The Evolution of Educational Technology

The Evolution of Educational Technology

Smart board is replacing the chalkboards, electronic book (ebook) is  replacing the textbooks, calculator is replacing mental calculation, these advancement in technology is replacing our old school traditional learning style. Calculators, laptops, iPads, cellphones, cameras, smart boards, are being used in classrooms on a daily basis. There is an increase in access to these digital technologies in education. Whether be it in our everyday use at home, work, or school, we use digital technologies every minute of our lives in one way or other. The use of digital technology is rapidly growing in the field of education in many different ways which leads to students high achievements in schools.

As the result of educational technology benefits in students learning, many schools have proved to keep up with the advancements by investing billions of dollars in digital technologies for educational purposes. In the article, Factors Influencing Digital Technology Use In Early Childhood Education, the authors quoted that to “close the technology gaps in our schools” (Blackwell, Lauricella, and Wartella 82) the Federal Communications Commission announced a $3 billion investment in digital technologies. We are living in the twenty-first century, in addition to our parents, even schools are worried of children not being able to have the opportunity of using these resources. Not all the students have access to these technologies at home, and the schools are being generous enough to provide them with these tools to help students prosper in school. In his book Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Douglas Rushkoff mentioned, “Digital technology is all about choices,” (Rushkoff 110) some schools and institutes are trying to help succeed their students are making the right choices resulting in great success. On the other hand, while there are still ongoing research on the studies if using technologies in classrooms are actually helping students learn better, that is why some schools have not still invested dollars in educational technology. Schools and institutions continue to battle with the pace of ever growing technological infrastructure. Although many criticize about relying too much on technology to improve teaching,1 there have been substantial investments in the human and technical infrastructure necessary to implement these technologies on college campuses.

Douglas Rushkoff, the author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, suggested in his book that we as human being is working our pace with keeping up with technologies but “rather than being placed by our own technologies, we can just easily program our technologies to follow our own paces” (Rushkoff 95). We are not robots or aliens who can keep up with machines’ pace, so we should definitely slow down and make these machines run at our pace. Likewise, according to the article Las Vegas Schools Bet Ipad Effort Will Improve Learning, Takahashi quoted “in a society driven more than ever by digital technology, the iPad program is another way schools are trying to keep up with the times” (Takahashi 10). Rushkoff’s and Takahashi’s viewpoints are same and it is true. Technologies will not stop advancing and wait for us, it is matter to us whether or not to keep up with the digital technology world. The power is within ourselves to make that decision.

It is clear that digital technology has changed the old school learning and teaching systems into a modern more mechanized techniques and methods. Blackboard Inc. which is a web based learning management system which help support online courses or provide additional help to students on a twenty four seven base. Thanks to BlackBoard Inc., college students do not necessarily have to attend classes. All lectures, class notes, class captures, additional videos, worksheets, and related articles for you class or information related are all posted on Blackboard Inc. If I were to get sick and hospitalized, I don’t have to worry about not being able to catch up with work because of class captures. As it is quoted in the article Las Vegas Schools Bet Ipad Effort Will Improve Learning “For students who might have missed class or didn’t understand the lesson, you can push a button and have it explained again and again” (Takahashi 10). The same way high schools in Las Vegas are introducing these resources, many other schools have introduced them as well. To me personally, I feel as if I have access to my professors’ brain 24/7 after I watch and listen to the class captures when I miss classes.

Almost all institutes in the United States offer online classes and students can graduate without even attending a single class in a classroom. In addition, students can learn material taught in class by watching online videos at academic web such as Khan Academy’s. In the article Decoding Learning: The Proof, Promise And Potential Of Digital Education, Stokes suggested that “Khan Academy’s integrated video, practice and analytics model” ( Stokes 10) help students prepare for classes and exams. Not only does students know about these resources, some teachers in school who do not explain the materials well, suggest their students to watch Khan Academy’s video and self teach. I have done the same thing multiple times. Even in college, last semester my Statistics’ professor knows his materials the best but he does not know how to explain it to us. The way he was taught Statistics is so different from now so it’s very difficult for me to understand when he’s teaching. He made learning Statistics more confusing than ever that I stopped going to his classes. During his class period, I would sit on the the chairs outside the class and watch online videos and self teach myself what he is teaching inside the class. Depending on the professor and materials, there are numerous ways to use these digital technologies.