As a member of
today's society I love technology and do not think that I could ever go back to
living without it. That being said I
believe that technology is used in classrooms way more than it should be. Technology is a wonderful tool and is often
very helpful to students. However
students are becoming way too reliant on technology and are have a hard time
doing work and answering questions without it.
There are many positives to technology and I believe that it does
deserves a place in the classroom but it has to be limited. Here are three reasons why technology should
be limited in the classroom:
- It causes students to be distracted. When students are in front of computers, tablets, and phones they always have to check what's going on both on social medias and text. I am one of these students who get distracted, especially if I find something interesting on Pinterest. One of my professors asked that none of us use any sort of technology in the classroom because it takes away our focus. Her request made sense to me, but other students were shocked and aggravated that they would actually have to participate in a class that they paid thousands of dollars for rather than staring at their computer screen.
- Technology is causing students to forget that they are able to actually store information in their brains. We rely so heavily on technology to give us answers. Most people do not even give a question any thought before turning to Google. We need to remember that there are other ways of finding information. It has been proven that you are more apt to remember something you looked up in a book due to the action of physically looking something up, rather than just googling it.
- Technology is ruining our spelling skills and grammar knowledge. Due to spell check people are no longer relying on the skills it takes to sound out a word and figure out how to spell it. This makes for a panic when people are faced with the issue of spelling a word when there is no technology that can be used, like during a test. The text speak that goes hand in hand with technology is ruining us as well. Students are so used to using shorthand that they are having trouble using correct grammar in their papers.
When I was in high school, many people were concerned about technology in the classroom, too. Calculators were replacing slide rulers. The horror!
ReplyDeleteDuring the review leading up to the Physics final, the teacher said it would be an open book test. Someone asked the teacher whether they could bring a calculator. He replied, "You can bring anything that doesn't dim the lights when you plug it in. It won't help."
"It causes students to be distracted. "
Sounds like an opportunity for personal growth. Because once you leave school and begin working, most companies log your internet use as a matter of course. If you haven't learned how to focus on the tasks that your employer wishes you to do and not social medias and text... Well. Lets just say it will end badly for your career.
"Technology is causing students to forget that they are able to actually store information in their brains."
And I say good. It's helpful to memorize the times tables and definitions of common words. For everything else, there's the Internet. Give me five minutes to read the wiki page and follow a few of the links and I can engage in a critical discussion on the topic.
"you are more apt to remember something you looked up in a book"
Ink on dead trees. How last-century.
"Technology is ruining our spelling skills and grammar knowledge."
Only if you ignore the red and blue squiggly lines that most word processing (and even blog commenting) software provides while you input text. Granted, this does cause homonym confusion.
I'll note that I first typed in "hominym", which I knew was the wrong spelling. Then I right-clicked on the word and it automatically changed to the correct one. I consider this a tremendous benefit.
"when there is no technology that can be used, like during a test."
Any teacher who disallows technology during a test should have their consciousness raised. While I personally excelled at timed impromptu essay tests, my children could not.