Educational Technology

Educational technology has become more commonplace with the use of devices in the classroom as well as the countless educational apps for young children. The idea is to use technology as a way to make learning look a lot more fun. So is it working? At this point it's sort of like yes and no. It seems as though educational technology has a lot of potential to do a lot of good, but isn't very good at it as of yet. When a school was given one-to-one laptops, at first there was a great increase in motivation to use the laptops for learning in the classroom. But, over time, there was a significant decrease and the students couldn't help but do what we all do with laptops in the classroom, use them for anything but taking notes. The teachers found they couldn't control students' unproductive use and so interaction with the material lessened. A more promising finding noted that students should be involved in what they're working on. Students who constructed an educational game, rather than just playing it, ended up being more interested and involved. They were also more engaged when they got to play with their friends and be social. Students were also more wiling to do tedious work if it meant they got to level up in some kind of virtual game world. So it seems as though there are aspects of technology that can be used in the classroom to do some real work, but aren't getting as utilized as they probably should. This is probably due to teachers not being up-to-date on these kinds of findings. Teachers should know what works and what doesn't with students, including technology uses.

Moving out of the classroom, e-books and e-games are more enjoyable than their low-tech counterparts. I'm left to wonder why this might be, even when the low-tech versions have the same content. Is it that they're more interactive? More attractive? More colorful? Probably all of these. Why would you want a boring version of a book or a game when all it does is sit there when you could have one that talks to you, moves around, or has funny sound effects? I also wonder if it also has to do with today's children's need for constant stimulation. Have we become so socialized by technology that now anything less would just be too boring to have in our lives? I think that's all find when it's just games, but what about times when we need to be doing something boring? Not everything in life is exciting. Like writing essays, or hearing long lectures, or cleaning the bathroom, but we have to do them. No wonder it takes so much grief and checking something more entertaining like watching cat videos every five seconds just to get through a paper. I'm always left to wonder, what could I have done with all that time I lost not doing what I was supposed to in the first place...