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Brandon LeedENGL 1102Debarati DuttaJune 17, 2013Technology in Education and Learning TodayNo one can argue that our society has changed drastically over the past 30 years and has become that age of great technological innovations that has started a digital revolution. The driving force of the revolution has been the introduction of technological tools like computers, phones, the Internet and much more. This tools have been incorporated into daily life and our society has adapted to these changes. One area that has also adapted drastically to the technological changes is the educational system. I wanted to look into more into this topic because the impact I will play once I become an engineer on technological advances in society. So as I explore the true effects that these news tools have on the current education I wanted to see the positive and negative impacts. To see the true contrast I wanted to set up my paper like a debate or a discussion so the reader can see each side of the discussion . Hopefully after finishing my paper the reader is able to make a decision if technological changes are truly beneficial to the current education. or not The best way to get scientific data to see technology role in education is the effect these tools plays in the students learning ability by measuring the brain activity. In the documentary Digital Nation by Rachel Dretzin and Douglas Rushkoff we were able to see a study by Neurologist Dr. Gary Small from UCLA explores the how learning from internet affects our brains. He gave an MRI to students reading book, which is pre-technological age and compared that to people reading something from a search engine. What he saw was that the brain learning finding something from a search engine is using t twice as much brain activity compared to when reading a book. Gary Small explained that difference in activity between the two tasks is due to fact that using the search engine requires decision-making unlike reading. The technological tools of the Internet and search engine help stimulate more parts of the brain.Now you might think it is quite set and dry, that these tools are better suited for education and learning. Dr. Gary Small was not convinced about the results and he said “Big is not always better,”(Dretzin and Rushkoff). The point he is making that the more brain stimulation is not always better to learn material from. He conclusion from his study in his mind was inconclusive and has left open to door for a new study to examine this impact. There is lot of new technologies available at the disposal for schools to use that will help learning and teachers are now using these technological tools in their lectures. Higher Educations have been to first to start to implement some of these strategies and I was able to find an article published by University of Washington showing how they have observe that there students learn best and show how some of the professors use technological tools to help students learn better. The first tip to help learning is to make thinking visible that allows students to visualize the thinking and organize it, which and also would ill bring out previous knowledge that students had before. Somee of technological tools that are suggested are online concepts maps just like in Figure 1 bo0elow. This helps organize their thoughts and see connections between two ideas. “Another tool is online digital spaces where students thoughts are added as the class goes on and watch as the ideas pill in and the document grows. The teacher should also be able to model expert thinking. To model the instructor must show the students the right way to approach problems where the focus on the patterns. This quite important because it helps develop critical thinking skills because we learn better observing the correct way to approach problems. While there are many tools to helps this idea, the best one is sometimes by video whether it be a podcast or YouTube video where problems are worked out. (Figure 1)Another idea that this article stressed that essential for learning is for the teachers to motivate their students to learn. To motivate a student to learn they must be engage into the topic. This article pull out a piece from article that show that astated from a teacher comment stating that teachers must “need to offer complex and authentic activities that engage the learner in decision-making and problem solving that is relevant to their real world situations.”(Washington 6). There are many tools that the professors used, which are linking content to online videos as well as using clickers that have students answers questions through the class. This helps the students stay focus on the topic the teachers lecturing about because to answer the questions the teacher is asking they must pay attention. “Having students reflect on the work is also key because it helps student engage metacognition, which helps their learning and their thinking becomes more sophisticated,”(Washington 7). To complete a reflection requires just a sheet of paper and a pen but one tool is virtual white boards, which helps students to visualize their reflections and also allows collaborations amongst class members. That is just two of the many topics that piece thought was useful in learning. Click Link Below to See All Tools to Help students Learn using technological tools The new technological changes have completely shaped teaching styles and all signs show that students truly benefit from these changes. In the Digital Nation documentary there is a good representation of this when they show the story of New York South Bronx middle school. Four years ago when there current principal Jason Levy took over there were fights erupting everyday, only nine percent of students were meeting state standards set in math and teachers said kids were not being challenged nearly enough. “Jason Levy came in with a plan to use technology in all classes because he believed that the kids should be fluent technology so they can develop adapt communication and problem solving skills to adapt to this newe world we live in,”(Documentary). The teachers began using technology with all classes they teach and the students became more attentive into reading and writings. “One teacher stated that all of the students were getting really into the books assign and thinking of creative ways to presentof presenting information using the technology,”(Documentary). Introducing the technology in that school caused a drastic turn around where violence is non-existent and reading scores are up 30% and math scores are up 40%. This New York school is first hand example of the positive impact that technology can have in education.Technology is a great tool that is starting to be implemented into every day schools today but it also can limit our learning as well because many people are constantly multitasking with these innovations. Karen Dretzin walked on to MIT campus immediately noticed that almost every student was multitasking in some form. Sherry Turkle a professor at MIT for 25 years stated that the students “have done themselves a disservice by drinking the Kool-Aid and believing that a multitasking learning environment will serve their best purposes.,”(Documentary). Turkle ultimate conclusion is that multitasking is diminishing the students mental abilities. Not only is that the general opinion of many professors around universities but also Stanford sociologist Cliff tested to see if people can really be at their potential while multitasking. The test results showed that people were significantly slower while multitasking and due to this data he worries that multitasking "may be creating people who are unable to think well as clearly,"(Documentary). The general opinion of both of these sources is that multitasking is not allowing the students retain all the information that is needed.During any period of change or compromise people are always pointing out the negatives about the change. Using technology in education can help so much with learning that I believe technology should play a even larger role than it does today. My personal opinion is to introduce computers into schools as early as possible. This will help the kids learn better and develop more intellectual skills. As for addressing multitasking in learning today, I see it as an unavoidable issue that has just become an essential part of today’s society. There is so much to gain from all the technological learning tools out there and not adapting changes to these classrooms is a huge waste of a valuable resource at our disposal. ................
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