Is Online Education Leading to Technology Addiction?

Abstract

The Coronavirus outbreak which began in December 2019 became a world-wide pandemic by March 2020.The education industry had to adapt to this new change in a speedy and most feasible way by shifting to virtual classes over the internet and other available resources. As a result of this several tools for video and audio conferencing, text messaging and networking became very popular. Platforms such as Google Classroom and LMS( Learning Management Systems) gained popularity. Lectures are conducted in two ways- either live interaction of faculty and students on platforms such as Google Meet, Zoom app, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting and other similar applications; or by sending pre-recorded videos to students using LMS, Whatsapp and other similar applications. Digital applications are being primarily used for conducting online teaching, learning and evaluation. We tried to survey the amount of time the students are spending on their smart devices and whether it is leading to or has already caused technology addiction. We prepared a questionnaire and grouped it into 3 categories namely, Usage of Technology, Impact of Online Education and the Time Spent on various categories of applications. Keywords: Pandemic, Online education, Technology addiction, Impact of online education, Time management