so this semester in school i have a class called "technology in classrooms"
we have been learning a lot about how to incorporate the use of technology in your classroom (fancy that!) because using the correct form of technology can be awesome for helping your students be motivated and actually want to do their homework. and also because it is teaching kids at a young age to use something that they will most likely be using for the rest of their lives with school and even their jobs after they get a degree.
but then it also gets me thinking - is technology taking over our lives so much that it is becoming a bad thing??
honestly.. who doesn't have a facebook page that they check regularly? or a twitter, or a blog, or skype or ANY other kind of social networking site.
personally i am a huge fan of social networking - it keeps me updated on friends that i might not be able to see all the time and lets me tell people who want to know exactly how i am doing. and to be honest, i check it a few times a day just because i'm bored or have nothing better to do. or have everything better to do i just am checking facebook to procrastinate what i DONT want to do.
lets think about this a minute though, people can spend hours and hours in one day just on a social networking site. i am positive they have plenty of other things they could possibly be doing that would probably have much more significance but they spend their time facing a computer. is this ruining the way people talk to other people?? are we losing our real social skills because we spend all our time looking at other people's profiles? some people i definitely think overuse these sites and it can cause them to fail in class, and also socially.
in class we learned about how technology can be a big downfall to learning and how it can make students exceed.
i'll give you those examples just because i feel like it
so at MIT all the students there are very technology smart. they sit on their computers/phones all day long and do many different things at once using technology. some of the professors were starting to get the feeling that they were not learning as well as they could and so they did a study and researched a few of the students from MIT. they timed them while multitasking, and found out how long it took them to finish one or more of the things they needed to finished and then how they comprehended it. then they timed them doing one task at a time and checked the comprehension on that. it was proven that even though they are doing multiple tasks at the same time, it overall took them longer to finish it because they would lose their train of thought and they didn't comprehend it as well as they did when they just did one task at a time. is technology being overused at that school?? do the students need to tone it down a little?
the other example was about an elementary school in new york where the average of the students was doing horribly in everything. grades, participation, fights, and even showing up to class. someone decided to provide each student with a laptop and since then there has been a significant change in all of it. the average of the schools grades have gone way up and fighting has gone down, showing up to class has gone way way up and everything about that school has just turned around. the students love using their laptops to learn and it has helped them in every way. is this something we should do for every elementary or is teaching all together going to change because of this?
as a student in college, you would not be able to pass a class without the use of a computer and the internet. most of the assignments are due online (which is great for going green) and i even have a textbook for one of my classes that i have to access through the internet. luckily the school library provides us with many great computers to use for the people who do not have one at their home.
there are also tons of classes that are offered online only. meaning all of your learning is done from your computer, you do not ever attend a classroom or even meet your teacher. is this a better way to learn then going to a classroom and hearing the information? i have been enrolled in two online classes so far and only because i have no room in my schedule to take the actual class during the day. i definitely feel that online classes are a less-effective way of learning. i can read things and they can go into my brain and try and process, but it is always much easier for me if i have a teacher there explaining everything to me.
anyone who has a smart phone has access to the internet at all times. how many times have you been out to dinner with your friends and each one of you is on your phone texting or browsing or playing a game on your phones?? it has happend to me numerous times and usually someone says something we all laugh and continue on with our phone business. it is also crazy to me to think that little kids have nicer phones then i do and are spending a good portion of their day on their phone.
i didn't get my own cell phone til after i was in high school and then i didn't get texting for a year after that. when i see little kids with smart phones, all i want to do is throw it in a lake and say go play outside or do something else!! if you spend this much time now using technology what does your future look like?
technology can really be an awesome awesome thing but there are parts of me that believe it is taking over too much of our lives. we need to go outside and enjoy the fresh air a little more. spend less time in front of a computer screen and live our life better!
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