Promoting emotional learning, digitally

History proves that money and fame are not happiness parameters.

This is especially true in the case of some brilliant corporate leaders, who are at the top of their game. But, are they happy? The answer is, not likely.

Many such leaders carry the emotional baggage of being bullied or mistreated in the past as a result of which they lack emotional factors like empathy, gratitude, self-
humility, compassion, courage, and self-reflection.

Being mindful

Anxiety often builds up during the student stage where they are not introduced to emotional education and moral learning which absolve them from emotions and sentiments.

However, mindfulness-awareness is very important in the holistic development of students who often find themselves at the crossroads of growth and development, and happiness and peace.

Competition doesn’t allow one to think beyond success and it is deeply ingrained into our mindsets. Therefore, there is a severe lack of empathy and understanding among adults.

While many may attribute technology to be the culprit in isolating people and making them less human, the tables can be turned and we can leverage technology to be an omnipresent ally that can improve social and psychological paradigms of the human mind.

Technology and digital tools are especially helpful when educational institutions are spread in remote inaccessible areas where formal education in its raw form is the only academic introduction to the children.

Virtual interaction

Technology can be integrated into the conventional education system where students can virtually interact with mediums that help boost their learning reformations as well as make them aware of whether their actions are righteous or not. For instance, there is an innovative device which has a fingertip pulse sensor that monitors the students’ feelings and what is going on inside their minds. Teachers who have used it claim that it encourages students to self-reflect on their lives, the turbulence if any, and work on their relationships with people around them.

While Indian culture often tilts towards moral education, there has been an infiltration of several negative elements that are defining the concept of socially sensitive growth. Communication aided by technology plays an important role in helping parents, as well as teachers, understand the mind trajectory of the students.

Artificial Intelligence can play a role in tracking the students’ behaviours and suggesting teachers the modulations that they can adopt to make their teaching more impactful. The same can be extended for parents. Interestingly, it is said a Chinese school has fitted classrooms with cameras that recognise the emotions of the students.

Audio-visual mediums are also the perfect means to help children understand the ideas of emotional well-being. Visual teaching is more impactful when it comes to the learning process. For instance, we tend to retain more when we watch a movie compared to reading. With visuals, there are no filters, which means whatever you see gets instantly registered in your mind subconsciously. Visual combined with auditory and kinaesthetics is the way of expressing and storytelling. In a nutshell, digital tools in education can actually promote a lot of engagement and help students stimulate their social and emotional learning.

Positive psychology

Today, the world is more into positive psychology. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers and parents focus more on what is good in a child rather than spend time changing the negative aspects. Of course, there is always a scope for improvement, but it will be more impactful if the positive elements are taken up and worked upon.

Yet again, digital tools help determine what are the positive attributes of the child and what methodologies should be undertaken to refine them. With each student having his or her own character chart and ability to learn, teachers will now be able to personalise their approach. This will make students connect with themselves and improve their self-awareness.

An emotionally-aware child will be better at taking care of the surroundings and society better than one who is bottled up. This emotional freedom will convert competition into inspiration and will act as a catalyst for emotionally mature adults who are balanced and free of their baggage.

Clearly, there is more to technology than meets the eye.

(The writer is founder, Matrrix)