Digital technologhy plays a key role in education - Essay Example

Digital Technology Plays a Key Role in Education Digital technology is one of the foundational elements of the modern society. It is so deeply rooted in the contemporary lifestyle that it is almost impossible to think of a day without digital technology. New forms of technology including cellphones, iPads, and tablets have revolutionized the process of interaction, learning, and education. Digital technology is also being formally endorsed as an effective tool to impart education, particularly in the technologically advanced first world countries. From educational television to the federal E-Rate program to iPads, each new technology is introduced every few years in the educational system at national and international level to improve students’ learning (Wartella & Robb 2007). Digital technology’s capabilities and uses are numerous and it finds immense application in education. However, it also has some negative effects on the quality of education and administration of the classroom environment. Use of digital technology in education is not a new trend, but is one that has prevailed for centuries. Much of the development in the fields of science and technology can be attributed to the use of digital technology in education. Calculators have been used in educational institutions ranging from primary, through the high school, secondary school, college, and university level for many decades. Modern calculators come with a variety of functions that can help the mathematicians and scientists perform complex calculations in the blink of an eye. With the advent of computer and particularly the Internet, the whole process of research has been redefined at all levels of academia. Before, learners used to conduct a lot of research to grasp the concepts they needed for research. In their attempt to get hold of the required sources, they would visit several libraries which incurred them not only cost but also consumed a lot of time. Nowadays, there is a sea of information available over the Internet, many of whose sources provide information free of cost. Researchers have the opportunity to select the research papers they need to study in order to conduct the literature review by reading their free abstracts over the Internet first. Use of digital technology in research has enhanced the focus of the researchers and has made the process of research a lot more convenient. Many educationalists see digital technology as something that neatly fits with the interests and values related to the organization and nature of learning. When considered along the lines of the (post) Vygotskian tradition, digital technology assumes the role of a robust social resource in the learning context of an individual. This approach looks at digital technology as a way of making the sources of knowledge and expertise which exist outside their environment, available to the learners. Most secondary school mathematics teachers in the UK are educated over projects, interactive white-boards, and computers. In the last few years, a range of educational ultra-mobile personal computers have been specifically made for the use of students. These devices are wireless, robust, cost-effective, powerful, and lightweight with long-lasting batteries. Some of these ultra-mobile personal computer devices include MIT’s OneLaptopPerChild (OLPC), Indian educational tablet PC, and Intel’s Classmate (Oldknow 2011). Academicians’ interest in computer-supported collaborative learning has increased over the past decades. Computer-supported collaborative learning provides learners with the opportunity to learn and collaborate with each other from a distance using the digital technology. Likewise, growing enthusiasm has been noticed among the academicians regarding the tendency of digital technology to facilitate situated learning’s social-cultural forms. Digital technologies play a major role in the redefinition of some of the most important education aspects, role of the teachers and learners, and in reconceptualization of the link between learning and knowledge. One of the growing trends in education that is gaining strength and is spreading rapidly across the globe as a result of use of digital technology in education is online education or virtual education. As the name implies, it is the sort of education that is imparted by using digital technology as a medium. The teacher may deliver either recorded or live lecture online and students are provided with the facility to watch the lectures at their own convenience. The teachers place content on the web where students can access it and the role of a teacher is to help the students understand that content (Massey University 2014). Virtual education brings students a lot of convenience and allows them to do studies and jobs simultaneously. In spite of a vast body of evidence for the positive role of digital technology in education, digital technology is not being integrated into education with the same pace as it is being created with, particularly in the underdeveloped and developing countries of the world. Every few months, something remarkable is introduced to the academicians in the name of digital technology in these countries, yet educationalists do not seem very eager to integrate them into the educational setup. Certain hurdles to the integration of digital technology in education include the cost of purchasing, installation, training, and maintenance of digital technology; and the risks brought about by the use of digital technology in the classroom setting; “new digital technologies should be seen as involving more – rather than less – work and responsibility for educational institutions and those who work within them” (Selwyn 2011, p. 165). The additional responsibilities include but are not limited to controlling irrelevant and improper use of digital technology by the students in the classroom, establishing controls to supervise and administer the correct use of digital technology, training the students on the use of digital technology for educational purposes, and dealing with a wide range of apps and software programs that facilitate the students in cheating over the teachers. Another major challenge with respect to the use of digital technology in education is its integration in such a way that it benefits learners with different and conflicting needs. This challenge can certainly not be dealt with by adopting a “one-size fits all” solution. Alongside the positive uses of digital technology in education, there are also certain negative effects of it. First of all, it becomes very difficult for a teacher to control the discipline of class when every student has a gadget of digital technology. Many a times, teachers assign tasks to the students in the class; while the teacher thinks that they are doing that task on their iPads, students are actually using Facebook, chatting with their friends, or browsing other social media websites. In order to tackle this problem, many schools have blocked certain websites so that students cannot access them in the school, but the problem is not totally solved by this because there is always plenty of other websites that the students can explore. Use of digital technology in the classroom has, in effect, reduced the control of teachers over their students. This lowers not only the quality of education, but also exposes the teachers to a lot of risks. It is not possible for teachers to compete with students in the classroom when the students are half-listening to them and are instead busy chatting with their online friends about how well did the party go the previous night. One of the teacher expressed his frustration in these words, “I work hard to make my lessons engaging, but regardless of how much I prance around up there and wave my arms there are always those students who cannot ignore their youthful inclination to succumb to distraction (been there...)” (Gude 2012). In addition to making things difficult for the teacher, the real damage is done by students to themselves as it has been reported that students that text in class receive significantly lower scores in exam compared to students that do not text in the class (Gude 2012). Multitasking in class lowers grade performance of the students. Many students tend to take photos of their teachers in awkward positions or pauses using their digital technology and the teachers don’t even get to know that they are being captured. Before they can know and grab hold of the situation, the photos are spread all over the social media. One such incident took place at Boston College High School on the Dorchester campus where some students were held accountable for taking female teachers’ inappropriate photographs using their cellphones (Armstrong 2014). Stephen Hughes, principal of the school, informed the parents of those students through email. The principal informed the faculty of the incident once discovered and convened an accountability board that led to the separation of the student from the school. Many students that were interviewed later told both on camera and off-camera that it is not uncommon for a student to take a photograph of a teacher. The photos thus taken can show the teachers in awkward positions and can even be “more graphic, including so-called “upskirting” pictures in which a camera is slipped under a woman’s dress or skirt” (Armstrong 2014). It is very unethical for a person to take another person’s photo without seeking approval first, let alone a student taking an awkward photo of a teacher for the purposes of making fun or for other negative reasons. Teachers have to go through a lot of emotional and psychological distress whenever such incidents happen. While in class, teachers tend to remain conscious of these risks all the time which distracts them from totally and only concentrating upon the quality of instruction. In their attempt to protect themselves, they remain overly conscious and their ability to deliver their best is compromised. App developers have come up with applications directed at controlling the functional aspects of a projector. This imparts the need for teachers to make sure that students do not have their cellphones or such other gadgets in the class with them, but teachers are not the only decision-makers in a school. It is hard to implement such a policy until teachers have support of the school administration as well as the principal. Another negative effect of use of digital technology in education is the spread of controversies. A vast majority of students are children in their growing stages of development. Being teenagers, they are not mature enough to have accurate understanding of what their actions can lead to. Sometimes, students tweet about their class-fellows or teachers or some aspect of their school on their social networking profiles that generates a very bad impression of their schools. Later, if they are caught doing so and held accountable for their actions, the consequences are not favorable for the student nor for the school. This imparts a need for the school to have a technology policy in place and the teachers should preferably be more experienced in teaching in a digital technology based educational setup so that the positive effects of use of digital technology in education can be increased (Blackwell, Lauricella, and Wartella 2014). To conclude, digital technology has a lot of educational uses and significance. Nowadays, digital technologies are created with such operational capabilities and feature that make them best-suited for application as tools in education. Educational setup at all levels employs digital technology particularly in the technologically advanced countries. Some factors that have served as a catalyst in the integration of digital technology in the modern educational system include the specially built features of these gadgets customized to the needs of academicians and learners, and the digital technology’s variety. Use of digital technology has made the process of research very convenient and efficient for the researchers. Students have been able to interact with each other regardless of time and location constraints by using digital technology. While digital technology has provided the academicians with so many opportunities and facilities, some challenges that impede the quick integration of every new form of digital technology into education include the costs associated with purchase, installation, and maintenance of digital technology and training of the tutors and students; and miscellaneous risks posed by the use of digital technology in education. Nevertheless, it can be argued without doubt that digital technology has brought radical improvement in the quality and efficiency of educational system. References: Armstrong, J 2014, BC High Students Punished For Taking Inappropriate Photos Of Female Teachers, CBS Boston, [Online] Available at http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/12/01/bc-high-students-punished-for-taking-inappropriate-photos-of-female-teachers/ [accessed: 28 February 2015]. Blackwell, CK, Lauricella, AR, and Wartella, E 2014, Factors influencing digital technology use in early childhood education, Computers & Education, Vol. 77, pp. 82-90. Gude, K 2012, Yelling at Students Using Facebook in Class Doesn't Help, But This Video Might, HuffPost, [Online] Available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karl-gude/yelling-at-students-using_b_1461770.html [accessed: 28 February 2015]. Massey University 2014, Research@IoE: Digital technology use in Education, [Online] Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoMfK7tOW00 [accessed: 28 February 2015]. Oldknow, A 2011, Mathematics Education with Digital Technology, A&C Black. Selwyn, N 2011, Education and Technology: Key Issues and Debates, A&C Black. Wartella, E, and Robb, M 2007, Young children, new media, Journal of Children and Media, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 35–44. Read More