Reflection One - Technology Within The Classroom: It's Drawbacks... And It's Advantages.

Technology Within The Classroom: It's Drawbacks And It's Advantages.

    Advances within technology means the software and hardware we use on a day-to-day basis is becoming smarter and better than ever. No longer are we rewinding VHS tapes or flipping the cassette over to the other side to hear the rest of the tape. However, these advances cause us as users and educators to ponder to question: "What place does technology take in the classroom?"

    The answer should be simple, should it not? If technology has a place in everyday life, surely it has a place in education - which, to many young people, is 5 days a week of everyday life. Now, as a pre-service English, History and - eventually - Japanese teacher, I am all for technology within the classroom; until the help becomes a hindrance.

    Broken laptops, dead batteries, faulty internet connections and DVDs that skip the most important part; technology morphs from the greatest classroom resource a teacher could have at their finger tips, to the worst enemy ever encountered in the classroom (or at least it feels so when you can't make the stupid YouTube video work after the fourth try.) And thus, my wariness of technology within the classroom begins.

    Restrictions are not limited to the technology alone, though. Students, their responsibility and their backgrounds often come into play. I never owned my own laptop until grade 10, when it was bought for me. I only bought an iPod this year. And my phone was an old web-slider until 3 years ago. Teachers now would have labelled me as having a low socio-economical background, especially as I had a single mother. My case is not unique, and many a child - especially in public school like I was - can not afford the technology demanded by the school.

    Of course, this isn't to say technology is an inherently bad resource to use within the classroom. The internet, being a database - or at the very least a link - to all the information the human race has ever collected as it is, becomes a tool for not only research, but creative outlet.

    As mentioned in Sir Ken Robinson's TED speech (2006), the education system puts entirely too much merit on the academia, and not enough on the creative. As a creative soul myself, I distinctly remember doing as Judy Willis mentions in her video - bored out of my mind and scribbling over my books, or staring out the window. Now, this is not simply because school in the late 90's and early 00's was boring, per say, but because the lack of creative items to engage me.

    Therefore, in the end, I can only state that whilst technology is a wonderful resource I will utilise, my students will still be handwriting their English rules and History dates out in full hand on pen and paper.