Category: Technology

How an Attention-Seeking Behavior Makes You Less Creative?

If your creativity is driven by a desire to get attention, you’re never going to be creatively fulfilled.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt

One of the greatest gifts you can give to someone is your time and attention. A line that I read a year ago on a website and guess from which site? One of the most attention-grabbing websites, Facebook. Somehow, we all agree with this statement, I saw many of my students who have connected me over social media, shared this post multiple times on their FB walls. Even some people tag it to their besties. It’s a powerful feeling, to get attention – I agree. But What happened when our cravings to all these attention goodies finally fulfilled? And we get all the attention from our favourite people whom we always fascinate in our lives. If you ask me, my experience was not entirely happy.

I think the first time I can remember using my personality to get attention when I was nine. We all have our first childhood crush in the form of a friend or a relative like cousins, and there was I am. My first crush was my classmate, and as a nine-year-old, I always bragged about how well I can read alphabets in front of her 😀 . One day when I finished reading alphabets, she turned to me and said ‘show-off’ at one instance my urge to seek her attention was fulfilled, but on the other, a new wave of feeling emerged for her – the feeling of Hate 🙂

Maybe the situation might go opposite but again, that shifting of an urge to ambition make things worse. Then there’s another powerful feeling that people have been lucky to experience a lot. Continue reading “How an Attention-Seeking Behavior Makes You Less Creative?”

What Is Digital Dating Abuse and How It Impacting Today’s Teen?

Majority of the teens have become the target of cyberbullying due to online dating, with ‘name-calling and rumour-spreading’ being the most common form of harassment.

Nowadays, technology becomes an integral aspect of our daily routine, and our lives become more exposed to cyberspace than before. When there is a hope that in the era of social distancing, technology can minimise the physical distance and provide a sense of empathy, there is also a risk that the same technology may deteriorate individual’s privacy and freedom. Since March 2020, I received 2 cases of Cyberbullying and one case of Cyber-Dating Abuse. Moreover, a massive increase in cyber abuse cases in India and Pakistan has been seen since the Covid-19 closure. Alone Pakistan has a tremendous 189% increase in cyber-harassment cases since April 2020. There are loads of researches available on the topic of Cyberbullying, and you can Google it at your ease. However, in this short article, I will discuss two critical questions that, I believe, every teen and parent should ask before engaging in any sort of online social activity. Why and how teenagers around the world, including Pakistan, are becoming more prone to cyber harassment than before? What is Digital Dating Abuse, and how it affects me or my kid’s social development? Continue reading “What Is Digital Dating Abuse and How It Impacting Today’s Teen?”

11 Interactive Tools for Teaching in Virtual Learning Environment

11 Interactive Tools for Teaching in Virtual Learning Environment

In the outbreak of a contagious pandemic, online teaching and learning become the significant educational need of the time. To reduce social contact and the spread of Covid-19, education facilities around the world are moving their instruction online. However, this drastic change also brings new challenges for academia and teaching at large. The teaching in a virtual environment is way different than a four-walled classroom teaching. Collaborative and kinaesthetic activities that teachers usually include in their lesson plans do not work in a virtual classroom. According to a survey made in March 2020 by UIO, about 74% of teachers finds that the overall transition from traditional teaching to digitization is difficult or tough due to several challenges. The top among the list is technological challenges that include digital overload, pedagogical insecurity and learning new educational technologies. Continue reading “11 Interactive Tools for Teaching in Virtual Learning Environment”

COVID Break: Tips for Parents to Reduce Homework Frustration

COVID Break: Tips for Parents to Reduce Homework Frustration

Due to COVID 19, our lives are now confined to our homes except for security and healthcare workers who are front liners to keep us safe and sound. However, this new era of social distancing also redefines the concept of schooling and open up the limitless space and need for E-Learning. Recently, many students, as well as their parents, shared their frustration and the struggling, they have gone through with the home tasks they’re receiving on a daily basis. Being a teacher and part of that VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) setup, I would completely agree and understand their level of frustration. The schoolwork has now become homework and navigating being a parent, who also may have to teach, is difficult.

Recently, I attended a webinar arranged and hosted by Huntington Learning Centre (a franchise of educational learning centres in the United States offering in-centre and online tutoring services) discussing tips for parents and some basic strategies to cope with the hype of daily school work given by schools these days. Continue reading “COVID Break: Tips for Parents to Reduce Homework Frustration”

Digital Well-being Guidelines for Parents during the Height of Pandemic

Digital Well-being Guidelines for Parents during the Height of Pandemic

Since the spread of Covid-19, technology is becoming the primary source of communication among people around the Globe. However, this sudden increase in technology usage, either in the form of a laptop or cellphone, also increases the need for the digital guidelines to provide a healthy and safe digital environment. Recently, Centre for Humane Technology (CHT) has provided a list of guidelines that will help parents who are feeling overwhelmed trying to navigate the amount of technology used in their children’s lives and their own.

In any circumstances, we should be aware that many of these products are actually not on your side. The social media platforms that many parents and children use everyday profit by keeping us scrolling, clicking, and watching. The result is a system that creates addiction, self-obsession, misinformation, and content that outrages and polarizes. Children are experiencing some of the worst effects of this broken attention economy. Continue reading “Digital Well-being Guidelines for Parents during the Height of Pandemic”