Technology in Education

By Maggie Mertz

It is becoming more of a common sight these days. Students shuffle into a classroom, busily chatting over what happened over the weekend as the teacher rises to demand attention, turning on their computer-powered smart board to begin the day’s lesson as students open up their laptops to begin the learning. But with this new take on providing an education to our future generations, do we really know the true effects that will take place? Jay Sivin-Kachala wondered the same thing and did 219 research studies over the span of nine years. The results returned in a mostly positive way. Sivin-Kachala found that technology rich environments had positive achievement in all subject areas, in both regular and special needs children, from Pre-K through higher education. While the study delivered positive results that would appear to be a green light for a mass distribution of technology-aided education, there was a major drawback present. The results also depend on the student population, software design, educator’s role, and the access to said technology.

So what does this mean? Well, like any tool, technology must be used in the proper ways. If teachers are just using it to play games during class, there is no way that this could come off as effective when it comes to overall education. Technology is still a relatively new tool, and we still need to learn how to hone and focus it to be used at the best of its abilities. Through research and trial and error, we could be looking to a future of even more brilliant generations.

In Small’s and Vorgan’s article “Your Brain Is Evolving Now,” they discuss how the brain is constantly adapting to new things. Our brains actually change with the exposure to novel items and experiences. Our generation is the first generation to have been exposed to technology our entire lives, this coining the term “digital native.” Older generations that have had to learn to adapt are called “digital immigrants,” In a study, the two generations were divided and given the simple task to use Google. The digital natives all showed activity in a front, left section of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The digital immigrants did not show such activity, and if it were present, it was minimal. But after just five days of practice, the very same activity was found in their brains. The digital immigrants can adapt and they can adapt quickly.

There is no other word but phenomenon to describe this situation. What used to take years of evolution happens now in a simple matter of days. Technology is having humans adapt at rates unseen ever before. It takes “survival of the fittest” to a whole new level. Technology is everywhere today. It has made its way into communication, advertisements, entertainment, and now even education. If there is no ability to adapt to it, then you are left behind. The learning curve may appear steep but studies have shown that it is easy to catch onto. It is obvious that society is headed in the direction of technology filled lifestyles and at this rate there is no turning back.

Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation, makes a few strong points in his argument about technology. Bauerlein claims that crucial skills are forgotten and that we are unable to sustain information as proficiently as previous generations. While I do agree that the ways in which we think are definitely changing, there is no denying that, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Yes, a negative effect of all of this information being available at the tip of our fingers through the magic of the Internet has caused us to be lazier. But it also has caused a more resourceful generation. There is obviously a cause for concern over the lost abilities of longer attention spans, but through the idea of Darwinism, is it really needed anymore? Our society is becoming so fast paced that these skills are maybe just not needed. There might be a panic for the digital immigrants to this new world function, but it doesn’t mean that it has to be a bad thing.

Sources:
http://www.mff.org/pubs/ME161.pdf
http://edudemic.com/2011/07/social-media-education/