Monday, September 17, 2007
Students' 'Evolving' Use of Technology
Inside Higher Ed: "In at least one central respect, proponents of technology in the classroom are on to something: Most students (60.9 percent) believe it improves their learning."
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11 comments:
I am sure I am one of few who believe that technology doesn't make the education superior. It may make it more convient and help communication between students and teachers out of class, but in the end what make a successful college experience has to do with actual interaction between the class of students and a living breathing teacher.
I definitely agree with the student in the article who spoke about good vs bad profs. I think that bad profs use technology to replace teaching, while good profs use it to reinfornce concepts and lessons. I do think that technology will become more prominent in classrooms as teachers discover its range.
I agree with Jill in that there we really aren't at a point in time where a computer can completely replace a teacher in a room for most students. As technology develops and more sophisticated AI is developed, maybe one day, but unless your someone who can learn solely from just reading an article about it, there nothing like a teacher that can provide audio, visual, and other types of learners with the support they need.
It is interesting to look at this article from the perspective of the theater. There are certain tools for education that may have made leaps and bounds above "traditional methods" such as wikipedia and photo sites for research in terms of actually improving learning. There are also technological tools that, although they improve on older methods, still rely on a fundamental knowledge, such as AutoCAD. With programs like this, I see little possibility for them to be able to actually increase the ability for students to learn the core material.
All at the same time, many professors have the technology, and don't have a clue how to use it, and it points out their inability to deal with new, quite simple, innovations.
this issue obviously has its pros and cons. I agree with Jill in that it does not make an education but can improve it. everyone works differently in the class room setting, i for one prefer taking hand notes while i know many others who prefer computer notes. more than anything, i think that this article points out that a teacher can no longer get up in front of a class and lecture for hours, they need to utilize the technological tools to explain concepts, depict ideas and, on a basic level, keep the students attention.
Computers, for Katie, are scary. I think that although it does boost the convenience aspect of learning, to some extent it causes some people to become more confused and stressed out. If you don't understand how to make use of the technology, it really won't be all that helpful. Of course you can take the time required to learn about it, but in some situations, it just isn't practical.
Nothing has helped me get work done faster like a computer. The biggest help has been a simple thing like the find tool that lets you search documents for the information that you need. I use the internet for research and reading. Teachers e-mail updates on class and the notes from that day. At the same time, I'm not tied to my four e-mail accounts that I use to try and orginize the mail that I get and so more time is waisted trying to use the entire thing efficiently.
Well, I am a firm believer in the technological generation and how our immersion in technology has created a massive boom in the amount of information transfer and reliance on technological devices. However, when it all boils down it is more important to step back and look at the technology we are using to see if it is actually making our lives easier or if as users we are changing our normal behavior to conform to a new piece of technology. Education applies the same way, if technology enhances an existing teaching method ex: Blackboard and course documents for download. A nice feature of Blackboard is that everything needed for class is there to be downloaded at home, whereas in a drawing class, blackboard documents would not be useful as a teaching aid.
I believe that we do need technology in our lives to make life a little easier sometimes.
Back home in Singapore, elite schools are starting the "virtual learning" (in other words - computers) as a teaching tool.
My 4 year old newphew is surfing the internet everytime I see him. I think I was still having popsicles and watching Care Bears when I was 4.
But if you ask me, computers will not be able to explain to me how it feels like to have a popsicle on a hot day. But if I ask most people, they will tell you exactly how it feels like with the bliss on their face.
To me, that is more important.
Although computers do make some of my work easier, sometimes it can be really distracting to have the entire internet available when I need to write a paper. I know that I'll never take notes on a computer in class, because I just can't remember stuff. As pretty much everyone said, the quality of the teaching is the quality of the teaching. Technology can't change it.
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