Technology in education as well in the real world is becoming a corner stone

of society. It is becoming a main component in many things that were previously as

simple as a face to face interaction. Technology is now used as a main form of
communication which you could say is a bad thing until you take into account that
people can easily talk with people from all over the world and even have a face to
face conversation using applications like skype or face time. In the modern
technological world it is imperative that people know the basics of Word and how to
navigate the internet to find jobs. If these students are not given a sturdy platform
of the skills and knowledge to work all the basics of a computer as well as the
necessary safety guidelines then we as educators will be setting our students up for
with a lousy start in life.
As necessary as that platform in technology is it is also a strategic classroom
advantage to have technology in the classroom. It opens up many new pathways for
teachers to teach and students to learn for that matter. Looking at the strategies to
reach all the facets of the multiple intelligences you see that you can reach a
multitude of intelligences with just technology alone. Whereas without technology
you may have had to repeat the same lesson multiple times in different capacities
to reach as many of the intelligences. So I suppose you could say that technology
helps with classroom time management as well.
Besides having the strategic advantage of reaching more intelligences with
just one lesson technology like a shared school server makes for fewer lost
assignments and makes it easier for students to work on group projects together
even outside of school time the students can be taught to use programs like
google+ where they can actively work on the same project over the internet in real
time making it so students do not have to rely on their parents to be able to work as
a group. Google+ can also be used to keep students connected in a more
professional capacity than say Facebook into future school years. Of course even
Facebook can be used to connect students in an educational way as long as there is
someone willing to play moderator on a class page.
On the topic of getting out of standardizing students, educational technology
provides the students with a more personalized educational experience. By allowing
for the many differences in learning you can create a generation of students who
have not just learned to answer multiple choice but have learned to think critically
about everything they do. Cameron Evans, the national technology officer for
Microsoft Education, agrees. He expects that the class of 2020-today's fifth graders,
who will be the first to fully benefit from the Common Core and blended learning-to
have more "entrepreneurial activities to contribute" by the time they graduate.
"These students will be producers, not just consumers of content" (Shein).

Works Cited
Perrotta, C. (2013). Do school-level factors influence the educational benefits of
digital technology? A
critical analysis of teachers' perceptions. British Journal Of
Educational Technology, 44(2), 314327. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01304.x
Shein, E. (2013, Summer). TOMORROW'S CLASSROOM. Scholastic Administr@tor,
12, 30-34. Retrieved
from http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/136204984
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