Nick Flaherty Enc 1102-31 Megan Keaton 4 April 2014 The Technological Advantage

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A good friend of mine, Juan, who works at an elementary school aftercare program, told me an insightful story when I had first told him the topic of my inquiry project. He told me that the kids he watches at his job all have iPads to do their school work online. Once a day, at four pm, the students take out their iPads, go to the schools website, launch class lessons, and do their homework. Juan told me that, [t]hese kids are getting better grades on their homework using their iPads than when we had to help them do it on paper. The homework is more fun to them and they are always focused on the tasks at hand. (Juan Interview). This is the future of the way school will be taught. Students will transition from the use of pencil and paper to using iPads and computers to do class work, homework, and tests. The use of technology will positively influence students grades and the opportunity for them to still be taught class lessons even if they arent in the classroom. I want to inform people about the pros and cons of the use of technology in school and how it could either positively or negatively affect students in the classroom. There are many ways that technology can positively impact a students focus in the classroom so that they are staying in tune with what the instructor is teaching. These new and improved ways of learning class material are fun for the students and give them a new way to think about the information in front of them. Now more than ever, teachers are using power points with interactive and moving diagrams and pictures that help their students recognize, for example, what the makeup of a water molecule would look like if the molecule were big enough

Flaherty 2 to be seen by the human eye. I found an example of this an article by Marie Anderson called: Technology Impact on Schools. She found that when AP calculus teacher Stacey Roshan began using video lectures, her students had higher scores on the AP exam. After the first year of the new format, the average score for her students was a 4.11, much higher than the 3.59 average of the students in traditional classroom lectures. In addition, the number of students who scored a perfect 5 on the AP increased by ten percent. (Anderson) Also, the introduction of online apps where one can access all the homeworks , tests, and tests preps. Marc Prensky, a supporter of technology in schools, said, Instead of guarding highstakes state achievement tests as if they were state secrets until the day they're administered, why don't we use technology to ensure that all kids can get nearly perfect scores by permitting them to take the test only after they've mastered the app? (Prensky). This would be a great idea to incorporate into all classes so that students are learning how to tackle standardized tests so that they can pass them with higher scores than students in the past and so that they are taking them when they are completely comfortable with questions that might show up on an SAT or ACT test. This would make teachers to no longer just teach the test, but would allow them to be motivational figures for students who might need encouragement. Virtual schools are also making an increasingly strong push throughout the country. Now, more than ever, we are seeing some students taking online classes at home and never having to leave for class. They learn their lessons through online lectures and turn in all work online as well. Chris Proulx is a strong advocate for virtual schools. He runs eCornell, a virtual school

Flaherty 3 funded by Cornell University. When asked about how classrooms differ from virtual schools, he noted, [b]y leveraging online platforms, lectures can now be pre-recorded and core content accessed by students anytime, anywhere, and as many times as they need. (Proulx). The ability for students to access lectures online would be beneficial if they were sick or missed the lectures due to, say, a natural disaster. Students would be able to follow class lectures and keep up to pace with their classmates even though they were unable to show up to class. This would increase passing rates and grades on tests because the students would be able to access the lectures and watch them however many times they wanted to, which will better help them understand what their instructor is lecturing. I feel that hearing material more than once will positively impact what the students learn and how well they do on the tests. In some cases, technology is seen as an impossible way to teach students. There are a lot of schools around the world that cant afford to buy laptops and iPads for all of their students. In her research Marie Anderson has found that Some schools simply lack the funding to provide new technology to students. In some cases, even internet access with students' personal devices is troublesome if the school's network is not capable of handling so many at once. Teachers might need professional development on how to use technology to enhance instruction -- simply plugging in a few computers in to a classroom isn't going to increase achievement without good instruction. (Anderson) This would be the case in many cities with F rated schools where the money simply doesnt exist to buy technology for the students. In most neighborhoods where F schools

Flaherty 4 are located, low income families cannot even afford laptops or iPads for their own households. These kids are never surrounded by the technology that some schools are lucky enough to get. The combination of doing school work combined with different forms of technology sometimes doesnt work out for everyone. There are many different instances where some people find it easier to complete work online because they can access all of their work with one click. My friend Austin absolutely loves being able to use online textbooks and interactive databases for projects. He told me that Having everything related to my classes online relieves so much daily stress. I dont have to carry around textbooks because I can access them with one click of a button on my laptop. (OConnor). I on the other hand had first found that using technology for everything related to school was frustrating and hard for me to get a hang of. Coming out of high school, I had never done any work, except for essays and research papers, online like I have since I started college. I prefer using paper, pen and pencil, and a textbook to complete my work; especially in math. Id much rather take math tests on paper because I am able to see my work and write the correct answer without having to worry about properly using parenthesis for math equations and having to use proper spacing so that fractions are written correctly. It was so much more difficult to think if I was writing answers correctly since I was so used to hand writing them automatically without the thought of if the computer would read my answer a different way. I also had difficulty with checking blackboard everyday when I first arrived in Tallahassee. I was so used to going into classes, seeing the homework written on the board, and writing it into my

Flaherty 5 agenda so that I knew what to do for homework that night and when important papers, tests, and projects were due. I consistently forgot to check blackboard and fell behind on homeworks and was terrified whenever a test or quiz came around that I didnt know was that close. Ive slowly been able to adapt to checking blackboard twice or more times in a day just to make sure that no work has been added and that I have completed everything assigned for that day. In math, Im now used to using online calculators and math websites to practice lessons Ive learned in class. I have adapted to using correct spacing and parenthesis so that each answer is written correctly. Although it took time and was difficult for me at first, I was able to change my ways and adjust to using all of the online databases to my advantage. Hopefully more people with the same problem I had are able to also adjust to the ever growing paring of school work influenced by technology. Technology in the school environment is an ever growing part of how students will do their school work and how they will learn. All the new advancements in programming has lead to never before seen visuals that can help make simple what was once difficult to understand. Students are now able to access school work whenever and wherever they can allowing them to complete work at their own pace which can lead to better grades and less stress about school. Online databases and classes are expanding faster and are becoming more hands on so that they mimic having a real teacher. These new classes have hands on lessons that keep the students focused on tasks and make it easier to follow what is going on in the class. Out of this inquiry project I hope that the reader is able to see how technology can positively influence how students do in school

Flaherty 6 and how virtual schools are growing due to the easy pace, low costs, and ability to improve grades.

Flaherty 7 Works Cited Anderson, Marie. "Technology Impact on Schools." Education. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. Barth, Patte. "VIRTUAL SCHOOLS: Where's the Evidence?" Educational Leadership 70.6 (2013): 32-6. Print
OConnor, Austin. Personal Interview. March 8, 2014

Perrotta, Carlo. "Do School-Level Factors Influence the Educational Benefits of Digital Technology? A Critical Analysis of Teachers' Perceptions." British Journal of Educational Technology 44.2 (2013): 314-27. Print.

Prensky, Marc. "Our Brains Extended." Educational Leadership 70.6 (2013): 22-7. Print. Proulx, Chris. "5 Ways Technology Will Impact Higher Ed in 2013." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.