Why Integrate Technology At All?

Referenced Article: Edutopia Staff, “Why Integrate Technology Into the Classroom? The Reasons Are Many,” The George Lucas Educational Foundation, March 17, 2008. Accessed December 4, 2011.

http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction

            After nine weeks of posts involving technologies for classrooms of the future, I have compiled a thorough list of strategies and ideas for improving learning by somehow altering the role of technologies such as computers and cell phones in schools. While some choose to resist dependence on technology among students, most schools look to the future with the intent to augment student learning with computer work. Ultimately, technology has proven itself important enough in today’s society and in the future that students as young as elementary school children are most often encouraged to become familiar with new technological material as they study throughout grade school and in universities. After thoroughly examining the many options for integrating technology into the classroom, I thought it would be appropriate to step back and look at the overarching question behind my entire blog: Why integrate technology at all? Edutopia’s article answers just this question, providing numerous reasons why reading the articles presented in my earlier blog posts has been so worthwhile.

            Edutopia’s article elaborates on technology’s “ubiquity” and “true potential for teaching and learning” today and in the future for all students. Assuming it is “properly used,” technology is vital in providing students with the “skills they need to survive” in today’s world economic system. The most important part of using computers and other technical materials successfully is ensuring that they “support curricular goals” and enhance learning when used. Technology is also important in its ability to help students have a “realistic snapshot” of a working environment. The Internet exposes students to “interesting, diverse, and current” information and news, keeping them informed and aware without watching television or finding a newspaper. “Visualizing and modeling” on a computer provides its own reward, encouraging more engaging scientific learning and keeping students focused. Finally, technology serves as an effective aid for teachers and “enhances the relationship between teacher and student” as teachers become guides and instructors for students using unfamiliar tools.

            The Edutopia article provides clear, logical insight behind the reasons that technology should play a role in the classrooms of today and in the future. Not only can computers, Internet, and technical tools encourage students to learn the skills necessary for a successful working career in the future, but they also provide numerous new materials for learning and studying. Technology is even a great way for students and teachers to connect when traditional communication methods may not suffice. Although technology may have its difficulties, this article truly reminds us how important it is to appreciate the advantages of a technological education. Therefore, when looking towards the future and at the structure of future schools and classrooms, we must always consider technology and incorporate it effectively into student learning.

Blogs: Taking Over Classrooms?

Referenced Article: Ana Concejero, “No Teachers, No School,” Ingles Rosaleda Blog, January 13, 2008. Accessed November 27, 2011.

http://inglesrosaleda.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-teachers-no-school.html

            As I approach some of the final topics covered in this blog on the future role of technology in classrooms, I thought it fitting that I look at the role of blogs themselves in classrooms and schools. As a student blogger, I personally believe that blogs encourage research and help students to develop their own opinions on current events relevant to their lives. Today I am focusing on blogs as a more extreme learning tool; in Ana Concejero’s article (referenced above), she describes a school outside of Minneapolis where blogs are the primary way that students learn on a daily basis. This revolutionary school goes so far as to eliminate teachers from its curriculum entirely, encouraging students to stimulate their own learning through the creativity of blogging.

            At the “New Country School”, students do not even have classes and “work in an environment that looks like an office” when they learn. The school is “one big room” and is filled with students sitting at computers, focusing on “interdisciplinary work” of their own interest. The students are not simply allowed to fool around or use the computers mindlessly; instead, there are advisors available to make sure that their projects fit the requirements of the Minnesota education system. The advisors do not teach the students, only make sure that their work is adequate enough to pass as they move through the school. If an advisor feels a student is falling behind with state requirements, they will offer advice for them to find a way to meet standards as quickly as possible. This guidance ensures that students are learning up to speed with traditional, even though they are not in a typical classroom setting. The New Country School is described as an “open environment” in which the students truly learn from expressing their work and opinion through blogs and through the conversations they have with each other as they share their projects.

            The New Country School opens up an entirely new door for the future of education through blogging technology. Allowing students to learn for themselves and develop opinions as they learn new materials is an important part of education that is clearly expressed through the creation of a blog. Students have the opportunity to seek important material independently and can discover new literature or math techniques on their own. Blogs encourage students to learn confidently and make learning a much more intimate, personal experience for the individual writing the posts. At the same time, the New Country School presents many potential concerns. Eliminating teachers makes it difficult for students to guide themselves to new learning material, even if they have advisors. Furthermore, students must teach themselves everything that they know. Having a teacher present to clarify misconceptions, challenge students appropriately, and channel students’ progress to maximize their success is, at least in most present-day classrooms, an invaluable part of a child’s education regardless of their age.

            Ultimately, blogging technology has already begun to play an increasing role in classrooms, and schools will continue to incorporate blogs into course materials as computers and Internet become even more integral parts of school curriculums. I don’t think blogs are sufficient to dominate a curriculum, but I strongly feel that the initiative to encourage blog use among students is a positive one. I look forward to hearing about the success of the New Country School as it continues to use blogs as its primary mode of education.

Alternative in Low-Technology Classrooms

Referenced Article: Tina Barseghian, “Five Ways to Bring High-Tech Ideas Into Low-Tech Classrooms,” Mind Shift, September 8, 2011.

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/09/five-ways-to-bring-high-tech-ideas-into-low-tech-classrooms/

            Technology has clearly proved itself important in education from elementary school through university-level classes in my earlier blog posts. Helping students to become more aware of their modern surroundings in society, technology-based education can better prepare children for computer-based careers in the future. This conclusion is by no means universal; others continue to argue that technology hinders the classroom experience by taking away from time spent on traditional learning. These clashing opinions meet at an interesting point: what happens to students who are not provided with advanced enough materials to even consider having high technology in the classroom? Tina Barseghian’s article touches on exactly that dilemma, offering solutions to technologically educate students even when they do not have high-tech materials with them in the classroom. Not only does this separate students from potentially distracting high technology, but it reconciles this lack of computer-based tools with the integration of technological ideas into class work.

            Barseghian’s article offers five main ways to accomplish this feat of merging high-tech and low-tech environments. She suggests “putting the Facebook page on paper,” encouraging students to use terminology such as “status updates” and a “wall” to engage students in their work (e.g. analyzing literature) by making it more relevant to the more familiar social networking of their life outside of school. She also suggests using reference books to make a “classroom search engine” where students can seek information. Keeping them motivated by books, the reference to a search engine can encourage discussion of how companies like “Google , Yahoo, and Bing” developed and achieved success. She goes on to recommend that students “tweet” in class by writing no more than twenty words on a particular subject on a piece of paper. This carries over into the general idea of a blog or “chat room” made up of sticky notes on a whiteboard to encourage written discussion. Finally, Berseghian encourages sporadic exercises in “text talk” in which students can write in whatever short form they choose so long as they get their idea across, allowing them to speak normally and fully express their ideas without worrying about the words they choose in the classroom.

            How do Barseghian’s ideas shed light on technology in the classroom? They certainly take the technology of the modern world and incorporate it into education where it lacks in technological tools. Berseghian’s ideas could most certainly help students relate to their course materials and are extremely creative ways of approaching learning to engage the students. Unfortunately, these ideas ultimately lack in technological credibility. Despite their names and relation to Internet communication, Berseghian’s ideas are, more or less, traditional classroom tools that are simply inspired by the much more complex world of technological communication. At the end of the day, Berseghian’s tools do not teach students the fundamentals of working with technology; they only encourage students to think in similar styles to Internet users. This creative style of teaching could perhaps be more effective in an environment in which technology is already somewhat present in students’ lives, helping them to combine multiple methods of learning. As for classrooms where high technology is not available, Berseghian offers a unique alternative to keep students aware of what is going on outside their classroom and in greater modern society.

Children's Take on the Future of Technology in the Classroom

Referenced Article: Jessica Campbell, “Students Unveil Fanciful Design for Classroom of the Future”, Gotham Schools, October 12, 2011. Accessed November 13, 2011.

http://gothamschools.org/2011/10/12/students-unveil-fanciful-designs-for-classrooms-of-the-future/

            My last blog post looked at the physical structure of classrooms and how they will potentially change in the future with new architectural technology suited to sustainability and community needs. I decided to continue with the idea of classroom design this week, but I have changed the perspective by looking at the opinions of children with respect to classroom technology. What do children think could help them learn in the future? What effect does new technology have on student thinking and learning in the classroom? These are two questions that are addressed in Jessica Campbell’s article, referenced above, as she remarks on a study at Queens’ P.S. 144, an elementary school that let its students think about technology in the classroom in 2050. Although their ideas may not have been the most logical or realistic, their work provides significant insight on technology and its role in students’ lives in the classroom even today.

            Campbell’s article opens with the futuristic suggestion by a fifth-grade student that in 2050, students will have the “Notebook 5X, which includes a fingerprint-activated lock, an optional keyboard, and wings for when students’ backpacks just can’t fit another thing.” This student, along with her classmates, participated in a one-week seminar in which they thought about what the next generations of students could use to facilitate their learning. The program included two designers, “Hsing Wei, of Pixelated Learning, and Katie Koch, of Project: Interaction,” who worked with the students to help them focus their ideas into ideas for innovation. The students also came up with a “Superdesk” that can be condensed to textbook size, listen to “voice command,” and have compartments that keep pencils and stationary from sliding around. They also suggested “mini-boards,” chalkboards that showed the teacher’s work to each student individually at their desk. Students even suggested virtual reality for assessments and/or lectures.

            This information about children’s perspective on technology in future classrooms provides insight into what kinds of technologies should be considered in classroom design in the future. More organized desks, condensed materials, and alternate methods of learning and studying are common and practical desires of the students. Instead of looking to find more complex technology such as computer programs for future classrooms, perhaps a better approach is seeking more efficient tools to facilitate learning for students in simpler, less drastic forms. Students want more personalized learning and tools that are less cumbersome so that they can focus more on the material at hand.

            Furthermore, the opinions of the students show how technology has affected creative and critical thinking even at a young age. The students are innovating at an elementary school level with considerable, pragmatic ideas that would not have even been fathomable several generations ago. The students take for granted more traditional classroom tools because they have been given more technology than students before them, but in return students are thinking like innovators and becoming more proactive about creating technology simply in the way that they think. Can these elementary school insights alone predict the increased role of technology in the future careers of today’s students? Only time will tell- I personally feel that hearing these ideas from students is a definite sign that we will become more and more technology-dependent both in the classroom and the working world in the very near future.

Technology and Architecture: Building the Classrooms of the Future

Referenced Article: Preston, “Eight Classrooms of the Future Finalists,” Jetson Green, August 5, 2009. Accessed November 6, 2011.

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/08/eight-classrooms-of-the-future-finalists.html

            After looking at various technologies such as laptops and their roles in future classrooms, I have decided to take a broader approach to my blog and look at the technology of a physical classroom itself. Most of the time, classroom technology is seen as cell phones or computer-related media. These physical items affect learning because of how they shape a school’s curriculum and encourage students to learn in different ways. When looking at technology in this respect, the school building and its individual classrooms do not play a role in student learning. In today’s article, Preston reports on the “Classrooms of the Future” competition in which eight international architects designed physical classrooms that, through technology alone, would have increased “feasibility, sustainability, innovation in design, and overall design quality.” Preston elaborates on the eight finalists’ works and how each proposed classroom would improve learning based on the structure’s own architectural technology.

            The first finalist’s classroom was the “Teksing Bamboowood School” in Nepal, a school designed to consist entirely of open, bamboo walls and natural materials from the local community. Using this open-walled technology would allow students to learn without power sources and encourage local businesses to supply the building materials. Another finalist classroom in an Indian saltpan community was designed to sit at the top of a dune, partially submerged in the sand to provide thermal heat as needed. A third architect designed “Adaptable Hillside Classrooms” so that countries like Uganda could use slanted, translucent classroom roofs for light and heat; these roofs would also rest on timber panels to eliminate the noise of rainfall that previously distracted students under traditional tin roofs. The “House in the Wood” design focused on furniture design for lower-income schools, in which the desks, chairs, and furniture doubled as movable, foldable storage containers and even additional tables. Other proposed technologies included terrace classrooms to add space for small school buildings, and the “Blurred Classroom” in which corridors literally passed through classrooms to encourage constant learning.

            What do these architectural proposals mean for the future of the classroom? Each of them uses technology to improve the environment of learning as opposed to changing the school’s curriculum. Using natural, sustainable materials and focusing classroom design on the needs of students and their communities helps to improve learning environments worldwide. Bamboo walls, translucent roofs, and other technologies limit distractions and help students focus on their schoolwork. These technologies are even cost efficient, helping schools to save money for their classroom supplies and teacher salaries. Ultimately, classrooms are physical structures that cannot lead to successful learning without devoted teachers and students; however, an efficient and technologically advanced classroom can truly help students at disadvantages to study with equal opportunity to other students around the world.

            The most important part of this “Classrooms of the Future” challenge is the message that classroom technology is not necessarily dependent on the financial situation of a school or its students. Technology as simple as the timber panels under Ugandan roofs can significantly improve a student’s chance to learn effectively without requiring extra cost or financial burden for the students or the school. Changing classrooms through new technology to better suit the needs of their students is an incredibly important step toward positively integrating technology into the classroom.

Laptops in College Lectures

Referenced Article: W. Joseph Campbell, “On Laptops in the Classroom, and Technology-Driven Myths,” Media Myth Alert Blog, March 9, 2010. Accessed October 30, 2011.

http://mediamythalert.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/on-laptops-in-the-classroom-and-technology-driven-myths/

            So far in my blog, I have examined the influence of social networks and technology in the classroom and their potential involvement in future education. While some classrooms use social networking and cell phones to keep students engaged, other school systems feel that technology is a distraction that will not add to a child’s learning experience. Even today, schools in America range from traditional, technology-free curricula to blog-based learning programs. Today, I’ve decided to take a look at technology in the classroom through the opinions and experiments of college professors. More specifically, I am looking at the role of laptops in lecture after reading W. Joseph Campbell’s 2010 blog about student media distraction. He writes in one of his posts about an experiment in which a professor shared false information with his lecture students in order to see how quickly they would spread the “fake news” via laptops.

            Campbell’s blog discusses his own laptop policy: as a professor at American University, he opens his first class by asking his students not to use laptops in his lectures. His policy “dates at least five years” and “rarely receive(s) pushbacks” as it is enforced strictly from the first day. He further notes that “laptops have never been mentioned” by students in their evaluations of his course. Campbell references a  Washington Post article that similarly argued that laptops are more of a temptation than a help in the classroom. After becoming so advanced and commonplace among college students, laptops have begun to “compete with the professor for the students’ attention.” Campbell even argues that laptops promote discourtesy among students, encouraging them to “be so dismissive” of their teachers and peers, even in discussions. Perhaps the most powerful part of Campbell’s article is his reference of Professor Peter Tague’s experiment at Georgetown Law School. At the beginning of a lecture (with laptops), Professor Tague announced that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had suddenly retired. Near the end of class, when Tague announced that his information on John Roberts was false, the rumor had already reached “RadarOnline” and “the DrudgeReport”, a now viral piece of information that had been spread solely through the social media of Professor Tague’s students.

            Campbell’s blog presents an unusual perspective for my own studies on the future of technology in classrooms. Laptops have become so advanced and common among students that professors are increasingly inclined to ban them from their classes. The distraction of a laptop hinders the professor’s ability to teach material and allows students to disengage from important course information. Further, students do not seem to miss their laptops when they instead take notes by hand. Professor Tague’s experiment proved quite clearly that even students of graduate level education are tempted to distract themselves with social media such as Twitter, blogging, and Facebook while in lecture; they are so involved in these networks that a piece of unconfirmed news managed to go viral within one lecture period of just one group of Georgetown students.

            Does this mean that future classrooms will, in essence, have less technology than today’s classrooms? Campbell’s argument convincingly shows that laptops are a distraction and take away from student focus in a lecture. The answer lies in each professor’s ability to cope with the distractions of technology. A room filled with students and their laptops will, in general, encourage students to focus less on the professor’s words; however, these students will also have the opportunity to maintain typed notes and potentially use the Internet as a resource in class. While I don’t expect laptops to completely disappear from classrooms, I believe that the theory behind banning them from certain lectures is strong, and that students do pay more attention when handwriting their notes. I look forward to seeing how the role of laptops continues to change within my own life and classroom experiences.

Silicon Valley, and No Computers

Referenced Article: Matt Richtel, “A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute,” New York Times, October 22, 2011. Accessed October 23, 2011.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=1&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/technology/index.jsonp

             After two weeks of looking at schools with high technology, I have decided to take an alternative approach this week and look at schools that lack technology in their classrooms. Are the students learning? Can they perform well on tests? This week’s post is still a study of technology in the classroom, yet in a more unconventional form: many of the students at the Waldorf School of the Peninsula are children of important figures in the technological hub of Silicon Valley. The Waldorf school, however, is also unique because it embodies a technology-free learning environment. There are no computers in the classroom, and it is encouraged to keep computers out of the children’s homes. Although I am very interested in the absence of technology at the Waldorf school, I am more struck by the conscious decision of many technology-driven businesspeople and innovators to send their children to a school without even a desktop in sight. Perhaps the most interesting part of this article is that, after I was struck by its information, I realized that it was researched and written by the same author of the article in my first blog post. The perspective is entirely different, and the information equally compelling on the topic of an extremely different form of education.

            The students at Waldorf Peninsula include children of parents working at “Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Hewlett-Packard.” Surprisingly, these students’ most common materials, even at middle school levels, are “pen and paper, knitting needles, and, occasionally, mud.” Located in Silicon Valley, the Waldorf School attracts parents of students who want to see their kids complete grammar school without the aid of technological products like cell phones that are so common in their workplaces. Alan Eagle, working in “executive communications at Google” with a “computer science degree from Dartmouth”, sends his children to the schools because of what he has seen in his own workplace; he owns both an “iPad and a smart phone”, even though his children use neither. The Waldorf philosophy is that student learning should not be influenced by the technologies that exist in so many classrooms throughout Silicon Valley and the United States. They even admit that their students would potentially have difficulty taking early level standardized testing because of the school’s nonstandard curriculum. An impressive “94%” of Waldorf students do attend college, and some at impressive schools such as Stanford University. In the view of Waldorf supporters, “technology is a distraction” and “engagement is about human contact,” two important components of the Waldorf philosophy that have shown at least a respectable degree of success thus far in the classroom.

            At the same time, others would counter this viewpoint with the belief that children need to keep up with today’s technology in order to pursue jobs in the same line of work as their parents, or maintain an active role in today’s society as it increasingly depends on social networks, Internet news, and communication via cell phones. Even though students may find distraction in today’s technology, they can also use it to their advantage as they pursue learning with the influence or even integration of their new tools.

            The Waldorf Peninsula School is a testament to the existing ideology that technology is not always a benefit in the classroom. Even people who know a great deal of information about technology are not always in accordance with the belief that it should be integrated into a child’s life at a young age. Unfortunately, even the school itself encounters difficulties with maintaining this ideology. One important way to learn about the Waldorf School is via Internet, and the school does operate and maintain a professional website, even though its students do not see it. I am interested in learning of someone’s firsthand experience at the Waldorf School, and comparing it with the more technological education that I experienced as a child. I do not think that there is an answer yet as to which method of learning is better, but I am very intrigued by the concept of having a non-technological school in the technological hub of today’s society.  

Facebook and Cell Phones in Class?

Referenced Article: Greg Toppo, “Social Media Find Place in Classroom,” USA Today, July 25, 2011. Accessed October 16, 2011.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-07-24-schools-social-media_n.htm

            In my last blog post, I wrote about the mixed feelings towards advanced technology in classrooms. The Kyrene School District had allocated money in its budget for increased technology, but its schools were disappointed to learn that district test scores had not shown any sign of numerical improvement. This prompted me to think about how technology could be used in more beneficial ways in classrooms. Although the Kyrene District was not pleased with technology’s effects on student performance, I feel that the true problem was that the district did not yet learn how to appropriately use technology as a teaching tool. Technology is an integral part of modern society and should be used as a tool for furthering traditional knowledge instead of taking away from education time. This conclusion encouraged me to look for an example of technological success in the classroom, as shown in Greg Toppo’s article “Social Media Find Place in Classroom.” This article contrasts Matt Richtel’s article (from my first post) with a view of more positive integration of technology as a learning tool.

            Toppo writes of the use of social networks in New Jersey’s New Milford High School under the leadership of principal Eric Sheninger. While most school systems stay away from cell phones and Facebook in the classroom due to potential distraction from traditional education, Sheninger has instead brought social media into the classrooms in full force. The school communicates regularly with students and parents through its own Facebook page, students use cell phones for activities such as poll voting in class, and students and teachers “research write, edit, perform, and publish their work online.” Why encourage so much social media in high school? Sheninger says “kids are coming to us bored, [and] disconnected.” Using media like Facebook encourages students to remain engaged in learning.

            As a student myself, I am struck by Sheninger’s attitude toward the boredom of students in the classroom. Students often lose focus after hours of lecture, but they can also distract themselves with texting or Facebook for impressive amounts of time. When the two are correctly merged in a classroom setting, they have the potential to keep students from feeling like school disconnects them from their outside lives. Facebook is becoming a social necessity, and its presence in the classroom can encourage proper use of social networking sites. Letting students of today’s generation bring social media into their learning environment helps them bring their own personality into the classroom.

            Where are the drawbacks in Sheninger’s plan? Toppo’s article argues that the most pressing reason to keep social media out of the classroom is the risk of encountering “irrelevant or offensive material.” In reality, I think the problem stems from the heightened risk of distraction. Unless there can be specific filters on cell phone and Facebook functions, the two promote activities such as conversation with friends during class time. This problem can be solved by ensuring that Facebook and cell phones are used to thoroughly engross students in learning new class material. The first crucial step in keeping students engaged in learning is, in the ideology of Sheninger, being able to relate to them through their current social media.

            Like anything in a school environment, social media presents risks and may lead to some distraction; however, its increasing role in the lives of today’s students makes it more and more understandable that social media could potentially shape future education. New Milford High School has taken a bold step in the direction of future technology in classrooms, and I look forward to hearing about the school’s progress in the next few years as it continues to work with social media.

Technology Hindering Test Scores?

Referenced Article: Matt Richtel, “In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores”, New York Times, September 3, 2011. Accessed October 7, 2011.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all.

            Computer technology is quickly becoming a necessity in classrooms across America and in many parts of the world. Laptops, iPods, and Internet resources are nearly as common as textbooks in numerous schools. I am opening this blog with analysis of the New York Times article that inspired me to pursue a more formalized study of this increase in classroom technology. “In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores” by Matt Richtel provides thought-provoking, factual information regarding the general impact of technology on students’ testing performance and considers the role of computers in classrooms.

            The Kyrene School District of Arizona invested “$33 million” in innovative technology for its Arizona classrooms, encouraging middle school students to use blogs and Internet media as primary learning sources. With the aim of “turning the teacher into a guide instead of a lecturer,” the program focuses on digital skills that were previously unavailable in the area’s learning facilities. After adapting to this new technological teaching style, the district learned that its students’ test scores had not improved despite its innovative technology. Aside from these scores, the increased budget for technological resources left teachers without raises, lessened the budget for text books, and increased class sizes by several students.

            While the mediocre test scores of students are not sufficient research to show that technology hinders student performance and learning, there is also a lack of research convincing the tax-paying parents of students to fund technological programs. Although technological literacy seems important, its focus in the classroom comes at the cost of time previously spent on handwritten exercises, art, gym, and other common school activities.

            As a measure of intellect, test scores focus on several particular areas of student learning and development. Testing arithmetic, writing, and comprehension, standardized exams do not consider the technological literacy of the students taking their tests. Richtel’s article implies that the “stagnant scores” are a direct result of the time lost to technology; however, technology may not be the problem at all. Technology should be used as an amelioration to classroom material instead of replacing routine areas of classroom study. Computers and Internet can be integrated into classrooms as learning tools and aids in the study of areas including math, writing, and comprehension. Computers have the ability to “enable, motivate, and inspire” students by familiarizing them with the rapidly changing technology of the 21^st century without taking away from their learning experiences.

            The degree of success of these technologies depends greatly on the teachers and schools committed to technology-based programs. If math is taught through computer activities in addition to the standard practice of written problems, isn’t it still practice in arithmetic? Stagnant test scores may not be a reflection of the problems with technology, but instead a signal to schools such as those in the Kyrene School District that the methods by which they use technology may not yet have reached their highest degree of efficiency.

            The concerns in this article regarding the test scores of students provoke yet another thought: are test scores the only way to determine the success of students in the future? While standardized testing is crucial in measuring fundamental areas of learning and improvement in school districts, other areas of study can be equally important for tomorrow’s generation of leaders. Suppose a technologically proficient class of students received the same scores as the students of a traditional, textbook-based class; the former would produce students who are more equipped to handle the rapidly changing technology of the future. Knowing how to operate a computer and make use of Internet resources will carry a student much farther in higher level education and the working world than a notebook and pencil. The challenge, then, lies not in the harm of technology in the classroom, but instead in the teachers’ ability to maintain students’ test scores with more advanced teaching methods. As a student proficient in technology at the college level, I strongly believe that resources such as this blog are invaluable components of my education as a young adult. I hope that schools continue to integrate technology into their classrooms, ensuring that they balance it with traditional learning to help cultivate a technologically literate generation for the future.