Hablemos: Is Technology the future of schooling?
I was studing for a math test, and I wanted to check an answer to a problem. My calculator with all the fancy-shmancy symbols was in my backpack, which I was too lazy to get, so I hopped on my computer that was right next to me and googled "exponents calculator". I picked a site that didn't only answer the problem, but explained it and allowed me to save it too a page of problems. Then I thought, wow, everyone in school should use this! I realized I do the same thing for Spanish, on Spanish Dict. If I don't know a word, instead of the grueling task of flipping through a dictionary, I hop on my computer and go to the dictionary on Spanish Dict. If I have a grammar question, I post it on answers. When I need to check my English paper's grammar, I run it through a computer grammar-checker. When I want to be quizzed on my science, I go to my science textbooks site and take the prequiz. I think that technology is the future of schooling. Do you? With sites like Spanish Dict, and online schools being created, I think that soon schooling will be filled with technology. What are your thoughts on this?
Here are sites I use for my studies: Spanish: Spanish Dict, duh English Grammar Checker: Paper Rater Science: My Textbook's Site (google the name of your textbook, I'm not sure every textbook brand has it but good luck) Math: Purple Math
Have fun learning online!
5 Answers
Pero puedo decir que sin Internet no hubiera posible para mi aprender Español. Sin duda.
Eso es por cierto. Intentaba aprender Español en escuela cuando era joven. No tenía ningun éxito.
Sorry to be "that guy," but technology has already changed sooooo much since I was in school - and I'm not old. I learned how to type on one of those old-school manual typewriters. I wasn't allowed to take my Sony Walkman (which played cassettes) to school. CDs were invented while I was in junior high school, and we were afraid they might just be a fad. There are many more examples, but I won't go into them.
I'm jealous of all the "toys" that students have these days. I mean, sheesh, at some schools, kids are all given - or required to purchase - their own laptop computer, which is needed in order to do lessons.
So, yes, I think technology has changed the classroom, and I think it will continue to do so in ways that I can't even imagine. I just hope that they are for the better.
Todos mis estudiantes que no tenían libros, solo ordenadores, odian esta sistema. Dicen que es muy muy difícil concentrarte y más difícil aprender cosas y que las ojos te duelen después de un rato. Pero es mucho mucho más barato que comprar tantos libros. En el futuro sólo los ricos tendrán libros en las escuelas.
Además no conozco a ningún profesor que prefiere usar un pizarra electrónica.
A pesar de esto espero que los niños vayan a aprender más sobre ordenadores, como usar programas como "Alice" y entender que significa ser programador y entender más sobre como funciona un ordenador.
Pero puedo decir que sin Internet no hubiera posible para mi aprender Español. Sin duda.
There are plusses and minuses. There is greater access to information (although some of it is incorrect), which is good. But being spoonfed everything inhibits the development of the ability to puzzle things out for yourself, which is bad since it is attaining this ability that is the actual goal of education, not getting the correct answers for a set of problems.
Technology is indeed changing things, for example, a program that my university used for all math classes below the difficulty of Calculus. I can't recall what it was called, I think it had Einstein in the title, but most universities have some version of it.
Although this program did not give you step by step explanations for how to do the math, it did give you the answer if you got it wrong, and it had the content categorized so that you could easily look up what you were supposed to do from your textbook based off of the labeling. You really couldn't make less than an A or an A- in those classes if you actually used these things. It is why you see (if you look at the stats at my university) a sharp difference in the grades between trig and calc. Usually A students go on and continue to make high grades, maybe B's, but yet in these instances it is not the case. Practice with feedback is a powerful tool for education, and it just can't be done when you have 1 teacher instructing 100 or more students. Technology brings up the slack.
A lot of people "steal" information as well. There is a lot of information out there that you are supposed to purchase, but yet people have made free online via illegal means. I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand the information creators aren't getting paid what they should for their content, but yet on the other hand many of the thieves couldn't afford to buy the book anyway. So for people who couldn't afford it anyway, is anyone really losing money? But of course those who can afford it are depriving hard workers of their due money.
This is a sad state of affairs for multiple reasons, but in any event technology definitely is changing the learning game.
