Technology Now and Then

Technology in Education, Then and Now
Technology is changing the way we live and do work, but it’s also transforming the way we learn. Technology has proven to be a key device used to increase efficiency in education. While 10 years went by in grade school, from 2001 to 2013, the amount of technology used in faculties changed drastically. This brought the percent of uneducated citizens to an all time low. There is no doubt that technology itself has only positive impacts on how efficiently we retain information. When I was in first grade, every other day we travel as a class to the computer lab, where we would go to a room with all the lights turned off and a certain amount of computers to be used. The computers were the size of a modern day mini fridge, which you had to stare at for a total of sixty minutes while typing out your spelling words of the week out on a outer space stimulated typing game. Every morning, other than on Fridays, the principal would come on the intercom and say the pledge of allegiance. Where as on Fridays, the broadcast crew, from Monday through Thursday would practice and record on a VCR tape the Friday announcements plus the highlights of that week. In the four classes, as they would have called them, core classes: math, English, reading, & social studies; teachers often made you follow along with what was being read out of the text book. If a sentence or point of the text was felt to be important the teacher would write it out on the chalkboard, which sometimes made you clench your jaw because the sound of the chalk grazing the board would create a painful noise that no one could bare to hear. The upside to the chalk boards was to be chosen by the teacher to leave class and go outside to bang out the powder from the chalk in the fat, black, foam eraser. I am now a freshman in college, it is critical that I have the technology such as a computer and Wi-Fi to even begin to try to succeed in my classes. Daily announcements have been around for a while now, but due to the advance in technology, announcements are currently sent via email. To receive these emails you have to have connection to the internet, and most importantly you have to have a device such as a computer or smart phone to access it. In the duration of a class lecture, given by a professor, there is a projector that spits out an exact replica of what is on the computer screen the teacher is using to teach the class. With the image of the teachers screen on a wall, where everyone in the class can see, there is a PowerPoint or a document with a brief overview of what the teacher is lecturing about; which is great so that no one can get lost in what they should or should not be looking at. As for tests, teachers create a test with different versions so the questions are not all the same for cheating reasons. These versions of tests that the teacher created are given to every student in that class, along with a long rectangular piece of paper with a bunch of bubbles labeled A, B, C, D, E, and even sometimes F; which is called a scantron. The tests are not to be written on, but to only be read and the answers should be marked on the scantron. There is a machine that the teacher feeds through the answer sheet first, and then the machine memorizes the answers while the teacher feeds through the entire classes scantrons to be graded. So yes, most tests now are multiple choice, this reason being for faster, more efficient grading done by the teachers. As shown from the examples given, the increase in more efficient technology enhances a student’s education in a positive, more proficient way. Teachers having projectors that are connected to a computer, rather than, a textbook and a white board to write on, for an example, is a significant part of teaching nowadays. Teachers are able to share the information with the students faster and are able to give much more detail for a better understanding, to where the students are, not just skimming over the information, as they would with a textbook, but more encouraged to be engaged in the classroom conversation. The technology now assists the teachers to be able to show students a certain amount of material much faster than if they had to read it word for word from a book and then to write out the key points on a board. These kinds of improvements aid educators more today versus about ten years ago. Throughout my years in school I have come to the conclusion that the improvements in technology has bettered my education, as I am sure it has for most others. Technology has had a positive impact on the way we are taught and how we learn in many different ways. Certain developments, such as the computer, are so influential that if it were all of sudden nonexistent education would come to a screeching halt. Technology in present day is the reason for higher levels of education.