HOW HAS TECHNOLOGY CHANGED EDUCATION?

In the days when classroom technology meant filmstrips and record players, . . . teachers gave students oral reviews for final exams; had only one version of a test; relied on sparse book collections and yellowed, rolled-up charts with static data; scanned the day's newspaper for topics for 'current events'; and perhaps organized a unit in which students sent letters to pen pals in another country. Today, some teachers have their students review lessons on a computer, gather primary source material from a CD-ROM, view animated 3-D atlases, create multimedia presentations on what they've learned, and talk about it on-line with students around the world in real time. (Maggie Hill, 1)

I quote Maggie Hill, who is specifically talking about education in respect to Social Studies, because the situation she discusses is a common occurrence in all types of classrooms across the western world. Students are surrounded by an abundance of new information; in fact one statistic shows that the amount of available information doubles every eight months (Hill, 1). This incredible amount of information has been made available largely due to the growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). U.S. statistics show that in the fall of 1996, sixty-five percent of the nation's public schools had access to the Internet, and eighty-seven percent of the schools without access plan to have it by the year 2000 (Heaviside, 1).

An educator's responsibility is now not only to know the information that he or she is teaching, but also to be informed about and familiar with using the different methods and tools of information retrieval. Universities, as well as high schools, have been transformed by these technologies. Information such as lecture notes and course syllabi are available any time, day or night, via the WWW. Students can send electronic mail (e-mail) questions directly to their professors, and professors can receive various assignments in the same efficient manner. Some more computer-savvy professors have gone as far as designing interactive tutorials for their courses; the tutorials can be used to help students study for tests or to give the student a visual aid for courses that may be abstract in the traditional textbook (Lucas 23). Many schools have been able to increase their contact area with the aid of a technology frequently referred to as "distance learning." Distance learning utilizes video conferencing equipment and high-speed telecommunications lines so that an instructor is able to deliver a course to a remote site without having to travel to that site.

All of these changes in technology seem wonderful, and you may wonder how any of this could be harmful to the educational environment. Please continue to the next page to find out about some of the downfalls of this revolution in technology.

HOW COULD ANY OF THESE CHANGES BE BAD?

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