Disadvantages Of Digital Media

Since children today have become digital natives; they will never truly know a world that is not touched with technology. This means that the educational paradigm has to shift in order to keep up with the needs of our young learners (Jo, 2016). In the last thirty years, technological advances

In the 1970s and 1980s, books, newspapers, and magazines were printed on large presses by national and multinational publishing houses. Print was a flourishing industry that had managed to overcome any challengers, including television and the radio. Any legitimate writer, academic researcher, scientist, or journalist was published in print. For those seeking the most up-to-date, respected, and accurate information, books, periodicals, and newspapers were the chosen source. This is as it had been for many years, and it seemed that this would be so for hundreds of years to come. Until, when in the early 1990s, a relatively unheard of new technology called the Internet, which had begun in the early 1960s as a government and scientific computer network, began to emerge on college campuses and in other areas (Courtright, 2002). So as mentioned, there are two media that have been used nowadays which are printed media and

For some of us, it is difficult to comprehend why our education systems have not yet made the transition to technology-based forms of teaching especially when we are in the era of technology. To others, the reasoning is clear and they support the original, dated usage of textbooks in a “traditional classroom” setting. The changes in our society are undeniable with the innovation of technology and social media. Although some authors, such as Neil Howe and Jean Twenge, argue that technology is deteriorating the minds of Millennials, technology is also providing Millennials with a way to create connections across communities.

In this information age, most people have access to multiple high-tech devices and they start to become dependent on those devices. Cathy Davidson, a famous American scholar and university professor at Duke University, proposed some new ideas of technology to change people’s lives from the perspective of education. In her article “Project Classroom Makeover”, she argues how the information age has created a new model for education which further change how students learn as well as how instructors teach. The participatory model, she promotes is described as a “student-led curiosity, whose object was not a bunk of white plastics, but the very nature of interactivity, crowdsourcing, customizing and inspired inquiry-driven problem solving” (54).

This article explores the evolving landscape in education, where increased use of technology is not only recommended, but is essential. It explains the learning styles of millennials and digital natives, and compares them to “traditional” learners. The article makes it clear that teachers must be willing to adapt their teaching style to meet the needs of today’s students. This study was an action research inquiry, using the mixed methods model. Quantitative data was gathered through survey answers and observation checklists. Interviews and focus groups provided the qualitative data. The results of the study reveal that students who received instructions through technology were more engaged in the activity and asked fewer questions than the students who received the instructions verbally. The students that were guided by technology were also more reflective about their learning and were more excited about the project. The self-proclaimed weakness of this study is its relatively small scale. It recommends that a larger scale study be completed in the future. That being said, this study does seem to confirm Gagne’s principal of the importance of gaining the attention of the learner. Using technology in the classroom appears to be a viable manner of obtaining students’

Technology is a tool for developing children’s inquiry-based learning through research and evaluation of information, and its relevance or if it requires further investigation. The role of technology in the curriculum should be to build on prior knowledge, of ‘what we know about learning, communicating, creating knowledge and sharing it, remains valid in the face of connected digital technologies.’ Understanding this leads teacher to the best practices to support authentic, meaningful teaching and learning (McFarlane, 2015,

Students are routinely connected with technology participating in social media and games where they acquire and apply their knowledge collaboratively. Their time is being spent more in social networking sites, multimedia, and virtual environments that are highly engaging and many times encourages creative thinking and problem solving.

Cuban et al. (2001), however, found that teachers do not always have enough time to blend technologies into their teaching routine as easily as their pupils expect. In spite of the training, some teachers face certain low response/adaptability to changes. Hence, the top-down pressurers [external imperatives] must provide consistent support and guidance, sufficient time to get familiarized with the tools and positive rewards. These strategies allow finding opportunities into the digital age to make more pedagogical moves in teachers’ labour. Stepp-Greany’s study (2002) appeared to report gains for students related to their use of technology in their study ‘including higher motivation, improvement in self-concept and mastery of basic skills, more student-centred learning and engagement in the learning process’. In short words, the more student-centred learning is promoted, the more teachers and technologies can improve the education and learning. Technology and teachers are adjustable and compatible since they can complement each other and increase their valuable practices mutually. Laurillard (2008) suggested that technology could bring collaborative learning for teachers, and now, we can add to her statement the students, in order to show what both groups [teachers and students] could do best in their academic settings.

Education is ever-changing and students need to be confident, creative, connected and active lifelong learners. Digital technologies are very important to our student’s world as they use them to connect with each other, learn new skills and pursue their interest. Luckey (2009) stated “For students in particular, technology is almost an extension of themselves. They use it to communicate, to discover the world, to play games, to collaborate, to create things, to write, to read, and to organize their lives. Nothing can be more foreign to them than school without technology or where technology is relegated to its own special place.” Mobile devices with the power of digital technology are being placed in every student’s hand in schools around the world which equips them with the personal technology needed to learn and communicate in the 21st century. While these programs can be very effective for students, they can be challenging for schools. Some educators believe that digital technology in the classroom may cause more of a distraction to students; however integrating digital technology in the classroom helps students become more engaged. In the digital world, data is at students’ fingertips 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Technology is everywhere and many students have adopted practices

Hands-on learning is significant because young children learn through active engagement with materials and ideas (p230).

For students to encounter hands-on tasks gives them opportunities to learn in a completely new manner. Instead of not having a clue what they’re doing, students should be prepared with previous knowledge as to how to be successful

As schools promote 21st-century learning, there has been a push for literacies which encourage students to be 21st-century learners. The two overarching literacies, new and digital, has taken over the three R’s literacy, reading, writing, and arithmetic. New Literacies continuously change due to the new technology emerging providing different ways to get information and communicate with others (Leu et al., 2015). In contrast, digital literacy is the ability to use digital tools to access information for understanding and communication (Jose, 2016). New literacies and digital literacies also differ in aspects of use in the classroom. New literacies are the building blocks for digital literacy; which are the skills students need to understand the internet (Maloy, Verock-O'Loughlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2017). New literacies can be taught without the use of technology because students are learning to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information. Teachers can demonstrate these skills using encyclopedias and journal articles to gain a minimalistic comprehension. Once students learn the necessary understanding, teachers can transfer these skills to online which will promote digital literacy; furthermore, digital literacy can only be taught using digital tools. Teachers would teach students how to use computers and the social practices of the new literacies to gain an understanding of the digital literacy (Jose, 2016). Furthermore, digital literacies

Hands on activities are great experiences for children. Rosa Lizard says “hands-on activities let the students' minds grow and learn based on the experiences and the environment they are exposed to.” They also give children the chance to experience it for themselves. The students become familiar to the topic and it makes it easier for them to learn. It can be viewed two ways though.

Hands-on experiences are authentic experiences that the child will carry with them longer than a lesson out of a book. Dewey sums it up for me in saying, "I believe that education which does not occur through forms of life, or that are worth living for their own sake is always a poor substitute for the genuine reality and tends to cramp and to deaden." (Dewey 23) In my opinion, it is truly pointless to teach children without letting them experiment and become a part of the lesson.

First, reality cannot be discovered because it does not exist prior to its social appearance. Second, individuals construct meanings through interactions with each other and within their environment. And third, significant learning occurs when people are engaged in social actions (Kim, 2001). Delving into the research would lead to make a scrupulous review of the criteria of credibility and integrity, which will be directly related to this qualitative research in the field of digital education. Creswell (2013) suggested that ‘a qualitative research includes emerging questions and pro¬cedures, data analysis inductively done, and interpretations of the meaning of the data.’ Here the researcher stood as much a part of the process as the participants and data they provided (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). Therefore, this research finds different ways to connect the researcher and his research participants, to see the world of social and cognitive commonalities among young people and the Web 2.0 tools, and to enjoy playing with words through thematic analysis.