Controversy: Does Technology Demote Education?

There’s no denying that technology has grown to play a major role in education and learning. Students are using laptops, tablets, and smartphones to research, complete, and even collaborate on assignments, both in and outside of the classroom. Timothy D. Snyder and Thomas L. Friedman both have written articles expressing their opposing opinions on technology in the classroom. Timothy Snyder is a Professor of History at Yale University who has written five different award-winning books. In his article, “Why Laptops Are Distracting America’s Future Workforce”, Snyder explains to students and teachers why he is against technology in the classroom. Thomas Friedman is a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, author of six award-winning

Take another look at the classroom. There are many children, all while none are communicating, because they are in their devices. Matt Richtel states, “Researchers worry that constant digital stimulation like this creates attention problems for children with brains that are still developing, who already struggle to set priorities and resist impulses.” If students can't pay attention to the teacher, they can't learn. Now, rethink this scenario, so that the devices are gone. Instead, kids are interacting with each other, while together working on a project, and the room thriving with knowledge. Helping one another, they find solutions to all the problems facing them, without the help of the internet. They are greatly satisfied with their accomplishments, and they enjoyed communicating. This is what technology has ripped apart from us. This is the set of stairs we can rebuild, if us students use our minds instead of our

David Gelernter claims that “the root” of the problem (of school performance) is a child’s ability to think (Doc E). He argues that computers only give access to more information, not only overwhelming the student, but absolutely useless in teaching them real skills. In this arguments sophisticated technology is essentially equated to a shiny, useless tool in receiving an education. This point is again brought up in Doc F, where a child is pictured oozing at the exact things that at that moment passes by his window. This brings Gelernter’s arguments a step further by showing that children lose real life experiences and knowledge when they absorb it all behind a screen.

Many of our students have smartphones, laptops, and tablets they use throughout the school day for school work. While some students depend on their devices to look up the current fashion trends and football stats, we feel that technology has also enabled students to think in a different way. Many students are quick on their feet to Google information to prove their friend wrong, send texts and emails in less than 10 seconds, and get excited when they are allowed to use their

In the section titled The Dumbest Generation, “Digital Nation” lays out a haunting narrative describing technology’s negative impact on students today. This section draws from an interview with Mark Bauerlein, a professor and author of book titled “The Dumbest Generation.” Bauerlein claims that reading, writing and math skills of students have all already began to deteriorate. It seems that constant interruption and attempts to multitask are at the heart of this deterioration. I received my first smart phone just before the beginning of this semester, from my own experience I can only agree with the assertion that technology puts a damper on the educational experience. The issue does not come with the technology itself, rather, the desire for constant connection distracts from the learning experience. As the first generation of persons who grew up with technology become parents, I hope they can teach their children the skill of moderation and the importance of education – skills often not taught to kids today by their parents born before the technology boom. These ideas will solve the deterioration of reading, writing, and math that Bauerlein speaks

Learning methods have also been transformed by technology. Before technology was incorporated in schools, essay writing was hand written, regardless of how long the essay was. Mathematical problems were solved mentally or calculated on paper until the solution was found. Handwriting skills in children was good, because of the amount of practice they had using it everyday in their school work. Furthermore, children developed a vast amount of book knowledge by using library resources from actual books. However, today it is not the norm. Almost every school issues students with devices like iPads or tablets from as early as kindergarten. It is important to realize that with the use of technological devices, children would prefer the quick action of iPads and tablets in contrast to handwriting or reading a book to find reference points. To put it another way, children will end up using mobile devices both in and out of school, leaving no room for outdoor forms of recreation. A Northlines article, “Information Technology and Children”, mentions that the availability of Internet connection on mobile devices is harmful, because they can use it negatively, giving children an uncontrolled source of entertainment and connectivity. Similarly, the availability of

Students find all the information they need right online. Neil Postman says, “Schools are not now and have never been largely about getting information to children” (378). In Postman’s article its mentions how Little Eva goes nights with few hours of sleep because of her desire to stay up and research things that she finds interest in; Postman considers her to be strange for wanting to do this (377). Going with little sleep does no good for Little Eva. Where will she find the energy to get through school the next day? This will become a fighting battle between technology and sleep, one of which technology will win. By relying more so on machines to teach, will there be a need for educators anymore? Or, will they just be needed to show how to use the technology? Postman agrees by stating, “When we have machines that know how to do something about these problems, that is the time to rid ourselves of the expensive burden of schools or to reduce the function of teachers to ‘coaches’ in the uses of machines (as Ravitch envisions)” (382). The minds of students have grown diverse since the age of machines in education, making the classroom like a

The first image from a new report on Today.com helps support this. When the student says, “PSST. How do you turn this thing on?” it shows how technology impacted his ability to understand simple topics. Most technological devices have an on/off switch, which is why the student asks the other student how to turn it on. This proves that this student is so used to technology that he doesn’t even know how to open a book. Additionally, the boy’s facial express next to him shows his difficulty with the book as well. His face is puzzled. He is confused with what to do with the book. It is as if the cover of the book is a screen on an iPad or a Kindle. Lastly, the teacher in the image, Miss Idler, is showing no concern for her students’ confusion. This is showing that even adults do not fully comprehend how much technology is impacting their children. Adults need to be aware the too much technology is causing harm to children. All three of these examples show that technology has impacted the way in which the students are able to do simple activities in the

Remember that scary, grotesque, evil monster we were all scared of when we were younger? Well, it's alive, we just can't see it, and it's called technology. As we all know, technology is changing and evolving every day; but it's almost as if the technology is taking over the minds of our future generation. Schools are incorporating technology into learning more and more all the time. Every month there is a new phone, tablet, television, laptop and even thousands of websites. These devices can come in handy and can be helpful, but they almost are consuming everyone's mind and minimizing critical thinking. Many of technology users are children or young adults. Although the use of technology in education can have some positive results, it has more negative effects that are affecting students.

Technology has always been a human fascination, from the way it promotes rapid communication to the simple fact that it entertains, and connects people worldwide. As more and more technology-based education systems are being set up in classrooms, we have seen an era when smartphones overpower people, interpersonal communicaiton, and even minds. Personally, after reading these articles, I feel more compelled to quit the use of technology, whether it be the smartphone, laptops, or tablets, in a classroom setting. As the West Point Academy study showed, students tended to score better when any use of technological device was strictly banned. Further demonstrating that technology is a burden on effective learning, the Ereader study made me become aware that the mind is stimulated through actions,

The biggest problem with today’s education is how rapid technology is advancing. So rapid, in fact, that schools are attempting to keep up, but are sadly falling short. Teachers are being required to incorporate new technology into their everyday methods of teaching. The use of IPads or laptops in classrooms can be helpful to both teachers and students(edreform online classes)”. If a teacher is not overly familiar with the new devices, then the students will lose what little time they have to learn. As a teacher is attempting to fix technical problems in one class, the class that has a tech savvy teacher will be advancing far ahead. On the other hand, if a classroom is full of students who are very unfamiliar with the technology will have to be taught how to operate it, which wastes valuable time. In today’s society technology usage is so much more widespread than it was just five years ago. The new toys can allow schools to broaden their curriculum. Since most work can be done on a single device, kids can work at their own pace and potentially reach heights they could never reach with book, pen, and paper. The benefits of this new tech greatly outweigh the downsides. The biggest problem with technology in classrooms is their lack of use. So few schools have jumped on board with these programs, and therefore are holding their kids back. These products are readily available, but “the use of new technology

Technology is everywhere, it is involved in almost every part of our culture. It affects how we live, work, play, and most importantly learn. With technology being such a fundamental part of our lives and growing each day, it only makes sense that schools incorporate technology in the classrooms. Even though many people support the use of technology in schools, there are those that have concerns about the effectiveness of technology and whether or not it undermines education to solely prepare students for the workforce. Despite the concerns, technology is being integrated with classroom lessons daily, and proving how beneficial it is for student success.

Modern technology has penetrated every aspect of our lives and made great impacts on our daily activities, especially in the area of education. The continuous infusion of technology in education has become an unchangeable tendency. Given the increased use of technology in education, much research has been done on the value of technology in education. However, none of the studies have answered all of the questions that are essential to determining whether continuous infusion of new technologies in education can improve the quality of education. Since a clear answer to this question is vital to help educational organizations to make decisions on how much

Furthermore, as communication and writing skills diminish our school performance begins to be affected. The entertainment of mobile devices distracts nearly every student in the classroom whether it is texting, or playing games, or surfing the net. Mobile devices also play a big role in communication by making it possible for students to easily communicate with each other when they should not be. The power to communicate with virtually anyone is a major distraction. Some teens are so attached to their technological devices they sleep with phones on and wake up to answer text messages they get at night. When kids have cell phones in their classrooms they are extremely distracted from what is actually being taught. They are looking down and playing their games or going on social networking sites instead of listening to their teachers. With the constant distraction of technology and teens short attention spans reading and writing skills have suffered significantly and vocabularies are shrinking. This relates to their education and their ability to do well in school. Another problem is that technology provides students with the ability to explore numerous search engines for any problem they come across and copy them word for word. It seems that students don’t spend time thinking; they are simply repeating information instead of learning concepts and ideas. When students do this, they do not actually learn the

Technology has made great strides in the past 20 years. It plays a very important role in our lives today and even plays a critical role in the way students learn all over the world. Unfortunately, students now rely on technology instead of learning key fundamentals. Technology has replaced the need to learn and most answers are just a google search away. Technology has also become expensive and lower socioeconomic school districts have found affording the newest technology difficult because of their lack of funding. Technology is a great learning tool when used appropriately. The lower socioeconomic school falls behind in the expanding frontier of technology in the classroom because they cannot afford it compared to their counterparts and results in a gap in education. The development of technology in the classroom has caused students to fail the learning of fundamentals and has exploited lower socioeconomic school districts.