Incorporating Technology into the Classroom

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Technology is a portion of everyday life. It affects how business is conducted, teaching, learning, and receiving information. Good or bad, everyone uses technology every day. There are many items people have on them on a daily basis, one would be hard pressed to be without. If you were to examine the effect of technology on teaching and learning and acquire an understanding of why technology should be a part of every classroom curriculum, what would the conclusion be? Technology is a great benefit to the classroom, it stimulates our digital generation and allows educators to be more creative with curriculum.
“Technology has provided the opportunity to create an entirely new learning environment; it has significantly increased the range and sophistication of possible classroom activities” (Hawkins 1997). The vast majority of youths today, grow up with computers and encounter some form of digital learning (Kolikant, 2009). The idea that has had the most impact is that the technology today will be outpaced by the next generation. Most of the technology seen today will never be used by an infant when he reaches school age.
In 2008, 1.28 million cell phones sold (Gartner, 2009). The Census Bureau 2007 figures state that 61.7% of American households have internet in contrast to 18.0% in 2000. Lenhart, Madden, and Hitlin (2007) from the Pew Report, report that 84% of teenagers (21 million) possess at least one personal media device such as a computer, cell phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and that 44% possess more than one device. Merely 16% reported owning no personal media device. This may seem like a troubling occurrence, but technology has impacted this generation in a positive manner. Never before were parents able...

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