ENGLISH 20 Literature and Composition

 Topic of essay is “using technology in the classroom is good or bad “

With the changing perspective of 21^st century, the ideas of imparting education has been changing rapidly while the medium of receiving knowledge also seems to change with the dynamic invasion of technology in the education industry. Integrating technology in the classroom definitely engages students by capturing their attention successfully and further enhances their performance through project-based learning. However, some studies conducted in this context, present contradictory outlook opinionating that abundant usage of computers may cause undesirable performance for the students (Poole and Sky-McIlvain). This conflict requires thorough exploration of the two articles by probing into both and only by attempting a synthesis between these two it is possible to maintain a balanced outlook on this concern.

The first study chosen emphasizes the advantages of including technology in the system of education and that how it facilitates the students to grasp the knowledge more conveniently. In the first place, inclusion of technology removes the monotony of bookish learning and learning becomes a fun with digitized education (Cox). On the other hand, this medium of learning significantly contributes to the students’ future by preparing them for the 21^st century digitized field of jobs. With being technologically competent from the very early age, the students will be able to collaborate successfully in the work place (Kelly, Lesh, and Baek). Besides, it has been observed by students themselves that digital learning indeed helps to retain the information in the memory for a longer time and that with personalized apps it has become easy more than ever to learn at individualized pace. To conclude with a final essential point, technology undoubtedly connects more with the  21^st century students than the traditional way of learning (Cox).

On the other hand, the second study chosen conducted by the OECD, presents an alternative and contradictory view to the first one. The study categorically shows how students using more technology are prone to perform lower results (Coughlan). The research further delves deep to analyze the reasons behind this and concludes with the idea that technology raises false hopes among the students and that the teachers themselves are “dazzled” by the abundance of digital components in the school. To support this outcome, the study even draws the context of East Asian countries where there are cautious uses of technology in the classroom (Kirkwood and Price). It has been revealed by the study that the Australian schools are on top in the application of technology in teaching and learning sector whereas, East Asian country South Korea is in the bottom. The study goes on to oppose the usage of technology in the classroom by stating that technology causes distraction and that internet has facilitated the students to produce “prefabricated” answers degrading the overall standard of education (Coughlan).

The objective of this essay is to verify to whether the idea of using technology in classroom should be entertained. In order to evaluate this some analysis and synthesis points are made. The analysis points are: i) whether technology makes the students focused towards study or distracts them, ii) comparison between the traditional mode of study and modern digitally powered education system, iii) how effective learning becomes with computer. The synthesis points are as presented here: i) to what extent technology should be allowed in the study curriculum, ii) how synthesis between traditional mode of study and the contemporary one can be possible, iii) how proper and truthful use of internet can be ensured and finally, iv) how students’ performance can be made improved with integrated use of technology.

Having a close perusal of both the reading articles, some specific points have emerged that demand a critical perspective. Since, both the articles present paradoxical perceptions, it will be incongruous to approve either of the opinions without analysis. If the articles are scrutinized, technology is hailed in the first one stating it helps the students to concentrate whereas denounced in the other mentioning it rather distracts the students from the principal purpose of study. Analyzing these two contradictory points, it can be affirmed that technology indeed owns infinite possibilities but overuse of this can result adversely for the students. They can become distracted by the abundance of interesting yet irrelevant information they can avail through internet and that is certainly not desirable for the learning purpose (Kirkwood and Price). Another crucial point well raised by the two articles is the contrasting nature of the two mode of learning; the traditional as well as the contemporary one. Naturally, question arises that which of these two is most helpful for the students or that whether technology should at all be included in the teaching and learning process. However, exploring both the sources of this discussion it can be said that the traditional mode of study has been challenging for the students all these years whereas digitized medium of education is easy to comprehend. Nonetheless, the extent of technology usage should strictly be monitored or else the outcome will be reversed (Nickerson and Zodhiates). Alongside these, how effective learning becomes with the inclusion of technology is also a matter of contest. While the first article draws opinion of 75 percent educators in support of the usefulness of technology in the teaching and learning sector, the OECD study says that frequent use of technology as a medium of learning results in lower performance among students (Andriessen et al.). However, a close perusal on these two contradictory opinions has helped to deduce that OECD study objects frequent or abundant utilization of technology in school premises that tends to turn into rather misuse though significantly it does not deny the potential side of technology in the education sector. Therefore, the inference drawn from this analysis is that technology has immense potential to become effective but only when it is integrated into the education system wisely (Poole and Sky-McIlvain).

Analyzing the conflicts and contradictory opinions however, do not resolve the problematic aspects of the thesis until these points are synthesized and framed in such a way that a relationship is established among them. In the first place, it should immediately be decided to what extent technology should be a part of education. Since, the OECD study objects students’ misuse of the internet, the teachers and the students both have to be aware about the measured and appropriate use of computers and mobile apps in the educational space (Bates). If synthesis is to perform between the two articles, the major concern of this should be achieving reconciliation between traditional mode of study and the modern digitized medium of learning. It is certain that the traditional mode of studying cannot be entirely rejected as it enhances a student’s reading quality and saves the educational process from being stagnated in the world of internet. Therefore, the modern technology should be included in the existing system of education and that too considering and assessing the requirement so that the quality of education do not degrade and students also enjoy something new in learning so that their interest is sustained. However, another issue occurs in the form dishonesty on the students’ part that they tend to avail the internet and submit some prefabricated work in the name of homework and assignments. This degrades the overall standard of their education and it is hard to tell whether they are gaining any knowledge at all. Besides this, this also indicates the alarming dependence on technology among the 21st century students which if cannot be eliminated must be reduced at any cost. This again re-emphasizes the need for usage of computers in classroom being monitored (Nickerson and Zodhiates). As far as the copying from internet is concerned this can easily be avoided by implementing plagiarism checking software strictly. Concentrating on the principal issue of improving students’ performance by any means a synthesis should be attempted on how technology can be integrated into the prevalent system of education. This synthesis aims to deal with the measures how students can produce better results with the help of technology. As per the study of the second article, the students tend to abuse this privilege rather than utilizing it in the proper direction (Coughlan). This is a matter of grave concern because despite the immense possibility of technology it is not being implemented properly in the education sector (Kirkwood and Price). Hence, this issue should be addressed with urgency by excluding the abuses of internet and technology in general and only extracting the bets from it. This will definitely improve the performance level of the students. As the study conducted by OECD, does not itself deny the fact that eliminating technology from education is a good idea nor is it possible in an age where technology usage has become endemic; the solution remains in the wise integration (Andriessen et al.).

Conclusively it can be stated that using technology in the classroom has significant implications in the changing classroom environment. Although this implication entails both perks and drawbacks, technology undeniably shares considerable place in the students’ life. Therefore, students availing technology in the sphere of education do not really depend on the incorporation of it the classroom space. They are bound to love this new way of learning since they are more accustomed to digitally featured things at present. However, considering all the adverse impact of this, what really worries the educationists is that how long the stringency in monitoring is possible to retain and that whether this excessive dependency on technology is somehow curtailing their cognitive power and creativity.

References:

Andriessen, Jerry, Michael Baker, and Daniel Suthers, eds. Arguing to learn: Confronting cognitions in computer-supported collaborative learning environments. Vol. 1. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.

Bates, Tony. The Role of Technology in Distance Education (Routledge Revivals). Routledge, 2014.

Coughlan, Sean. "Computers 'Do Not Improve' Pupil Results, Says OECD - BBC News". BBC News. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017

Cox, Janelle. "Benefits Of Technology In The Classroom". TeachHUB. N.p., 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

Kelly, Anthony E., Richard A. Lesh, and John Y. Baek. Handbook of design research methods in education: Innovations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning and teaching. Routledge, 2014.

Kirkwood, Adrian, and Linda Price. "Technology-enhanced learning and teaching in higher education: what is ‘enhanced’and how do we know? A critical literature review." Learning, media and technology 39.1 (2014): 6-36.

Nickerson, Raymond S., and Philip P. Zodhiates, eds. Technology in education: Looking toward 2020. Routledge, 2013.

Poole, Bernard John, and Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain. "Education for an information age." (2014).