SOA Silver Jubilee Lecture: Balancing Smart Technology With Human Element Key For Future, Says UGC Vice Chairman

Bhubaneswar: The advent of smart technology has been revolutionising life on planet Earth, but its long-term impact on the essential elements of being human has to be assessed, University Grants Commission (UGC) Vice-Chairman Prof. Deepak Kumar Srivastava said on Wednesday.

“Use of technology is enhancing the productivity of the human brain. The ability to think, act and analyse is being challenged by excessive use of technology,” Prof. Srivastava said while delivering the Silver Jubilee Lecture at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University here.

Rather than renouncing smart technology, one has to learn to develop higher consciousness necessary to use technology in the optimal manner “helping us outwardly, but not limiting us inwardly,” opined Prof. Srivastava.

“We need to set our technology in the background, learn how to detach from it and connect to it when necessary,” he said on the topic ‘Balancing Smart Technology with Human Element for an Enlightened Future.’

Prof. Srivastava felt latest innovations like Chat GPT was useful, but there’s a need to control it with focus on human conscientiousness.

“If necessity is the mother of invention, human element is the soul of human existence,” he said.

An expert in human relations management and labour relations, Prof. Srivastava said the world was on the cusp of 5th Industrial Revolution with the arrival of smart watches, smart TV, smart phones, smart calculators and smart automobiles.

He said the Indian government has been proactive in using technology in the education sector and it has been kept at minimal level for early education of children as major responsibility rested with Anganwadi Workers and others.

He pointed out that National Education Policy (NEP) focused on children’s physical, motor, cognitive, socio-emotional, cultural, artistic, communication, literacy and numeracy development skills.

He added at the same time, one of the central principles steering the education system would be extensive use of technology in teaching and learning, removing language barriers, increasing access as well as education planning and management in desirable areas like smart classes, smart curriculum and classroom outcomes.

Stating that India would become ‘Vikshit Bharat’ by 2047, Prof. Srivastava said the role of the university was to instil a deep-rooted pride in being Indian not only in thought but also in spirit, intellect and deeds among the students.

SOA Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof. Bibhuti Bhushan Pradhan and Dean (Students’ Welfare) Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das also addressed the audience, and Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda presided over the programme.