Technology: How it changed the teaching environment

At the age of seventy three, Martiros Gulderyan lives in North Hollywood with his wife and two daughters. He was born in Paris, France in 1931. At the age of sixteen, he moved to Armenia. He received his secondary education in France and higher education in Armenia. He graduated as a teacher and translator from the Institute of foreign languages. At the beginning, he worked as a teacher of French at the secondary school and later worked at the Technical University of Yerevan, Armenia. In Armenia, after the completion of the Institute, he worked as a teacher of French in a remote village. Martiros is my mother’s uncle from her mother’s side. As we sat in his office inside of his house, he began telling me interesting facts about his life. He explains how difficult it was trying to find jobs in Armenia and how hard it was working without any help of any kind. Since he had been through a lot during his working years, we discussed how much the world has changed due to technology and its good sides and bad. “It seems as if the entire world is beginning to become robotic. Everything is running and depending on technology. That may or may not be a good thing,” Martiros adds.

In Armenia, I taught reading, writing and speaking French. Oh, but we didn’t have much help. Technology was out of the question. There was nothing except a blackboard and a piece of chalk; the rest was left up to the imagination of the teacher. In the 60s and 70s, the audiovisual methods of teaching with the use of technical means were fashionable but when they lost their newness, the results became appalling. Most of the teachers of foreign languages returned to proving that the old methods still worked.

Well, the situations in America and Armenia were very different. America is a more developed country. Armenia did not have all the luxury that we have here. Under many conditions, teachers left Armenia to come to America and hardly returned. See, technology is important and helpful in this world. It is an easier and simpler way of working and organizing. But, technology has also been a negative affect on the world. [Sigh]. First and for most, it has dried out the brains of this generation's children and even adults. Technology has blunted the mathematical thinking of children. And the television and video games have extinguished the interest for reading. This is not a good thing. These negative examples are numerous.

Well, technology plays a big role in everyday life now. No person lives without using some sort of technology each day. It becomes a part of people. Personally, I don’t really use computers much. I watch television, but only the French channel because I like to listen to the language so I won’t forget it. Since I don’t really interact with French people that much. [Eh]. As you know, I have two daughters and both of them have their own computers. And they don’t use it much but when they do there is absolutely no way of tearing them away until they are ready to move. That is the problem with young people these days, they always have their eyes glued to the television of the computer, or their ears glued to the radio. They never want to sit down and just talk about reality and what goes on in the world anymore. [Looks down onto the floor] But what can I say.

Oh, please don’t get me wrong. Technology does not always have a negative affect on the world. It is very vital in this world. Without all the new types of computers, television and transportation it would be extremely difficult to live in this world. I’m just saying how the minds of people are beginning to change and how the end results of everything may not be a good one. [Pauses for a moment]. But still, in my opinion, technology is a good thing for people of the newer generation. It is much easier for them to work and live life. I do not think that anyone now can live without the radio or cars or movie theaters. However, when it comes to school and teaching, I would not like to go back to the old method because it was much more difficult to write with chalk and have it breaks or finish. It was just a hassle. With technology, you can use the PowerPoint provided in the computer or projectors. Just about anything. You can also watch movies that are class related. So, technology is very useful in the working environment.

Honestly, I don’t know why people these days depend on technology so much. I guess because back then no one knew what a computer was or how it worked, they didn’t complain. They thought they had it good. And they did. Now, since everyone has already become so attached to the computers, cars, radios and all those other things involving technology, they just don’t want to think of how life would be without it and so it seems to us that they can’t. But all it is is the fact that they think they can’t and so that is how they make themselves believe that life without technology would be impossible.

And when it comes to Armenia, I definitely think that working conditions have changed. Now more and more people are getting  computers and cars. These make it easier to get to work and to actually do the work because computers save time. I’m sure that Armenia and the rest of the world is not that far behind on technology [laughs].