Integrating Technology into the Classroom Essay

Technology of the past 20 years has become a focal point of teaching and learning. As a teacher, it is my job to facilitate the learning for an individual by creating an environment that not only conducive for learning, but also places the child in a position to discover and learn them for themselves. Technology has given teachers to opportunity to take learning beyond the classroom, and has begun to reshape their role in the learning process.

The intention of the Comprehensive Classroom Technology Plan is to enhance the use of technology in the classroom to improve the education that students receive in their learning and communicating. The detail found within the Comprehensive Classroom Technology Plan will describe the ability of the teacher to use technology in an effective manner within the classroom while providing a safe, secure, and educational environment for students to learn.

With new technological advancements occurring more rapidly each year, it is no surprise that there is an extensive conversation about how these new progressions impact the brain’s development and cognition. One trend is evident: there is a universal acknowledgment that technology is indeed changing the way we think. Among the members contributing to this conversation, two strikingly different outlooks on how these changes will affect the future exist. Either we should be terrified, or worrying is premature. Articles written by experts specializing in psychology and the brain, such as Pinker’s “Mind Over Mass Media,” as well as "How Has the Internet Reshaped Human Cognition?" by Kee and Loh, as well as and finally “Children, Wired- for

Technology is everywhere. Americans are surrounded by it on a daily basis. Although, we seem to be fully immersed in the technological world, we really aren’t. Most Americans believe that they are knowledgeable when their actual knowledge of technology is limited. Specifically, today’s youth, ages eight to eighteen, use technology a staggering eleven and a half hours a day, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Their brains have become ‘wired’ to use their tech gadgets effectively in order to multi-task. . .often exposing their brains to shocking and sensational images and videos. Many people are desensitizing their neural circuits to the horrors they see, while not getting much, if any, off-line training in empathic skills. And the effects may even reach young people,” says Dr. Gary Small. The effects of technology on the adolescent brain include a decrease in empathy; Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. A study done by the Harvard College of Education states that 80% of the youth surveyed stated that personal achievement and happiness was more important to them than caring for others. In the new age of technology empathy has taken a backseat to self-centeredness. The same survey by Harvard College of Education found that 30% of middle schoolers reported being bullied, more than 50% of girls between seventh and twelfth grade reported being sexually harassed, and more than 50% of high schoolers admitted to cheating. This

Using technology in the classroom is a sensitive issue. It is the teacher?s responsibility to

The current generation of children is completely different than the preceding ones. They are living in the digital age. “Technology has blended in with daily activity to become a way of life and children today take for granted all of which is automated. It is hard for kids nowadays to imagine a world that existed without all of the gadgets, electronics and seamless operations that computer technology provides.” (3) “Children in the United States devote some 40 hours a week to television, video games and the Internet.” (12) Many psychologists and researchers are concerned about the impact that technology has on children. Children, tomorrow’s future parents and leaders, are being consumed by the negative effects that technology had on their

Today’s technology has greatly impacted the young children’s everyday lives. Phones, tablets, and computers are all a form of technology that impact the way kids are influenced. Some children get phones or computers at young ages and it can cause kids to depend on it to entertain them. Eventually they will allow the technology to take over and have it become the form of communication between friend and family instead of face to face. As parents continue to buy their children new technology they don’t monitor the amount of time their children spend on the Internet. Technology is becoming more advanced overtime which causes children to become more attached and unable to function without it near by.

Today’s education differs much from the education fifty years ago. One of the reasons they are so different is because of technology. In the past fifty years the world of technology has grown tremendously, affecting everything, including education. A few things that have been brought into the world of education are computers, video and digital equipment such as DVDs, digital cameras and recording devices. The technology also includes information presentation technologies which includes the Smart Board, and different interactive whiteboards. There are many more that schools did not have fifty years ago.

The use of technology in schools has a great effect on not only students, but teachers as well. Today, we mostly think of technology as computers, but it is much more than that. In fact, one of the first technologies used in the classroom was the chalkboard.

We are going through some changes the Internet is changing our brains. We can go back a century ago where children would play outside and read from actual books and playing with toy. This New generation is constantly using electronics for everything we are not learning the same way and it's affecting the way the brain is developing at a younger age. It has become nearly impossible for us humans to get rid of our electronics. "If you grow dependent on your smartphone, it becomes a magical device that silently shouts your name at your brain at all times" (Meyer). Our brain is constantly reminding us that we need to check our phones. Technology is also affecting our memory. There's different ways in the way that the Internet is affecting our brain. "As our bodies are shaped by the food we eat, our brains are shaped by what we put into them. So of course, the internet is changing our brains." (476 Alderman). technology and the Internet have become like an agenda for us. We no longer must remember peoples phone numbers, or people’s emails, because we have all that in our electronic. Another way that it's affecting us, is through our youth children are learning differently now. Children no longer must pick up a physical book and start reading it they have access to that same book from their electronics, but the problem with that is that there's so many distractionss that they can start reading a book and end up playing a game and lose focus. Having technology in our hands makes it

Technology is changing the way we learn because of immediate access to information from Internet. This has changed the way we live, work, play and it is challenging in the way we think. Technology has made the most complex problems simple in a matter of seconds.

FINAL ARGUMENTATIVE RESEARCH PAPERIITechnology in The Classroom With technology rapidly advancing in a brief period of time, elementary school students should have the opportunity to use technology in their classrooms. The main issue with technology in schools is that there is not enough technology being integrated into the classrooms. Technology may be expensive, but it can help students in the long run and it can also help the environment. These are the issues that most people gravitate to argue about on either side. However, this issue does have a potential solution that can help our schools financially and save our environment. One of the reasons why schools should make the switch to use technology in the classrooms is because, textbooks become heavier over the span of a student’s life. The one thing every child dreads the most about going to school, is having to lug around their huge backpack full of textbooks and homework. The Archives of Disease in Childhood conducted a study and found that an ordinary student’s backpack weighs 15.4 pounds, which is a generally three to four textbooks (ProCon, 2016). The common weight for a single tablet is .75 pounds to two pounds. Pediatricians have strongly recommended students to not haul more than 15 percent of their body weight in a backpack (ProCon, 2016). From 1994 to 2000, data from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission reported more than 23,000 students, from the ages of six to eighteen years old were sent to emergency rooms for back injuries that were related to using a backpack (ProCon, 2016). Some of the injuries were contusions, fractures, strains and sprains to the back and shoulders. Tons of people suffer from back issues like scoliosis, this is a problem in schools because students are putting more strain on their back. Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine and idiopathic scoliosis is common in children from the age of at least 10 years old

There is a growing trend in the use of technology in the classroom. As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to use manipulatives in my lessons to increase meaning and authenticity for students. I would love to keep my students engaged, motivated and interactive in the classroom and still be able to get through the content each day. In order to achieve this, I need to have an arsenal of tools to draw from. That is why I agree with (Tataroglu & Erduran, 2010) as stated in the International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education (IEJEE) that “The use of technologies like IWBs in the classroom can provide teachers and students convenience and variety. “

Education is one of the most important professions in the working world. Technology has done many things for us in today’s society especially for education and schools. Technology in the school system has impacted the students and teachers in many positive ways, including virtual field trips, testing tips, teacher resources, class web sites, and lesson plans. With computer use in our schools, we have access to many different sources and various types of learning.

Research over the past 40 years has shown conclusively that technology-based methods are usually superior to traditional ones.