Technology has created laziness among youths in the country, according to a lecturer at Apex Medical University.
Dr. John Mudenda has told TV2 News in Lusaka today that the introduction of computers and calculators in schools has made pupils to stop using their brain.
He says pupils are only using computers and calculators to solve problems before them a development he says will have a negative impact on the future generation.
Dr. Mudenda who is Director of medical education at Apex Medical University, says although technological advancement is welcome, it is making pupils incapable of using their brain.
He says most youths now depend more on using calculators when solving mathematical questions instead of using their brains.
Dr. Mudenda says this is a departure from the past mode of learning where pupils solved arithmetic problems without using calculators.
He has appealed to the Ministry of education to consider getting rid of calculators during examinations.
ZNBC
WHERE IS THIS MEDICAL UNIVERSITY SITUATED, DR MOVE WITH TECHNOLOGY WHY SHOULD WE RELY ON ANCIENT WAY OF SOLVING ISSUES ITS LIKE TELLING SOMEONE TO WALK FROM LIVINGSTONE TO LUSAKA INSTEAD OF USING A VEHICLE, WORK UP DOC
This is not the stone age what knid of Doctor are you?
Dr Mudenda, you’re one dull & confused character! In South East Asia, primary school kids are using laptops in class and you’re complaining about calculators? Architects in developed countries use AutoCAD software to design the sophisticated buildings that can withstand earthquakes while i-diots like yourself would rather they use a pencil & drawing board. We’ll never develop with such kind of “Dr’s” being given airtime to express their backwardness.
DR????? hey get off the reactionary jacket and move with the wave of advancement – look the more exposeeee we get with the gadgets the more we understand them, when we understand them – we get to know how they are made – as we do that! hey thats how a bill gates was born. its embarrassing how people get confused at ATMs over simple operations. DOC! we need the technology. we think when we enter the problems for the machin to assist us solve them – it takes skills! gadget engineers emerge from long term usage of these tools. hey it reminds me of the hackers cashing in from siberia – hired by the very firms that we famously know to manufacture computors.
I disagree with this. I think technology has advanced the way pupils should solve problems. For example much more complex calculations can be solved with the aid of calculators. This should even encourage the ministry of education to reform the education system IMO.
They can now introduce other subjects like calculus and require pupils submit research papers in certain subjects since the information is widely available on the internet. We should not fear technology but rather use it as a tool for further advancement.
Therefore the introduction of calculators and computers should aid schools to provide other much more advanced courses that require this technology. That is just my opinion on the issue.
And this guy is a director of a medical school?
i wouldnt school there
Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, please!!!!!! I just hope he is not discouraging his medical students from using the latest advanced Medical Technology once they begin their practice.
Imagine, if this Dr was in charge of Ridgeway Campus!!!!!!!!!!!
This Dr is a director of Medical stores ,not a medical school !
I think it is the Doctor who is affected. He is really not using his brain, why should children use tupendelo instead of calculators? Can the doctor add 1/2 +1/5 using his odd fashioned tupendelo style.Zambian old people can you grow mentally as well !!!
Dr Mudenda you are offside,am not sure where you have and what speciality are you?However if you have worked in Intensive Care Units you will appreciate the amount medical technology how it has completely changed patient diagnosis,monitoring and management.In the past yes nurses and doctors used to use calculators to calculate things like cardiac out ,now it is not the case ,the cardiac monitors have software in them immediately throw out figures.Ba Dula please move with time .Ministry of Education please do not pay attention to this stone age era doctor.
E=mc2 did not come from a calculator. There is no substitute for replcing basic arythmetical skill like doing fractions and multiplication with only your pencil and paper. Once this strong foundation is laid only then can you move on to calculators. Non eucledean geometry, quantum theory etc, upto the top contemporary mathematical and physics research all comes from paper and pencil and brain, computers only come in to test and verify the created models. You cant tell a computer to create new mathematics, you also cant tell it to teach you how to think. To solve problems you need to think. The DR had a point, technology is usefull but it cant replace thinking.
The aim of education is to develop ones thinking powers, you develop much more neurones by reading yourself than having a software read for you, by calculating yourself than having a computer do it for you , at a later stage when you are working for NASA you can use supercomputers to help arrive at answers. Likewise in medicine (YAYA) the fact that over 80% diagnoses are made on history alone will never change, and you need your good old traditional brain to get a good history. Those powerfull machines keeping your 95 year old, multiple stroke, demented, end stage heart and kidney disease patient alive cant tell tell you its actuallly time to switch them off. Thats where your consultant of old comes inand talks to the family thats its time to pull the plug.
#12 Muntu Well said 80 % of patient diagnosis is made on history but you still need that pathology,CT scan,etc to confirm your primary diagnosis.Infact Muntu death is common in third world countries simply because we lack basic computurised diagnotic tools like sats probes .In the consultation rooms you can make all the diagnosis and prescribe but how many times do patients come back with complications because of missed diagnosis?Definetly no one needs square root tables ever again thats gone forever.
Ba Doctor,Ordinary brain can not much with new advanced tech.There must be some technological aid to get into the system.
Please people spare the Doc!!!
No 5 you are spot on. the dear doctor has failed to recorgnise that ist actually the education system that is failing the young learners. it has failed to respond to thechanging times. the education system should reform to achieve the everything dr mudenda is talking about.
As with most issues, there are two extremes here to be wary of:- On one extreme, students follow a curriculum that treats computers and new technology as an enemy of education at foundation stage. This is where everything is switched off during classes apart from electricity and only for lummination purposes. Slide rules, square root tables, log books, Abacus, etc are favoured and seen as developing the mind at foundation stage to sharpen thinking and empower it. On the other extreme, students follow a curriculum that treats new technology as a friend and liberator from having to learn things from first principle at foundation stage. During classes, every gadget is switched on, and using the latest software. Smart phones, Tablet PCs, internet, cutting edge technology straight from R & D
Contd…….straight from R & D labs etc, are favoured and seen as means of preparing one’s mind for tomorrow’s world.
The solution is really to strike a balance between the two depending on location. And reading between the lines, this is basically what most bloggers here are saying, albeit in different ways. But, whatever the location, whatever the gadget one has, laziness is not an option. We are made to think and advance to the next level.
Calculators never made maths easy, a calculator does not magically tell you answers
people don’t even take time to to think about what was said. i like what number 5 said. what the doc is saying is true. a good number of the youths here are attached to their calculators. the way i luk at things, the more dependent you are the less independent you are. ofcourse people you are intelectuals why would we want to get rid of technology. lets not show our ignorance. even the people that make these buildings do a lot of maths(without calcs). we may advance technologically as a generation but as individuals the majority are walking from livingstone to lusaka. OUR BRAINS ARE THERE 4 SOMETHING, OUR HEAD DOES NOT KEEP OUR EARS APART FOR NOTHING. THINK THATS ALL.
doc.sel yo cars and start walking on foot if thats the case..