is known as “Blue Whale Challenge”, is a 21st-century social network phenomenon that is claimed to exist in several countries, beginning in 2016.
Interestingly, it has been an important discourse and gives us some insights on few important things regarding blue whale. Here is what Ms. Vandana Rani pens down her thoughts about the same.
- Nature of discourse shaping around, education and other things related to children.
To understand the way we perceive our contemporary problems, I went and discussed blue whale issue with the teachers, individuals from different fields and my house maid. Sadly, all of them had a similar reaction (sympathy and blame on technology and youth) which again apes the contemporary media discourse. Although there were exceptions to the case more or less everyone was so covered with emotions that nobody could delve deeper into the problem.
It yields to an ill-formed opinion and is then patched up with some stop-gap arrangement which is then forgotten once the media loses its’ fancy for the subject. We need to understand, that problems related to children need due diligence and seriousness as it one of the biggest parameter related to nation-building. The culprit here is not media but we all need to re-look at ways we approach important problems.
- How technology is penetrating in our daily life and affecting our children.
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." – Issac Asimov
I find words of Asimov reflecting complete truism in our times and maybe in his times and all times perhaps. When I look at classes I can see not only the gap in terms of familiarity with technology among students and teachers but also in acceptance of the technology. It is indeed important for all of us to accept the growing impact of technology in our lives. Presently a lot of us has started looking at mobiles and computers in a child’s hand as a contraption instead of a tool. Mobile in a child’s hand is like a weapon in hands of a Neanderthal; both capable of helping a race to flourish or harm the individual.
A good teacher can not only help students to appreciate the technology but also help understand the scope of any tool. But this marriage of synergies can happen only when teachers are also open to learn from children and collaborate with them in this teaching-learning process. This will yield better control of the situation I think because teachers will not only be able to understand the world of children but come up with solutions which can have a relevant impact on it. This I feel will have more impact than seeking interim solutions to larger problems which usually revolve around the idea of refraining children from going near any technology which is rather impossible. We as educators or anyone working with children need to understand that technology is also having a huge impact on the way children are learning.
- Learning and engagement in our world
“Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety when the challenges are just balanced with the person’s capacity to act.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
In an era where we talk about holistic well being of a learner, it is inevitable to undermine the role of emotions in learning. The way our instruction method (with or sans technology) is delivered can play an important role in the quality of learning. In this interplay of learner-instructor-content-medium, engagement of a child is one of the most important aspects which is not only studied with great rigor in research circles but also spoken about by teachers with an ailing tone.
The problem again is how we look at the problem (malaria perspective) and getting so bogged down by it that we end up blaming technology and youth for it. It indeed is an area of concern but what is most important is to, understand and work towards achieving it.
I have seen this closely happening in student circles through Mindspark which utilizes aspects of motivation and engagement embedded in their platform. The irony to me is that the problem is not with children when they are disengaged or fidget but with us adults who are so conditioned that we have become conducive to boredom or monotonous work. The rule is simple, we all have to be adequately challenged and it is a very personal state of being making it a complex but important role of a facilitator to engage students.
Read more blogs here.
Lack of our understanding of this aspect has repercussions and is evident if you witness most of the math classes in the country. If children are not adequately challenged and supported in their path of learning, they are bound to shift from engagement towards entertainment (one which is vulgar and dangerous in its own way) which will have its own repercussions.
- Preparing for a world full of blue whales and white sharks
Few problems are symptomatic and they give us a window of opportunity to peep into problems deep down. It is important for all of us to understand that they should be handled in such a way to ensure a real solution. The first level is obviously precautionary where we are advised to use ointments and avoid going in places which house lot of mosquitoes; very similar to what we did 100 years back maybe with a different understanding of the problem. But if we really want to solve this problem, we in modern world ensure keeping places clean and ensure that we don’t have such breeding places. On the other hand, we have experts from different fields working on such problems and understanding things at a more micro level.
I think problems like blue whale also need this orientation during our confrontation with them. Confronting such issues like we treated malaria-not going in the forest is a myopic approach. We are similarly tackling the issue of the postmodern world where we are saying the best way is to keep children away from technology. Teachers here have an important role to play as they are not the only communicator of information but someone who can reinforce a character and emotional strength to children. On the other hand, we need experts from interdisciplinary fields like psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology and education research working on these problems. This I hope emphasizes the importance of research in education and important role which schools can play in it.
It is an important juncture where we all need to understand the role we can play in the development of the world where we see our children growing up. Government, media, schools, and parents have important contributions to make in this journey. Skills, right intent, and empathy are needed before we all keep just looking at problems like our forefathers looked at eclipses and before there is no child left behind.
