English 107 class reflection
Technology in Education
The topic regarding technology being used in education has been highly debated with some individuals supporting the thoughts while others highly refuting it. However, one thing that is evident is that in this age and era, technology has been touching many people’s lives in all rounds. It means that even if technology is not introduced in education, in one way or another, the children/students will find themselves interacting with it. Today, mobile phones are perfect example of technology which is owned by almost everyone across the world. At the same time, since the introduction of computers, many people today have their own ones which they use to acquire information from the internet or use for personal benefits such as playing games. Based on these underlying facts, it will not be fair for schools to be lagging behind in integrating technology in their classroom learning to offer better learning experience for both the teachers and the students (Edutopia 1). It is important for the students to be allowed to explore in details the potentials of technology for learning while the teachers become aware of its benefits in teaching. When technology is properly used, it will help the students to obtain the necessary and right skills that they need in order to survive in the current computerized and highly technical based economy. Technology in education should be initiated as a new discipline in learning because of its effectiveness in promoting learning experience while at the same time it positively affects the lives of not only the students but also the teachers and the entire staff members.
When you hear an individual talking about integrating technology in classroom, it does not only mean that it is a process whereby computer skills together with software programs are being taught in classroom. This means that for effective technology integration to take place, it should be applied across the entire curriculum in a manner that it will facilitate research while at the same time enhance the process of learning. Arizona State University is an example of an institution that is applying technology in classroom today. The reason for the university implementing technology is to support the learning process such as facilitate frequency in feedback and interaction, promote active engagement, connect the students to real-world, and enable them to actively get engaged with the school program and the entire world (Weir 1). Arizona State University is aware that the best way in which technology can be effectively used in the institution is by them being transparent about its usage. This makes it easy for the students and the entire staff to embrace technology while using it to enhance their curricular goals.
It is high time that people believe in technology in education especially its ability to make project learning easy and simple. It is actually considered as a plus for conducting ultra classroom instructions (Edutopia 1). Arizona State University is aware that if students are equipped with the right technology their intellectual levels will become better because it will offer them with a snapshot reality on the manner in which the modern office looks. When doing such projects, the students will be able to synthesize the information online which they will analyze in different ways to help them solve their class-work problems easily. Actually, many students at the university have testified that technology has made their process of doing homework easy and fast because of the ability to acquire information. At the same time, it has enabled the students to work individually or in teams to synthesize, find and process various information that they have acquired online to do their assignments. .
Technology also has the potential to change the manner in which teachers teach or offer their services to the educators. At Arizona State University, the teachers have properly embraced technology in different ways to enhance their teaching experience. For instance, they can go online and acquire information on the ways in which they can develop the best lesson plan. At the same time, they can acquire more information on the topic they are about to teach online (US Department of Education 1). This improves the ways in which they will tackle the lesson by coming up with wide information that are important for enhancing the student’s knowledge on that particular topic. It also makes their work easier because acquiring information becomes easy. There are several information that can be acquired online which are legitimate for learning. For instance, when it comes to reviewing books, the teacher does not necessary have to read the entire book instead they can acquire information from the internet which they can integrate with their own knowledge and make the lesson more interesting.
The point is that technology can be effective if Arizona State University teachers integrate it into various subjects; this will enable them to grow into coaches and advisers. It shows the manner in which teaching becomes more fun and meaningful with the presence of technology. At the same time, it does not only learn fun but also professional because it helps the teachers to focus on the student’s needs to learn instead of using specific method or way of learning.
Technology has also been found effective in advancing the student’s level of achievement because it provides room for interactive experiences. For instance, students at Arizona State University are able to connect with other students online through discussion posts where they get to share their experiences and thoughts on various topics. This enables the students to become acquainted with different knowledge that they acquire from other students across the world. At the same time, students can connect easily with their fellows in the same school though in different classes because of technology. It means that a teacher is able to handle several classes at the same time because of technology. This has made learning experience easy at the university and substantial because students are able to acquire immediate and frequent feedback from their peers and also from the teachers. For instance, today, after students finish their assignment, they just have to submit it through Arizona State University online website instead of handing over papers to the teachers. This has made the work of both the teachers and the student’s easy while at the same time reducing the instances of cheating because there are various software that are available online that can be used to check for plagiarism. It means that technology is promoting efficiency in learning without any incidences of cheating. People therefore need to understand that when a teacher decides to use technology, it does not only mean that they want to enhance their tasks but also transform the ways in which students learn by promoting ethical studies (Heffernan, Militello and Decoteau n 5).
Nevertheless, it is advisable that technology should be done in the public without any forms of isolation to promote its effectiveness in education. The students should be thrilled regarding the opportunities that it will offer them. For instance, they should appreciate the fact that technology will provide them with greater connections, expand their learning contents and also increase their ability to form new ideas from the information they acquire online. The students need to become aware that technology is there to enhance their learning especially their the ways in which they do various tasks instead of being excited that it will make them connect to more people especially through the social media. In order to maintain efficiency, Arizona State University has been using several methods. For instance, it has prevented students from accessing various social sites that may make them distracted from achieving the real benefits of technology. The teachers at the university are also involved by playing a central role of ensuring that they make the students engaged with various technologies to enhance their learning experience in school. They teach them on various ways in which they can still connect and benefit from technology instead of using it as a way of distraction.
Research has found that students who properly integrate technology in their learning processes develop competitive advantage compared to those who do not use technology (Edutopia 1). This is because of the ability of technology to provide a balance for them in classroom and also beyond. It means that the students will acquire the right skills that they can use beyond the classroom experience either at home or later in life at their work place. In this regard, people should stop having the ideas that technology will make learning experience worse instead they should rather embrace and try it out for the benefits of the students and the teachers as a whole.
While technology clearly brings society much euphoria and has turned into the response to numerous issues in our age; technology's negative impacts may quite recently out way its positives. Technology has a rundown of positive commitments towards society including: stimulation, correspondence, making regular errands simpler; however like everything else each beneficial outcome has a negative impact. The negative impacts of diversion, correspondence, and capacity to make life more sensible are clear in each classroom. The excitement of cell phones diverts about each understudy in the classroom whether it be messaging, playing amusements, or surfing the net. Cell phones likewise assume a major part in correspondence by making it workable for understudies to effectively speak with each other when they ought not to be. The ability to speak with for all intents and purposes anybody is a noteworthy diversion and straightforwardly makes their instructive life simpler. Technology makes decent evaluations easy by furnishing understudies with the capacity to look various web indexes for any issue they run over. These constructive outcomes wind up plainly negative due to nature they are in; in schools technology is too intense to go uncontrolled and until we accurately set up rules for technology in schools technology will keep on hindering understudy's prosperity.
In conclusion, it is high time that technology in education should be embraced by everyone such as the ways in which Arizona State University is doing. This is because of its effectiveness in promoting learning experience while at the same time it positively affects the lives of not only the students but also the teachers and the entire staff members. At the same time, it will improve their performance in various fields making them successful in their learning experiences.
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Sources :
Edutopia. “Why integrate technology into the curriculum: The reasons area many.” Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction Accessed 16 March 2008.
Heffernan, Neil., Militello, Mathew, and Decoteau, Michele. Effective and meaningful use of educational technology: Three cases from the classroom. Harvard Publisher, 2012.
US Department of Education. “Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning.” Ed. Gov. https://www.ed.gov/oii-news/use-technology-teaching-and-learning Accessed 2 Feb, 2010.
Weir, Laila “Research review: Multimodal Learning through Media.” Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/multimodal-learning-teaching-methods-media Accessed 9, May 2008.
