Technology in the Classrooms

Education in today’s world remains one of the biggest topics in the world. Families and societies place education for their kids at the top of the priority list. Families decide to even move to different parts of the country so their kids can attend the schools that are known for their education programs. With the advancement of technology the world has changed and evolved in the last couple decades. In general, schools still teach in a traditional classroom setting. One of the biggest issues in schools is the use of smart phones, and other smart technology such as watches.

Our notes talk about observational learning. With observational learning we learn behavior by observing others (Psu lecture notes. 2017). With mostly everyone owning a smart phone it becomes a norm to have one. In the United States, 73 percent of teens own or have access to a smartphone. A mere 12 percent have no cell phone. Those numbers come from a 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C.(Kowalski, 2016). With the majority of students having access to their smartphones they have become a huge distraction inside the classroom. A few weeks ago we learned about social media and the effects it has on society. With smartphones we have access to social media, the internet, and messaging which results in constant checking of the phone during class.

In school students feel the effects of discrimination if you do not own a phone or smartphone. Attending school with a flip phone in today’s world would make you a target of discrimination. The cool kids do not have flip phones as that is something of the past. Discrimination could occur about their wealth status or popularity status just because of not having a smart phone. If you do not own a smartphone your connection to social media lacks. This might lead to having little or no presence in social media where my students interact and have a certain status of popularity. This can lead to negative effects. Schools need to acknowledge this change in technology and implement programs to inform the harmful effects of phones and other technology in school to the parents.

Technology has come a long way in aiding society to achieve great things, but the future of our world relies on the young generation in school. With the use of technology increasing in school it causes a huge distraction in the learning of the material. This not only effects those with phones, but also those without these smart phones because of discrimination. Studies show those being discriminated against scores lower test scores in the lecture notes.

 

Psu Lecture Notes. Applied Social Psychology, 2017

Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kowalski, K. (2016). When Smartphones go to School. Science News for Students

4 comments

  1. This was a very interesting post. Technology in the classroom can help and distract students. Having ipads to take notes, record lectures, and textbooks. Also having access to grades and homework online can be helpful. However technology can be very distracting to students inside and outside the classroom. Phones in the classroom can distract from the lectures and leave students behind in their work.

  2. Hello!

    This was an interesting read, I do see your side of technology in the classroom but I think its more centered towards uncontrolled or unplanned use from the students to access different social media. Students utilizing their technology in the classroom when not instructed will serve as a distraction and to your point students who observe this behavior and do or do not participate and on what device can create discrimination, but as a whole I think technology itself is important in today’s classroom. As technology advances the learning opportunities rise. There are several advocates for technology in the classroom and the platforms they use can enhance learning. For example, Natasha Rachell is an educator and instructional technologist. She dedicates her time advocating for technology in the classroom and holds 16 certifications ranging from Google for education, Microsoft innovative educator, apple teacher, surface expert, flipgrid, plickers, and more. Natasha Rachell is actually a science and math teacher and for her technology has proven to be extremely successful in her class. I think the utilization in a controlled environment has great potential to foster education and not serve as a distraction or means of discrimination.

  3. Greetings,

    Great job in illustrating how technology has not only become widely used by school aged children, but you also discussed the social and academic dangers related to the use of these technologies. However, how can applied social psychology help with resolving this issue? Based on my analysis of your article, the problem we would want to solve centers on the dangers these technologies pose towards learning and social dynamics. We could strive to try to eliminate 80% of technology use during the academic school hours. In order to achieve this goal, educators can create policies and educational interventions aimed at increasing knowledge around the issue. Most importantly, these informational campaigns can focus on providing information on the dangers these technologies pose to school children. Parents can be encouraged to participate in the school’s efforts by attending a mandatory school orientation where these dangers are highlighted to parents to try to encourage participation with the school. Parents might be concerned about not being able to reach their children after school or throughout the school day. Schools can overcome this objection by providing cell phone lockers in class where teachers can monitor and secure the child’s phone until school hours are over. Schools can provide parents with an emergency contact number to get urgent notifications to students in emergent situations. This intervention could be implemented prior to the start of the school year through a parent/student orientation. The intervention’s success could be measured mainly through school academic performance. Schools could also examine the number of incidents of bullying although there are many other confounding variables contributing to bullying. Based on these findings, schools can retool their efforts if the intervention is not successful. I am curious what you think about using this type of interventions.

    Brandon

  4. Max Harrison Tremain

    Hi,

    You raise a number of great points throughout this post! As you mention, technology has and will continue to make its way into classrooms all across the world. While I think the points you raise regarding the potential downsides to technology in the classroom are valid and important, I also believe that technology will enhance the classroom setting in a number of ways. For example, smartboards and other variations of interactive blackboards allow students to engage with course material in completely novel ways. Also, many schools have started to take advantage of technologies like canvas that allow teachers and students to interact with course material while not in the physical classroom while also facilitating teacher-student communication. Finally, online cloud technologies like Kahn academy provide free lesson material to anyone with an internet connection, making education more democratized than ever before. Therefore, while I agree that there are significant drawbacks to technology in the classroom, I also think that classrooms will benefit from technological innovation.

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