The Positive Effects Of Technology Use In Education

In Matt Richtel article, Growing Up Digital Wired for Distraction, he discusses the many distractions students being surrounded by technology which put a strain on focusing and learning. But in Susan Ferdon’s article, Positive Effects of Technology use in K-12 Education she states that technology based programs incorporated in the curriculum has positive effects on the students basic skills and critical thinking. Ritchel’s article focuses on the disadvantages of technology use, while Ferdon’s article focuses on the advantages of technological programs in education. Despite the different viewpoints of these articles, both authors are analyzing the benefits and ill effects of technology use amongst the youth.

According to Ferdon there is existing evidence supporting the claim that technology use integrated in the curriculum has a positive effect on students academic performance. Ferdon proposes that existing research shows that technology use in an educational setting has a positive effect on student achievement and to support this claim the author uses Schacter’s research as evidence. Schachter (1999) determined that “students with access to a computer assisted instruction, or integrated learning system technologies show positive gains in achievement (p. 3). When students are using technology as a tool or a support for instance communicating with one another, they are in an active role rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted by a teacher, textbook, or broadcast. In doing so the student is actively making choices about how to obtain, manipulate and display information. Moreover, when technology is used as a tool to support students in performing tasks, the students are in the position of , definin...

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...antly being surrounded by smartphones and other technological devices is not only disconcerting but it has a negative impact on the academic performance of the student. Ferdon realizes that although the use of technology often promoted collaboration and cooperation among students at these case study sites, there are still concerns as far duplicating such data because, no two schools or classrooms are similar. In conclusion,the internet is a real collaborative force in education, as the involvement of any form of technology does not guarantee substantial effects on education quality. Technology is the reasons for the decline in critical thinking and analysis. Reading for pleasure,enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as television do not.” As a final point technology use amongst the youth has both positive and negative effects.