Issues in Education Final

Issues in Education Final

Introduction

                As technology continues to grow at a rapid rate it is also being integrated in education more often in a variety of ways. Educational institutions are using blended learning methods, cell phones, eBooks and offering full courses completely online. Technology is here to stay. Unit 6 introduces us to technology in the classroom and the advantages it can bring to student learning.

Article twenty eight in our readings discusses some of the technological instruments that are being used in education. I found it interesting that our textbook introduces natural disasters and illnesses as some of the reasons educational systems are opening up to technology in the classroom (Evers, 2011). One example of this is on November 21th of 2012 when New York City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott opened online classes for student’s grades sixth through twelfth who had been affected or displaced by Hurricane Sandy that hit New York a few weeks earlier ("New online courses," 2012). Clayton Smith makes a valid point stating in his comment on article twenty eight that “having lessons on the internet and available to students is such a great way for students to catch up when they are gone”.  I could not agree more. Using technology to reach students when they are displaced or cannot attend regular classes can keep students on track. I feel that this is the most important reason to use technology in education because students have the resources and are not cut off completely in times of disaster or illness. As the text book states on page 151, “…thanks to the Internet, schooling never stops”. Technology allows great flexibility in learning (Evers, 2011).

In today’s society, cell phones are a top technological device that can be used in the classroom which is the topic of article thirty. At first, I was a skeptic about using cell phones in the classroom for education because the question in my mind was, “how can it promote learning and no be a distraction? The section in the article called “Why Cell Phones Are Important in Learning” listed a couple of areas where cell phones can be an advantage in education. One of the reasons listed in this section is that cell phones “can help teachers increase the amount of class time spent on teaching and learning”, a second reason is listed addressing how school can “tap into a resource” that students already have access too, and a third reason listed is that “cell phones can facilitate learning anytime, anywhere, from any source, at any pace. These reasons may all be true, but whether or not to use call phones in the classroom should probably still be a decision made by the instructor of the course for now. It may work for some instructors and not as well for others. As technology changes we will also see changes in how different technology is used within education.

I really enjoyed a comment that I read in a journal article after researching this topic and believe that it is somewhat true; “Anything that distracts kids is contrary to good pedagogy. Why is there a belief that all technology is desirable? To paraphrase Jurassic Park: Just because we can, does not mean we should” (Mageau, 2013). I believe that there can be too much of a good thing and just because we have certain abilities does not always make it great to integrate in education.

 After reading the “Learning Activities with Cell Phones” section in the textbook I realize that there is many more application for cell phones than I had previously thought. I have never heard of “Mobile Geotagging” (Evers, 2011). Maybe some instructors, like myself, are unaware of the capabilities and therefor venture away from incorporating cell phones in the classroom. This made me search for more articles on cell phone use in the classroom and to my surprise there have been many cases that have successfully integrated cell phones. One example of this is from Ramsey Musallam’s A.P. Chemistry Class in San Francisco. Musallam has integrated the use of cell phones in his classroom to communicate with his students. Musallam also asks his students multiple-choice quiz questions and uses the responses visually to make the experience immediate and as visual as they possible can be (Barseghian, 2012). As a visual learner this technology would benefit me. Benjamin Fiedler from our class made a very good comment on article thirty. Benjamin states that “Kids know how to work phones better than most adults…students are able to apply their phone to many different lessons and take photos and videos to a different level of learning. But we have to be careful…”. I believe that he is correct. We need to be in control of the environment and be careful that students are not surfing the internet of playing games. I also agree with Amanda Sharp’s comment on the article as well, she states “So many students would be singles out for not having the most current product…I worry that this would just give those kids without the means to afford these devices a better chance of feeling unaccepted and the “cool” kids more fuel for the fire”. If call phones are going to be used in the classroom I believe that the school would need to provide access to a device if a student did not have one or course not afford one. This should be considered in the best interest of the student.

Another technology device making its way into the classrooms are digital readers. These are discussed in article thirty one in our textbook. These devices can store hundreds of books, blogs, magazines and newspapers. Some of the more well-known devices are the Kindle, Nook and the Sony Reader (Evers, 2011). “There are now over 5,000,000 eBooks available online for free…” that can be viewed on a digital reader (“Technology and reading,” 2013). This makes them very appealing in education because they offer a new way of accessing and interacting with texts. One of the problems that the book discusses on page 163 is that “…studies examining how students interact with and respond to eBook texts are still few and results are somewhat conflicting” (Evers, 2011). I have questioned the use of technological devices in the classroom for years even though I work in Distance Learning; we use those devices every day, but the classroom seems like an environment where these devices would become more of a distraction than a tool. An article that I read on this topic changed my mind in a few ways. An article by William Tapscott stated a couple of reasons that these digital readers and other technologies be permitted in the classroom. His first reason was that “Educators at all levels tell us that they want to prepare students for the real world. In the real world, there are technology distractions”. He states that his second reason is because he “…would be much more worried about the future prospects of a student who does not know how to use a smartphone than…a student who endlessly plays with a smartphone in class. Familiarity with technology is much more essential”. The third reason Tapscott gives is based on “…who has the greatest stake in the classroom experience? The students are the customers here” (Tapscott, 2010). I believe Tapscott’s reasons that he gives are really valid and it is easy to discuss why technological devises should be eliminated from the classroom however, more importantly what harm are we doing by removing them? Students will bring technology to the classroom one way or another and maybe instructors should try to embrace that technology. As Jessica Davidson pointed out in the comments for article thirty one, “…technology should be integrated in the classroom, but also old school tools should be used too”. I agree with Jessica. We should not focus solely on the technology we have, but instead use it to enrich the tools we already have. I also agree with Amanda Sharp when she states that that if instructors bring technological devices into the classroom “expectations would have to be clearly defined and practices”. If students are given expectations up front they know what to expect and instructors can help eliminate some of the distractions that may take place without clear expectations.

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