Question

compare and contrast essay on education with and without technology

Answer 1

The Importance of Technology in Education:

In the world that we currently live in, technology is a very vital factor. With each passing day a new software or gadget is being brought into the market that serves to improve our lives in one way or another and make it much easier and also to advance an already existing software or gadget. However, it is important to note that despite the fact that technology plays a big role in making our lives easier, it is not the only role it has. Technology is increasingly growing it’s importance in the education sector. The more technology advances, the more benefits it provides for students at every education level. Technology that is made use of in the classroom is very beneficial in helping the students understand and absorb what they are being taught. For instance, since there are a number of students who are visual learners, projection screens connected to computers could be put in classrooms to let the students see their notes as opposed to simply sitting down and listening to the instructor teach.

There is a number of very good software that can be used to supplement the class curriculum. The programs make available to students quizzes, tests, activities and study questions that could help the students continue with the learning process when they are out of the classroom.

Today, technology has been incorporated into a good number of curriculum even those that do not belong to the technology and computer classes. Students make use of computers to come up with presentations and also make use of the internet to carry out research on a variety of topics for their essays and papers. Students also get to know how to use the technology available in the world today through the tech and computer classes. This gives the guarantee that following their graduation, the students will not have any difficulties with using technology when they are out there in the work place, which might serve to make them more competitive compared to an individual who has no access to a certain software or technology in school.

With the continuing advances in the technological world, students are getting improved access to such educational opportunities. Every time something ‘better’ and ‘new’ is brought into the market, the price of the existing technology is decreased which makes it much more accessible in the educational setting even to those schools that might not have a lot of financial resources available to them.

There are a number of people who are of the opinion that technology ‘spoils’ children. For instance as opposed to sitting down and getting to know how to count, they will opt to get a calculator. Despite the fact that there are people who are making these arguments, technology still remains to be a very vital component of the society we live in today. By introducing it into our schools and classrooms, we will ensure that the students are equipped with much better tools and knowledge to make their transition from school to the work place a very easy one. We need to face the truth, technology is the ‘in thing’ in the world today and it has become necessary in each and every aspect of our lives and education has without doubt not been left behind. It is very useful in providing more knowledge to our students and also on making them competitive in the job market.

Teaching Without Technology:

The students who do best within this system are those who can capture the transmission -- as unfiltered as possible -- and mirror back to the teacher what they have delineated. Within this model, digital technology can provide improvements, but they are cosmetic.Teachers can enhance their lectures with presentation software, videos and other forms of multimedia, but the methods stay the same. For teachers who don't understand how these new tools can enhance what they are teaching, then technology can be a distraction.

The pedagogy that's emerging to deliver 21st-century skills is student-centered and inquiry-based. In the inquiry-based approach, student interest drives the learning process and the teacher shifts from the sage on the stage into more of a coaching role. Within this system of learning, there is real value in having the widest range of technological tools for not only consuming information in all its multi model forms, but for creatively demonstrating what one has learned.

Personal experience:

To pick one simple example, when I approached a chalkboard to illustrate a point on my first day of class as an instructor I had behind me years of many teachers using the chalkboard in a variety of ways. Some of them brought their students to the board regularly. Others reserved it as a surface on which they would write the main points of a lecture. Still others used it to collect and then organize student comments during a class discussion. When I entered the classroom on my first day of teaching, I hadn’t thought consciously about all of those different teachers using a chalkboard, but their uses still informed my use of the board as an instructional tool. I picked up on the medium of instruction even while I was focusing on the content of instruction.

The chalkboard example can carry another point. Some technologies are so deeply ingrained in our teaching practice that we’re reluctant to think of them as technologies that we choose to use in teaching. That’s because we find it difficult to think of teaching without them. Their use is so pervasive that they’re considered to be part of the teaching itself, rather than a use of technology in teaching.