Technology and its use in Education: Present Roles and Future Prospects

Keith Courville wrote a paper entitled Technology and its use in Education: Present Roles and Future Prospects for a Recovery School District Technology Summit 2011.  Courville begins the paper with a look at the present uses of technology in education.  He mentions that technology has removed physical barriers to learning for both teachers and students.  Teachers have greater accessibility to distance learning and personal learning networks.  Students are learning new content that is removed from their daily lives.  They are learning to balance checkbooks before they even have checking accounts.  Courville also mentions how technology helps students visualize information and simulations turn passive learning into active learning.

Courville predicts that the use of technology in education will change the way we define learning objectives.  Many objectives require memorizing and recitation of facts, but technology helps children learn necessary skills for research and evaluation of other resources.  Which leads Courville to look at three major issues with technology: "the integration of modern technology into existing learning theory, the evaluation of the effectiveness of technology within instructional settings, and the trials of successful technology integration into similar fields."  Technology must be supported by previous learning theories and not become a distraction.  However, the concern comes with the fact that most learning theories were developed before our modern age of technology.  He does point out that as long as technology meets the standards and principles established by state and federal guidelines it would work with all learning theories.

I agree with the  paper Courville  wrote.  When using technology as a resource it enables students to view the material in a new way and allows them to personalize  it and retain it.  For teachers, the use of media broadens their social network and enables them to try new things and learn too.  As long as teachers continue to follow the curriculum they have been given, technology can only help explain material more thoroughly and enable students to experience the world outside the classroom with virtual field trips.  As far as the effectiveness of technology within instructional settings could easily be monitored with benchmark tests and random discussions with the children.  Over time, if scores continually increase while technology use continually increases, then some credit will have to go to the technology and the teacher who used it effectively.