The Impact Of Media And Instructional Technology On Student Learning

Throughout this course, a new perspective has provided us with the opportunity to take a look at many of the different ways in which the digital world has become one of the most dominant viewpoints of today’s generation, and how technology has taken over and welcomed itself into many aspects of our lives. This course paper will take a look at one topic of interest in particular, which in hopes will shed some light on a heavily discussed topic in the education world: does technology help or hinder the student. This paper will look to prove the point and discover more about the way in which technology has been incorporated into the classroom, both in an elementary context as well as a post-secondary context, and the effects that it has had on the student, the teacher, and the overall academic development that accompanies it.

Technology has many attributes and applications that improve livelihoods. As a student myself, one of the most obvious advancements is in the field of education. Educational technology has slowly been integrated into classrooms over the last decade. Today, the basis of technology, digital literacy, is a crucial skill for academics. “Students who are digitally literate know how to effectively use technology to collaborate, create original content, and conduct in-depth research for academic purposes” (Dotterer, “Fostering Digital Citizenship In The Classroom”). Some worry that the use of technology will encourage people to “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful” (qtd. In Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”).

Ching-Ting, H., Ming-Chaun, L., & Chin-Chung, T. (2014). The Influence of Young Children's Use of Technology on Their Learning: A Review. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 17(4), 85-99.

Nicholas Carr’s target audience is anyone who uses technology, whether they are the younger generations for it or the more traditional generations against it. He establishes common ground by pointing out some of the positive, along with the facts to back up his theory on the negative. His motive for writing this essay is to provide a connection between the increase of technology to the decrease abilities in learning behaviors.

Throughout history, technology has impacted society and its people. Technology is an invention that facilitates the means to achieve an objective. The book “Smarter Than You Think”, written by Clive Thompson argues how technology is changing our lives for the better. In Chapter 7 of his book, Thompson discusses the use of technology in classrooms and how they impact learning. Technology can enhance education by providing easy access to information, blended learning, and personalized education.

In the article “Technology Changing how students learn, Teachers Say” many different surveys and experiments were constructed to see what the response were toward technology changing the way we think. As stated “roughly 75 percent of 2,462 teachers surveyed said that the Internet and search engines had a “mostly positive” impact on student research skills” (Richtel).This means that majority of the teacher do agree that the internet is making a positive effect on the children. Using technology in the educational field is a different approach on how the student my able to learn or grasp the whole content of that topic or subject. The internet doesn’t only help out with the student learning but it is already help the teacher. Through the internet they can exam the progress of class by averaging out the online homework or test that may be given out to the class.

Technology has opened many opportunities for students, but is it taking a toll on their education? Based on the two articles the “Avid Weekly: When it is and isn’t OK to be on your smartphone: the conclusive guide” by Caitlin Dewey and Is Technology Killing Our Friendship By Lauren Tarshis, technology can have a lasting effect that can either be positive or negative. Technology has let the world stay in touch with what’s happening around them, which has positively affected students and their surroundings. Causing disruptions though is something not to be happy about, because if technology advances in classrooms, students can easily be picked off into the wonders of technology. Although technology has helped students prosper, there are still

This idea that the physical action of such seemingly meaningless tasks makes me want to leave my phone aside for the few hours I spend at school, learning and enriching my mind. These articles have clarified for me that the negative outcomes of technology in learning prevent my mind from absorbing knowledge. My academic work, whether it be in high school or college, will constantly deteriote if I let technology overpower my ability to think and learn. It is not even the fact that the use of technology will probably lower my grades, but the possibility of not growing or learning makes me realize that the consequences of technology use in the classrom are some that I will avoid and prevent by allowing myself to use my senses and knowledge to gain new ideas and experiences. Such implicaitons are ones that I wish to not face and will do so by simply setting my phone aside to learn, and by letting go of the temptation that technology can be, in such a modern, tech-savy

Some researchers argue that the amount of time we spend on the internet has disenabled us from being able to the “deep mental connections that form when we read deeply….” (Carr 575). Some other personal anecdotes suggest that technology has lessened our ability to focus. For example, Carr includes the story of Bruce Friedman who confesses that he has “almost completely lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article” whether on the web or in print (Carr 574). If such hypotheses are true, than removing, or at least limiting, technology in the classroom might be beneficial to cadets, so that there can be an environment where we can learn without a world of

Chapter 13 of “They Say/I Say” addresses different points of views on how technology affects how people learn in society. The author gives us arguments and counterarguments that allow us to determine how technology affects our own thought processes.

Every day the world is changing and things are done differently. Technology has also affected the way students are taught and in which they learn. It has changed the classroom. Technology saves us time and allows us to access material in only minutes. “The Internet and online subscription databases, even as a supplement to the printed works in the library, allow students to see, and force them to consider or reject, points of view that they might never have encountered in decades past” (Gow 4).With all the time technology produces, it also has downsides and it also may have created a less intelligent society.

There have been many changes in the technological scene in the last few years. This has prompted the argument on what people stand to benefit from these advancements. This is why there have been many studies and researches that are all intended to show how the electronic media assists in learning amongst children. However, there has been little attention as to what the electronic media does to the same children. The electronic media has become a favorite amongst the learners and in particular children. It is imperative to note that the learning process is not passive. This is because the children do not just heed to the instructions and assume that anything is learnt. The process of learning is active and cognitive. Therefore, the environment under which a child is in has a significant influence on the learning process. It is vivid from this argument that the media has a significant role in the shaping of the children. Electronic media is very beneficial in the learning process but it is imperative that there are regulations because it has a dominant role in cognitive development of children.

Some authors believe that technology and social media play a positive impact in education. For example Marc Prensky, an American writer and speaker on learning and education in his article “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” Prensky talks about the differences in learning abilities in today’s students that he refers to as digital natives as compared to the older generation that he terms as digital immigrants. Digital natives have brains that can receive and process information faster than older generations. In addition, they can retain information that is more detailed. Judging by this reason, technology is advantageous to mental development (Prensky). I disagree with Prensky because, despite the fact that technology has many advantages to

The use of technology has the ability to allow teachers to teach the student, instead of teaching the grade level. Jon Bower, CEO of Lexia Learning Systems, points this fact out when he states,

The use of technology has the ability to allow teachers to teach the student, instead of teaching the grade level. Jon Bower, CEO of Lexia Learning Systems, points this fact out when he states,