As citizens of the 21st century, where things change fast and new technologies evolve on the tick of an hour, we find electronic devices of all sizes invading our daily routines and re-shaping almost everything in our lives, education being one of them.
According to Jane Wakerfield from bbc.com, children spend an average of six hours or more in front of screens, such as TV, tablets, and smartphones. With such statistics, we find ourselves obligated to wonder about the role that technology should or should not plays in the education of our kids, assessing whether it would be a useful asset and a tool to reinforce the educational process, or a source of major distraction.
Supporters of technology argue that technology is needed in the classroom because it can be a handy resource for quick searches, interactive activities, and most importantly, to avoid having a gap between the students’ daily lives and the real world, where technology is and will be taking a big place, and their school experiences.
Those who stand against the use of technology, however, say that it can be a source of major distraction because having such a small, handy device like a smartphone would definitely get many students “tempted to take a moment and “peek” at sports scores, the latest headlines, or the number of “likes” [they’ve] accumulated on [their] latest Facebook or Instagram posts.”
Between the proponents and the opponents stands the neutral group that sees much value in the use of technology but argues for regulations to strict the distractions and get the most value out of the technology-in-the-classroom experience.
Ruth Starkman from Stanford university is one of those who are advocating both sides, claiming a semi-neutal position on the use of technology in the classroom. According to an op-ed she posted in the Huffington Post, Starkman speaks about an experiment she has conducted on a classroom in Shanghai and argues that a social contract of usage might be a good solution to allow but regulate the use of technology in the classroom.
“if the teacher can find some collectively positive method of maintaining the classroom social contract, monitoring technology usage while using the Internet and student devices to disseminate new materials and expand discussion, class time will become both more enjoyable and valuable.”
because according to her, technology is useful but also very distracting, and a simple, agreed upon regulation can get us the benefit with very little harm.
Eager Educators 