Technology in Education Position Paper

Laura Seal
April 25, 2002

With Technology Comes Change

Should technology be introduced into the school curriculum? This question has plag
ued the teaching profession since before the advent of moveable type and ballpoint pens. “
Ballpoint pens will be the ruin of education in our country. Students use these devices and
then throw them away! The American virtues of thrift and frugality are being discarded.
Businesses and banks will never allow such expensive luxuries.” (Federal Teacher, 1959).
The ballpoint pen did not lead to the demise of the educational process. In fact, it probabl
y led to the creation of highlighters, which are now a staple in schools everywhere. The p
oint being that the place for technology is in the classroom. To deny a student the chance
to learn using the best tools available is almost negligent.

The Effects of Technology Use in Education

When used in new and innovative ways, technology can be a tool for presenting info
rmation that motivates the learner. Technology can also be an interactive road of informati
on. It can provide an avenue with which a teacher can present old, tired ideas in a new, vi
brant, and exciting way. Consider history class. How much fun did you actually have hear
ing your teacher lecture or reading about the conquests of Alexander the Great, Caesar, Nap
oleon, Grant, Roosevelt, or Truman? Did the information reach out, take you by the shirt,
and pull you into the story? When you read or were lectured on the great kings of Egypt,
could you see them, were they human to you? Were you able to visualize the greatest feat
s of man? Could you see the inception of the steam engine, the first car, the first flight, th
e discovery of electricity, the formation of the light bulb, the machinations behind nuclear p
ower, or man's first walk on the moon?
Like most people, children in school today can give a negative response to those que
stions. Think of the limitless possibilities technology can provide. You can observe a dra
matic, historically accurate, and visually stimulating re-creation of a battle, hear many differ
ent perspectives of why the leader did or didn't win, and gain a perspective of how that bat
tle affected the war. You can follow the discovery of mummies, learn how they are identif
ied, and observe reconstructions of them so you can see what they looked like when they w
ere vibrant, breathing, living beings. You can follow a visually and aurally stimulating reco
unt of the ideas, processes, and people behind inventions. You can listen to people who we
re there. You can glean feelings from their stories, get a better account of what you are re
ading, and look at visual representations and re-enactments. Technology would enable the l
earner to go places that would otherwise be impossible.
 The world of science has given us a seemingly insurmountable quantity of informati
on. Which is better, reading about an experiment or performing one? When someone read
s that the combination of hydrogen and oxygen molecules form water, the chemical equatio
n is all they get out of it. If however, they perform the experiment of adding hydrogen an
d oxygen together, they would understand that it is actually a forceful, explosive process tha
t requires energy to perform. You can inundate yourself with every aspect of biology, che
mistry, anatomy, and physics, and never learn anything but empty facts. How can you truly
appreciate the concept of size of dinosaurs, or the powerful forces of nature by reading?
Technology cannot only provide you with a verbal representation; it can also incorporate vis
ual and auditory images that can aide in driving the point home.
In short, technology gives "life" to things long since dead. It jazzes up the old lesso
ns and relates them to the children of today. It gives children a three dimensional understa
nding, one that is not regulated by one person or text. It can add a human quality to the
material, and in so doing make it infinitely more interesting.
Technology is almost immediate. It is a way to introduce information as it is occurr
ing. Consider the World Trade Center bombing. How long will it take to see a textbook i
nclude it? Or cloning, how long will it be before out science books cover this highly volati
le issue? Technology brought the Trade Center bombing to our living rooms within second
s of its occurrence. Cloning was introduced within weeks of its success. In today's society
, time is of the essence. It is imperative that children become prepared for the fast moving
world, and keeping them a few years behind current events is not beneficial to them or the
society they join.
Textbooks also raise another pro-technology issue. People who have their own point
of view write textbooks. It is not reasonable or cost effective for publishing companies to
include the views of many people. Whose perspective will we be getting? How do we det
ermine who is correct? Let's face it; the choice of a text is just that, we are choosing one
view over another (albeit the difference may be miniscule). As adults, we never trust only
one person's opinion. We actively seek the advice of many. Technology allows us to view
many peoples' opinions in a very rapid, cost effective way. This gives the student the free
dom to obtain many different points of view, thus allowing that student to formulate his/her
own meaning of the subject matter.
When a student is exposed to many view points, they form their own opinions. Tec
hnology can further this process by becoming an expressive media through which those opi
nions can be conveyed. Our opinions are constantly changing based on knowledge that is g
ained through expression of that opinion. Technology can link a student to millions of othe
r opinions. This process will not only enhance the student’s ability to form the opinion, it
will also enhance the student’s ability to express and modify that opinion.
Technology is also a time-saver when used appropriately. From plotting a seemingly
endless number of coordinates, to conducting a DNA isolation experiment in biochemistry,
technology can decrease the amount of time it takes to perform tasks. When you have a ru
ler, graph paper, and 300 coordinates to graph, you put on a pot of coffee. Imagine if you
will, the ability to graph those 300 coordinates within 30 seconds. The time saved could ea
sily be utilized for further study. You can accomplish so much more in this instance. The
depth of study has the potential of being much farther-reaching than it has been in the past.
The efficiency of technology will make this possible.
Technology and Society – Making Connections to the “Real World”
The "old school" lecture system is fast becoming outdated. Teachers are becoming l
ess and less able to hold their student's attention. Think back to your grade school days.
The typical activities after class were either some form of sport, or simply playing outside.
Television offered a very limited form of entertainment. Cable networks had not yet been c
onceived and video games were in their infancy, so children had to take a more active role
in their own entertainment. At that time, the expectation of entertainment was very low .
Simple lectures could hold the student’s attention.
Today, we as teachers are constantly being challenged to gain and keep our students
on task. Today's children have so many more distractions. Cable television offers access t
o more channels than most people can count. Today's shows, even if they still convey the
same message as their predecessors, are faster paced and much more visually stimulating.
Video games have become so advanced that the graphics are almost realistic. The time an
average child spends in front of a television has increased since 1990. Television shows an
d video games have conditioned our children to expect more, want more, and demand more.
Children now have a very high expectation of entertainment. If a game or show is not fa
st enough, the child turns it off. I believe this happens in traditional classrooms as well. T
he child may seem as though they are paying attention, and they may be able to recite facts
, but the true understanding is not there.
This is where technology can make a huge difference. The ability of the teacher to
use a digital camera, video clips, informative videos, and computers to meet the children's e
ntertainment expectations makes it a useful tool in the classroom. You are no longer held t
o the idea that class has to be a boring lecture for both teacher and student. You can make
video clips of a topic, imbed sounds within your lecture, and include hands on activities to
make topics more fun while still being educational.
Simulations can provide the student with a medium with which to test theories. Chil
dren would then learn by doing. Through simulations, you could make the students become
participants in a battlefield struggle, an engineer of a bridge, a train conductor, car driver,
and plane flier. Simulated tours of historic and cultural sites can bring a new perspective t
o the students. By experiencing topics, you are able to better understand them. Simulation
s created to teach certain skills have been found useful in solving real world problems whil
e targeting students’ misconceptions about the real world experiences. By using simulation
technology, the teacher may not only meet, but could also exceed the students’ educational
AND entertainment expectations.
 The sheer usefulness of technology makes it a valuable tool. Technology makes it p
ossible to break down learning barriers. Since technology can cater to the different learning
styles of the user, it can impact more students than a traditional approach to instruction. It
can also circumvent a student’s weakness in one particular area, while still allowing them t
o learn. If students have a problem with reading comprehension, they can still enjoy, and u
nderstand lessons that use visual and auditory stimulation. This is not to say that literacy s
hould take a back seat to technology. Technology has become an easy way to circumvent t
hat difficulty, while still teaching the information. Also, there are many ways that technolo
gy can be used to teach literacy.
The most important aspect of technology integration is student interaction. As the re
adings have illustrated, technology has been integrated, however, it has been integrated in th
e wrong way. Technology should not be used as simply a source of conveying information.
There has to be an active participation by the learner in order for any real learning to occ
ur. It needs to allow the learner to be presented with a situation that requires problem-solvi
ng skills. These situations would allow the students to construct new knowledge and apply
it in other similar situations. Technology can be used to effectively support mathematics in
struction by focusing on problem solving with a hands-on constructivist approach to learnin
g. Experimentation with mathematical ideas can lead students to construct their own unders
tanding about those ideas. For example, students can collect data, enter that data, construct
visual representations and draw conclusions from that data once an analysis is performed.
Students have a need to direct his or her own learning, but an “instructor” is also ne
eded to guide that learning. When left to their own devices, students who are placed in fro
nt of a computer will gravitate toward what they know. They may surf the web as a casua
l observer, not an integrated learner. Without guidance, students may not construct any new
knowledge or make any meaningful connections to what they already know. The students n
eed guidance from their teacher. It is the teacher’s responsibility to model uses for technolo
gy in an educational setting.
Summary
Due to the interactive and pervasive nature of technology, the educational process ca
n be transformed into an environment in which the student actively seeks to improve upon
his/her own understanding. Technology integration that is well thought out can be used as
a tool to enhance current instruction, provide greater opportunities for learning, and develop
computer literacy. By not integrating technology into the educational process, one of the th
e most important interactive tools you have been given as a teacher could be destroyed.