Technology: helpful or harmful in school?

Question

Computers allows students to learn about things, but are they learning from computer based activities?

Answer 1

Computer programs can be used for drill and give immediate feedback which is an important element in learning. Access to the internet widens a students resources. Students are abel to present their learning for example with a powerpoint presentation. I could go on, but as with any lesson, studnet learning needs to be assessed and evaluated since different students learn in different ways. I can not think of many negatives in using technology (other than glitches and hardware problems or age inappropriate web sites ), so I believe technology is helpful in schools. Students need to be able to compete in a technological society.

Answer 2

That's a great question Mrs. D, and one that I've spent a lot of time thinking over. There are two ways to look at it:
#1. Technology really does help keep/make students interested in the subject matter, which is only a good thing.
#2. Shouldn't students know how all of this technology stuff works too? It's all very well saying, 'Oh, no problem, my students are studying computer classes, so they're getting a good grounding in that area.' Well that's just not true. If you take, for example, an interactive whiteboard (a brilliant piece of kit for the classroom). Do students know how that works? Not very likely. It's so complex. I wonder if many teachers who use the things actually know how they work!

You might think that it isn't exactly necessary for students to know how all of this stuff works, but I beg to differ. Let's think about maths. Don't students always ask why they need to know how to figure out the sum by themselves when they can do it much faster on a calculator?
It's the same principle. I believe that it is very important for students to know as much about everything they are exposed to as possible, which includes high-tech gadgets and gizmos. Otherwise, we, as teachers, are likely to help produce a generation who can do wonderful things with all sorts of technology, but wouldn't have the first clue as to how it works or how they were able to achieve it.

Answer 3

I think that it is a little bit of both. Technology is harmful to students because they can get lazy and not learn how to do things properly. However, technology is helpful because we can do things faster and easier now. Can you imagine having to be told to handwrite a three page paper or do to a lab report by hand or both?