Technology has had great influence
on all aspects of modern life. New teaching and learning technologies have had
important effects in every time period. When our grandparents went to grade
school the most exciting technologies were chalkboards and pencil sharpeners.
Today, teachers extensively use the Internet to access information or
communicate and share teaching styles with others. Technology has enabled
teachers to engage their students making topics more
exciting and fun to learn and study. There are interactive tools that allow the
instructor to work through a calculus problem with the class or Online databases have also made researching
for projects and essays all the more easy for students. Access to scholarly
journals and a wider range of information have improved students’ learning
process and produced better outcomes.
While technology has tremendously aided
teachers and students and progressed the way the world learns, it has also
stunted normal social interaction, especially in young adults. Students no
longer need to have face-to-face contact with their professor or even other
students while working on a group project. E-mail, cell phones, and social
networks have made it incredibly easy to communicate with others without
physically being present. Today’s communication networks are far more
extensive than telephones and fax machines. Text messages and twitter updates
are now a new accepted form of distraction that teachers must put up with. While
students have improved methods to learn at school, they are losing important
social skills that are a significant part of schooling at a young age. Young
adults and children will grow up with limited social interactions that they
will need once they make it into the professional world.
Tugui, Alexandru. 2011. "Calm
Technologies: A New Trend for Educational Technologies." World Future Review 3, no. 1: 64-72. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed January 18, 18, 2012).
I feel that it would greatly benefit teachers to use the technologies they are trying to fight to benefit their teaching. For example, text messaging could be used in all sorts of examples in class, with survey software (Like the calculus clicker software), etc.
ReplyDeleteLaptops may be a distraction, but if students use them correctly they can greatly enrich the classroom- bringing ideas found from the web into discussion and quick note taking.
I also wrote about technology in education and how it can help. Obviously, we all know that many kids are obsessed with gaming and technology these days. So I was wondering, Do you think it could be a good idea to make learning into a gaming situation? Either in the classroom or while doing homework; I was thinking maybe if the student got a question right they got to play a short round of a game. I feel this may keep children interested in learning and make them have a stronger want to learn. This could be a complicated scenario, but I feel it is doable and could promote a want to learn from children in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think that having a game interaction in the classroom could help the students be more engaged in class. The game could somehow tie into the subject matter that they are working with in class or in their homework. However, I feel that we must keep faith that children are capable of traditional learning and do not need to be bribed with games in order to participate in class. I do think your idea is a good one and would help keep kids' interest though.
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