Technology can be an extremely useful classroom tool, but can also create problems in the educational system. These problems include:
Lack of Technology Funding
Due to a decrease in educational funding, schools have had to cut costs in just about everything. This means less money for new technology and training for teachers. Not only are funds going down, but costs for newer and better technology is steadily on the rise, making it bearly impossible for low income schools to get the technology they need to help students. This can make it difficult for these schools' students to keep up with students from a higher income school.
Teacher and Student Accountability for Quality and Progress
Even though technology can be used for a multitude of different things, teachers are still being made to use it just to pass test and national standards. This can make it hard for students to actually learn, as they are still being taught to the test. Technology should be something that can break out of this kind of teaching, not something that enforces it.
Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship
The increasing usage of technology in our society makes it more important for students to learn and be able to use the technology being put out there. Unfortunately, this role is falling on the schools, as many low income families do not have the money or the resources to teach their children how to use this technology. Even more troublesome is that lack of funding to train teachers in this technology can cause teachers to avoid technology that they don't know how to use, which will in turn make students ignorant to something that they may need to know about and use later on in life.
Debates on Best Practice with Technology
Many educators feel that traditional learning in the classroom should stay the same, and seek to use less student-led learning that uses technology. They believe the traditional learning has already been proven to work in classrooms and can easily address content standards. Other educators feel that a more constructivist learning experience is needed for an ever changing and modern day society. This type of learning style is more innovative, but it is less clear on the content standards that are being addressed in these types of classrooms.
Reliance on Online Learning
Virtual schools are becoming so mainstream that some states and school districts have made distance learning a requirement for high school graduation. Although virtual schools can be a positive thing in certain cases, like if a student has something debilitating illness that makes them unable to attend school, or if a student was pulled out of school due to problems within the school, but nothing can replace being in an actual classroom with actual people. Social interactions are very important, especially for older students, and it would be difficult to make a real connection with someone through a computer.
When used correctly, technology can really help students learn and understand the material being taught to them. Most of the issues that we see in education can be resolved with a little compromise. Technology should be used as a tool, not as a replacment for actual teaching. There should also be some regulations put down on technology, like what is the bare minimum that every school needs to have. Grants should be created just to be used for technology and given to schools that truly need that money. There also needs to be more training for teachers, which I feel isn't happening, not just because of the lack of money, but also because schools may not feel they need to use that money to train teachers and would rather use it somewhere else. Training teachers is important, because you can't expect teachers to teach students something that they don't know anything about themselves. I think technology is very important in the classroom.
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