Technology in the Classroom How is it affecting our children? By: Taylor Palmerone Remember back when you were in elementary school? How different is it from children in elementary these days? Well for starters, do you ever remember using computers, tablets or any other technologies in the classroom? Did the way to read a book include swiping your finger across a tablet to flip the page? Most likely no, but this is the way children are experiencing learning in today’s technological age. It’s a common thing to have kids on computers practicing their abc’s or mimicking an automated voice to improve their vocabulary. This may sound good and all but what exactly is technology doing to these kids? Is it aiding or actually hindering a child’s learning? Well, according to a recent study by CompTIA, they think it seems to be helping. The study was conducted on 500 K-12 and college instructors across the country. The report revealed that 78 percent of K-12 teachers and administrators believe that technology has positively impacted the classroom and the productivity of students. In addition, roughly 65 percent of teachers surveyed also believe that students are more productive today than they were three years ago due to the increased reliance on technology in the classroom. Those in favor of technologies in the classroom also argue that often times, children are more engaged and interested in the material being learned due to the interactive nature that technology brings. In fact, according to Everyday Family, 72% of iTunes top selling apps are designed for pre-schoolers and elementary students. This is using the technology in a positive way to help young children in their formative years. Children who use tablets or iPods with educational apps on them don’t realize that they are actually learning and therefore absorb more. And then we have the other side of the debate. These are the parents who feel technology is corrupting their children and preventing them from learning to their full potential. Blaming technology for issues children could potentially have, people argue that too much time with digital devices deprive students of face to face social activities and family communications. They say that digital devices in the classroom would lead to an even greater such disconnection. Now this debate is not only concerning young children. It is seen in all grade levels, even into college. Technology is used in every stage of a child’s life, it just depends how dependent they become on it and what it is used for. For example, being a college student, I see firsthand that the art of sitting down and writing with a pen and paper had lost significant value. Walk into any class and you will see most students on their laptops and that everything has become digitalized. Professors don’t want hard copies of essays anymore, they will only accept papers submitted online, for example Professor Golda. It’s all about technology in these types of classrooms. The kids who bring a notebook to class become the minorities in this day and age. All of this technology dependence stems from the exposure to it as a child. Implementing technology into a child’s life starting early on will assure that they become practically addicted to it by the time they hit college themselves. When asked about how technology affects students learning in the 21st century classrooms, Marie Hulme, English professor and director of SHUsquare at Sacred Heart University replied, “Certainly the ability to extend learning beyond the confines of a traditional classroom has enabled students to develop as autonomous learners within a community of learners, meaning that individual inquiry into ideas and content does not end when class ends and that the exchange of ideas does not
have to end either.” She goes on to say that, “When used to facilitate connectivity between learners, to allow for autonomous exploration of ideas and the development of skills, I believe technology is a helpful and important tool. In fact, I believe it is an essential component of a 21st century education.” As an English professor, Marie Hulme has seen first hand how technology is used inside the classroom to facilitate communication between students and their teachers/peers and continue conversations that have begun in the classroom setting. She explains her work with the newly developed online program, SHUsquare offered here at Sacred Heart. “We’ve recently developed an on-line community in which the First Year Seminar students and faculty interact and exchange ideas, work Prof. Marie Hulme and resources. This interdisciplinary on-line platform is called SHUsquare because it has been developed around the idea of a “virtual public square” where students and teachers from across a number of Seminars are able to interact. This has allowed for the development of important writing and oral communication skills, an important goal of the First Year Seminar curriculum, as SHUsquare provides an authentic audience and purpose for digital writing, video blogs, presentations, papers and the exchange of ideas across disciplines. In addition to having students generate ideas, respond to other student and faculty ideas, and to engage in what is termed “low-stakes” writing on SHUsquare, I also use the platform to have my students create videos that allow them to practice effectively conveying material and ideas. SHUsquare is an example of an innovative way in which technology can be used to develop important communication skills.” In the 21st century classrooms, technology is becoming a norm. Many teachers choose to incorporate these technologies into their teaching methods while others prefer to stick to the traditional way of teaching. Professor Hulme likes a bit of both. She says, “Technology is one of many tools of pedagogy I use to convey content, to engage my students with ideas, and to develop important 21 st c. literacy skills, among them what is referred to as techno-literacy. I think it would be irresponsible of me, as an educator today, not to embrace what is good about the new available teaching and learning tools, including technological. I understand that many of these modes of communicating and learning have been used throughout my students’ previous educational experiences and will be important to them as they move into their lives after college, so I try to find a balance that ensures I am providing them with opportunities to use technology in an informed, impactful and ethical way. In fact, teaching the ethical use of technology is, itself, the responsibility of a 21st century educator.” It is clear that technology in the classroom is a hot topic and involves people of various ages from anywhere between kindergarten and college aged students. According to most, technology used in the classrooms is seen as more of a positive, although it is still debated today. It is up each person whether they feel that one side’s position is stronger than the others. Research on both sides of the debate prove that this topic does not seem to be coming to an end anytime soon. At the rate technology seems to be advancing, who knows what the future classroom will look like. Will teachers depend solely on technology to teach or will the future of children’s education come from a computer screen?