Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Technology in Education

Does the Internet and technology offer promise and hope for education or learning or does it just create additional problems?
I think that technology is becoming more and more important to include in the classroom, even though there is a possibility it can create problems especially with time management. Technology provides alternative programs and activities for students to learn and practice what they learn which is a great alternative to constant worksheets and bookwork. It is an extremely helpful resource for teachers to find and incorporate ideas into their classroom and for students to use as a resource in classroom projects.
What do you see as the promise and what do you see as the problems?
Learning how to use a computer and other technology is a tool that is becoming more critical each day. All careers incorporate technology somehow therefore students who are looking to have a good job should become familiar with it as soon as possible. However, by using technology a lot, students may neglect to use traditional methods of doing things. For instance, their spelling may suffer because they simply use spellcheck on documents and consequently don't learn from their mistakes or while working on a report or project they may only know how to use online search engines to research instead of through the old fashioned reliable way of books. It is inevitable that there will be concerns with this new technology age, but I think technology in the classroom is a definite must.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

I agree with all that you said. Something that I hadn't thought about was that students may end up neglecting other academic areas because they spend so much time on technology. I also didn't think about it being a time management issue, but you do have to consider time to start and shutdown computers. You also have to take into consideration the fact that technology doesn't always work. Good blog!

seedmi01 said...

I would have to agree with you as well. I myself have found the allure of technology is hard to ignore, even when you have a big project to be working on. I am not sure, however, how we can find a way to get around this problem without monitoring the students every minute of the day.