A proper balance should be struck between humanity and technology. Technology can supplement but cannot be a substitute for the conventional teaching methods, opines Geoffrey V. Morson, an international lawyer, who was a delegate at the three-day Transforming Education Conference for Humanity (TECH) 2018.

“We had started with students in a classroom and now electronic education has become popular. It has, no doubt, made tremendous impact on the learning abilities of students, but may impair their social skills,” he told The Hindu on the sidelines of the meeting. As the conference bears the name of ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ (it is being jointly organised by the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) and the Government of AP, it would be all the more appropriate to maintain a proper balance between humanity and technology, he said.

“The Mahatma wrote a book: “Swatantrayam legally, culturally and democratically,” which reflects the values for which he stood during his lifetime. “When the US with 50 different States, each following different laws, in addition to the Federal Union laws, could come out with good solutions to their problems, India, with its ancient culture can work wonders,” he said. Mr. Morson expressed the view that creators, teachers and students should be owners of the digital content. India has a number of academic institutes, IT professionals and highly qualified technologists and there was no need to depend on other nations for data. “You (India) can develop on your own by developing available content and create data on your own instead of depending on the west for everything,” he said.

‘Useful meet’

He found the conference very useful. “I had learnt a lot from the technological innovations.,” he said.