The role technology has on our students..... Good vs. Evil

                Reading both articles (Beyond Technology Integration:The Case for technology transformation by Roberto Joseph and Of Luddites, Learning and Life by Neil Postman) has really made me think about technology and the role it plays in education. I believe when technology is used for the right reasons students can take control of their learning and teachers can get more engagement out of their class. However, we need the right programs in our school systems that promote student's to learn at an individualized learning rate. As a classroom teacher I have witnessed several programs that have been extremely boring and the knowledge displayed is very confusing with little guidance for students. Programs that don’t have any substance (meaning the program just asks multiple choice questions and doesn’t give any instruction are useless in schools) seem to slow up student learning and create students to give up. My 7^th grade Math students love a program called compass learning. This program allows teachers to create lessons on an individualized basis. I usually pick the standards that go along with the books I’m teaching so students are using technology in coordination with the classroom learning. This program works very well with students who have been absent or are not getting a standard and need re-teaching. The program goes at the pace of the students learning and gives various ways of instructions and different modules of practice problems in a student friendly way.  Technology if used for instructional purposes and to counter the different rates of student learning along with the different needs in a classroom can be very useful to teaching to all students needs.

                I agree with Postman’s article that states “problems of education are social and of moral nature and have nothing to do with dazzling technologies.” I think teachers fear a day where we might plug every student on a computer and have the student’s just work at their own pace to accomplish a checklist of standards. The reason this idea is scary is because people need one another and should have the opportunity to work in a community. I am not sure being on a computer allows for enough time to learn how to work with one another. I have seen some students do well on group projects using computers but I don’t think you can only teach a student to use a computer. Our goal as educators is to teach students how to be problem solvers and I believe that learning without technology is good for our brains. I am very worried about students in their home life and the things they watch on TV or on the internet. I think our society has a huge problem with our youth losing the age of innocence. I hear about more and more of my students going and seeing “R” rated films or getting bootlegged copies of movies. Everything of filth is so easily obtained through the internet. We have a severe problem with cursing in the hallways during passing periods and sexual comments in our school. I am worried about students not being independent thinkers and instead listening to singers/artists or playing video games with no imagination needed.  I think there should be a limit on how long students are using electronic devices at home and students should be encouraged to play outside. I wonder how much technology has taking away from our student’s problem solving ability and their creative side. With that being said, I do want to say that I am more optimistic about technology than Postman because there are several creative Nintendo DS games, Wii games, websites, and educational programs on the computer that do promote students to be creative however are students picking those types of games, websites or programs? Some technology helps educators and some hinders are students and the realities of life. We must chose wisely what technology our students use to learn.