Technology and Education

If you look back at your life in school technology has always been there.  Unless you were outside learning how to write with a stick in the dirt, then you have been using technology in your classes.  From being inside and writing with a pencil all the way to typing on a brand new laptop.  We generally don’t look at a pencil as a piece of technology but stop and think,  was the pencil not an advancement from writing with a  feather and ink?  Was the pencil not an advancement from writing in non erasable pen? We never really realize but everything we use in school today and have been using for the past 12 years of our educational lives are pieces of technology.  From overheads turning to smart boards, pencils and paper to typing on a laptop or tablet,  even learning out of a textbook to learning from a powerpoint slide.  All are new advancement in technology and plays some roll in technology in schools.  Due to these advancement technology now plays a huge role in our education especially at the university level where most of our work is online rather out of a book or from a lesson plan.

How do you view technology now though?  You see students using laptops, phones, and tablets on a daily basis.  My impression on these forms of technology are that they take away from us truly learning the material in our classes.  The newest forms of technology being used as much as we use them in class takes away from us truly learning what we need to know.  At first people looked at technology in schools as a productive idea but is it really?  Grades are shown to drop the more you try to learn off a computer screen rather than reading and writing notes and lessons on pencil and paper.  Over time individuals may realize that they don’t take in information as well off of their laptops like they did off of a piece of paper they wrote everything down on.  When you write you have to focus and keep your eyes on the paper otherwise it may end up sloppy.  I can look anywhere and everywhere and still type perfectly fine especially seen as my laptop will correct something if i spell it wrong.  So when you look at the first impression that technology in class and using it in education would be productive is that really true? Should we use technology to the extent we do or should we rely more towards writing notes and reading out of a book still too?  While it is easier to get information down into a document on your laptop faster than copying it to a piece of paper which is more productive and helpful?  While technology does play a huge role in schooling today especially at higher levels of education maybe the deciding factor will fall more towards an individuals decision to primarily use technology rather than what everyone else thinks is the best for learning.