How does Technology Affect Students in Classroom - Research Paper Example

?How does Technology Affect in room? Table of Contents Literature Review 3 How Technology Enhances Educational Process 4 Practical Evidence and Effectiveness of Technology in Educational Environment 7 Role of Technology for the Future of Higher Education 8 Works Cited 11 Literature Review Since the past few decades, the use of technology has emerged and evolved to be recognized as a key element for almost every sector. Technology has developed considerably in recent times, which has provided an opportunity for sectors such as educational sector to make use of it resourcefully to ascertain that students are offered pertinent knowledge and advanced facilitates to gain an enhanced learning atmosphere. It has been recognized that technology can provide multifaceted benefits to the users if it is utilized appropriately and for the benefits of mankind. With this notion, the prime aim of this review is to recognize the ways in which technology can affect students in classroom. According to Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL), technology plays a pivotal role in educational segment through offering an extended number of beneficial aspects. According to the present scenario, technology has become one of the major sources of achieving substantial advantages especially in the education sector. The use of modern technologies in the classroom can provide an effective learning experience for the students, which enables them to achieve substantial future benefits. The learner-centric educational environment which based upon use of technology effectively supports independent work along with enhancing collaborative approach among the learners. This type of educational classroom provides ample opportunities for the learners to connect advanced learning with present learning experience. The students have access to a range of equipments and resources to learn and implement them to achieve further growth in their career. In order to provide effective and career assuring educational services, the involvement of computer in the educational program can significantly augment the educational process. In keeping with the present development of Information Technology (IT), the use of computers can effectively support to incorporate various advanced methods in the education systems for the students. Moreover, the use of internet applications will also provide significant benefits to gather relevant information independently. It facilitates the learners to collect a wide collection of appropriate materials which could assist them to be more self-dependent and career oriented (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, “Technology Assistance Program”). How Technology Enhances Educational Process According to a research of National School Boards Association, technology is an essential part of the modern educational system which offers various types of benefits to the learners. The major advantages of technology in the educational sector can be characterized into various factors which are significantly focused to enhance learners’ skills in different dimensions (National School Boards Association, “Technology’s Impact on Learning”). Fundamental Skills Instruction The fundamental skills in technology based educational system involve providing education related instructions to operate computer systems. In this stage, the learners or the students are provided learning to use computer for their education assistance. The study related education through different computer software and applications are provided to the students. Moreover, multimedia software and other audio and/or video technologies in the educational programs are utilized in order to strengthen and enhance the fundamental skills of the students for their educational programs (National School Boards Association, “Technology’s Impact on Learning”). Advanced Skills Instruction The advanced skills instruction of computer based educational programs is designed to use superior technologies in order to augment the educational levels of the students. The students are enabled to use internet applications in order to achieve extensive educational support through collecting information and study related materials from different sources from the web. Moreover, the advanced process of computer based educational service also offers the learners to organize complex information, restructure the patterns, represent implications as well as communicate findings regarding different study related information. Furthermore, the advanced skills of computer based educational programs also involve operating different software and computer applications in order to enhance their skills to effectively learn improved organizational as well as problem-solving capabilities (National School Boards Association, “Technology’s Impact on Learning”). Assessment of Learner’s Advancement According to the observation of Bebell and Kay, it has been identified that the advanced technological development related investments in the educational programs facilitate to provide ample support to the learners to achieve superior educational service. The process of advanced computing services can generate comprehensive abilities through using different multimedia applications. In this regard, it has also been found in the SEDL article that the use of different multimedia software can enable to combine texts, images, sound as well as videos which offers a range of options for the students to acquire effective educational support. The use of multimedia software is effective for the learners not only in their classroom courses but it also enables to provide affluent and adequate educational information to learn more about their course activities (Bebell and Kay, “One to One Computing: A Summary of the Quantitative Results from the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative”). Enhanced Cooperative Learning and Collaboration According to West, establishing technology in the educational processes can encourage the learners to participate in cooperative education programs and it also enhances level of collaboration of the students during their learning process. The advancement of the technological aspects facilitates students to converse or communicate to share educational understandings with other students anytime. Moreover, it further enables students to consult with teachers and it also provides the benefit of gathering information from various internet sources from different locations. Therefore, introducing technology in the educational environment is an effective aspect which helps to communicate and collaborate with expert scholars and other educational experts across the world through effective computer networking programs. The effective communication elements such as e-mail, bulletin boards, blogs, scholar articles and chat groups allow both learners and teachers to share and exchange educational know-how to build an effective professional community (West, “Using Technology to Personalize Learning and Assess Students in Real-Time”). Practical Evidence and Effectiveness of Technology in Educational Environment According to the observation made by Bebell and Kay, the educational programs are significantly influenced by the immense development of the technological aspects. The learners in the modern educational institutions are considered to be more advanced and updated with their learning programs through effectively using the benefits of technological progressions. The research of Bebell and Kay was conducted to examine the impact on education of the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiatives (BWLI), which has provided strong evidence that an increasing number of respondents have made use of technological advancements to attain greater learning experience. According to the research, it can be considered that the technological involvement in the educational environment has been facilitating to dramatically develop the learners to achieve advanced learning strategies (Bebell and Kay, “One to One Computing: A Summary of the Quantitative Results from the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative”). Moreover, the observation made by West has also portrayed the significance of technological engagement in the educational environment. The learners in the modern societies highly depend upon technology in terms of exchanging and sharing knowledge as well as educational strategies in order to achieve advanced information for their learning courses. The students in the modern world seek to collect information and ideas through different media including social networking, email and chat among other sources. Moreover, the technological upgradation has also enabled learners to gather educational support through various types of personal gadgets. As stated by West, the collaboration among the learners and the teachers represents a valuable advantage in the online phenomenon which facilitates students to collaborate with teachers, peer tutors, parents along with other interested groups or individuals. Therefore, the engagement of technology has turned education into a social event with continuous response and effective assignment assistance for the students to achieve efficient educational support. In addition, the research made by West also found that the social media also plays a major role for the modern students to acquire a range of information from different corners of the world (West, “Using Technology to Personalize Learning and Assess Students in Real-Time”). Role of Technology for the Future of Higher Education According to Chapman, Garrett and Mahlick, technology in the modern scenario provides stimulating alternatives in order to develop educational structure which can enable the learners to gather extensive information. The rapid development in technological aspects enables to avail appropriate and effective course materials and related information from different areas of the world. In this context, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is one of the major technological factors for the learners in the educational programs. The new and developed forms of ICTs in the educational programs are more effective than the traditional systems. It facilitates the students to learn and to analyze their assignments beyond their classroom. Moreover, the increasing development in the ICTs enables learners to attain effective educational support even through the distance educational programs. According to the present day scenario, there are various types of collaborative computer applications which significantly assist the learners to make video conferences with their peers or teachers. The video conference technology is an effective element of ICTs which enables the learners to discuss, share or exchange information more quickly over the networking systems and it also reduces time and cost in terms of accessing information (Chapman, Garrett and Mahlick, “Adapting Technology for School Improvement: A Global Perspective”). In addition, Thornburg had also mentioned that the new advancements in the technological aspects are playing a crucial role in the educational sector through offering different advanced systems of communication methods. The learners in the modern day context are highly involved in implementing technological aspects in most of their activities for collecting and sharing information. Moreover, the modern technologies further ensure to deliver a range of information which can be accessed by the learners through their personal devices at any time (Thornburg, “Role of Technology in Education: A 21st Century Approach”). Therefore, it is important for the learners to make use of advanced learning processes for their higher studies through effectively implementing technologies during their information collection and processing steps. With this concern, the rapid development of communication and the technological advancements facilitate learners to achieve higher educational programs. It has also been mentioned by Chapman, Garrett and Mahlick that the modern technological developments in the educational sector provide opportunities for teachers to broadcast lessons to different classrooms at the same time which ensures to offer educational benefits to a large number of learners. The broadcasting process in the educational program is one of the effective and successful techniques, while providing services for higher education programs (Chapman, Garrett and Mahlick, “Adapting Technology for School Improvement: A Global Perspective”). Moreover, it has been recognized from the observation of Partnership 21st Century Skills (P21), the online service in the educational program is an effective process that ensures to provide a collaborative approach for the learners to resolve various problems in the higher educational programs. The online educational service involves consulting projects with experts from other regions through an effective technological advancement in a cost effective and time efficient manner. It also provides the benefit to retrieve information from different scholars and peer tutors in order to resolve any type of problems related to the higher educational programs (Partnership 21st Century Skills, “Maximizing the Impact The Pivotal Role of Technology in a 21st Century Education System”). From the perspective of the study made by The Economist Intelligence Unit, it can be viewed that modernization in technology ensures to build an effective and competitive nation. According to the present scenario of the educational institutions, technology radically plays a pivotal role in the higher education programs. The rapid growth of the modern technology provides effective support for the learners through enabling them to collaborate with global universities for the betterment of the educational programs of the students who seek to achieve higher education (The Economist Intelligence Unit, “The Future of Higher Education: How Technology Will Shape Learning”). Works Cited Bebell, Damian & Rachel, Kay. “One to One Computing: A Summary of the Quantitative Results from the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative.” The Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment 9.2 (2010): 1-59. Print. Chapman, David, W., Amy, Garrett and Mahlick, L. O. Adapting Technology for School Improvement: A Global Perspective. The Role of Technology on School Improvement, 2004. Web. 07 Dec. 2012. National School Boards Association. Technology’s Impact on Learning, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012. Partnership 21st Century Skills. Maximizing the Impact the Pivotal Role of Technology in a 21st Century Education System, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Technology Assistance Program, 1999. Web. 07 Dec. 2012. The Economist Intelligence Unit. The Future of Higher Education: How Technology Will Shape Learning, 2008. Web. 07 Dec. 2012. Thornburg, David, D. Role Of Technology In Education: A 21st Century Approach. How Do We Envision The Future Of Technology In K-12 Education?, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012. West, Darrell, M. Using Technology to Personalize Learning and Assess Students in Real-Time. Empirical Evidence on Effectiveness, 2011. Web. 07 Dec. 2012. Read More