The Good, the Bad, and Technology

Although technology can open students’ minds, challenge them, and enlighten their educational experience, children nowadays tend to use technology as a crutch. In former generations, students had to go to the library to conduct research and utilize print materials to complete essays and research papers. There were cliff notes, but they were not as easily accessible to readers as Spark Notes. Learners in former decades had to dedicate more time to the completion of assignments and in their preparation for exams. Students in our current generation have the power to look up anything online and almost obtain an immediate answer. They do not necessarily have to use their minds to complete required assignments. This is a concern I have about teaching. As educators, we have a passion to teach and help students master our content area. We do not want them to get an A in our class merely because we did not make the subject challenging enough and they were able to find the answers online. We want our students to actually learn. Although we can detect for plagiarism, we cannot detect the origin of their thoughts and ideas.

When we think of all of the benefits of technology, we consider the downfalls to be the distraction of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites that get in the way of students learning and paying close attention to our lessons. We see the positives of social media in relation to student learning, but we believe the biggest disadvantage of using technology in the classroom is the distraction it creates for students. We feel concerned as to whether or not students are preoccupied with their electronic devices or actually paying attention to the lesson. Until now, I hadn’t thought about all of the work a Google search engine can do for students. As educators, we need to incorporate technology into our classroom lessons, but we need to do so in a way that reinforces students to learn, not make it possible for them to find all of the answers online. 

The internet has not only transformed education, but it has changed the world in which we live. I can’t help but have this internal debate with myself, is it for the better or worse? Even the way in which people meet and form relationships these days are because of the cyber world. Tinder, Match.com, Plenty of Fish; social dating sites familiar to us all now parade the halls of our modern social blueprint. It's a painless, easily accessible, free way to connect with others that now dominates the way we interact with the world and most importantly, each other. I am burdened and also blessed with the reality of being born in the wrong era; I have a genuine distrust in technology and I witness the other side of a “computerized app for everything” generation. Although many people have found meaningful connections through the internet, can all connections be created out of the virtual selves we've built with keyboards?