Technology in Education

By Gwen Myslinski

Technology has changed the landscape of everything: the way we think, act, work and play. Technology has also affected the teaching profession and the environment within the classroom, thus changing how students learn.

Positive Effects

Collaboration
Team-building is a life-long skill that will benefit students their entire lives. Collaboration increases productivity and it increases peer-to-peer interaction. There are several document sharing sites, like Google™ Docs (now called Google Drive or Dropbox™), which simplifies the idea of team projects. Technology allows collaboration with students from different schools in different states or countries. Projects can now be a global collaboration.

Instant research and knowledge
There is a plethora of information available with the click of a mouse. Students have access to a large amount of information, much faster than ever before.

Negative Effects

Cheating
With the use of technology and the internet, it is easier than ever to find ways to plagiarize or share homework or tests online. Vigilance does curb the problem, but no one has devised a fool-proof solution to the digital cheating problem.

Lack of focus
Students along with many other people, are easily distracted with cell phones, tablets or some form of technology. According to Buzzle.com, these distractions have "eroded the sense of mental focus, pace and concentration ability from students' life." They went on to state, "teenagers are easily influenced by any new gadget and technology being introduced in the market and this has also made them splurge unnecessarily."

Side Note 

At the start of the 21st century half of U.S. school classrooms had Internet access. Today approximately 98% of classrooms have access, according to haysfreepress.com.