It is impossible to deny that our current society is fully saturated with technology. From the newest iPhone, to FitBits, the tablets and computers we use. If you are not up to date with technology you might just miss something is what the world wants you to think. We also live in a highly consumer culture, when that new iPhone comes out exactly a year after the one you bought you might be lead to believe that yours, while still fairly new, is inadequate and out of date. This can be reflected in our ideas of instant gratification, we love to receive the new thing or to get a reward right now, but we have a terrible time waiting or being satisfied with what we already have. As research has been growing over how technology affects aspects of …show more content…
Matt Richtel in his article “In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores” examens how greater implementation of technology has been affecting one school district in Arizona. While the district’s budget may have decreased they are still increasing their spending on technology. This is causing them to have to let some teachers go and increase class size. This, however, has made it increasingly hard for them to keep good teachers in the classroom since the larger class size can turn them off from the job (Richtel). Since the implementation of higher amounts of technology in the classroom though, they have seen scores in reading and math have stagnated in Kyrene since 2005, even though the statewide scores have risen (Richtel). While they are still hopefully that their efforts to increase the amount of technology in the hands of children in the district is fruitful, there is still some evidence that keeps them a little weary. This is what the superintendent, David K. Schauer, of the district had to say about the technology: “My gut is telling me we’ve had growth, but we have to have some measure that is valid, and we don’t have that” …show more content…
A major difference found by Jim Taylor in regards to attention and memory recall was that “Studies have shown that reading uninterrupted text results in faster completion and better understanding, recall, and learning than those who read text filled with hyperlinks and ads” (Taylor). This is the comparison between a book and say an article online where there are pop-ups and advertisements along the edge of the screen. In many ways technology improved things such as reaction time and the ability to pick out useful information among a large amount of information (Taylor). I believe the use of technology in learning and in life can greatly impact how you think and interact in the “real” world. That being said we should closely monitor how we use technology in the classroom because some forms enhancing learning while other detract from it. It is not about having the newest, shiniest, stuff but things that engage children without being distracting. I have seen this with my little brother this year our local school district back home handed out Chromebooks to each and every sixth grader, so far he seems to like having it but at the same time he does not enjoy some of the online assignments like Membean for vocabulary where he has to spend a