Logan Sunafrank

Mrs. Cramer
College Comp 1 Pd 2
January 17th, 2017
Technology in the Work Place
Do you think technology is a useful tool in a student's education? Herold and Strauss,

authors of my sources, believe technology can be both good and bad in a student's education. We

live in a world of cell phones, computers, tablets, and internet. We live in the 21 st century and

our everyday life revolves around technology. People use technology in the everyday work

place such as school, work, and in homes. The second source Strauss explains how the use of

cellphones, laptops, and tablets can have a long term effect on declarative memory. In our world

today technology is one of our main priorities. Technology is a helpful tool with education and

can provide us with useful sources . Having technology in school also has many bad reasons on

why we shouldnt be allowed to have so much access to it in school.

According to Technology in Education: An Overview, public schools in the United States

spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. (Herold 1) If you were to walk into

school all you would see is computers, cellphones, and tablets. Public schools in the United

States now provide at least one computer for every five students. (Herold 1) The teachers have

increased their use of technology in classrooms to learn. Students have to teach themselves the

subject through the use of technology and are expected to learn that way. As a matter of fact,

schools are providing each student with their own laptop computer, netbook, or digital tablet.

(Herold 3) Having the newest technology in schools help not only the students but the teachers.

When students take quizzes on their device it immediately gives their scores back on how they

did. Therefore, the teacher doesnt have to spend time grading papers when they can get them as
soon as the students are done with their assignment. In the Technology in Education: An

Overview, talks about personalized learning and how it helps the students receive assignments,

manage schedules, communicate, and track their progress. (Herold 2) Personalized learning helps

students in several good ways. When students have their own laptops or the school provides

them, it gives each student the same opportunity to work on school work at any place and time.

One-to-one computing was developed to allow the students to have a device in their hand and to

have all they information they need in front of them. All state standardized tests have been

moved to online. Therefore, the teachers believe the students should learn from technology so

they are use to technology when they take the tests that actually matter.

Clay Shirky is a professor of media studies at New York University, and has recently just

banned all technology use in class, unless it is required for a project. Skirky teaches about the

Internet and has always allowed his student's to have their own technology in class. " This was

partly because the subject of my classes made technology use feel organic, and when device use

went well, it was great." (Strauss 1) Any kind of technology is a distraction and overtime its

only gotten worse and worse. In Strauss article she states that Shirky "feels as if someone has let

fresh air into the room. The conversation brightens, and more recently, there is a since of relief

from many of the student's." Adding onto the thought of distraction, every time someone gets

notification their phone dings, beeps, vibrates and need to imminently check to see what's

happening in the social media world. "Humans are incapable of ignoring surprising new

information in out visual field, an effect that is strongest when the visual cue is slightly able and

beside the area were focusing on." (Strauss 3) Any kind of notification will strike the persons

attention away from what they are focusing on and then they focus on something that is less

important. "Asking a student to stay focused while she has alerts on is like asking a chess player
to concentrate while rapping their knuckles with a ruler at unpredictable intervals." (Strauss 3) A

study was done with participants who multitasked and participants who focused on just one

activity.

The study also compared how peers around the multitasker were also affected. Then, they

took a test to see how well each of them preformed. "We found that participants who multitasked

on a laptop during a lecture scored lower on a test compared to those who did not multitask, and

participants who were in direct view of a multitasking peer scored lower on a test compared to

those who were not. The results demonstrate that multitasking on a laptop poses a significant

distraction to both users and fellow students and can be detrimental to comprehension of lecture

content." (Strauss 40) Students multitask during lectures and class time between trying to pay

attention and constantly checking their phones.

With all of this in mind, technology provides both good and bad experiences. Students

can benefit well from using technology but the use of to much can affect them. In our world

today, technology is one of our main priorities. Technology is used to help with our education

and to provide us with good sources to help our learning better. There are also many bad reasons

to having access to so much technology. Personalized learning helps students who are involved

with technology education. Technology will help students learn in ways that will help them

succeed. Its the student's job to make sure they dont over use technology and it's not taken for

granted. Meaning, most teachers are only interested in helping students who want to pay

attention and aren't caught up in their technology. At some point, the learner has to take

responsibility of their education and want to learn.

 Work Cited

Herold, Benjamin. "Technology in Education: An Overview" Education week N.P.5 Feb

2016 Web 17 Jan 2017
Strauss, Valerie. "Why a leading professor of new media just banned technology use in
class" The Washington Post. N.P 25 Sept 2014, Web 18 Jan 2017