Humans Versus Education Technology

An annual School Networking Conference goes on every year in Arlington, Virginia where people can be recognized for their educational technology inventions and how the technology has benefitted schools. Every year newer technology arises and schools are trying as hard as they can to keep up with the pace. Technology is expensive and because of its ever-changing structure, it makes it hard for schools to find the worth in spending millions of dollars equipping schools with it since in just a year, that money went to waste. As much as technology benefits our society, we can begin to think, are we relying too heavily on technology?

Back before technology and the Internet was the biggest thing, teachers taught, students took notes and listened. Now teachers rely heavily on their projectors, interactive white boards, Internet connection and much more to keep up with their demanding lesson plans and curriculum. Because of the invention of all these greatly beneficial educational technology teachers are able to get more information to students in a shorter amount of time and students can learn better and more things. This is of great value because it helps the students to learn as much as they can and get them the most out of their school experience. But what if there was a blackout or power outage and the school had no power? They would most likely send the students home, which is sad to say. Back in the day, rain or snow, school continued on, they worked by candlelight and teachers read from a book, yes a paper book, not an eReader.

Technology is great and students get a lot from it, but what are its limits? Our society has put no socially acceptable "cap" on how much technology is too much technology. We constantly have our cell phones in our hand, fearing that if we didn't have our cell phones for one minute we would be caught in an emergency situation and need a telephone and our cell phone would be no where to be found? People got along fine without their phones back in the day and today isn't any different. The difference now is that the cell phone companies made us believe that without it, we could die, and this lead to customers buying phones for their five year olds, "just in case of an emergency." Technology is great, but its important to have a balance in life. If you are constantly text messaging and not calling, or playing Facebook games with friends instead of meeting in person and playing an outdoor sport, then you need to assess your technological life and change it. We cant live a truly meaningful life if we don't have real life relationships that the people we call family or "friends" on Facebook, if you have 600 "friends" on Facebook, there is no way you could spend time with them all. The only possible way to connect to them all at once is through social media, and even then, its not personalized and not creating a meaningful relationship. As much as technology has helped students in school, its important to keep a balance between technology and what's real.

Education Technology - Getting Started

Before purchasing and setting up the hardware and software, an educator needs to change their whole mindset about instructing using educational technology. The messages we teach our students has change throughout the centuries, however, the medium in which we present these message has not really changed. Sure paper is used instead of tablets, pencils instead of chalk and white boards instead of chalk, but these are really not revolutionary changes.

Computer technology and the internet are revolutionizing the way educators instruct students. These twentieth century advances used properly make our lives more efficient, and in turn they can help educators deliver curriculum more proficiently.

Educators need to realize that today's student is more comfortable typing up a paragraph on the computer rather than writing it on a piece of paper. These students have had technology and the internet in their lives since they can remember and they are very comfortable using it. Many educators on the other hand do remember a time when technology and the internet were not a part of everyday life.

These educators need to become part of the technology revolution in order to be able to integrate education technology into their classrooms. Blogging, web design, video conferencing and joining online communities are just some of the ways educators can become more familiar with the internet and technology era. We can learn from students who are not born knowing how to navigate through the internet or use all the technological gadgets, they simply learn by playing around with technology and by trial and error. Go ahead start playing around before you know it you'll be an education technology guru.