Throughout the last several decades, there have been immense advancements in technology. Within the past 150 years, humans have invented televisions, cell phones, smartphones, computers, 
laptops, tablets, and countless other forms of technology. Today, it seems as though everyone uses some form of technology every day, and no one would last without technology. How has this changed our education systems? Is this drastic increase in technology use helping us, or is it hurting us?
Everyone has their own opinion on technology, and therefore answers to the aforementioned questions will differ depending on whom you ask. Younger generations who have grown up in the world of technology believe it to enhance our lives, while older generations tend to believe technology impairs our society. Effects of technology are heavily opinion based, and therefore we must analyze the consequences through the eyes of science.
National Math and Science Initiative expert Jeremy Posey has found numerous different benefits of technology use in the classroom. Through observational studies conducted in elementary classrooms, Jeremy Posey found that technology allows students to work more efficiently, and that technology saves time. Posey states 
that students will therefore focus on projects for longer periods of time since they will be able to find the necessary information at a faster rate. Posey also believes that technology “makes students more excited to learn.” Children love few things more than walking into their classroom and seeing that the teacher has rolled in a TV. I believe that Jeremy’s findings are reliable, especially since I can
relate them to personal experiences. In elementary school, I always found myself to work harder and more efficiently when a computer was available. Since the attention spans of elementary school children are limited, having access to computers is beneficial.
On the other hand, a survey of 2,462 teachers conducted by the Pew Research Center found that “nearly 90 percent said that digital technologies, such as computers and cell phones were creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.” In addition, another survey of 685 teachers, also conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that “71 percent said they thought technology was hurting attention span.” Even though students may begin using their phones or computers for educational purposes, it is not difficult to quickly become distracted by the other capabilities of technology. Teachers experience the affects of technology on students first-hand. Therefore, even though these conclusions are based on surveys, I think that the findings are valid. However, teachers’ experiences in the classroom are anecdotal, similar to the lecture we had in class about doctors killing people. While Teachers spend several hours a week with their students, they only experience bits of the population, and therefore from a scientific perspective, their findings may not be valid.
Even though technology aids us in many ways, it also causes a decrease in essential skills, such as critical thinking and creativity. Patricia Greenfield, a UCLA professor of psychology and the director of the Children’s Digital Media Center in LA has analyzed over fifty studies regarding learning and technology. Her work was published in Science in 2009. She has found that as technology increases, reading for pleasure decreases. As we know from class, correlation does not equal causation, though in this case, it is not unlikely that there is also a causal relationship. However, reading “enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not.” Greenfield goes on to explain that “reading develops imagination, induction, reflection, and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary. Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills.” Since meta-analyses are composed of multiple studies, the likelihood that the findings are incorrect decreases with each additional study. As we learned in class, only 5% of the time will scientists conclude that a relationship is occurring when connections are nonexistent. Every study added will cause the 0.05 to multiply by a factor of 0.05. Having produced a miniscule number, refuting the data would be challenging.
Irrefutably, there are numerous advantages and disadvantages to 
technology. While technology can be beneficial by enabling us to research more quickly, it seems as though the negatives outweigh the positives. Distracted learning and a decrease in social skills could negatively impact us as a species. Within the next several decades, we will be able to find the effects of technology usage over a lifetime. Only then we will know the true costs and benefits of technology. I think that technology is a revolutionary milestone for our species, but like Oscar Wilde once said, use “everything in moderation.”
You made an excellent point of the controversies between technologyy, as many adults are now becoming so against it. Although many make the excuse that technology can advance our search and be easily accessible for information within seconds, individuals are now taking such advantage of it. Just by being on the computer in class, it persuades many students to click on something and think that just by texting for one minute they will not miss something, but truthfully they miss core material. Even with the bright phone screen in class or the computer sitting on the desk in front of you, it causes many students to get distracted and look at what other students are doing. This post relates strongly to college, as many professors make it very clear to not have any technology out during class while others are more lenient. This would set up an experiment to test, which would result in better class grades.
Interesting post! I have written a serious of blogs about “Is technology improvement benefit our life” in the last blog period, I agree with you that there are both advantage and disadvantage in technologies, but we can neither ban technology improvement because cause bad effect nor out of mind about technology improvement because it makes our life better. It is good when people can eliminate the bad effect of technology when they are making some progress in technology improvement, but it is really hard for us to reach this kind of aspect as we can be certain about a lot of things. Such as when the internet was published, people were so crazy about it and no one is actually questioning about the dark side of the internet. You can check on my blog series and we can have a deep discussing about this issue. Ticket
My mother is a physical therapist, and she constantly sees patients with temporomandibular joint disorder, often referred to as TMJ. TMJ is a result of leaning forward at an awkward angle while seated, doing work at a computer. When leaning forward for prolonged periods of time, your jaw actually strains because of the angle of your neck. A huge downside you didn’t mention is the displacement of the natural human form while using technology. Check out this article if you have the time: TMJ Article
One point you included under how technology benefits us is how it allows us to communicate with whoever we want to, whenever we want to. The contrast to this point is that we are also constantly being contacted by people we may have no interest in speaking with at times when we have other things to be doing. Also, you mentioned how we can get the answer to anything at just the click of a button. I have to argue that this advancement may lead to a generation of impatient, lazy individuals who do not have to put any effort into gaining knowledge. When hand writing a paper, I find myself struggling to spell relatively easy words due to the fact that I constantly rely on spell-check to correct my errors. Also, you explained how our generation uses technology to avoid awkward situations. This realization is extremely worrisome to me because I feel that it could lead human beings to be socially inept. I feel awkward sitting in a public place if I’m not staring down at a scream? That does not seem healthy. The study by Greenfield that you researched is an extremely interesting topic. For hundreds of years, people have read books for leisure , yet now in their free time adolescents instead seem to stare at some form of social media. In my Health and Human Development 129 class today, a guest speaker Brandon McDaniel, Graduate Student in HDFS gave a lecture on technology’s influence on relationships in college. He conducted a survey of the students of my class and found that 21% of them admitted to texting more hours a day then they sleep, 92% said they sleep with it on and next to their bed, and 43% said that they “can’t live without their cell phone”. To me, this seems extremely unhealthy. Despite all that I have said, however, I continue to go on my phone and laptop for significant periods of time each day. I wrote a blog post on the addictive aspect of technology use that you should check out!