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Technology In Neil Postman's Virtual Students Digital Classroom

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What has technology done to this world? Technology is essential in today’s society. It plays a major role in education for not only the students but for the teachers as well. Technology walks the halls of schools almost as much as children do in today's world. It has existed within education for years, but as the standards are raised so is the need for machines. The more technology that is being produced the more addicting it becomes. It has come to be about as crucial as eating or sleeping and is a necessity to every day lives. Now it is consuming students in school, taking over the classroom. Technology is negatively affecting children in today’s society due to its international growth and dramatic changes with the learning process in the …show more content…

It is a new world today because of the rate it is growing at. From homes all over America to international companies, technology has now managed to creep its way into the classrooms. In the article “Virtual Students, Digital Classroom” Neil Postman states, “…We will become the kind of people the technology requires us to be, and whether we like it or not,we will remake our institutions to accommodate technology” (378). This statement affirms that the need for technology will just continue to grow and that it will govern children. Walking to the library and spending what seems like endless hours to do research for homework is unheard of anymore. Students nowadays have everything they need right at their fingertips, never having to leave the comforts of their home to do school work. With that being said, though, Postman also says, “...The computer and its associated technologies are awesome additions to a culture, and are quite capable of altering the psychic, not to mention the sleeping, [sic] habits of our young” (378). Is it actually helping students or is it honestly hurting them? With the addition of new machines, students are pushed to adhere more information but are given easier ways to gather …show more content…

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

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