Technology: Improvement or digression in Education
I am staring down at this weird thing that my teacher is calling paper. And then there is this other object sitting next to it that I have never seen before in my life. It is yellow and seems to have a lot of edges. I pick it up and find that it is kind of heavy, it reminds me of styluses, but it has something that seems to make marks on things. My teacher is now calling this weird object a pencil and telling me that I am supposed to pick it up and write my name on my paper. So I pick it up but I don’t know how to hold it much less how to write my name.
While our children are still learning, we are beginning to head in the direction of the inability to determine what a pencil is. Is this what our education program has come to? Have we gone so far as to the fact that we think technology is so much more important than simple hands on learning?
According to author Katie Lepi, “there is no denying that it (technology) is a red-hot trend in education” (n.p.).
This technological turn in education is a split debate between for improvement and for the worst. Previous pedagogy is based in curriculum that is non-technological, however the new pedagogy is leaning towards a technological approach.
“Technology does not, and cannot, support the old pedagogy of telling/lecturing, except in the most minimal of ways, such as with pictures or videos. In fact, when teachers are using the old ‘telling’ paradigm, adding technology, more often than not gets in the way,” says author Marc Prensky (p.2).
The educational field is now in the middle of the transition from this “old” pedagogy of teachers “telling/lecturing” to this “new” pedagogy of children teaching themselves with teacher guidance.
With the new type of pedagogy technology has become a great part of the educational process, said Prensky (p.1).
While the “new” pedagogy is incorporating more technologically advanced thoughts, our children are beginning to lack other pertinent skills.
“Technology is changing the roles of the students and the teachers as well as developing technical skills and allowing for more collaborative work,” says Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students (n.p.).
While there are some claims that technology is allowing for more collaborative work, we must still consider if this collaborative work is done using technology or done face to face.
“But there is mounting indirect evidence that constant use of technology can affect behavior, particularly in developing brains, because of heavy stimulation and rapid shifts in attention,” says reporter Matt Ritchel (n.p.).
Attention spans in students are beginning to dwindle and the inability to not use technology is increasing.
“The survey revealed that technology has become a significant part of students’ everyday lives with the average using three devices daily. A majority (67%) can’t go more than one hour without using some sort of digital technology, with 40% not lasting more than 10 minutes,” reports Edudemic (np.).
Many of the students that are currently going through our education system believe that they cannot make it through the day without at least one form of technology. However when it comes specifically to reading, comprehend differently when we are using a screen than when we have paper in front of us.
“Neuroscience has revealed that humans use different parts of the brain when reading from a piece of paper or from a screen. So the more you read on screens, the more you minds shifts towards ‘non-linear’ reading- a practice that involves things like skimming a screen or having your eyes dart around a web page,” states T.J. Raphael (n.p.).
Paper books are beginning to disappear in the educational community. Due to the lack of what Raphael considers paper reading; children’s attention spans are beginning to shorten themselves.
“The widespread beliefs of teachers are that students’ attention spans are being affected by the use of technology,” according to the opinions of teachers that spoke with the New York Times (n.p.).
Attention spans are only one of multiple different effects that teachers are beginning to see in children along with the rise in use of technology.
“Technology is leaving side effects in children including: elevated exasperation, deteriorated patience, declining writing skills, and lack of physical interactivity,” reports Edudemic (n.p.).
Our children’s skills sets are beginning to evolve with the increase in technological use. Ipads can be operated by children so young that they can barely speak, so with this new development how are the children achieving in the “old school” topics such as handwriting or looking up the answer to a question using a book?
“Teachers described what might be called a ‘Wikipedia problem,’ in which students have grown so accustomed tog getting quick answers with a few keystrokes that they are more likely to give up when an easy answer eludes them. The Pew research found that 76 percent of teachers believed students had been conditioned by the Internet to find quick answers,” stated teachers that were interviewed by the New York Times (n.p.).
With our children being conditioned to this quick fix we are only contributing to their short attention spans. However the other side believes that technology is a good thing I our classroom, and it is actually preparing our students for their futures.
“Properly used, technology will help students acquire the skill they need to survive in a complex, highly technological knowledge-based economy,” says Edutopia (n.p.).
While some argue that technological based classrooms are just preparation for the furture, there are also hindrances in the everyday classroom and the students’ personality.
“Tolerance in children is vanishing quite increasingly due to the improper use of technology. For example, children get frustrated quickly when they surf the internet and the page they want to view takes time to load,” states Alice Martin (n.p.).
The frustration that has begun to develop within our youth, the irritation of non-instant gratification, stems from the increase in technological use.
“Media use among children and teenagers ages 8 to 19 has grown so fast that they on average spend twice as much time with screens each year as they spend in school,” says researcher Vicky Rideout (n.p.).
By using technology so heavily in our classroom not only are we contributing to deteriorating attention spans we are also making reality unreal to our students.
The heavy technology use, Dr Christakis said, “makes reality by comparison uninteresting” (n.p.).
