Final Inquiry Project

As a millennial, I have grown up alongside technology. In every class or course that I have
taken, computerized devices have been a prevalent learning tool. These tools would help with
basic ideas, such as simple math and learning how to read. Not only did these tools aid the
students in their learning process, it also kept the students engaged in the material. In my most
recent years of study, the internet has become the main connection between students and teachers
through email and other communicating devices. Education has evolved through the computer,
by schools offering online courses or simply using the internet as a tool to provide pre-class
notes and a place where homework can be assigned. Technology has and will continue to change
for all current and future students. In some peoples eyes, technology is not fully understood and
does not seem like a tool that can be used to propel students in the school setting. On the other
hand, some people view technology as the future for education. Despite the difference in
opinions, technology has and will continue to have a lasting impact on the way schools educate
students.
Technology in schools has been rapidly growing since the mid 1950s. Technology can be defined
as computerized devices that help aid the learning process. Different forms of technology in
education include, overhead projectors, computers, smart boards, televisions, printers,
calculators, ipads, and etc. These devices help assist students learning process. The impact it has
had on school has been overwhelming in the last two decades. The impact of technology strays
beyond the classroom by the way the internet has almost redefined the way of teaching. Students
used to complete their homework with pencil and paper, but now teachers use the internet as a
homework platform. Homework can be assigned and graded without even one piece of paper
being involved.
The internet has opened the doors for new learning styles, such as pre-class videos and pre-class
readings that are placed online to help prepare the student for the upcoming class lecture. This
method of teaching has helped professors and teachers focus more on the more difficult part of
the curriculum instead of focusing on the introduction to the material. Students that are
considered millennials have been exposed to the use of technology, more than any previous
generation. Millennials have only been exposed to this new way of learning, because of the time
period that they grew up in. The classroom settings, for these types of students, has been full of
computerized devices. Technology does not only enhance the learning process, it can also hinder
the learning process. Handle held devices, such as cell phones, has the tendency to distract
students.
Growing up in the twenty-first century, a cell phone is just a normal accepted communication
device that many pre-teens utilize. The effects of these instruments have caused students to have
short attention spans (Richtell 2012). The pioneers in the education world, have the ability to
glance at their phones whenever wanted. These instruments let students hold the world in their
hands. Smart devices can give anyone access to the internet in a matter of seconds. With the
decrease in attention span, these handheld devices have the ability to become distractive in the
classroom setting. This shows that technology can have a positive impact or a negative impact.
Overall, technology has redefined the typical classroom, and it will continue to change along
with the technologic world that surrounds it.

Technology stems from the ability to fund these educational tools. Benjamin Herold, the
scholarly graduate from Temple University stated, Public schools...spend more than $3 billion
per year on digital content. (Herold 2016) The funding ability comes from the location of each
school. If a student resides in a location where the schools are heavily funded, the technology
advancements would be more prominent than the schools that reside in low income areas. When
funding a school district for technology, the district should consider this equipment for the future.
Purdue University conducted research about technology in classrooms and they stated,
Technology in the classrooms is not a one-time expense, but rather a financial investment that
will require purchases and updates in the future. (Purdue University 2017) This could put a
strain on some schools just because the funds are not there to keep these devices up to date.
Funding for technology does not only mean tangible devices, the funding could go towards
online programs. In middle school, I attended a school named Arndt Middle School, and I was
fortunate enough to go to a well funded school. This school provided online learning called
Carnegie Math. This was an interactive tool used to help further the knowledge of math through
interactive games and one on one training. Other schools, on the other side of my town did not
have this advantage, indicating that funding was very important for interactive learning.

Students today tend to have a shorter attention span because availability of entertainment. Matt
Richtel is a prize-winning reporter of the New York Times expressed that millennials have the
whole world at their fingertips with the use of a phone. Considering this shorter attention span,
teachers are changing their lesson plans to accommodate this issue (Richtell 2012). This means
that the teachers are transforming their ways of teaching. But a significant body of research has
also made clear that most teachers have been slow to transform the ways they teach, despite the
influx of new technology into their classrooms. (Herold 2016). This statement concludes that
there is a mental gap between the way teachers are teaching and the new ways students are
learning. Knowing that there is a growing age difference between students and teachers, can
show why technology may not have the most impact on students today. Given the technology
revolution, students interface with screens more frequently than people...but we are trying to
educate them in the same way, using the same pedagogical methods developed over 100 years
ago. (Armani 2015). The quote shows that young students have already evolved faster than the
system can evolve. This means that the system may not be suitable for the new millennial age
and that they do need more technology interaction in classrooms because that is how they were
taught as a young child.
After reading different articles about the impact of technology on schools, I have concluded that
technology has both extreme positives and extreme negatives. With these two opposite effects,
causes the overall effect of technology to cancel out. The impact in schools has not shown a
positive or negative response because of the cancellation. Yes, technology has opened a whole
new world of communication and knowledge to many more people, but the fact that it can be
extremely distractive can outweigh the positives. As a millennial, I have observed my peers day
in and day out use technology in an unproductive way. Technology has allowed students to
become lazy. One of my peers, had a research essay to complete and her extent of research was
to ask Google the answer and copied exactly the information given. Once Google did not display
the information wanted, she instantly got mad and gave up. This just means that millennials are
used to having information in less than seconds. This is just one example of how technology can
be demeaning, in the fact that it offers too much information.
I have also observed a positive effect of technology in the way it has pushed the boundaries of
learning. Recently, during University Writing, we explored a relatively new genre, called
podcasts. This is a type of genre that lets people express their ideals in a fashion that the people
that want to hear it, can listen to it and the people that do not want to hear it, do not have to listen
to it. In the past, a way to express ideals would be to protest them to let all people know exactly
how they felt. In this form of technology, it is easy to target your audience and explore topics in
different ways than ever before. Technology in schools has also affected the way students learn
in the fact that the courses can be taken online. In my educational career, I have participated in
online classes twice. This experience was much different than any other classroom experience.
My teacher was a picture on the screen and our communication was via email. I never had any
face to face human interaction with these teachers and I was still able to obtain as much
information as needed to help me proceed to the next level course. It was interesting to me that
this type of learning worked because I thought it was impossible to not see a teacher while they
were actively teaching. Overall, technologys impact on schools today has dramatically changed
the way students learn, but not so much the amount students learn. Learning is evolving through
time and it is the students and teachers responsibility to evolve alongside the twenty-first
century.

Sources:
Herold, Benjamin. "Technology in Education: An Overview." Education Week. March 10, 2017.
Accessed March 21, 2017.
Richtel, Matt. "Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say." The New York Times.
October 31, 2012. Accessed March 21, 2017.
Armani, Andrea. "How can technology improve school education?" World Economic Forum.
October 9, 2015. Accessed March 28, 2017.
Leys, Ryan. "Youth, Education, and Technology." NU Writing. Accessed April 02, 2017.